Erica Venturo

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Campus

Kleiner Fellow

Research Topic: From Farm to Taberna: The Life Cycle of Central Cretan Wine Amphoras and their Social Recognizability in the Roman Economy

Erica Venturo is currently a PhD candidate in the Interdepartmental Program of Ancient Mediterranean Art and Archaeology at the University of Michigan. Erica has worked on the Western Argolid Regional Project; Villa of the Antonines excavations; Gabii Legacy Data Project, and the Pella Urban Dynamics Project. Erica is currently a ceramics specialist on both the Regio I.14 Project in Pompeii and the Marzuolo Archaeological Project in Tuscany.

Erica's dissertation, "From Farm to Taberna: The Life Cycle of Central Cretan Wine Amphoras and their Social Recognizability in the Roman Economy," analyzes the networks of manufacture, consumption, and reuse surrounding Cretan wine amphoras. Erica's research investigates what individual actors and social relationships guided production and distribution choices for Cretan wine vessels to provide a new model for how commodities became visibly and socially recognizable within the Roman economy.