Dr. Davide Zori

BIC Courses: World Cultures I, II, V, Social World I and Capstone

Davide Zori's research concentrates on the medieval world with research foci on the Viking expansion into the North Atlantic and the widespread 8^th-12^th century phenomenon of Italian population movements onto defended hilltops . He employs a multidisciplinary approach to the Middle Ages, combining material culture and written evidence. He conducts archaeological fieldwork in Iceland addressing the interaction of the Norse settlers with new environments, the construction of a migrant society, and the subsequent evolution of endemic political systems. As the director of the San Giuliano Archaeological Research Project, he has been leading excavations of an Etruscan necropolis and a medieval castle complex in central Italy. Since 2015 this project has been partnering with a series of international universities and incorporating Baylor students into interdisciplinary fieldwork and primary research.

Dr. Zori is affiliated faculty of the Department of History where he teaches courses on Vikings, medieval history, and interdisciplinary methods of writing history. He is currently open to taking graduate students through the History Department that have interests in medieval archaeology, Vikings, and/or medieval Italy.

Education

• 2010      Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
• 2004      M.A. University of California, Los Angeles, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

• 2002      B.A. University of Florida, Departments of History and Anthropology

  dr._davide_zori_academic_cv.pdf (279.91 KB)

Select Publications

• Age of Wolf and Wind: Voyages through the Viking World. Davide Zori. 2024. Oxford University Press, New York. 
• Norse Persistence and Resilience in Iceland: Conservatism and Innovation on an Island of Oppositional Environmental Paradoxes. Davide Zori and Jon Erlandson. 2024. Sustainability in Ancient Island Societies: An Archaeology of Human Resilience, eds. S.M. Fitzpatrick, J.M. Erlandson, & K.M. Gill. Gainesville: University of Florida Press.
• An Early Etruscan Toddler’s Grave in the Transitional Trench Tomb Cemetery of San Simone, San Giuliano (VT): Wealth, Status, and the Hopes of a Family. Davide Zori, Colleen Zori, Veronica Ikeshoji-Orlati, Jamie Aprile, Lori Baker, James Fulton, Anna Gibbs, and Angela Cassotta. 2023. Etruscan and Italic Studies 26: 132-174.
• Glass from the 11th-13th Century Medieval Castle of San Giuliano (Lazio Province, Central Italy). Colleen Zori, James Fulton, Peter Tropper, and Davide Zori. 2023. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 47: 103731. 11 pp. 
• Doctrinal and Physical Marginality in Christian Death: The Burial of Unbaptized Infants in Medieval Italy. Madison Crow, Colleen Zori, and Davide Zori. 2020. Religions 11/678: 1-20.
• Viking Death: Pre-Christian Rites of Passage and Funerary Feasting. Davide Zori. 2018. The Routledge Handbook of Death and the Afterlife, ed. Candi Cann, pp. 327-341. Routledge Press, London.
• From Etruscan Urban Center to Medieval Fortified Village: San Giuliano Archaeological Research Project. Davide Zori, Colleen Zori, Lori Baker, Veronica Ikeshoji-Orlati, Candace Livingston, Deirdre Fulton, and Dennis Wilken. 2018. Antiquity 92 (363, Project Gallery): 1-8.
• Viking Age Archaeology in Iceland: Mosfell Archaeological Project. 2014. Davide Zori and Jesse Byock (eds.) Brepols Publishers, Turnhout.
• Feasting in Viking Age Iceland: Sustaining a Chiefly Political Economy in a Marginal Environment. 2013. Davide Zori, Jesse Byock, Egill Erlendsson, Steven Martin, Thomas Wake, and Kevin Edwards. Antiquity 87 (335): 150-165. 

Press and Television

"Beer, Beef, and Politics: Findings at Viking Archaeological Site Show Power Trumping Practicality"

Davide Zori, Baylor University - "Viking Social Standing"

Expedition Unknown, Discovery Channel, “Finding Italy’s Lost Empire.” Aug. 31, 2022