Lorenzo Nigro
Lorenzo Nigro, MA, PhD, Associate Professor of Archaeology and Art History of the Ancient Near East, and Professor of Phoenician-Punic Archaeology at the Faculty of Philosophy, Humanities and Oriental Studies of the University of Rome “La Sapienza,” is the Coordinator of the Section of Orientalistics of the Department of Antiquities of the same University. He has taken part in numerous archaeological expeditions to the Near East (including those to Tell Mardikh/Ebla, Syria, in the years 1989-1997, and Tell es-Sultan/Geric, Palestine, as co-director in the years 1997-2000 and then as director between 2005-2011). He is currently Director of the Archaeological Mission to Mothia (a Phoenician center in western Sicily; since 2002) and Director of the Archaeological Mission to Palestine and Jordan of the same University (since 2005), conducting excavations at the previously unknown Ancient Bronze Age fortified city of Khirbet al-Batrawy in northern Jordan, and at the site of Tell es-Sultan/ancient Jericho.He is the author of thirteen monographs concerning the pre-classical archaeology of Syria and Palestine and Phoenician-Punic archaeology; and more than 130 articles in Italian and foreign journals on the archaeology of Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran in the pre-classical periods, being mainly interested in the archaeology of Palestine and the southern Levant.He graduated in Rome with Prof. Paolo Matthiae with a Thesis on “The Palatine Architecture of Palestine in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Archaeological Context and Historical Development,” published as a monograph in the series Contributions and Materials in Oriental Archaeology (volume V, Rome 1994), and received his Postgraduate degree with a thesis on “Middle Bronze Age favissae pottery in the Ishtar Area at Ebla.” He received his PhD degree with a Thesis on “The Ceramic Repertoire of the Royal Tombs of Ebla and the Ceramic Chronology of Inner Syria in the Middle Bronze Age,” published in the series Materials and Archaeological Studies of Ebla (volume VIII, Rome 2009). He has edited the series Quaderni di Gerico (two volumes, the third in press), the journal Near East in 2008-2009 (volumes XIII and XIV), and numerous international conferences and symposia, including the Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Oriental Archaeology (6ICAANE) published in 2010 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz). is currently the editor of the ROSAPAT series (Rome “La Sapienza” Studies in the Archaeology of Palestine and Transjordan, seven volumes, the eighth is in press), and of the series Quaderni di Archeologia Fenicio-Punica with the volumes Mozia X, Mozia XI and Mozia XII (the volume Mozia XIII is in press), and QAFP IV and QAFP V (Rome 2010), and of the series Near & Middle East. He has been a member of the organizing committees of numerous international conferences, including the First and Sixth International Congress of Oriental Archaeology (Rome 1998 and Rome 2008); the international conference held in Jericho (Ariha 2005) and sponsored by UNESCO, the Department of Antiquities of the Palestinian National Authority and the University of Rome “La Sapienza” for archaeological research and tourist enhancement of the Jericho site; and the international conference “Lebanon Symposium” on archaeological research and protection of Lebanon’s archaeological heritage organized under the patronage of Lebanon’s Directorate General of Antiquities in Beirut in November 2008. He is the founder of the Roman Day of Mozian Studies “Antonia Ciasca,” dedicated to Phoenician-Punic archaeology in the Western Mediterranean. He was curator of the Oriental Antiquities Department – Gregorian Egyptian Museum of the Vatican Museums (1998-2005), and has taught Archaeology and Biblical Geography at the Lateran University (Rome, 1996-2000) and at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (Rome, 2000-2006). He is a member of the Council for International Relations at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” with responsibility for relations with UNESCO, and a member of the Board of Lecturers for the inter-university master’s program for training and cultural exchanges and the protection of the Israeli-Palestinian archaeological heritage. He is also an advisor to the Whitaker Foundation in Palermo for the administration and enhancement of the island of Mozia. In 2010 he won three awards for his discoveries in the Palace of the Copper Axes at the Khirbet al-Batrawy site in Jordan: “Capital Province Award,” “Colosseum Award,” and “Wisdom Research Award.”
