Unearthing Alexandria’s Archaeology: The Italian Contribution

Unearthing Alexandria’s Archaeology: The Italian’s Contribution’ contains the results of an archival survey, historical research, and archaeological description of the main Italian excavations in Alexandria from the 1890s to the 1950s. The Italian archaeological investigations in the city of Alexandria are presented through unpublished photographs of Evaristo Breccia, Achille Adriani, and some of the glass negatives of the Graeco- Roman Museum of Alexandria. Various Italians contributed to the fieldwork and the production of drawings and plans, and documenting the majority of the most important sites in Alexandria, on which our archaeological knowledge today is based. But their names have been forgotten compared with Giuseppe Botti, Breccia, and Adriani: Giacomo Biondi, Gino Beghe, Antonio Gentili, Giuseppe Ramacciotti, Mariano Bartocci, Giovanni Dattari, Despina Sinadino, Michele Salvago, Orazio Abate, and Giovanni Peruto. The book gives detailed descriptions of the Italian excavations at Hadra, Chatby, Anfushi, Kom al-Chougafa, the Serapeum, and Kom al-Dikka, accompanied by often unpublished photographs and followed by a catalogue of other rare photographs of different archaeological sites in Alexandria.