the scritti africani of professor antonino di vita

The Scritti Africani
of Professor Antonino Di Vita
Keywords: Tripolitania; archaeological practice; Antonino di Vita.
Abstract: The publication of a two volume compendium of the
key work on Roman Africa by Professor Antonino di Vita provides
a suitable moment to review his career achievements. The main
focus of his work was Tripolitania, with a particular emphasis on the
great cities of Sabratha and Lepcis Magna, but the Scritti Africani
demonstrate the extraordinary range of his expertise and interests.
Mots-clés : Tripolitaine ; archéologie ; Antonino di Vita.
Résumé : La publication d’un recueil en deux volumes des travaux
clés sur l’Afrique romaine par le professeur Antonino di Vita offre un
moment approprié pour se remémorer sa brillante carrière. L’objet
principal de son travail fut la Tripolitaine, en particulier les grandes cités
de Sabratha et Leptis Magna, mais son ouvrage Scritti Africani démontre
l’extraordinaire portée de sa compétence et de sa connaissance.
The death of the Italian archaeologist Professor Antonino
Di Vita on 22nd October 2011 was not formally marked in
these pages at the time by an obituary notice, but the publication in 2015 of a two-volume compendium of all his most
important African writings merits a few words to celebrate
some of his most notable achievements1. For 50 years, he was
at the forefront of work on Punic and Roman Tripolitania.
His work on North Africa always had a particular focus on
Libya, but he also directed work in Tunisia at Leptiminus
and Althiburos. Outside North Africa he achieved international prominence for his work on Sicilian archaeology
and in Crete, notably at Gortin. He was Professor and later
Emeritus Professor (also Magnifico Rettore) at the Università
di Macerata for many years and served as the Director of the
Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene for 20 years.
Antonino Di Vita was born at Chiaramonte Gulfi,
Ragusa, Sicily on 19th October 1926. He trained as a
Classical Archaeologist at the University of Catania, the
Italian School at Athens and La Sapienza in Rome. Initially
he worked in the Italian archaeological superintendancies for
Syracuse, Rome and Florence, but in 1962 the sudden death
of Ernesto Vergara Caffarelli created an opportunity for him
to serve for four years as a special advisor on archaeological
matters for the still young government of independent Libya.
He excelled in the role and, in conjunction with the British
archaeologist Richard Goodchild – who was Controller of
Antiquities in Cyrenaica, transformed the structures and
capabilities of the Department of Antiquity. They invested
in training and capacity building, founded Libya Antiqua
as the national archaeological journal and undertook (and
encouraged other foreign missions to participate in) renewed
fieldwork at the major Classical sites (Sabratha, Lepcis
Magna, Cyrene, Ptolemais, Taucheira, Apollonia). This
period saw the last wave of large-scale urban excavations at
Libya’s Classical ruins, including the programme to unearth
the remarkable circus and amphitheatre at Lepcis Magna2.
What Di Vita did not initiate or carry out himself, he was
instrumental in supporting and facilitating. Coincidentally,
in 1968 both Di Vita and Goodchild were appointed to chairs
in Archaeology back in their home countries, but within
a few months Goodchild had died at the age of 50, while
Di Vita was to continue to play a significant role in Libyan
archaeology for a further 43 years.
The landmark achievements of the Libyan aspect of
Di Vita’s career are an extraordinary roll call of important
monuments, primarily in and around the three Tripolitanian
cities of Sabratha, Oea and Lepcis Magna. He excavated
the famous Punico-Hellenistic mausolea at Sabratha and
oversaw the reconstruction of Mausoleum B, one of the site’s
most iconic monuments for subsequent visitors. He also
excavated important funerary complexes there (the tophet,
Sidret el-Balik, hypogea tombs). At Lepcis he carried out
important work on the west side of the harbour and on the
Serapeum and saw through to completion (after Lidiano
Bacchielli’s death) the anastylosis and full reconstruction of
the great four-way arch of Septimius Severus. Again, this has
become an unforgettable entrance spectacle for visitors to
* School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester,
UK, [email protected].
1. Di Vita 2015.
2. Di Vita 2015, p. 944, fig 1-2, reveals the speed with which the arena
was emptied of sand between 1962 and summer of 1964.
Antiquités africaines, 52, 2016, p. 193-196
David J. Mattingly*
193
Antiquités africaines, 52, 2016, p. 193-196
the site. This sort of reconstruction work on many important
Libyan monuments was a vital contribution to the mise en
valeur of Libya’s cultural heritage, especially during the
last years of Ghadaffi’s rule, when tourism finally started
to receive more official encouragement. He also excavated
a coastal villa at Tagiura, near Tripoli, with rich mosaics,
several extraordinary painted tombs of early Roman date
and did important work on the great four-way arch at Tripoli
(Oea). Another important dimension of his career concerns
his encouragement of the next generation of archaeologists,
Libyan and Italian, and his success in helping other specialists complete important work, as with the definitive monographic publication of the Punic inscriptions of Tripolitania3.
The Scritti Africani volumes were conceived before
Di Vita’s death – indeed he had played a full role in
selecting papers and determining the order of arrangement. The project assembles all his major publications
on North Africa in one place, arranged in chronological
order of publication for the most part4. From his overall
African bibliography of 123 outputs, the 74 individual items
included in the volumes comprise a total of 52 articles and
chapters from books, 5 encyclopaedia entries, 17 miscellaneous pieces (short notes, prefatory comments, concluding
remarks, obituaries). Given the rarity outside Italy of some
of the books and journals in which the original materials
were published these volumes are a resource of the highest
scholarly value. The present edition has been reformatted
in a coherent house style, but the original page numbering
schema is highlighted within the text to facilitate correlation with references to the originals.
Re-reading some of his classic studies in these beautifully produced volumes I was reminded of the huge
scholarly impact of his work, while also struck by how little
of what he argued has been surpassed or overturned in the
intervening years. The material presented in these volumes
remains highly relevant to archaeological debate today.
However, there is a paradox in his work in that although he
was a prolific writer, as the combined 1000 pages of these
volumes attest, he was less successful at producing definitive
monographic publications5. His parallel archaeological field
careers in Sicily and Crete (especially Gortin where a series
of monographs were produced) and his large administrative
194
3. Levi della Vida, Amadasi Guzzo 1987.
4. A thematic or site-by-site arrangement might have been alternative
possibilities for the order of papers, but since many articles summarised work on multiple projects conducted in parallel, the chronological approach makes sense.
5. An overall synthesis on the history and archaeology of Tripolitania
was projected during the 1990s as Volume XII of the ‘Monografie
di Archeologia Libica’ Series, Tripolitania ellenistica e romana alla
luce delle più recenti indagini archeologiche (and foregrounded by
his masterly article Di Vita 1982 = 2015, p. 429-486). A co-authored
book produced in multiple languages, provides a briefer but accessible
account, Di Vita et alii 1999 (excerpt on Sabratha in Di Vita 2015,
p. 757-776). When Volume XII of the ‘Monografie di Archeologia
Libica’ did appear under the editorship of Di Vita and M. Livadiotti in
2005, it had a much narrower title, I tre templi del lato nord-ovest del
Foro Vecchio a Leptis Magna, and instead brought to final publication
one of his most brilliant ideas about the topography of the Old Forum.
responsibilities at Macerata and the Italian School at Athens
all played a part in frustrating his best intentions. For this
reason, the editors have included additional unpublished documentation and illustrations on some of the key monuments,
notably some beautiful water colour reconstructions of
Mausoleum B by Carmelo Catanuso6. Where colour versions
of photographs originally published in black and white exist
they have generally been used in preference throughout the
book. While we may regret the lack of definitive reports on
some key monuments, the cumulative evidence presented
in these two volumes is impressive and his analyses and
interpretations of the data are never less than insightful and
agenda-setting7.
One of the things that makes his work of such wide and
continuing importance was his polymathic knowledge and
engagement with a vast number of issues and sub-specialisms. Thematically, the papers in Scritti Africani range from
studies of architecture (with a particular focus on monumental arches, temples, theatres, Hellenistic and Roman
mausolea and hypogeal tombs), urban planning, funerary
archaeology, mosaic art, wall-paintings, coins, stratigraphic
excavation, earthquakes, Christian archaeology, antiquarian
writings, the history and geography of Tripolitania, ancient
harbours, Trans-Saharan trade, the cultural interactions in
Libyphoenician and Romano-Libyan societies. In all of these
areas he produced landmark studies that have stood the test
of time. When he first arrived in Libya he followed in a distinguished line of Italian archaeologists, but his approach and
his interpretation was highly original and marked a departure
from the previous work. For one thing, he was less focused
on the Roman period and brought to the fore the importance
of the Libyphoenician heritage of the area, epitomised by
his studies of the origins of the Tripolitanian emporia and
their architectural embellishment in the Hellenistic period8.
His contributions on the urban topography and early development of sites like Lepcis and Sabratha were radical in
drawing out the importance of innovations of the Hellenistic
era in paving the way for the spectacular Roman developments9. Like Goodchild, he also saw the importance of the
rural hinterland and the frontier zone for providing a wider
context for the great coastal cities10.
6. See Di Vita 2015, p. 325-344.
7. It is also important to note that some of his ‘articles’ were lengthy
and detailed treatments. See, for instance: Di Vita 1966 (= Di Vita
2015, p. 93-153); Di Vita 1978 (= Di Vita 2015, p. 363-393); Di Vita
1990 (= Di Vita 2015, p. 645-686).
8. Di Vita 1969 (= Di Vita 2015, p. 223-228); Di Vita 1976 (=
Di Vita 2015, p. 303-354); Di Vita, Procaccini, Pucci 1974-75
[1978] (= Di Vita 2015, p. 393-424).
9. Di Vita 1982a (= Di Vita 2015, p. 429-486); Di Vita 1983 (=
Di Vita 2015, p. 523-536).
10. Di Vita 1964 (= Di Vita 2015, p. 1-38); Di Vita 1967 (= Di Vita
2015, p. 73-92).
tombs is their extraordinary hybrid nature, combining Punic,
Alexandrian, Greek, Roman and Libyan elements. Another
rare treasure is the republication of an air-photo mosaic of
Sabratha and its suburbs indicating the exact location of the
main funerary areas and monuments, including the tophet and
the catacomb15. This is in effect the most detailed published
‘map’ of the suburban landscape. The short notes on the
tophets of Gheran and Sabratha and the sacred area of Ba’al
Hammon close to Sabratha are also important because of
the rarity of such distinctively Punic religious structures in
Tripolitania16.
The ‘preliminary’ nature of some of the original articles
notwithstanding, Di Vita’s œuvre has set the agenda on many
issues and remains as relevant now as it was revolutionary
when first published. It certainly shaped my own academic
development and engagement with Tripolitania17. In the
absence of the complete publication of some of projects,
these collected papers provide the reader with the material
to make a pretty good ‘anastylosis’ of his discoveries. The
overall value of these volumes is hopefully clear from the
above, as too the fact that they form a fitting memorial and
monument for a remarkable man.
11. Di Vita 1982b (= Di Vita 2015, p. 491-522); contra the views of
Ward-Perkins 1993.
12. Di Vita 1990 (= Di Vita 2015, p. 645-686).
13. Kenrick 1986, p. 5-6, 315-316.
14. Key page references for Di Vita 2015 as follows: Sidret el-Balik
p. 294-295, 559-566, 595, 622-625, 745-747, 859-872, 894, 928,
932-933; ‘tomba della Gorgone’ and ‘tomba del defunto eroizzato’
p. 294, 528-532, 567-594, 597-598, 615-619, 690-694, 827-831,
886-888, 929; Zanzur hypogeum p. 294, 530-533, 617-620, 694,
830-833, 873-890; Gargaresc - ‘hypogeum of Adam and Eve’ and the
tomb of Aelia Arisuth p. 363-392, 625-628.
15. Di Vita 2015, p. 300.
16. Di Vita 2015, Tripoli (Gheran) tophet p. 157-158; Sabratha tophet
p. 597, 745, 764-766, 930; Sabratha Ba’al Hammon sacred area p. 930.
17. As will be apparent from my Tripolitania (Mattingly 1995).
Antiquités africaines, 52, 2016, p. 193-196
His knowledge of the Roman layout of Sabratha and
Lepcis Magna was unrivalled, though his views were
sometimes controversial, as when he proposed a revolutionary new interpretation of the original design of the
Severan forum and basilica complex at Lepcis11. His experience of excavating the clear traces of earthquake damage
at Sabratha and Lepcis, led him to research the history
of seismic activity in Libya and to associate some of the
major building phases at Tripolitanian cities to an earthquake chronology12. Although some details of Di Vita’s list
of precisely attributed earthquake-related rebuilding have
been questioned, the fact that seismic events did on several
occasions inflict significant destruction is now generally
accepted13.
Several of his most important discoveries related to Roman
funerary monuments with well-preserved wall paintings.
One of the great bonuses of the new volumes is that they
reunite all his major discussions of the funerary area of Sidret
el-Balik (Sabratha), the ‘tomba della Gorgone’ and ‘tomba del
defunto eroizzato’, the ‘hypogeum 1’ (Zanzur), the ‘hypogeum
of Adam and Eve’ and the tomb of Aelia Arisuth (both at
Gargaresc, near Tripoli)14. The cultural significance of these
195
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Antiquités africaines, 52, 2016, p. 193-196
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archeologica e nella sua realtà storica”, LibAnt I, p. 65-98
Di Vita A. 1966, “La villa della ‘Gara delle Nereidi’ presso Tagiura:
un contributo alla storia del mosaico romano ed altri recenti
scavi e scoperte in Tripolitania”, in Supplements to Libya
Antiqua II, p. 11-62.
Di Vita A. 1967, “La diffusione del Cristianesimo nell’interno della
Tripolitania attraverso i monumenti e sue sopravvivenze nella
Tripolitania araba”, QAL 5, p. 121-142.
Di Vita A. 1969, “Le date di fondazione di Leptis e di Sabratha
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196
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