SLOW SUMER. Repair, Reuse, Recycling and Southern Mesopotamian Society in the Changing World of 2500-2000 BC
- Project Code: 2022LFKPNH
- Project start and end date: 28/09/2023 -27/09/2025
- Extension date: 08/11/2025
- Funding source: MUR Call for Proposal 104/2022 – NRRP – Next Generation EU, Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.1 – ‘Fund for the National Research Programme and Projects of Significant National Interest (PRIN)”
- CUP: F53D23000250006
- CREF funding amount: 56.205,00 €
- Total project cost: 86.174,00 €
Research team and staff recruited within the project
The CREF team conducted advanced laboratory analyses essential to reconstructing the composition and cycles of bitumen, providing a fundamental scientific foundation for the project’s interdisciplinary interpretation.
CREF Unit Leader
Participating research units
- Principal Investigator: Licia Romano (Sapienza Università di Roma)
- Vice Principal Investigator: Giulia Festa(CREF).
CREF Unit team
- Giulia Festa – Vice-PI and Head of Unit
- Claudia Scatigno
Hired personnel
Other research personnel
Results achieved
The SLOW SUMER project successfully achieved its main scientific objectives, providing the first interdisciplinary reconstruction of repair, reuse, and recycling practices in Southern Mesopotamia (2500–2000 BC). By integrating archaeology, philology, materials science, sociology, and digital approaches, the project demonstrated that circular resource management was deeply embedded in Sumerian society. Archaeological investigations at Abu Tbeirah, combined with laboratory analyses, reconstructed the life cycles of bitumen, lithic and macrolithic tools, ceramics, and architectural materials, while philological research documented institutional systems of maintenance and material reuse in administrative archives. The project identified the technological knowledge, social organisation, and cultural motivations underlying repair and recycling practices, showing that they operated across households, craft specialists, and state institutions. Innovative sociological modelling, including AI-supported personas and Design Thinking methodologies, provided new insights into the lived experience of circular economies in antiquity. The project also established a new analytical framework linking ancient practices with modern concepts of circularity and sustainability. Results were disseminated through international conferences, a major interdisciplinary workshop, peer-reviewed publications, and forthcoming Open Access outputs, laying the foundation for future research on ancient technologies, sustainability, and social history.
Scientific publications
The project has generated a rich and diverse body of scientific outputs, including peer-reviewed journal articles, interdisciplinary studies, and analytical contributions. Several publications have already appeared, while others are currently in press or under preparation. The papers presented at the final workshop will form the core of the concluding Open Access volume, which is currently being prepared.
A structured overview of the publications associated with the SLOW SUMER project is provided below.
(1) Publications in Preparation
- Denaro, G.; Romano, L.; Greco, A.; Andò, R. Crafting Personas in Ancient Mesopotamia: Exploring Social Dynamics and Circular Economies in Sumerian Daily Life through AI. (manuscript in preparation).
- Romano, L.; Greco, A.; Festa, G. The Use, Recycling, and Everyday Importance of Bitumen in Ur III Southern Mesopotamia. (in preparation).
- De Angelis, A.; Romano, L. Reconstructing the Daily Activities of Sumerian Communities: Use-Wear Analysis of Grinding Tools from Abu Tbeirah. (in preparation).
- Final volume (edited by L. Romano), Slow Sumer: Repair, Reuse and Recycling in 3rd Millennium BC Southern Mesopotamia. (Open Access volume in preparation).
(2) Accepted / In Press
- Romano, L.; D’Agostino, F.; Celant, A.; Tafuri, M. A. The Lifecycle of the Giant Reed: Exploring Human–Plant Interactions in Sumer through Abu Tbeirah Evidence (3rd Millennium BCE). In: Di Paolo, S.; Zisa, G. (eds.), Plants and Humans in the Ancient Near East. Roots of Multispecies Connections (wEdge 6). Münster: Zaphon. (in press).
- Romano, L. et al. SLOW SUMER: Riusare, riparare e riciclare a Sumer. In: EVOA Proceedings. (in press).
(3) Published
- Caruso, V.; Scatigno, C.; Giampaolo, S.; Tufari, A.; Ferguson, L.; Manclossi, F.; Greco, A.; Romano, L.; Festa, G. 2026. Morphological Image Processing to Extract Mesoscopic Features of Sumerian Archaeological Bitumen Mixtures. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 70, 105607.
- Manclossi, F.; Romano, L. 2024. Flint Sickles from South Mesopotamia: A Note on Their Unexplored Potential for Understanding 3rd Millennium BC People Life. Rivista degli Studi Orientali XCVII (4): 177–182.
- Verderame, L. 2025. Nautica Sumerica: An Unpublished Ur III Document and the Problem of Reconstructing Ancient Watercrafts. In: Chambon, G.; Vita, J.-P. (eds.), People, Places and Technology in the Ancient Near East. Festschrift for Ariel M. Bagg (Dubsar 38). Münster: Zaphon, pp. 309–336.
- Festa, G.; Scatigno, C.; Caruso, V.; Giampaolo, S.; Tufari, A.; Ferguson, L.; Greco, A.; Manclossi, F.; Romano, L. 2025. Support Vector Machine Approach to the Spectroscopic Classification of Archaeological Bitumen Composites in Ancient Mesopotamia. Journal of Composite Science 9: 596.
- Romano, L.; Festa, G. 2025. Slow Sumer: Repair, Reuse and Recycling and Southern Mesopotamian Society in the Changing World of 2500–2000 BC. In: Haddow, S.; Mazzucato, C.; Thuesen, I. (eds.), Proceedings of the 13th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Vol. 1. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 353–360.
Organised events or conference participation
Throughout its duration, the SLOW SUMER project implemented a wide range of dissemination and communication activities, fully aligned with the commitments outlined in the original project proposal, which envisaged scientific publications, participation in international conferences, organisation of workshops, the creation of online platforms, and outreach actions targeting both the academic community and the broader public.
Participation in International Conferences
The project team actively disseminated preliminary and final results in major international venues, exceeding the minimum expected in the proposal. Presentations were delivered at:
- 13th ICAANE – International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (Copenaghen, 2023) – Slow Sumer Project – Introduction.
- EVOA Conference on Near Eastern Archaeology – Slow Sumer Project – Introduction
- RAI Helsinki – Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale – Slow Sumer Project – Preliminary results.
- 14th ICAANE – Lyon, 2024 –Slow Sumer Project first results.
- RAI Prague, 2025 – presentation of the interdisciplinary research on Bitumen with a focus on the correspondence between archaeological and philological evidence.
These events ensured high international visibility and allowed the project to embed its results within the broader scholarly debate on Mesopotamian material culture and circularity.
Intermediate and Final International Workshop.
As planned in the project timeline, an intermediate in-presence workshop was held in Rome with the participation of the two operational units and the project’s team leaders. This internal meeting served as a crucial moment of mid-term scientific alignment, allowing archaeologists, philologists, scientists, and sociologists to exchange preliminary results, compare methodological approaches, and refine the integration between material data, textual evidence, and laboratory analyses. Furthermore, it strengthened coordination between Sapienza University and the CREF team, ensuring full methodological consistency in the analytical procedures and harmonisation of the datasets. This in-person event proved essential for consolidating the collaborative framework of the project and for preparing the scientific foundations of the final international workshop.
In line with the deliverables of the original PRIN application (WP9 – Dissemination), the project organised the Final Slow Sumer Workshop: “Repair, Reuse, Recycling and Mesopotamian Society”, held in September 2025 in collaboration with ARWA and CREF. The workshop was held entirely online, following both DNSH guidelines and the necessity to maximise accessibility for a global panel of speakers.
The official programme, the event brought together ca. 20 speakers from at least 7 countries, covering a wide range of materials and evidences, spanning several millennia and different regions. The workshop was recorded and made publicly available on YouTube, ensuring long-term open dissemination and compliance with Open Access principles. This format significantly broadened the audience compared to an in-person event and strengthened the social impact of the project. AN average of 80 participants per day has been recorded.
Posters, dissemination materials, output
Web and Social Media Dissemination
Dissemination activities were carried out through:
- the project website hosted by CREF;
- regular updates on fieldwork and laboratory activities via Facebook;
- promotion of the final workshop and project publications through specialised mailing lists (e.g. Sasson) and the international ARWA network.
This strategy ensured continuous communication while avoiding the administrative burden and maintenance costs associated with developing and managing a stand-alone website. The content originally intended for a dedicated project website was effectively disseminated through these established institutional channels.
Outreach and Public Engagement
Overall, the project:
- exceeded its planned targets for participation in international conferences;
- successfully organised a high-impact international final workshop;
- ensured the full dissemination of its results in accordance with Open Access principles;
- maintained strong engagement with both the academic community and the wider public.
Taken together, the dissemination activities are fully consistent with the objectives of the PRIN programme and with the principles of transparency, accessibility, and public valorisation of research promoted by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) and the NextGenerationEU programme.