Maria Follieri


Maria Follieri was a pioneering Italian archaeobotanist and held the Chair of Palaeobotany at La Sapienza.

Early life

Follieri was born in Rome in 1932. She studied Natural Sciences at the University La Sapienza, graduating in 1954.

Career

Early work included studies of fossil leaves from a site near Rome.
She lectured at La Sapienza in palaeobotany from 1965 onwards, being appointed Associate Professor in 1980. In 1986, she was promoted to professor of the first level of Botany at the Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences, before being appointed to the Chair of Palaeobotany in 1991.
Follieri was one of the co-founders of the International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany in 1966, alongside Maria Hopf and Jane Renfrew. Her research spanned multiple themes, include the study of palaeoeclimate, palaeoethnobotany, and palaeovegetation, and chronologically, from the Quaternary period to the Classical world. She studied the archaeobotanical contents of the sewer of the Colosseum. Follieri was noted as the leading archaeobotanist in Italy in the 1970s.
She retired in 2004. A conference in memory of Follieri was held at La Sapienza in 2013. The 18th conference of the International Workgroup for Palaeoethnobotany is dedicated to the memory of Follieri.

Selected publications