Research

My research focuses on the materiality of humans, as well as non-human animals, marginalised by mainstream history, with a focus on power relationships in the Roman world.

To achieve this, I work at the intersection of postcolonial and feminist theories, funerary and landscape archaeology, bioarchaeology and semiotics. Inspired by the theories of Antonio Gramsci, Judith Butler, Edward W. Said, Gayatri Spivak, and more, I aim to shape an archaeological discourse centred on the choices of those historically excluded from positions of power.

My publications interpret the traces that these people, consciously or unconsciously, on their objects, their burials, the wider landscape, and their very bones. To detect this evidence, I collaborate with geneticists, philosophers, critical theorists, artists and activists.

Recent Publications

^{Edited volume, forthcoming 2025: M. Puddu (ed.) Archaeological Identitiscapes: A semiotic stance. Cambridge: Cambridge Archaeological Journal.}
^{Chapter in volume, forthcoming 2025: M. Puddu, P. van Dommelen. Making Absence Present: Subaltern Identities in Punic and Roman Sardinia. CAJ Special Issue Archaeological Identitiscapes: A semiotic stance. Cambridge: Cambridge Archaeological Journal.}
^{Research article, forthcoming 2025: M. Puddu “The ‘Romanization of Britain’ 30 years on: an account on archaeology and subalterns”, in E. Zucchetti & M. Bellomo (eds.), Power, coercion and consent: Gramsci’s hegemony and the Roman Republic. Berlin : De Gruyter.}
^{Research article in volume 2024: M. Puddu “Funerary practices in Late Antique Sardinia”, in L. Lavan (ed.) Late Antique archaeology. Burial and memorial in Late Antiquity. London : Brill. 705-726.}
^{Chapter in volume 2023: M. Puddu. “Being Orient in the Centre: memory and deconstruction of peasant communities as Others in Roman-Period Sardinia”, in A. Carneiro, C. Teixeira & P. S. Rodrigues (eds.) An Empire of Many Faces. Dykinson Livros. 59-83.}
^{Research article 2020: M. Puddu “The Roman-period necropolis of Sa Mitza Salida, Masullas (OR) in the late antiquity”. SCEBA, Sardinia, Corsica et Baleares Antiquae. Fabrizio Serra Editore. 113-132.}
^{Research article 2019: M. Puddu “An Archaeology of the subalterns’ disaggregated history: Interpreting burial manipulations of Roman-period Sardinia through Gramsci’s theory”. Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal 2(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/traj.373}
^{Monograph 2018: M. Puddu Funerary archaeology and changing identities: Community practices in Roman-period Sardinia. Oxford: Archaeopress.}