Prof. Alessandro Roccati, Emeritus Prof of Egyptology in Turin University

"Flood archaeology: Italians on the Nile"

The Biblical Flood is not the only one suffered by mankind: more recently dramatic water events befell Egypt as well as Italy. After the building of the huge Aswan High Dam an entire country sank under a tremendous lake: Nubia with its long history and wonderful monuments. The same hit Italy under unforeseen weather disasters, that inundated Florence and Venice. The whole world contributed to rescue art treasures, and in Egypt and lastly also in (North) Sudan most of the archaeological activity was absorbed by the threat of rising water. Later on an unsettled political situation shrank the archaeological operations to few definite areas for several years. The map of subsequent research is the outcome of a long period of restrictions, that opened the way to new horizons and changed the focus of previous targets."