Sapienza University of Rome - Italy

Faculty Member, Scienze dell'Antichità

About

Lorenzo Nigro - Curriculum Vitae and Studiorum

Lorenzo Nigro (Rome 1967), MA, PhD, Associated Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology (since 2002), is the Coordinator of the Oriental Section of the Department of Sciences of Antiquities of Rome “La Sapienza” University (Faculty of Letters and Philosophy). He has participated in several archaeological expeditions in the Near East and the Mediterranean (among which the most renown are Tell Mardikh/Ebla, in Syria, in years 1989-1997, and Tell es-Sultan/Jericho in Palestine as co-director, in years 1997-2000). He is presently the Director of Rome “La Sapienza” Expedition to Motya (a Phoenician city in Western Sicily; www.lasapienzamozia.it), and the Director of Rome “La Sapienza” Expedition to Palestine & Jordan, which is carrying on systematic excavations at Tell es-Sultan/ancient Jericho in Palestine, where archaeological works were resumed in 2009 (www.lasapienzatojericho.it), and at the Early Brown Age (3rd millennium BC) fortified city, previously unknown, of Khirbet al-Batrawy (2005-2011), in the north-central district of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (www.lasapienzatojordan.it).
Lorenzo Nigro is a skilled field archaeologist with a wide experience of Levantine and Mediterranean archaeology. He has written 13 monographs on the archaeology of Palestine (palatial architecture, rise of urbanization in southern Levant, archaeology of Jericho and Jerusalem), Syria, and the reports of excavations at Motya, Khirbet al-Batrawy and Jericho; and more than 150 articles on Levantine, Phoenician, Mesopotamian and Egyptian archaeology and history of art, ranging from palatial and temple architecture, pottery chronology, Levantine and Iranian metallurgy, Sumerian and Akkadian art, Phoenician ceramics, settlement studies, history of excavations, etc.
He has edited the series Quaderni di Gerico (two volumes), and he has founded and is the Editor of two monograph series: Rome “La Sapienza” Studies on the Archaeology of Palestine & Transjordan (= ROSAPAT; 8 volumes appeared) and Quaderni di Archeologia Fenicio Punica (= QAFP, 6 volumes appeared, including the excavations reports Mozia X, Mozia XI, Mozia XII, Mozia XIII).
He has taught in the Lateranense University (Rome, 1996-2000), and he has been Invited Professor of Biblical Archaeology at the Pontifical Biblical Institute (Rome, 2000-2006).
He has been also the Curator of the Near Eastern Department (Reparto Antichità Orientali - Museo Gregoriano Egizio/Egyptian Museum) of the Vatican Museums (1998-2005), gaining deep experience in restoration, management and development of archaeological heritage.
He took part in and organized numerous International Congresses, Conferences and Workshops, among which the First International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (1ICAANE, Roma 1998); the international Conferences held in Jericho in February 2005 and April 2008, organized by the Palestinian MOTA-DACH and Rome “La Sapienza” University on “Archaeology, sustainable development and tourist valorisation of the archaeological site of Tell es-Sultan/ancient Jericho”; the International Workshop “Byblos and Jericho in the Early Bronze I. Social dynamics and cultural interactions”, held in Rome on March 6th 2007. He was also member of the steering Committee of the Sixth International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, held in Rome in May 5th - 10th 2008 (6 ICAANE); and of the congress “Lebanon Symposium” devoted to the enhancement of Lebanese Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, held in Beirut in November 5th - 9th 2008 (and of the forthcoming “Second Lebanon Symposium” to be held in October 2012).
He is also member of the Counsel for the International Relationships of Rome “La Sapienza” University; and he is Councillor of the G. Whitaker Foundation (Palermo, Sicily), for the administration and enhancement of the island of Motya.
He has got the “St. Damasus Scholar” Award by the Carsten Niebhur Institute of Archaeology of Copenhagen University as “Young Archaeologist” in 1999 for the excavations at Jericho. In 2010, due to the discovery of the Palace of the Copper Axes at Khirbet al-Batrawy, he has got the Awards “Premio Provincia Capitale 2010” and the “Premio Colosseo 2010”, for an Italian/Roman who distinguished himself abroad of Italy, and the Award “Sapienza Ricerca 2010”, as outstanding researcher of Rome “La Sapienza” University.
In 2011 he also got the National Funds for Relevant Researches (PRIN) with maximum scores with the topic “The Seven Plagues: Catastrophes, Earthquakes, Inundations, Famine, Epidemies, and War in Palestine and Egypt during Pre-Classical periods: an overview of historical and archaeological sources”.
He is presently experimenting new tracks on the Archaeology of Mediterranean in the island of Motya, where he coordinates an interdisciplinary Laboratory of emerging sciences applied to innovate archaeology with the use of drones, sensor nodes, 3D simulators, etc.

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