Dr. Serena Autiero is a researcher at the Center for Religious Studies (CERES), Ruhr-Universität Bochum and honorary professor of archaeology at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. She is interested in cultural exchange in Eurasia in antiquity, Silk Road studies, ancient globalizations, with a special focus on the Indian Ocean World. She has authored a number of publications in international journals and her monograph on early globalization in the Western Indian Ocean will be published in Spring 2022.

Dr. Matthew Adam Cobb is a lecturer in ancient history at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. His research focuses on Mediterranean integration into wider Indian Ocean networks of trade during Antiquity. Among other publications, he is the author of Rome and the Indian Ocean Trade from Augustus to the Early Third Century CE (2018) and the edited book, The Indian Ocean Trade in Antiquity: Political, Cultural and Economic Impacts (2019).