ARCHAEOLOGISTS from Italy

Top 6

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Italian Archaeologists of all time. This list of famous Italian Archaeologists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Ciriaco de' Pizzicolli (1391 - 1452)

With an HPI of 61.39, Ciriaco de' Pizzicolli is the most famous Italian Archaeologist.  His biography has been translated into 32 different languages on wikipedia.

Cyriacus of Ancona or Ciriaco de' Pizzicolli (31 July 1391 – 1452) was a restlessly itinerant Italian humanist and antiquarian who came from a prominent family of merchants in Ancona, a maritime republic on the Adriatic. He has been called the Father of Archaeology: "Cyriac of Ancona was the most enterprising and prolific recorder of Greek and Roman antiquities, particularly inscriptions, in the fifteenth century, and the general accuracy of his records entitles him to be called the founding father of modern classical archeology."

2. Giuseppe Fiorelli (1823 - 1896)

With an HPI of 55.67, Giuseppe Fiorelli is the 2nd most famous Italian Archaeologist.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Giuseppe Fiorelli (7 June 1823 – 28 January 1896) was an Italian archaeologist. His excavations at Pompeii helped preserve the city.

3. Paul-Émile Botta (1802 - 1870)

With an HPI of 54.95, Paul-Émile Botta is the 3rd most famous Italian Archaeologist.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Paul-Émile Botta (6 December 1802 – 29 March 1870) was an Italian-born French scientist who served as Consul in Mosul (then in the Ottoman Empire, now in Iraq) from 1842, and who discovered the ruins of the ancient Assyrian capital of Dur-Sharrukin.

4. Giuseppe Tucci (1894 - 1984)

With an HPI of 51.41, Giuseppe Tucci is the 4th most famous Italian Archaeologist.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Giuseppe Tucci (Italian pronunciation: [dʒuˈzɛppe ˈtuttʃi]; 5 June 1894 – 5 April 1984) was an Italian orientalist, Indologist and scholar of East Asian studies, specializing in Tibetan culture and the history of Buddhism. During its zenith, Tucci was a supporter of Italian fascism, and he used idealized portrayals of Asian traditions to support Italian ideological campaigns. Tucci was fluent in several European languages, Sanskrit, Bengali, Pali, Prakrit, Chinese and Tibetan and he taught at the University of Rome La Sapienza until his death. He is considered one of the founders of the field of Buddhist studies.

5. Florentino Ameghino (1853 - 1911)

With an HPI of 50.87, Florentino Ameghino is the 5th most famous Italian Archaeologist.  His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Florentino Ameghino (born Giovanni Battista Fiorino Giuseppe Ameghino; September 19, 1853 – August 6, 1911) was an Argentine naturalist, paleontologist, anthropologist and zoologist, whose fossil discoveries on the Argentine Pampas, especially on Patagonia, rank with those made in the western United States during the late 19th century. Along with his two brothers – Carlos and Juan – Florentino Ameghino was one of the most important founding figures in South American paleontology. From 1887 until his death, Ameghino was passionately devoted to the study of fossil mammals from Patagonia, with the valuable support of his brother Carlos Ameghino (1865–1936) who, between 1887 and 1902, made 14 trips to that region, where he discovered and collected numerous fossil faunas and made important stratigraphic observations.

6. Massimo Pallottino (1909 - 1995)

With an HPI of 48.38, Massimo Pallottino is the 6th most famous Italian Archaeologist.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Massimo Pallottino (9 November 1909 in Rome – 7 February 1995 in Rome) was an Italian archaeologist specializing in Etruscan civilization and art.