Dr Ilenia Gradante
Research
My research concerns Late Roman and Christian epigraphy and Christian archaeology. I recently completed work on the edition of the first corpus of the signacula ex aere (bronze stamps or seals) of Sicily, which will be published in 2021 by De Gruyter; the work considers the theme of the use and reuse of these artifacts in Late Antiquity in funerary, productive and commercial contexts, as well as the potential benefits of using digital methodologies to study them. Currently I am among the authors in charge of the edition of the first volume of the Inscriptiones Christianae Italiae dedicated to the city of Syracuse (catacomb of San Giovanni).
Academic Background
I have a BA in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage – Archaeology from the Università degli studi della Tuscia, Viterbo, a MA in Christian Archaeology from the Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana, Rome and a PhD in Ancient History from the Università La Sapienza, Rome.
Between 2009 and 2015, I co-directed the archaeological excavations at the catacombs of Predio Maltese and Santa Lucia in Syracuse, initially (2009-2011) in collaboration with the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology and the Chair of Christian and Medieval Archaeology of the University of Catania and subsequently (2012-2015) on behalf of the College of Global Studies at Arcadia University, Pennsylvania (USA).
I was research assistant for ‘Translations and Christian Archaeology’ at the Römisches Institut der Görres Gesellschaft, Vatican State (2015-2017). In 2017, I obtained a Shohet scholarship from the International Catacomb Society (Boston, USA) for my project to study ‘Languages, formulas and identities in the Christian community of Siracusa: The case of the Catacombs of S. Giovanni’. Between 2017 and 2020 I worked with Prof. Jonathan Prag on the I.Sicily project as Research Associate at the Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford, for the implementation of the digital corpus of Christian inscriptions from Sicily. Most recently (October 2019 - June 2020), I was contributing editor for volume IV of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL), covering new finds of tituli picti (painted inscriptions) and graffiti from the Vesuvian cities.
I have lectured and provided training workshops in Sicilian epigraphy at the Arcadia University, Syracuse, and on classical and Christian epigraphy for undergraduate students at the University of Catania.
As a post-doctoral researcher on Crossreads, I am working on the digital edition of Greek and Latin inscriptions from the Roman, Late Antique and early Christian era in Sicily.
Further information
Deposited publications can be found on Zenodo
Selected Publications
I. Gradante, Spigolature epigrafiche dalla Napoli borbonica. Giuseppe Valletta, Matteo Egizio e la collezione antiquaria dei Girolamini, in Archeologie Borboniche. La ricerca dell’antico a Capri e nelle province di Napoli e Terra di Lavoro, Capri 11-12 ottobre 2019 [in press]
I. Gradante, Hilarus episcopus Dei famulus fecit. La memoria epigrafica del progetto ilariano nel battistero Lateranense, in Ph. Pergola, C. Dell’Osso (edd.), Miscellanea in onore di Danilo Mazzoleni, Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana, Città del Vaticano [in press]
I. Gradante (2021), Un inedito signaculum in piombo con formula beneaugurale cristiana da Siracusa, in G. Baratta (ed.), Plumbum litteratum studia epigraphica Giovanni Mennella oblata, Roma, 493-505.
I. Gradante (2021), ‘La cristianizzazione della res signata. L’esempio dei signacula siciliani’, in A. Corda (ed.), Instrumenta Inscripta VII. Testi e simboli di ambito cristiano su oggetti di uso comune, “Epigrafia e Antichità”, Fratelli Lega Editori di Faenza : 279-304
D. Tanasi, I. Gradante, S. Hassam (2019), Best practices for digital recording and global sharing of catacombs from Late Roman Sicily, in Studies in Digital Heritage, 3.1:60-82.
I. Gradante, M. Patti (2019), Un'inedita quadrangula dal complesso di S. Paolo f.l.m. e il lungo viaggio dei signa Apostolorum dalla Tarda Antichità al Medioevo, in F. Bisconti, M. Braconi, M. Sgarlata (edd.), Arti minori e arti maggiori. Relazioni e interazioni tra tarda Antichità e alto Medioevo, Todi 615-631.
D. Tanasi, F.M. Milotta, I. Gradante, F. Stanco, H. Kaplan (2019), 3D Digital imaging for study and semiautomatic matching of ancient Sicilian bronze seals, Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Cultural Heritage and New Technologies (CHNT), Vienna 8-10 November 2017, (Vienna) 1-10.
D. Tanasi, F.M. Milotta, I. Gradante, F. Stanco, H. Kaplan (2017), ‘A digital approach for the study of Roman signacula from Syracuse, Sicily’, in A. Giachetti, P. Pingi, F. Stanco (edd.), STAG: Smart Tools and Applications in Graphics (Catania) 63-69
I. Gradante, D. Tanasi, (2017), 3D digital technologies for architectural analysis. The case of the “Pagan Shrine” in the Catacombs of Saint Lucy (Siracusa, Sicily), in S. Garagnani, A. Gaucci (edd.), Knowledge, analysis and innovative methods for the study and the dissemination of ancient urban areas. Proceedings of the KAINUA 2017 International Conference in Honour of Professor Giuseppe Sassatelli’s 70th Birthday (Bologna, 18-21 April 2017), Archeologia e Calcolatori, 28.2, 437-442.
I. Gradante, M. Sgarlata, D. Tanasi (2016), 3D Technologies to record excavation data: the case of the catacombs of St. Lucy (Siracusa, Sicily), in Arqueológica 2.0 – 8th International Congress on Archaeology, Computer Graphics, Cultural Heritage and Innovation, (Valencia) 71-77
I. Gradante (2015), The Role of professional Associations in the Process of Romanization of the western roman Provinces. A Study Proposal, in P. M. Militello, H. Oniz, SOMA 2011: Proceedings of the 15th Symposium on Mediterranean Archaeology – Università degli Studi di Catania, 3-5 marzo 2011 (BAR International series, 2695) 2015, vol. II, 717-722.
M. Sgarlata, I. Gradante, S. Sirugo, Genesi e sviluppo del cimitero del Predio Maltese a Siracusa, in Syndesmoi 3, Ricerche ed attività del corso internazionalizzato di Archeologia: Catania – Varsavia – Konya 2009-2012, Catania 2012, 223-238
Books
I. Gradante, Rem signare. I signacula ex aere e le loro impronte nelle collezioni e nei contesti archeologici della Sicilia, CIL Auctarium – Series nova, De Gruyter [forthcoming]
I. Gradante [ed. and translation], J. Führer, Ricerche sulla Sicilia sotterranea, Moondi Edizioni [forthcoming]
I. Gradante – M. Sgarlata – M.D. Lo Faro, Inscriptiones Christianae Italiae, nova series. Il cimitero di S. Giovanni di Siracusa, Edipuglia ed. [forthcoming]
I. Gradante, Inscriptiones Medii Aevi Italiae (saec. VI-XII), Roma, quartiere ostiense, Centro italiano di studi sull’alto Medioevo [forthcoming]
