Paolo Orsi

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Paolo Orsi 1898

Paolo Orsi , baptized as Pietropaolo Giorgio Cesare Maria Orsi , (born October 17, 1859 in Rovereto , † November 8, 1935 ibid) was one of the most important prehistorians and classical archaeologists in Italy.

Life

Paolo Orsi was the seventh of eight children of the merchant Pietro Orsi and his wife Maria Keppler. Orsi grew up in a wealthy family that openly sympathized with Mazzini's national ideas and that should also shape Paolo Orsi, despite the early death of his father, Paolo was three years old at the time. Orsi attended the grammar school in Rovereto, where he made friends with his contemporaries Ettore Tolomei and Federico Halbherr .

Orsi developed his interest in archeology at an early stage, which did not remain hidden from his surroundings. In 1875, when he was not yet 16 years old, the municipal museum of his hometown commissioned him to take care of the museum's archaeological department. Four years later he was appointed curator of the museum, a task which he shared with Federico Halbherr at times and which he fulfilled until the end of his life.

From 1877 he studied ancient history and classical archeology, first at the University of Padua , then at the University of Vienna with Otto Benndorf and Otto Hirschfeld and at the University of La Sapienza in Rome with Luigi Pigorini . Orsi received his doctorate in Padua in 1882 . However, he did not aspire to a university career, but concentrated on the work on site during excavations. Even before his doctorate, he published his first work on historical inscriptions in South Tyrol, today's Trentino, in 1878 at the age of 19. Between 1881 and 1882 he directed the excavations at the Grotta del Colombo and the Busa dell'Adamo , two sites from the Mesolithic and Bronze Ages , on behalf of the city museum of Rovereto , and was the first in Trentino to use the stratigraphic excavation Excavation method back.

In 1884 he gave up his Austrian citizenship and became an Italian citizen. In the same year he began his career as a civil servant in the collections of antiquities and fine arts in the Kingdom of Italy . Orsi first worked in the General Directorate in Rome and later in the National Library in Florence . After being appointed inspector of excavations, museums and galleries of the kingdom, he went to the Archaeological Museum in Syracuse , Sicily , in 1888 .

As a result, he devoted himself primarily to the prehistoric sites and was instrumental in researching the Stentinello culture .

From 1895 to 1934 Orsi was director of the Archaeological Museum in Syracuse, which today bears the name Museo Archeologico Regionale “Paolo Orsi” in his honor . In 1909 he was a co-founder of the Società Italiana di Archeologia . He was a member of the Accademia dei Lincei since 1896. In 1904 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . In 1908 he became a corresponding member of the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino . He was also a member of the Accademia degli Agiati in his hometown. In 1924 he was appointed Senator of the Kingdom.

Works (selection)

  • Gela: Scavi del 1900-1905 . Rome 1906
  • Templum Apollinis Alaei , Rome 1934
  • Sicilia Bizantina , Tivoli 1942

Excavations

literature

  • Paolo Enrico Arias : Paolo Orsi in Sicilia e in Calabria , in: Klearchos 17, 1975, pp. 9-27.
  • Paolo Enrico Arias: Quattro Archeologi del nostro Secolo, Paolo Orsi, Biagio Pace, Alessandro Della Seta, Ranuccio Bianchi-Bandinelli . Pisa 1976
  • Robert Leighton: Paolo Orsi (1859-1935) and the prehistory of Sicily , in: Antiquity 60, 1986, No. 228, pp. 15-20.
  • Paolo Enrico Arias: Paolo Orsi: una vita , in: Prospettiva 51, 1987, pp. 75-79.
  • La ricerca archeologica nel Mediterraneo: P. Orsi - F. Halbherr - G. Gerola , Rovereto 1991.
  • Atti del Convegno Paolo Orsi e l'archeologia del '900 (Annali Museo Civico Rovereto, suppl. Vol. VI, 1990), Rovereto 1991
  • Anna Maria Marchese, Giusy Marchese: Bibliografia degli scritti di Paolo Orsi . Pisa 2000
  • Irene Calloud:  Orsi, Paolo. In: Raffaele Romanelli (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 79:  Nursio – Ottolini Visconti. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2013, pp. 607-610.

Web links

Commons : Paolo Orsi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Gianni Ciurletti: Paolo Orsi. In: studitrentini.eu. Retrieved August 9, 2020 (Italian).
  2. ↑ a b Paolo Orsi: Relazione degli scavi eseguiti alla Busa dell'Adamo . In: Annali dei Musei civici Rovereto. Sezione Archeologia, Storia, Scienze naturali. Volume 1 , Rovereto 1985, p. 67.
  3. ↑ Irene Calloud:  Paolo Orsi. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI).
  4. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 183.
  5. ↑ entry in Soci storici the Academy.
  6. ↑ Storia. In: agiati.org. Accademia Roveretana degli Agiati, accessed August 10, 2020 (Italian).
personal data
SURNAME Orsi, Paolo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Orsi, Pietropaolo Giorgio Cesare Maria (full name at birth)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian prehistoric and classical archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH Rovereto
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 1935
Place of death Rovereto