Ernesto Canal

Ernesto Canal (born October 30, 1924 in Venice ; † February 8, 2018 ibid), often called "Tito", was an Italian archaeologist . He is considered a pioneer of archaeological exploration of the Venetian lagoon , especially the Mesolithic to Roman and early medieval epochs. He discovered 175 sites and 90,000 artifacts in almost eight decades .

The elementary school named after Bernardo Canal

Origin and youth

Ernesto Canal's parents were Giulia Sartori and Virgilio Canal. Both were Venetians and came from a family that can be traced back to around 1200, perhaps even to the 5th century. In 1273 at the latest, the family was counted among the Venetian nobility after a Filippo Canal defeated the Genoese with two of its own ships . From the branch of the Ernesto Canals family, the abbot Daniele Canal (1791-1883) became the most famous representative. The Austrian Emperor supported him financially in founding the Istituto Canal-Marovich (today: Casa Studentesca Santa Fosca ), an educational institution for children that was founded in 1864 by Daniele Canal together with Anna Maria Marovich or Marović (1815-1887). From the same branch of the family came Bernardo Canal, a supporter of Giuseppe Mazzini , who was shot by the Austrians in Mantua on December 7, 1852 .

Ernesto's father Virgilio Canal was a goldsmith not far from San Fantin in the San Marco sestiere . He and his wife had three sons: Piero, Carlo and Giovanni. Ernesto was born after moving to Lido and was given the name Ernesto Massimiliano , but was called "Tito" almost from the beginning. The fifth son Giorgio was born in Lido. In 1929 the family moved back to Venice to a palace in Cannaregio near Santa Fosca on the Grand Canal while the mother was pregnant with their only daughter, Anna Aurora.

life and work

At the age of 16, Ernesto became interested in the question of how the Venetian lagoon was formed. At the time, a debate arose as to whether the Roman artifacts found in the lagoon were made there or whether they were brought there by the medieval residents. In 1944, Ernesto's father was killed in an Allied air raid near Istrana in the Treviso province because the pilot shot at one of the wagons rather than the locomotive. Ernesto's brother Giorgio also died in the war, Carlo was deported to a German concentration camp.

The remaining siblings often went out into the lagoon in their boats. While Ernesto continued to be fascinated by pre-medieval archeology, his ideas found no echo, only his friend and fisherman Archimede Diseppi supported him. He was a harpoon fisherman (fagiaroto). Through him Ernesto got to know the Canali, Barene , Velme , the shallows and currents, the sandbanks and the numerous human facilities that were there to extract marine animals and fish, but also salt and game animals from the lagoon. This precise knowledge later allowed archaeological excavations under the most difficult conditions. Even if his search was initially unsuccessful, he learned Latin and a little Greek from Anna Laurenti, a daughter of the architect Cesare Laurenti (1854–1936), who designed the Rialto fish market .

Meanwhile, the Canal siblings founded a factory for costume jewelery at the Fondamenta della Sensa in their home sestiere. They moved there in 1961. After numerous conversations with fishermen who had become his friends, and after receiving tips from them, the first archaeologically significant finds were made in the mid-1960s. He reported them to the responsible Soprintendenza alle Antichità delle Venezie . Bianca Maria Scarfì , director of the Archaeological Museums of Venice and Altino , caught the attention. Even Giovanni Zambon interested in Canals discoveries. He was a teacher on Burano and Murano . He had also discovered some artifacts, and so the two laypeople began to exchange ideas, while the experts largely ignored them. Through Zambon, Canal met the biologist Alessandro Marcello, as well as the president of the Istituto di Adriatici Nicolò Spada. Through Zambon and Spada he got to know Luigi Lanfranchi , the director of the State Archives . He wanted the men to collaborate on investigations by the Magistratura del Piovego , the authority that had been responsible for the lagoon in the Republic of Venice . Canal and Spada translated documents and identified locations for this purpose, so that over time a map was created that showed how the areas of the lagoon had risen and fallen at different times. However, these maps and the associated records were never published.

The found objects were to be found in the laboratory of the Soprintendenza ai Beni artistici e storici di Venezia near San Gregorio, not far from Santa Maria della Salute , where Canal met the founder Lorenzo Lazzarini and the soprintendente Francesco Valcanover in the late 1960s . They decided to inform the art historian Wladimiro Dorigo . However, Roberto Cessi (1885–1969), the undisputed master of historical studies in Venice, still blocked the research because he believed that the Roman finds had only reached the lagoon in the Middle Ages. Against this widespread disinterest, Bianca Maria Scarfì decided that Canal should become the Ispettore Onorario per le Antichità nella zona della laguna veneta . The trigger for the promotion to the ' Honorary Inspector for Antiquities in the Area of ​​the Venetian Lagoon' were his finds in the Palude del Vigno .

In the meantime, the Canal brothers developed equipment for examining the underground of the lagoon in their factory, which employed 20 people. But in 1983 they had to give up the company. In 1985, Ernesto Canal moved into the building.

In 1976 Canal published his first scientific contribution on sugar processing, which he had made on the basis of discoveries made together with his friends Gian Pietro Giacomelli, Giovanni Trentin and Vittore Zaniol near Fusina . More finds followed. From 1977 Canal worked with Dorigo. 1983 Venezia was published in Milan . Origini. Fondamenti, ipotesi metodi .

From 1969 to 1978 Canal dug in San Marco in Bocca Lama and published about this important site for the late medieval archeology of the lagoon and shipping. In 1980 Canal was appointed Ispettore Onorario per i Beni Artistici e Storici per la città di Venezia con particolare riferimento alla ricognizione dei fondali e delle barene della Laguna . This implied that he should be in charge of both Venetian and Paduan territory, with a particular focus on the lagoon floor and the Barene . In 1980 the cooperation with the geologists Vito Favero and Luigi Alberotanza began to determine the oscillations of the sea level more precisely. In 1981 he joined the Équipe Veneziana di Ricerca , a group of volunteers founded in 1971 under the direction of Giulio Pozzana. Canal became a member of one of the three departments, namely the Studi lagunari . The group worked on projects around San Giacomo in Paludo , San Ariano and San Lorenzo in Ammiana .

On June 10, 1983 Canal was appointed Ispettore Onorario per i Beni Ambientali e Architettonici , confirmed his position as Ispettore Onorario per i Beni Artistici e Storici e per l'Archeologia . However, the posts were not extended in 1992.

Canal was now working on Byzantine finds. In 1983, together with Lazzarini, he published Ritrovamenti di ceramica bizantina in Laguna e la nascità del graffito veneziano . They found that Venice imported Byzantine ceramics from the 1st half of the 12th to the end of the 14th centuries. From the first half of the 13th century the ceramica graffita arcaica veneziana emerged. Together with Antonio Rosso, Canal published in 1985 studies of the site he localized in 1969 on the island of San Leonardo in Fossa Mala . Based on cartography from the 16th century, he had discovered the remains of seven houses and a church. From 1975 to 1988 Canal worked on late antique buildings along the east side of the island of San Giacomo in Paludo .

In 1989 Canal married the American art historian and painter Sally Spector from Indiana . With her and the historian Lidia Fersuoch and Giovanni Zambon, he published an overview in which the 0.43 hectare island of Motta di San Lorenzo played an important role. Another one to discover the Canale di Campalto followed. In the journal Archeologia e Calcolatori he published together with Silvia Cavazzoni the dating of 44 of the sites he discovered himself.

In 1995 Le Venezie appeared summer. Quarant'anni di archeologia lagunare , which summarized the archaeological research of four decades. In 1996 he was commissioned to record all known sites in the archaeological atlas of the lagoon. There were now 143 sites. On the occasion of the public presentation, Canal received the honorary title benemerito della cultura .

But Canal went further. In 1998 Testimonianze archeologiche nella laguna di Venezia was published. L'età antica , in which he listed not only Roman and Paleo-Venetian sites, but also prehistoric ones, namely Neolithic ones , based on 44 sites . He also succeeded in reconstructing the major sea level rises and falls that depopulated the lagoon several times or that only allowed fishermen to stay there. So the older settlements disappeared before the Romans, then those of the Roman period due to a further increase.

In the film 6 x Venice (Sei Venezia) by Carlo Mazzacurati , Ernesto Canal reported on his work in 2012 and showed Neolithic finds. In the same year, together with colleagues, he presented evidence of Mesolithic hunters and gatherers who had inhabited the area that later became the edge of the lagoon.

In 2013, Canal's overview work Archeologia della laguna di Venezia 1960–2010 was published , which lists 730 sites in the lagoon alone. A new edition came out in 2015.

Works (selection)

• Localizzazione nella laguna veneta dell'isola di San Marco in Bocca Lama e rilevamento di fondazioni di antichi edifici , first published in: Archeologia Veneta 1 (1978) 167-174.
• with Lorenzo Lazzarini: Ritrovamenti di ceramica bizantina in laguna e la nascità del graffito veneziano , in: Faenza 69 (1983) 19–58.
• with Lidia Fersuoch, Sally Spector, Giovanni Zambon: Indagini archeologiche a S. Lorenzo di Ammiana (Venezia) , in: Archeologia Veneta 12 (1989) 71-96.
• with Silvia Cavazzoni: Antichi insediamenti nella laguna di Venezia: analisi multi variata di tipo FUZZY C - MEANS CLUSTERING , in: Archeologia e calcolatori 1 (1990) 165-177.
• Le Venezie summer: quarant'anni di archeologia lagunare , in: Giovanni Caniato, Eugenio Turri, Michele Zanetti (eds.): La Laguna di Venezia , Verona 1995, 193-225.
• Testimonianze archeologiche nella laguna di Venezia , Cavallino di Venezia 1998.
• Archeologia della laguna di Venezia 1960–2010 , Cierre Edizioni, Verona 2013, new edition 2015.

literature

• Annalisa Lizza: Storia dell'archeologia lagunare di Venezia. Da Giovanni Casoni a Ernesto Canal , Tesi di Laurea, Università di Ca 'Foscari, Venice 1997, pp. 145-223 (cf. Giovanni Casoni ). ( online )

Interviews

• Le origini di Venezia , interview from 2013
• Primi insediamenti e cesure abitative

Remarks

1. ^ Alberto Vitucci: È morto Tito Canal, scoprì le origini romane della laguna , in: La Nuova di Venezia e Mestre, February 9, 2018.
2. ↑ Marco Barbaro: Discendenze patrizie con molte notizie aggiunte dal Cicogna , Venice 1530, II, repr. Des Cod. Cicogna 2498–2504, p. 124.
3. ↑ Andrea Augenti even speaks of the "quasi total disinteresse della comunità scientifica" (almost complete disinterest of the scientific community) in Andrea Augenti (ed.): Le città italiane tra la tarda antichità e l'alto Medioevo. Atti del Convegno (Ravenna, 26-28 February 2004) , All'insegna del giglio, Florence 2006, p. 153.
4. ↑ Ernesto Canal, F. Cozza, L. Lazzarini, G. Vita Lazzarini: La lavorazione dello zucchero a Venezia documentata dal ritrovamento di forme e cantarelli nella laguna veneta , in: Padusa 12 (1976) 125-142.
5. ^ Wladimiro Dorigo: Venezia. Origini. Fondamenti, ipotesi metodi , Electa, Milan 1983.
6. ↑ Ernesto Canal, Lorenzo Lazzarini: Ritrovamenti di ceramica bizantina in laguna e la nascità del graffito veneziano , in: Faenza 69 (1983) 19-58.
7. ↑ Ernesto Canal, Lydia Fersuoch, Sally Spector, Giovanni Zambon: Indagini archeologiche a S. Lorenzo di Ammiana (Venezia) , in: Archeologia Veneta 12 (1989) 71-96.
8. ↑ Ernesto Canal, Silvia Cavazzoni: Antichi insediamenti nella laguna di Venezia: analisi multi variata di tipo FUZZY C - MEANS CLUSTERING , in: Archeologia e calcolatori 1 (1990) 165-177.
9. ↑ Ernesto Canal: Le Venezie sommerse: quarant'anni di archeologia lagunare , in: Giovanni Caniato, Eugenio Turri, Michele Zanetti (eds.): La Laguna di Venezia , Verona 1995, pp. 193-225.
10. ^ Ernesto Canal: Testimonianze archeologiche nella laguna di Venezia. L'età antica , Cavallino di Venezia 1998.
11. Jump up ↑ Paola Furlanetto, Aldino Bondesan, Luigi Fozzati, Ernesto Canal, Roberto Rosselli, Barbara Bertani: Siti archeologici a rischio di erosione nella laguna di Venezia. Evoluzione geomorfologica e popolamento antico , in: Geologia dell'Ambiente, Supplemento al n. 1/2012, pp. 41-46.
12. ↑ La Laguna "romana". Tracce di decine di "domus" costruite tra il I e ​​il III secolo. Le scoperte di Ernesto Canal: la vita prima della nascita di Venezia , in: Corriere del Veneto, 6 December 2013.