Mariana Castro

Steering committee member

Mariana Castro is a landscape archaeologist and PhD candidate at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. Her work focuses on the archaeology of mobility, interaction, and exchange in pre-Islamic arid landscapes, currently through the topic of turquoise mining and exchange in ancient central Eurasia. Mariana has participated in numerous archaeological field projects, including Egypt, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Iraq, Jordan, and Greece, among others. She is an advocate for outreach in Humanities-related fields and presently leads several projects aiming the bridge the gap between scholarship and non-academic circles (e.g. isaw.nyu.edu/etaw).

Research Interests

Landscape archaeology, deserts/arid environments, archaeology of movement, (long-distance) exchange, 'Silk Roads', international development, outreach, spatial technologies.

Publications

In Press: Sidebotham, S.E., R. Ast, O.E. Kaper, … M. Castro (2023) “Results of the Winter 2022 Excavation Season at Berenike (Red Sea Coast), Egypt.” Thetis.

In Press: Johnson, D. and M. Castro. “The gold jewelry from a tomb in Wadi Mataha, Petra.” Palestinian Exploration Fund.

Castro, M. (2018). The Function of the Roman Army in Southern Arabia Petraea. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Johnson, D., S. Ure and M. Castro (2017). “Interim report on four seasons of excavation of Wadi Mataha Site 15, BD Tomb 676.” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, 58: 641-655. Amman.

Castro, M. (2015) The Symbolic Value of Artifacts: The Case of Marine Shell Beads from Wolf Village, Utah. Honors Thesis Publications, Brigham Young University, Utah.

Castro, M. and J. Dement (2013). “Shell Artifacts from Wolf Village, a Fremont Site in Utah County, Utah.” In Journal of Utah Archaeology vol 21, n1: 45-64.

Contact  
mariana.castro@nyu.edu