Enrico Acquaro is dead. He was the archaeologist “lord of the Phoenicians”

The historian, archaeologist and philologist Enrico Acquaroone of the greatest scholars of civilization of the Phoenicians, author of important excavation campaigns in Algeria, Tunisia and Sardinia, he died in Ravenna at the age of 80. The announcement of his passing was given by his son Michele and his sister Maria Valeria, specifying that the funeral will be held in Florence on Thursday 22 February, at 3 pm, in the church of San Francesco in Piazza Savonarola.

Born in Rome on 5 March 1943, Acquaro began his academic career as assistant of Semitic Philology at the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, becoming full professor of Phoenician-Punic Archeology at the University of Bologna in 1980. In the same University he taught courses such as Semitic Epigraphy, Oriental Archaeology, Egyptology, Archeology and History of Art of the Ancient Near East and Phoenician-Punic Archaeology. From 1983 to 1997 he was director of the Institute for Phoenician and Punic Civilization of the National Research Council and as such conducted and coordinated excavation campaigns in Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, Algeria and Tunisia.

From 1975 to 1996 he directed the excavations of the CNR and the University of Bologna in the Tophet and in the Su hill Murru Mannu in Tharros (Sardinia); since 2001 he has been scientific director of the joint archaeological mission between the Archaeological Superintendency of Cagliari and Oristano and the University of Bologna operating in the southern necropolis of Tharros; since 2003 he has been scientific director of the joint archaeological mission between the Superintendency of Trapani and the University of Bologna in Mozia, Sicily; since 2002 he has been scientific director of a mission of the University of Bologna in the Nile Delta, Egypt.

Among his scientific production there are titles dedicated to reports of excavations conducted, to studies on urban planning, history, craftsmanship, archaeometry, computer processing of archaeological data and numismatics: Punic art and culture in Sardinia (Carlo Delfino Editore, 1984); Carthage, an empire on the Mediterranean (Book House, 1989); The Phoenician and Punic settlements in Italy (State Printing Institute, 1989); Tharros (State Printing Institute, 1996); Studies of Punic archaeology (Institute of Publishing and Polygraphics, 1997); The Phoenicians between East and West (Silvana, 2003); Carthage. The foundations of a Mediterranean project (Lumières Internationales, 2006); Archives and seals of Carthage (Lumières Internationales, 2010); The Phoenicians. History and treasures of an ancient civilization (White Star, 2010); The memory of the Phoenicians (Agorà & Co., 2014); The memory of the Phoenicians from the gospels to Salvatore Quasimodo (Agorà & Co, 2015); The memory of Carthage in Italian painting between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and in the engravings of Bartolomeo Pinelli’s Roman History (Agorà & Co., 2015); Memories of Carthage: from Roman epitomes to Giuseppe Garibaldi (Agorà & Co., 2016); Phoenician and Punic memoirs. From Orosio to Friedrich Nietzsche (Agorà & Co., 2017); From Gustave Flaubert’s Carthage to Adolf Hitler’s Carthage (Agorà & Co., 2018).

Acquaro oversaw the monumental undertaking Punic coins in Italian collections of the State Polygraphic Institute and the collection “Punic Anecdotes” published by Lumières Internationales. He also held courses in Phoenician-Punic Archeology at the Universities of Cagliari and Enna and also in European and African universities. From 1992 to 1998 he was president of the Council of the Degree Course in Cultural Heritage – Archaeological specialization of the Faculty of Conservation of Cultural Heritage of the University of Bologna, based in Ravenna. From 1997 to 2000 he was director of the School of Specialization in Archeology at the University of Bologna.

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In 1999 he organized as scientific director the exhibition held in the National Roman Museum On the routes of the Phoenicians. He was scientific director of the exhibition held in Milan, Fondazione di Via Senato, The Phoenicians: East to West in 2004. From 1980 to 1983 he was editor-in-chief and from 1984 to 1997 co-director and editor-in-chief of Journal of Phoenician Studies; he directed the Sardò series, Studies in Egyptology and Punic Antiquity, the Journal of Punic Studiesthe Library of the Journal of Punic Studies e Bursa.