Selene Mazza

I completed my BA in Foreign Languages, Literature and Linguistics at the University of Pisa, submitting a thesis on the Old Icelandic poem Hávamál from the Poetic Edda. Afterwards I pursued a joint MA degree in Viking and Medieval Norse Studies at the University of Iceland and University of Oslo, where following my interests in both Old Norse philology and Scandinavian archaeology I wrote an MA dissertation on the material and written evidence on cats in the Scandinavian Late Iron Age and Norse period. Given my passion for archaeology, I decided to apply for an MSc programme in archaeology at the University of Aberdeen, where I graduated with a dissertation on human-animal relationships in relation to identities in the context of Viking-Age burials in Scotland. My PhD project, as an extension and development of my previous theses, is focussed on human-animal relationships and identity formation in the context of Viking-Age graves from the Norse diaspora in Eastern Europe. Main areas of interest: - Funerary archaeology - Human-animal relationships - Late Iron Age and Early Medieval archaeology (Northern Europe) - Zooarchaeology and Osteoarchaeology. Beside archaeology, my academic interests lie in runology, historical linguistics and Old Norse literature. In my spare time I practice traditional archery with my bow Hrafn. I am a full-time crazy cat lady.