Dr. Giacomo Capuzzo

Short Bio

I am a bioarchaeologist specialised in the use of radiocarbon dates and isotope analysis to reconstruct the behaviour of past societies, providing information on phenomena like adoption and spread of innovations, human mobility processes, socio-cultural changes, and demographic fluctuations at a European and regional scale.

Previous positions

• Senior researcher at the Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA), Belgium; 2025-2026.
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Post-doctoral fellow at the University of Trento, Italy; 2023-2025.
• Post-doctoral researcher in the CRUMBEL EOS FWO-FNRS project at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium; 2018-2023.
• External post-doctoral collaborator at the Quantitative Archaeology Lab (LAQU), Department of Prehistory, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain; 2015-2018.

Education

• Ph.D. in Prehistoric Archaeology and in Archaeological Sciences, Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain); co-tutelle thesis with the University of Padova (Italy); 2014.

• M.Sc. Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Padova (Italy); 2009.

• B.A.s Archaeology, University of Padova (Italy); 2006.

Keywords:

Bioarchaeology; European prehistory; Radiocarbon dating; Human mobility; Funerary practices; Isotope (C, N, O, S, Sr) analyses

Main publications

1. Capuzzo G, Crema E. 2026. Analysing intra- and inter-site large-scale radiocarbon datasets: current approaches, challenges, and future perspectives. Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche LXXV S5:29-55.

2. Capuzzo G, Fiorin E, Beck De Lotto MA, Betto A, Tasca G, Di Tonto S, Forlin P, Snoeck C, Cheung C. 2025. Diet, mobility, and life histories during the early medieval period at San Vito al Tagliamento, Italy. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 66:105328.

3. Larentis O, Capuzzo G, Maccarinelli A, Marconi S, Gorini I, Pedrotti A. 2025. Transformed by fire: a ritual practice dating back to the Early Neolithic in Italy. Interdisciplinary analysis of burnt bone remains in Lugo di Grezzana (Veneto), 5000-4850 cal BCE. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 17:206.

4. Capuzzo G, Stamataki E, Beck De Lotto MA, Pettarin S, Claeys P, Mattielli N, Tasca G, Snoeck C. 2024. A multi-proxy approach to reconstruct chronology, human mobility and funerary practices at the Late Bronze-Early Iron Age urnfield of San Valentino (San Vito al Tagliamento, Italy). PLoS ONE 19(11): e0309649.

5. Capuzzo G, De Mulder G, Sabaux C, Dalle S, Boudin M, Annaert R, Hlad M, Salesse K, Stamataki E, Veselka B, Warmenbol E, Snoeck C, Vercauteren M. 2023. Final Neolithic and Bronze Age funerary practices and population dynamics in Belgium, the impact of radiocarbon dating cremated bones. Radiocarbon 65(1):51-80.

6. Capuzzo G, Barceló JA. 2022. Cremation burials in central and southwestern Europe: quantifying an adoption of innovation in the 2nd millennium BC. Anthropologica et Præhistorica 131/2020:113-160.

7. Capuzzo G, Snoeck C, Boudin M, Dalle S, Annaert R, Hlad M, Kontopoulos I, Sabaux C, Salesse K, Sengeløv A, Stamataki E, Veselka B, Warmenbol E, De Mulder G, Tys D, Vercauteren M. 2020. Cremation vs. inhumation: modeling cultural changes in funerary practices from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages in Belgium using Kernel Density Analysis on ¹⁴C data. Radiocarbon 62(6):1809-1832.

8. Mazzucco N, Ibáñez JJ, Capuzzo G, Gassin B, Mineo M, Gibaja J. 2020. Migration, adaptation, innovation: the spread of the Neolithic harvesting technologies in the Mediterranean. PLoS ONE 15(4):e0232455.

9. Capuzzo G, Zanon M, Dal Corso M, Wiebke K, Barceló JA. 2018. Highly diverse Bronze Age population dynamics in central-southern Europe and their response to regional climatic patterns. PLoS ONE 13(8):e0200709.

10. Capuzzo G, Boaretto E, Barceló JA. 2014. EUBAR: a database of ¹⁴C measurements for the European Bronze Age. A Bayesian analysis of ¹⁴C-dated archaeological contexts from Northern Italy and Southern France. Radiocarbon 56(2):851-869.