A Near Eastern archaeologist, Michele Massa holds a PhD degree from University College London and held joint appointment at the Mansueto and the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures. His academic interests include theoretical approaches to social complexity (urbanism, conflict, labor specialization), environmental archaeology and archaeometallurgy. A common thread to Michele’s academic work is his interest to make knowledge of past societies relevant to the present, something that he has pursued through collaboration with public archaeologists, cultural heritage managers and social anthropologists across several projects. His current research at Mansueto aims at investigating the impact of cities on their surrounding natural and human landscapes during the early stages of urbanization in southwest Asia (4000-500 BCE). Between 2016 and 2018, he was an Assistant Professor at Bilecik University (Turkey), and since 2017 he is the co-director of KRASP (Konya Regional Archaeological Survey Project), an interdisciplinary program that investigates the dynamic relation between nature and society in central Anatolia across the Holocene (9500 BCE-present).