Luigi Maria Ugolini

Luigi Maria Ugolini (* 1895 in Bertinoro , Romagna , † October 10, 1936 ibid) was an Italian archaeologist. He became known for his archaeological missions in Albania , where he excavated parts of the ancient cities of Phoinike and Butrint .

Life

Ugolini was the son of a watchmaker. Immediately after graduating from high school, he joined the Alpini corps and took part in the First World War as a member of this troop. A war injury that was never completely overcome was to contribute to Ugolini's early death.

After the war he studied archeology at the University of Bologna. Ugolini completed his studies very well and in 1924 he received the offer to lead the first Italian archaeological mission in Albania. The fact that he sympathized with the fascists who had come to power a short time before contributed to his career leap. These pursued the strategy, not only in the scientific field, of giving young men priority over established men in order to commit them. Ugolini is a typical example of this generation of young Italian scientists loyal to the regime. Archeology was also a decidedly political science at the time. With their help, the fascists sought to underpin their imperial claims in the Mediterranean.

In this context Ugolini looked in Albania for the places that Aeneas , the mythical ancestor of the Romans, is said to have visited on his way from Troy to Lazio , according to legend . He wanted to prove that there were close ties between the pre-Romanesque cultures of Italy and the Balkans.

Butrint: The baptistery discovered by Ugolini. The mosaics are covered with sand for protection.

Ugolini arrived in southern Albania in 1925. He first toured a number of promising places around Saranda that were known as ancient sites. In addition to Butrint, he was also on the hills of Kalivo and Çuka e Aitoit as well as on the castle hill of Saranda , where the remains of ancient fortifications could be found. Then he started the first excavations on the hill of Phoenice. Until 1932 he led several excavation campaigns there and in Butrint. In the latter place he discovered, among other things, the famous late Roman baptistery with its well-preserved mosaics and a statue known as Venus de Butrint . Ugolini's workers in Butrint also included Hasan Ceka, who founded archeology as a science in Albania after the Second World War.

From 1931 on, Ugolini also headed an archaeological mission on the island of Malta. He only returned to his hometown Bertinoro shortly before his death, weakened by malaria, in the summer of 1936, where he died the following October.

The research results published by Ugolini were in some cases underestimated after the Second World War because of its ideological burden. A few decades later, however, it is viewed in a more differentiated manner by the professional world. In particular, the international archaeological teams that have been working in Butrint and Phoenice since the 1990s have dealt intensively with Ugolini's work and also recognize his professional merits. In particular, his assumption regarding the cultural connections between the two shores of the Adriatic as early as the Bronze Age is undisputed today.

Works

La Panighina. Fonte sacra preistorica. In: Monumenti Antichi 29 (1923), pp. 495-654.
Albania antica 1: Ricerche archeologiche. Milano 1927.
L'acropoli di Fenice (= Albania antica. 2). Milano 1932.
L'Agrippa di Butrinto. Roma 1932.
Butrinto. Il mito d'Enea. Roma 1937
L'acropoli di Butrinto (= Albania antica. 3). Roma 1942.

literature

Oliver J. Gilkes: Luigi Maria Ugolini and the Italian Archaeological Mission to Albania. In the S. (Ed.): The Theater at Butrint. Luigi Maria Ugolini's Excavations at Butrint 1928-1932. (= Albania Antica IV), pp. 3-21. London 2003.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Ugolini, Luigi Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH	1895
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bertinoro
DATE OF DEATH	October 10, 1936
Place of death	Bertinoro