Egyptology in Naples

 


The teaching of Egyptology and Coptic Language and Literature at the Instituto Universitario Orientale of Naples has been inaugurated by the late Prof. Claudio Barocas in the early Seventies. He alternated his teaching engagements with research and fieldwork, working in Sudan (Gebel Barkal with Sergio Donadoni) and in Egypt (Antinoe). He began the exploration of the site of Naqadah Predynastic settlement in 1977 and continued until 1986, in order to shed light on the relationship between this area and the great necropolis excavated by Petrie and Quibell at the end of the nineteenth century. In the same years, Barocas started a cooperation between the Chair of Egyptology and the Archaeological Superintendency of Naples for the study and exhibition of the Egyptian collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, inaugurated in December 1989 and accompanied by the publication of a complete catalog of the collection itself.

Today, after almost 30 years, the Neapolitan collection has been object of a new exhibition, that will be inaugurated on the 7th October 2016.

All the Neapolitan Egyptologists nowadays come, directly or indirectly, from the school of Barocas, to whom we would like to continue to pay homage with the organization of the 2017 edition of CRE at Naples.

Today at University of Naples “L’Orientale” the Chair of Egyptology has promoted many archaeological investigation in Egypt and research projects (PhD) focused on different aspects of the ancient Egyptian culture. Currently, the main missions on the field are:

  • Archaeological mission at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis (harbour of the Middle Kindgom to ‘Punt’), in collaboration with Boston University, since 2001, directed by Rodolfo Fattovich and Kathrine Bard;
  • Italian-Egyptian archaeological and conservation project in the “monastery” of Abba Nefer at Manqabad (Asyut, since 2011), in collaboration with University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ and Supreme Council of Antiquities, directed by Dr. Rosanna Pirelli;
  • Archaeological mission ‘Central Eastern Desert Survey (Wadi Gasus)’, directed by Prof. Irene Bragatini (UNO) since 2011;
  • Archaeological mission and survey of the Solar Temple of Niuserra (Abu Ghorab), in collaboration of C.I.S.A. (UNO), directed by Dr. Rosanna Pirelli since 2010;
  • IAEES Italian Archaeological Expedition in Eastern Sudan, directed by Prof. Andrea Manzo (UNO) since 2010.