Luigi Bernabò Brea ( Genua, 27 September 1910 –

Lipari Lipari (; ) is a ''comune'' including six of seven islands of the Aeolian Islands (Lipari, Vulcano, Panarea, Stromboli, Filicudi and Alicudi) and it is located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the northern coast of Sicily, Southern Italy; it is ...

, 4 February 1999) was an Italian archaeologist. Together with

Madeleine Cavalier Madeleine Cavalier, also known in Italy by her nickname "signorina francese", born on June 27, 1928, is a French archaeologist and researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). Throughout her long career, she focused pri ...

, a very close collaborator who was briefly his wife, he was responsible for the establishment of the Aeolian Archaeological Museum of

Biography

A student of the

Italian School of Archaeology at Athens The Italian School of Archaeology at Athens (; ) is one of the 19 foreign archaeological institutes headquartered in Athens, Greece, with branch offices in Crete, Limnos and Rome. Following earlier Italian research in Greece (as an archaeologic ...

, he was dedicated to the

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

and classical archaeology of Sicily, particularly the

Aeolian Islands The Aeolian Islands ( ; ; ), sometimes referred to as the Lipari Islands or Lipari group ( , ) after their largest island, are a volcanic archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily, said to be named after Aeolus, the mythical ruler of ...

, where for many years he directed the Museo archeologico regionale eoliano, which is now dedicated to him. At first however, he was occupied by study of the prehistory of

Liguria Liguria (; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is roughly coextensive with ...

and the Aegean. From 1939 to November 1941 he was the first Superintendent of the Superintendency for Antiquities in Liguria (now the Superintendency for archaeological goods of Liguria). An early adopter of the stratigraphic method, which he applied in his excavation of Arene Candide (

Finale Ligure Finale Ligure (, locally ; ) is a ''comune'' on the Gulf of Genoa, in the province of Savona, in Liguria, Italy. It is considered part of the Italian Riviera. Part of its historical center ("Finalborgo") is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("Th ...

), he also contributed, through this method, to the typological definition of the cultural ''

facies In geology, a facies ( , ; same pronunciation and spelling in the plural) is a body of rock with distinctive characteristics. The characteristics can be any observable attribute of rocks (such as their overall appearance, composition, or con ...

'' of the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

in Italy and the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

. For thirty years he directed the Superintendency for Antiquities in Eastern Sicily and focused on defining the temporal concordances between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean civilisations. This work results from two archaeological excavations: those carried out in Liguria in the caves of Arene Candide and those performed on the acropolis of

. Both revealed a very complete succession of stratigraphic layers which allowed diverse connections with other Mediterranean archaeological sites. He married his colleague

for a season, but the marriage did not last. Nevertheless, the two continued to be close professional collaborators until Luigi Bernabo Brea's death.

Bibliography

* "Luigi Bernabò Brea", in ''Biografie e bibliografie degli Accademici Lincei'', Roma 1976, pp. 729–732. * Lucilla de Lachenal, "Biografia di Luigi Bernabò Brea", in ''Dalle arene candide a Lipari'', Roma 2004, pp. 215–216.

External links

Site dedicated to Luigi Bernabò Brea

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brea, Luigi Bernabo Archaeologists from Genoa 1910 births 1999 deaths People from Lipari 20th-century Italian archaeologists