Luigi Bernabò Brea

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Luigi Bernabò Brea (born September 27, 1910 in Genoa , † February 4, 1999 in Lipari ) was an Italian classical archaeologist .

Bernabò Brea (left) next to Alcide De Gasperi (1948)

Life

After school and law studies, which he finished in 1932, he studied archeology at the University of Rome from 1932 to 1935 with Giulio Quirino Giglioli , because it suited his interests more. Then he became a member of the Scuola Archeologica Italiana in Athens and participated in excavations on the island of Limnos until 1937 . The Italian Ministry of Ancient and Fine Arts appointed Luigi Bernabò Brea as inspector of the National Museum of Taranto in 1938 , where he devoted himself to the early history of Liguria and, among other things, took part in the excavations of Gnathia . In 1939 he was given the management of the newly created Soprintendenza alle Antichità della Sicilia Orientale and in 1941 he moved to Syracuse . At the same time Brea was appointed director of the Museo Civico di Archeologia Ligure di Genova-Pegli, which he directed until 1951.

Luigi Bernabò Brea was director of the Soprintendenza alle Antichità della Sicilia Orientale until his retirement in 1973 . It is particularly thanks to him that valuable collections from museums were saved from destruction in the Second World War and that they could be shown again soon after the end of the war. At the beginning of the 1950s, Brea repeatedly participated in new excavations on the islands of Limnos, where he mainly explored the Early Bronze Age settlement Poliochni , as well as Imbros and Tenedos .

After his official resignation, Brea withdrew to the Aeolian Islands in 1973 , where he also organized extensive research into prehistory and early history . He succeeded in uncovering the cultural history of the islands primarily through excavations on the Lipari Castle Hill and on the neighboring islands from the Neolithic to the late Roman period and displaying it in a newly established museum . From 1960 he published the history of the excavation and its conclusions together with other scholars in the series Meligunìs Lipàra , which was continued after the death of Bernabò Breas by his long-time collaborator and co-author of earlier volumes, Madeleine Cavalier . The museum now bears his name.

Scientific merit

Statuette of Homer, exhibited in the Aeolian Museum “LB Brea” in Lipari;
3rd century BC Chr.

Bernabò Brea further developed the stratigraphic method for ancient arenas, according to which the history of use can be traced in detail during excavations in Italy and in the Mediterranean region . His work is mainly based on archaeological excavations in the Arene Candide grotto in Liguria and on studies of the Acropolis of Lipari. Both showed a stratigraphic sequence of the land, so that analogies to other archaeological sites in the Mediterranean area could be drawn. Using his methods, he worked out the temporal correlations between the cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Europe .

Publications (selection)

For a complete bibliography, see the internet bibliography

  • Poliochni. Città preistorica nell'isola di Lemnos , Vol. II, 1-2, Rome 1976
  • with Madeleine Cavalier: Meligunìs Lipàra VIII. Salina. Ricerche archeologiche (1989–1993) , Palermo 1995
  • with Madeleine Cavalier, U. Spigo: Il Museo Archeologico Eoliano. Introduzione alla visita , Palermo 1996
  • with Madeleine Cavalier: Meligunìs Lipàra X. Scoperte e scavi archeologici nell'area urbana e suburbana di Lipari , Rome 2000
  • with Madeleine Cavalier, François Villard: Meligunìs Lipàra XI. Gli scavi nella necropoli greca e romana di Lipari nell'area del terreno vescovile , Palermo 2001

Honors

A street is named after him on the edge of the Archaeological Park of Syracuse .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography of Madeleine Cavalier on luigibernabobrea.it (Italian or English)
  2. ^ Homepage of the museum on Lipari with a summary of the exhibition , accessed on November 20, 2011
  3. ↑ Details on the examinations in the Arena Candide grotto near Savona , accessed on November 20, 2011 (English)
personal data
SURNAME Bernabò Brea, Luigi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Genoa
DATE OF DEATH February 4, 1999
Place of death Lipari