Anna Maria Bisi (1938–1988 or January 1990), known as A. M. Bisi, was an Italian

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and academic, specialising in the

Phoenicians Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syrian coast. They developed a maritime civi ...

and

Punics The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians (and sometimes as Western Phoenicians), were a Semitic people who migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'', ...

Life

Bisi had a single minded career. A student of Sabastino Moscati, she obtained her doctorate and published "Il grifone: dalle origini orientali al VI secolo a.C." (The Griffin: from its eastern origins to the 6th century BC.) in 1965. Two years later she published "Le Stele puniche (Punic Stelae)," again in "Studi Semitici" (Semitic Studies) but this time on Punic archaeology. By the time she was 30 years old, Bisi had been named “Inspector of Oriental Antiquities at the Superintendency of Antiquities of the City of Palermo” while she continued her active research. According to Dolce, the academic scholarship and numerous publications she derived from that position had profound influences.

It should not be forgotten that A. M. Bisi’s professional work at the Superintendency immediately produced one important result, sometimes neglected even today, relating to the primary study of those who take on and exercise authority to control and provide information in the fields of culture and the dissemination of knowledge in general: the duty to promptly report even partial information on excavation and research activities. It was in this period that she published papers in “Notizie degli Scavi” between 1966 and 1970, in Bollettino d’Arte in 1968, in Sicilia Archeologica, Annali dell’Istituto Orientale di Napoli (AION) in 1969, and Libya antiqua, in the years 1969-1970.

Bisi was made

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of Punic Antiquities at the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

in 1969, and Professor of the Archaeology of the

Ancient Near East The ancient Near East was home to many cradles of civilization, spanning Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran (or Persia), Anatolia and the Armenian highlands, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. As such, the fields of ancient Near East studies and Nea ...

at the

University of Urbino The University of Urbino Carlo Bo (, ''UniUrb'') is an Italian university located in Urbino, in the region of Marche, in north-eastern central Italy. The main campus occupies numerous buildings throughout the historic Urbino town center and the ...

in 1971. Her research focused on artisanal handicrafts and

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

, through which she studied the spread of Phoenician culture and cultural relations throughout the Mediterranean. According to Dolce, Bisi died suddenly in January 1990.

Selected works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bisi, Anna Maria 1938 births 1988 deaths Italian women archaeologists Archaeologists of the Near East 20th-century Italian archaeologists Academic staff of the University of Urbino Academic staff of the Sapienza University of Rome 20th-century Italian women writers Archaeologists of Phoenicia Archaeologists of the Punic world