Let us introduce ourselves: ATRA at the University of Napoli "L'Orientale"

Principal investigator: Ilaria Incordino
Internal members: Giorgio Banti, Gianfrancesco Lusini, Andrea Manzo
Associate members: Chiara Zazzaro, Rodolfo Fattovich, Luisa Sernicola, Stefano Manfredi
External members: Alemseged Beldados Aleho (Addis Ababa University) 

The research team includes experts in the field of philology, ethnolinguistics and archeology aiming to understand the human being in its various facets and in its various historical, social and environmental contexts of the Horn of Africa. Philologists and ethnolinguists analyse literatures and languages and the impact that external phenomena had on literatures and languages during the past, so as in the present. Archaeologists collect, document and analyse the material traces that people have left. They study ancient societies and cultures and their relationship with the surrounding environment. The common objective is to describe historical, cognitive and cultural identity phenomena, to increase awareness of the human being and to better plan the future

Role of the unit and its approach.

The research unit of the University of Naples "L'Orientale" aims to contribute to the creation of a general framework on language, culture and identity phenomena in areas of transition, studying them in some specific context of the Horn of Africa: lowlands, coastal areas and neighbouring regions. Our case studies will concern both antiquity and the contemporary era. Using a multidisciplinary approach, these phenomena will be analyzed both in terms of material culture and language. The case studies investigated by our unit -- also collaborating with the members of the other units -- are: 6. "Language, material culture and self-representations of the Saho in Eritrea and Ethiopia" - Giorgio Banti 6. "Description of the Nara language" - Giorgio Banti 7. "Tigré language: processes of formation and literacy" - Gianfranco Lusini 8. "Interaction, identity and hybridization during Antiquity in the Horn of Africa through material culture"- Chiara Zazzaro, Andrea Manzo, Rodolfo Fattovich, Luisa Sernicola - 11. "African aromata in Pharaonic Egypt: cultural and commercial exchanges" - Ilaria Incordino. For the collection of first-hand material, linguists adhere to the German tradition of Wörter und Sachen, concentrating mainly on the lexical documentation and oral literature. Philologists use the method of historical and comparative linguistics, as well as that of textual criticism for the study of the factual and cultural history, indexing of texts for literary history, in order to produce lexical repertoires and conceptual indices. Archaeologists will proceed to the collection, documentation and study of material culture also considering ethno-archaeological data.

Ilaria Incordino

Egyptologist, PhD in 2008 on the chronological problems of the IIIrd Egyptian Dynasty (re-examination of the textual and iconographical evidence). Exam committee member since 2007 (LOR/02 Egyptology and Coptic culture), being actively involved in the teaching activities. Promoter of the 'First Neapolitan Congress of Egyptology' (Naples, June 2008) and editor of the related proceedings, she has also organized the Master's programm in 'Egyptology: Research Methods and Technology' (University of Naples L'Orientale 2010). Member of the archaeological mission at Manqabad (Egypt, University of Naples L'Orientale), in the Eastern Central Desert (Egypt, University of Naples di Napoli L'Orientale, Helwan University, Cairo University) and at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis (University of Naples, Boston University). Main research focus: rising of the pharaonic ideology and its symbols, cultural and commercial exchanges between Egypt and its neighbour countries (Nubia, Punt, Arabia).

Contacts

Department of Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean, University of Naples "L'Orientale", piazza S. Domenico Maggiore 12, 80134 Naploli.
iincordino@unior.it
Ilaria Incordino on Academia

Giorgio Banti

Docente presso l'Università di Napoli "L'Orientale" di Glottologia, Linguistica generale, Lingua e letteratura somala.

Contacts

Department of Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean, University of Naples "L'Orientale", piazza S. Domenico Maggiore 12, 80134 Naploli.
Tel. +39 081 6909 741
gb040249@gmail.com
g.banti@agora.it
gibanti@unior.it
Giorgio Banti - University of Naples
Giorgio Banti on academia

Gianfrancesco Lusini

Docente presso l'Università di Napoli "L'Orientale" di Filologia semitica, Lingua e letteratura amarica, Lingua e letteratura etiopica antica, Lingue e letterature etiopiche, Storia e Istituzioni etiopiche, Storia letteraria e istituzioni dell'Eritrea. Ha conseguito il titolo di dottorato in Africanistica presso "L'Orientale" nel 1992.

Contacts

Department of Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean, University of Naples "L'Orientale", piazza S. Domenico Maggiore 12, 80134 Naploli.
Tel. +39 081 6909 741
glusini@unior.it
glusini@unior.it
Gianfranco Lusini su academia

Andrea Manzo

Archaeologist, professor of "Nubian Archaeology" at "L'Orientale". Andrea has conducted archaeological research in Northeast Africa since 1991, as field director of the UNO archaeological expedition at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis (Egypt) and Aksum (Ethiopia). He is currently director of the UNO archaeological expedition in Eastern Sudan. His main research interests are the contacts among peoples of the Nile Valley and the Red Sea, the origin and development of hierarchical societies in northeastern Africa, ancient cultures of marginal areas, particularly those of the Eastern Desert, south-east Sudan and the Red Sea coast, the human-environment relationship in Northeast Africa.

Contatti

Department of Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean, University of Naples "L'Orientale", piazza S. Domenico Maggiore 12, 80134 Naploli.
Tel. +39 081 6909 741
amanzo@unior.it
Andrea Manzo - University of Naples

Associate Members

Chiara Zazzaro

Chiara is lecturer in Maritime Archeology at the University of Naples "L'Orientale". In 2006 she defended a PhD thesis in African Studies. Since 2001 Chiara is involved in the ongoing joint excavation project of the UNO and the Boston University at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis (Egypt, Red Sea) as person in charge to study ship timbers and maritime equipment, from 2006 to 2008, as research fellow in a FIRB project and as field director in 2007-08. From 2008 to 2011 she has been appointed as research fellow in the MARES Project at the University of Exeter (UK) focusing her research on the study of ancient and traditional boatbuilding techniques, harbors and ports, navigation techniques and coastal environment, particularly in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf area. Since 2011 Chiara coordinates for the "L'Orientale" archaeological research at the ancient port of Adulis (Eritrea). From 2013 to 2014 she has been FIRB project coordinator for the "L'Orientale" and she is currently tenure track lecturer "Rita Levi Montalcini" at the University "L'Orientale".

Contacts

Department of Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean, University of Naples "L'Orientale", piazza S. Domenico Maggiore 12, 80134 Naploli.
czazzaro@unior.it
chiarazazzaro@gmail.it
Chiara Zazzaro on Academia

Luisa Sernicola

Research Fellow in "Ethiopian Archaeology" at the University "L'Orientale", archaeologist and expert in GIS analysis. In 2008 she received her doctoral degree in African Studies at the same university. Since 2004 Luisa conducts archaeological research in northern Ethiopia. Luisa has been field director of the UNO archaeological expedition to Aksum from 2009 to present. Her main research interests are the ancient settlement systems and the analysis of the long-term dynamics of human-environment interaction in the northern regions of the Horn of Africa. Since 2012 she collaborated on the cartographic section of the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica at the Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian Studies of the Hamburg University.

Contacts

Department of Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean, University of Naples "L'Orientale", piazza S. Domenico Maggiore 12, 80134 Naploli.
Tel. +39 081 6909 741
luisasernicola@gmail.com
Luisa Sernicola on academia

Stefano Manfredi

Stefano Manfredi is a CNRS junior research fellow at the SEDYL (UMR 8202, CNRS-INALCO) in Villejuif, France. He obtained an M.A. in African Linguistics in 2005 with a work focusing on Juba Arabic) and a Ph.D. in African linguistics in 2010 with a thesis on Kordofanian Baggara Arabic. His main fields of interest are the description and the comparison of Arabic dialects and Arabic-based pidgins and creoles, contact linguistics and sociolinguistics in Sudan and South Sudan.

Contacts

Stefano Manfredi - Chargé de recherche
SEDYL-CELIA (UMR8202 CNRS - INALCO )
Campus CNRS de Villejuif, Bâtiment D 7, rue Guy-Môquet, 94801 Villejuif Cedex
Tel: +33 (0)1 49 58 38 34
Web site

Rodolfo Fattovich

Archaeologist, professor of "Ethiopian Archaeology" and "Egyptian Archaeology" at the University "L'Orientale". Rodolfo has forty years experience in the study of northeastern Africa archaeology. He has been co-director of the UNO excavation project at Naqada (Egypt), director of the UNO excavation project at Kassala (Sudan), co-director of the joint archaeological excavations of the UNO and Boston University at Bieta Giyorgis (Aksum, Ethiopia) and Mersa/Wadi Gawasis (Egypt), director of the UNO expedition to Aksum and head of the archaeological survey of the region of Aksum (conducted on behalf of the World Bank). His main research interests are the origins of the state in Egypt and Ethiopia, relations between the Nile Valley and the Ethiopian plateau in antiquity, the ancient maritime trade along the Red Sea, the ancient population of eastern Sudan, and the environmental history of the Tigray (northern Ethiopia).

Contacts

Department of Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean, University of Naples "L'Orientale", piazza S. Domenico Maggiore 12, 80134 Naploli.
Tel. +39 081 6909 741
rfattovich@libero.it
Rodolfo Fattovich - University of Naples

External Members

Alemseged Beldados Aleho

Alemseged defended a PhD thesis at the University of Naples "L'Orientale" in 2011 on palaeo-botany as a mean to reconstruct ancient food systems and environmental contexts in north-eastern Africa. Alemseged is currently leading the Department of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage at the Addis Ababa University and he collaborates as palaeo-botanist in the archaeological expedition of the UNO in Eastern Sudan. His role in the ATrA project is to contribute to the study of different groups identity through food, diet and human adaptation to the environment.