Biography
My academic background includes degrees in history, archaeology and archaeological science. Their combination is a recurrent thread in my work.
Much of my research has focused on the analysis of material culture and the reverse engineering of archaeological technologies, as a starting point to understand the evolution and movement of knowledge, people and things. Working with a large number of international research students and postdoctoral fellows has massively broadened my horizons.
I joined the Department of Archaeology in Cambridge in 2018, after over a decade at UCL.
Research
My research interests centre around material culture and technologies, the context of innovations, and knowledge transmission. I approach these subjects through a combination of analytical studies of archaeological materials, experiments, and historical sources. Much of my work has focused on archaeometallurgy in Europe, Africa, America and Asia, from prehistory to the recent past, and including scientific analyses of the manufacture and trade of gold, silver, copper, bronze, brass and iron, often studying production remains. I have additionally worked with ceramics, pigments, glass and amber, among other interesting materials. To different extents, my laboratory work has included optical microscopy, OM, SEM-EDS, EPMA, FTIR, XRD, (LA)-ICP-MS, (p)XRF, and Raman. I am also involved in collaborations that variously engage geometric morphometrics, multispectral imaging and statistics.
Topics
- Material culture and technology
- Knowledge transmission
- Inventions and innovations
- Archaeometallurgy
- Archaeology of alchemy and chemistry
- History and philosophy of science
I am presently involved in the following research projects:
- "Small performances": investigating the typographic punches of John Baskerville (1707-75) through heritage science and practice-based research
- Reverse engineering collective action: complex technologies in stateless societies (REVERSEACTION): ERC Advanced Grant
- The Cambridge Heritage Science Initiative (CHERISH)
- Training the next generation of archaeological scientists: Interdisciplinary studies of pre-modern ceramics and plasters from the eastern Mediterranean (PlaCe)
- Imperial Logistics: The Making of the Terracotta Army; with many colleagues at the First Emperor’s Mausoleum Site Museum in Xi’an and UCL
- Massive production and deposition of leaded bronzes in the Atlantic Late Bronze Age – Early Iron Age transition (funded by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of Spain; PI: Lois Armada, CSIC)
- Metal and amber: models of raw material circulation in the Late Prehistory of the Iberian Peninsula (funded by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of Spain; PI: Mercedes Murillo-Barroso, University of Granada)
These are some of my past projects:
- Sociotechnical traditions in the production and consumption of gold in South America (with many collaborators, especially colleagues at the Gold Museum in Bogota)
- Archaeological science and globalisation: crucibles and metallurgical artefacts from Great Zimbabwe World Heritage site (Royal Society-Newton Mobility Grant, with Shadreck Chirikure and Paul Lane)
- Metallurgy in Bronze Age China: regional production and transcultural networks (British Academy / Royal Society International Newton Fellowship; Fellow: Kunlong Chen, USTB)
- The rise of iron technology in Pre-Roman Iberia (IBERIRON) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016; Fellow: Marc Gener-Moret)
- Lordship and Landscape in East Anglia AD 400-800 (funded by the Levehulme Trust; PI: Chris Scull, UCL)
Key Publications
Key publications:
For a list of publications please see ORCID profile (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2124-2837). You may be able to download some of these here and at https://cambridge.academia.edu/MarcosMartinonTorres.
Teaching and Supervisions
Research supervision:
I currently supervise research students and postdoctoral fellows on a range of topics related to the above interests, enrolled at the University of Cambridge Cambridge. I am interested in supervising students who wish to study for an MPhil or a PhD on related subjects, and happy to discuss new departures.
Current postdoctoral research fellows
- Catherine (Kate) Klesner (funded by REVERSEACTION project)
- Agnese Benzonelli (funded by REVERSEACTION project)
- Anne Kwaspen (funded by REVERSEACTION project)
- Jasmine Vieri (funded by REVERSEACTION project)
- Qin-Qin Lu (funded by MSCA)
- Julia Montes-Landa (funded by Small Performances project)
- Yi Bao (Fudan University, Shanghai, China)
Past postdoctoral research fellows
- Ema Bauzyte, 2019-2021 (funded by Fitzwilliam Museum's Being an Islander Project)
- Marc Gener-Moret, 2018-2021 (funded Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions)
- Pau Sureda, 2018-2020 (funded by Government of Galicia, Spain)
- Kunlong Chen, 2017-2019 (funded by Newton Fellowship)
- Eleanor Blakelock, 2017-2019 (funded by Leverhulme Trust)
- Xose-Lois Armada, 2014-2016
- Mike Charlton, 2014-2016 (funded Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions)
- Mercedes Murillo-Barroso, 2014-2016 (funded Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions)
Current students:
- Mark Davis (UK): Brass vs bronze: Continuity and change from Late Antiquity to the early Islamic period in the Persian Gulf and adjacent regions, funded by AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership with the British Museum
- Saltanat Amir (KZ): Goldsmithing technologies, organic materials and funerary rituals in the Saka societies of the Eurasian Steppe Region during the Iron Age (c. 900 – 100 BCE), funded by Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholarships
- Elizabeth La Duc (US): Coal Usage in Romano-British Ferrous Metallurgy: Identification and Interpretation, funded by the Cambridge Trust
- Laura Arcidiacono UCL (IT): Development of a neutron technique for the non-destructive and non-invasive analysis of archaeological gold artefacts (first supervisor), funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
- Caterina Zaggia (IT): Redefining Egyptian 'pastes': development of a new analytical protocol for the examination of Egyptian coffin sets from the Third Intermediate Period in Thebes (first supervisor), funded by PlaCe ITN project
- Ismael Rodriguez Palomo (SP): Challenges, approaches and insights in Palaeoproteomics analysis in ceramics (advisor), funded by PlaCe ITN project
Past Students
- Julia Montes-Landa (SP), 2023: Evolution, co-existence and adaptation of bronze-making recipes in Prehistory: a case study from North-Eastern Iberia (first supervisor), funded by AHRC and Cambridge Trust Vice Chancellor’s Award
- Yi-Ting Hsu (TW), 2023: Fire assay, cupellation, and the spread of technical knowlede in Early Modern Europe (first supervisor), funded by Taiwan-Cambridge Scholarship
- Jasmine Vieri (FI), 2023: Bayesian regional models of gold and copper alloys from pre-Hispanic Colombia (first supervisor), funded by AHRC
- Ole Nordland (NO), 2021: Iron making in Viking Age Scandinavia (c. AD 750-1000): Political power, knowledge transmission and technological changes (first supervisor), funded by AHRC
- Yaxiong Liu (CN), 2021: Iron and the Rise of the Qin Empire: An Exploration of the Iron Industry and its Social Impact during the Warring States Period (joint first supervisor), funded by Chinese Scholarship Council
- Umberto Veronesi (IT), 2020: The Alchemy of Early Modern Glass (first supervisor), funded by AHRC
- Agnese Benzonelli (IT), 2019: Validation of analytical methods for non-invasive characterization of natural and artificial patinas (second supervisor), funded by Tylecote Scholarship
- Laura Ware Adlington (US), 2018: Investigation of technology, production and deterioration of medieval stained glass using handheld pXRF (second supervisor), funded by UCL Graduate Scholarship
- Maria Teresa Plaza Calonge (CL), 2018: Gold technology and the Tiwanaku empire in San Pedro de Atacama, Northern Chile, during the Middle Horizon (AD 400-1000) (first supervisor), funded by Chilean government
- Jonathan Wood (GB), 2018: The transmission of silver and silver extraction technology across the Mediterranean by the Phoenicians in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE: A precursor for the Classical Age (first supervisor), funded by AHRC
- David Larreina-García (SP), 2017: Copper and bloomery iron smelting in Central China: Technological traditions in the Daye County (Hubei) (first supervisor), funded by Impact Scholarship
- Rahil Alipour (IR), 2017: Persian crucible steel production in Central Iran (AD 802-1431) (joint first supervisor), funded by UCL Qatar
- Miguel Carrero (SP), 2017: The megalithic phenomenon in Galicia: Contributions of GIS and spatial statistics to the study of location patterns (second supervisor), funded by Spanish Government Research Scholarship.
- Pira Venunan (TH), 2016: An archaeometallurgical study of iron production in Ban Kruat, lower Northeast Thailand: technology and social development from the Iron Age (500BC-AD500) to the Imperial Angkorian Khmer (AD802-1431) (first supervisor), funded by Thai Royal Family Scholarship
- Mainardo Asinelli (IT), 2016: Manufacture and use of copper and copper-alloy artefacts in medieval Tuscia (first supervisor), funded by European Union ITN
- Siran Liu (CN), 2015: Gold and silver production in Imperial China. Technological choices in their socio-economic and environmental settings (second supervisor), funded by Sino-British Fellowship Trust
- Ruth Fillery-Travis (UK), 2015: Iron production in the Western Roman Empire: A diachronic study of technology and society based on two archaeological sites (first supervisor), funded by AHRC
- Carmen Ting (HK), 2013: Change, continuity, and the Maya Collapse: Reconstructing the ceramic economy in the Eastern Maya Lowlands during the Classic to Postclassic Transition (joint first supervisor), funded by UCL Graduate Scholarship
- Thomas Thondhlana (ZB), 2012: Pre-colonial copper production in the Northern Lowveld, South Africa, c. AD 700-1900 (first supervisor), funded by EPSRC and Xstrata
- Maria Dikomitou (CY), 2012: Ceramic production, distribution and social interaction. An analytical approach to the study of Early and Middle Bronze Age pottery from Cyprus (second supervisor), funded by Leventis Foundation, Cyprus
- Roseleen Bains (CA), 2012: The social significance of stone bead technology in Neolithic Catalhoyuk, Turkey (second supervisor)
- Xiuzhen Janice Li (CN), 2012: Standardisation, labour organisation and the bronze weapons of the Qin Terracotta Warriors (joint first supervisor), funded by Kwok Foundation, Hong Kong
- Wenli Zhou (CN), 2012: Distilling zinc in China: The technology of large-scale zinc production in Chongqing during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (AD 1368-1911) (first supervisor), funded by Kwok Foundation, Hong Kong
- Louise Iles (UK), 2011: Technology, society and tradition: reconstructing the iron industries of Bunyoro-Kitara (second supervisor), funded by AHRC
- Jane Humphris (UK), 2010: An archaeometallurgical investigation of iron smelting traditions in Southern Rwanda (second supervisor), funded by AHRC
- Virpi Holmqvist (FI), 2010: Ceramics in transition: a comparative analytical study of late Byzantine-early Islamic pottery from Palaestina Tertia (joint first supervisor), funded by Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation, Finland
- Aude Mongiatti (FR), 2009: Assaying and smelting noble metals in sixteenth-century Austria: a comparative analytical study (2009, joint first supervisor), funded by EU Marie Curie EST
- Oliver Pryce (UK), 2009: Copper production and technological reproduction in the Khao Wong Prachan of central Thailand (2009, second supervisor), funded by Tylecote Grant
Other Professional Activities
- Co-Chair of the International Scientific Advisory Board, Institute for Heritage Sciences (Incipit), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain
- Scientific Advisory Board Member, Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences
- Member of Fitch Laboratory Subcommittee, British School in Athens
- Expert Panel Member, Icelandic Research Fund
- Co-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Archaeological Science
- Trustee, Institute for Archaeometallurgical Studies
- Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London
- Editorial Board: Tel Aviv (2020), Pyrenae: Journal of Western Mediterranean Prehistory and Antiquity, Historical Metallurgy (2015), Journal of Archaeological Science (2013), Materialidades: Perspectivas actuales en cultura material, Pyrenae: Journal of Western Mediterranean Prehistory and Antiquity (2012)
