Giovanni Gozzadini (15 October 1810 – 25 August 1887) was an Italian
archeologist.
The last male heir of a noble family in
Bologna, that had given the city men-at-arms, doctors, and jurists, Giovanni was a highly educated man in other areas such as politics. His excavations in a
necropolis
A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead".
The term usually im ...
on his property at Villanova (Castenaso, eight kilometers south-east of Bologna), lasting from 1853 to 1855, involved 193 tombs, six of which were separated from the rest as if to signify a special social status. The "well tomb" pit graves lined with stones contained funerary urns. Thus were unearthed the first remains of the
Villanovan culture, the first
Iron Age culture in ancient Italy. The name Villanovan derives from that of the estate owned by Gozzadini.
He also undertook the first excavations that brought to light the
Etruscan necropolis at
Marzabotto, financed by the conti Aria, who were the landowners of the entire Pianura di Misano.
He is also known for his ground-breaking study of the medieval
Towers of Bologna.
At her death, his only daughter, Gozzadina Gozzadini left the family fortune to the Hospital of Bologna, where the university pediatric clinic carries the family name today, the ''Clinica Pediatrica Universitaria Gozzadini di Bologna''.
References
External links
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People from Bologna
Italian archaeologists
1810 births
1887 deaths
Members of the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy
Members of the Senate of the Kingdom of Sardinia
Villanovan culture
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