I am currently the Senior Scientist in Digital Numismatics at the Institut für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte (Institute for Numismatics and Monetary History) at the University of Vienna, where I took up my position in February of 2025. I received my PhD in Classical Archaeology at the University of Texas at Austin in August 2019 and have held postdoctoral positions at the University of Texas at Austin and at the University of Toronto, as well as a temporary teaching position at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
As Senior Scientist, I am responsible for the teaching of digital methods in numismatics. I am also the keeper of the Numismatische Zentralkartei (NZK), or Numismatic Central Card File, our collection of approximately 1.5 million index cards bearing coin information, primarily from auction catalogues. I am currently directing the NZK Digitization Project, the goal of which is to digitize and make public the NZK in Linked Open Data format.
My primary research interest is in cultural contact in the Western Mediterranean from the late Bronze Age to the Hellenistic/Roman Republican period. In particular, I study cultural contact between the indigenous people of ancient Italy and Sicily, neighboring groups like the Celts and Punic peoples, and the Greeks through the trade in metals and their use as currency and later coinage.
In addition to my primary interest in the role of metal currency and coinage in ancient cultural contact, I also study the history of coin collecting. I am particularly interested in the educational use of coin collections (see my piece on the University of Texas Swenson collection here). I also study ancient military practice, particularly the spread and adoption of different arms, armor, and military technologies throughout the Mediterranean in the context of cultural contact. Finally, I am trained in photogrammetry, which is the process of creating measurable 3D models from digital photosets.
I was honored to be in the first cohort of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Engaged Scholar Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin. The fellowship aims to foster public-facing scholarship in the humanities. In addition to supporting me while I wrote my dissertation and hosting a series of valuable seminars and workshops, the ESI program funded my development of an ancient currency conversion website, Trapezites, pronounced “trap-ed-ZEE-tace,” the Classical Greek term for a banker and money-changer.
Please visit my blog for regular updates on my work.
Don’t hesitate to contact me at giuseppe.castellano@univie.ac.at or at the following physical address:
Giuseppe Carlo Castellano, MA PhD
Universität Wien, Institut für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte
Franz-Klein-Gasse 1
1190 Wien
Österreich