Emmanuel Anati (

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, 14 May 1930) is an Italian archaeologist.

Biography

Emmanuel Anati was born in Florence in 1930 to Ugo and Elsa Castelnuovo, a family of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

origin. In 1948, he got the scientific maturity in the "Righi" institute of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. He then moved to

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, where he graduated in archaeology from

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

in 1952. In 1959, Anati specialized in anthropology and social sciences at Harvard University. In 1960, he earned a Ph.D. in Literature at the Sorbonne in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Anati has performed excavations and archaeological research in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

(especially in the

Negev desert The Negev ( ; ) or Naqab (), is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort town, resort city ...

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, and other European countries. Based on the results of his discoveries in the Sinai Peninsula, Anati has become a supporter of the thesis that the

Biblical Mount Sinai Mount Sinai (, ''Har Sīnay'') is the mountain at which the Ten Commandments were given to the Prophets in Judaism, Hebrew prophet Moses by God in Judaism, God, according to the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. In the Book of ...

is not to be identified as Gebel Katherina, but as Har Karkom instead; he also believes that the Exodus should be placed between the 24th and the 21st century BCE, instead of the traditional date between 17th and 13th century BCE. This identification has not gained acceptance:

Israel Finkelstein Israel Finkelstein (; born March 29, 1949) is an Israelis, Israeli archaeologist, professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University and the head of the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at the University of Haifa. Finkelstein is active in the a ...

(who denies the historicity of the Exodus) described Anati's methods as "an anachronistic vestige from the 19th century", while James K. Hoffmeier (who supports the historicity of the Exodus, but in the traditional 13th century date) has stressed that "the type of Early Bronze Age cultic installations discovered at Har Karkom have also been found in significant numbers in the southern desert, Negev, and Sinai—so Anati's finds are not unique". In the 1950s, Anati explored

Val Camonica Val Camonica or Valcamonica (), also Valle Camonica and anglicized as Camonica Valley, is one of the largest valleys of the central Alps, in eastern Lombardy, Italy. It extends about from the Tonale Pass to Corna Trentapassi, in the c ...

, whose

rock carvings A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

are one of the largest sites for rock art in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. In 1964 he founded the ''Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici'' (CCSP) in Capo di Ponte, in order to study the prehistoric and tribal art and contribute to the enhancement of this cultural heritage. In 1962, he married Ariela Fradkin.

Works

*''Palestine Before the Hebrews: A History, From the Earliest Arrival of Man to the Conquest of Canaan'', 1963 *''Mountain of God'', 1986 *''Camonica Valley: A Depiction of Village in the Alps From Neolithic Times to the Birth of Christ as Revealed by Thousands of Newly found Rock Carvings'', 1961 *''Camonica Valley'', 1961 *''Evolution and style in Camunian rock art: An inquiry into the formation of European civilization'', 1976 *''Les mystères du mont Sinaï'', 2000

Biography

Works

See also

References

External links