Marcella Frangipane (born 10 October 1948) is a professor of archaeology at the Sapienza University of Rome. She works on the prehistory and protohistory of the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

and Middle East. She was elected a foreign associate of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

(NAS) in 2013.

Early life and education

Frangipane was born in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

. She studied humanities with honours in archaeology at the Sapienza University of Rome, and graduated

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

in 1972. Early in her career she spent three years in the

Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia The Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH, ''National Institute of Anthropology and History'') is a Mexican federal government bureau established in 1939 to guarantee the research, preservation, protection, and promotion of the ...

in Mexico, where she learned new techniques in anthropology. She has been involved with several excavations, in Europe, Mexico, Turkey and Egypt. She was involved the excavation of Cunalan village in the Teotihuacan valley. She has been involved with the excavation team of the

Arslantepe Melid, also known as Arslantepe, was an ancient city on the Tohma River, a tributary of the upper Euphrates rising in the Taurus Mountains. It has been identified with the modern archaeological site of Arslantepe near Malatya, Turkey. It was ...

since 1976.

Research and career

Frangipane returned to the Sapienza University of Rome in 1981, where she eventually became a Professor in 1990. She led the School of Archaeology from 2000 to 2003, and was made Vice Director of the Late Predynastic site of Maadi. Frangipane studies the formation of bureaucratic and hierarchical structures in urban societies. She is mainly interested in the near and Middle East. Frangipane was made Director of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Eastern Anatolia in 1990. She was involved with the excavation of

, where she reconstructed their early administrative systems. This work was supported by the

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

. The settlement is west of the banks of the

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...

and is well known for its architecture. Frangipane identified the most ancient secular public structure worldwide.

was included in the UNESCO cultural heritage list in 2014 owing to the significance of Frangipane's findings. She investigated the site of Zeytinli Bahçe Höyük, a village in the Urfa district. Within

, Frangipane led the team who discovered the word's oldest royal palace. She was also involved with excavations of She was the first Italian woman to be elected a foreign associate to the

in 2013.

Awards and honours

Her awards and honours include; * 1994 Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana * 2005 Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà * 2005 Honorary Citizenship of Eski Malatya * 2011 İnönü University Honorary Doctorate * 2013 Elected to the

* 2015 Shanghai Archaeology Forum Discovery Award * 2015 Vittorio De Sica Prize for Science * 2017 Rotondi Award for the Saviours of Art * 2018 University of Sydney Anthony McNicoll Lecture * 2021 Corresponding fellow of the British Academy Frangipane s a member of the German Archaeological Institute and the Shanghai Archeology Forum.

Books

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frangipane, Marcella 1948 births Living people Italian women archaeologists Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Archaeologists from Palermo Recipients of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Sapienza University of Rome faculty Sapienza University of Rome alumni