Ricercatore a tempo determinato di tipo A
Telefono: 0498274598 - Email: melania.gigante@unipd.it
(BIOS-03/B Antropologia)
Dr Melania Gigante is a physical anthropologist and a bioarchaeologist whose multidisciplinary background encompasses archaeological science, human osteology, isotope biogeochemistry and dental and bone histology.
Her specialisation lies in the application of state-of-the-art analytical techniques, encompassing multi-isotope analyses and histological approaches, to both cremated and inhumed human remains. Her research focuses on patterns of human mobility, migration and reproductive life-history parameters in ancient women, using advanced bio-geochemical and histological analyses. She has also contributed to the development of ethical and sustainable sampling protocols for ancient human remains, particularly teeth, and has used machine learning to create detailed strontium isoscapes to interpret mobility at various Greek and Phoenician-Punic sites in the western Mediterranean.
In 2022, she was awarded the Seal of Excellence – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, and in 2023 she was granted the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship.
Since 2023, Dr Gigante has been employed as a Lecturer in Bioarchaeology on the Master's degree in Archaeological Sciences at the Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Padua. As of 2025, she will assume the teaching post in Prehistory and Anthropology on the Bachelor's degree programme in Archaeology at the aforementioned university.
She has overseen a considerable number of bioarchaeological studies and collaborated with a range of prominent national and international institutions, including the University of Bologna, Sapienza University of Rome, Napoli L'Orientale, Sassari, Goethe University Frankfurt, Cardiff University, Max Planck, Universität Zürich, the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (RGZM), as well as the Italian Ministry of Culture and affiliated heritage research centres.
Her research has been published in prominent international journals, including iScience, PLoS ONE, Journal of Archaeological Science, Scientific Reports and Science of the Total Environment, contributing novel insights into human mobility, infant growth and development, diet, and funerary treatment of the body. She fulfils the role of Reviewer Editor for a number of peer-reviewed journals, including Historical Biology, PloS One, Journal of Archaeological Science, Scientific Reports (Nature), Frontiers (Archaeological Isotope Analysis, Environmental Archaeology), and Communications Biology (Nature).
