Giuseppe Ferlini (23 April 1797 – 30 December 1870

Epitaph An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...

from his gravestone in the Certosa di Bologna (see picture).) was an Italian soldier turned

treasure hunter Treasure hunting is the physical search for treasure. One of the most popular types of modern day treasure hunters are historic shipwreck salvors. These underwater treasure salvors try to find sunken shipwrecks and retrieve artifacts with both ...

, who robbed and desecrated the

pyramids of Meroë The Pyramids of Meroë are a large number of Nubian pyramids, encompassing three cemeteries near the ancient city of Meroë. The Meroë pyramids date to the later stage of the Kingdom of Kush (3rd century BCE–4th century CE) and were burial place ...

Biography

Born in

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

, in 1815 he travelled across

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, and later he reached

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

where he joined the

Egyptian Army The Egyptian Army (), officially the Egyptian Ground Forces (), is the land warfare branch (and largest service branch) of the Egyptian Armed Forces. Until the declaration of the Republic and the abolishment of the monarchy on 18 June 1953, it w ...

during the conquest of Sudan. In 1830 he became surgeon major. Under the army, he stayed at

Sennar Sennar ( ') is a city on the Blue Nile in Sudan and possibly the capital of the state of Sennar. For several centuries it was the capital of the Funj Kingdom of Sennar and until at least 2011, Sennar was the capital of Sennar State. Histo ...

and then at

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum is the capital city of Sudan as well as Khartoum State. With an estimated population of 7.1 million people, Greater Khartoum is the largest urban area in Sudan. Khartoum is located at the confluence of the White Nile – flo ...

where he met the Albanian merchant Antonio Stefani., p. 166 Later he decided to

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

and devote himself to treasure-hunting, determined to either "return home penniless, or carrying unprecedented treasures". Along with Stefani, Ferlini organized an expedition that left for

Meroë Meroë (; also spelled ''Meroe''; Meroitic: ; and ; ) was an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east of the Kabushiya station near Shendi, Sudan, approximately 200 km north-east of Khartoum. Near the site is ...

on 10 August 1834. Having asked and obtained from the

Governor-General of the Sudan The governors of pre-independence Sudan were the colonial administrators responsible for the territory of Turco-Egyptian Sudan and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, an area equivalent to modern-day Sudan and South Sudan. List (Dates in italics indicat ...

, Ali Kurshid Pasha, the permission to perform excavations at Meroë, and spurred by legends from local workers who talked about 40 '' ardeb'' of gold, he started to raid and demolish – even using explosives – several pyramids, which were found "in good conditions" by

Frédéric Cailliaud Frédéric Cailliaud (9 June 1787 – 1 May 1869) was a French naturalist, mineralogist and conchologist. He was born, and died, in Nantes, where he was the curator of the Natural History Museum of Nantes from 1836 to 1869. He travelled in Egypt ...

just a few years earlier. At

Wad ban Naqa Wad ben Naga (also Wad Ban Naqa or Wad Naga) is the name of an ancient town of the Kushitic Kingdom of Meroë in present-day Sudan. The village lies on the eastern bank of the Nile, about 80 kilometers upstream of Meroë and about 40 km s ...

, he leveled the pyramid N6 of the ''

kandake Kandake, kadake or kentake ( Meroitic: 𐦲𐦷𐦲𐦡 ''kdke''),Kirsty Rowan"Revising the Sound Value of Meroitic D: A Phonological Approach,"''Beitrage zur Sudanforschung'' 10 (2009). often ''Latinised'' as Candace (, ''Kandakē''), was the Mer ...

Amanishakheto Amanishakheto was a queen regnant (kandake) of Kush who reigned in the early 1st century AD. In Meroitic hieroglyphs her name is written "Amanikasheto" (''Mniskhte'' or ''(Am)niskhete''). In Meroitic cursive she is referred to as ''Amaniskheto qor ...

starting from the top, finding treasure composed of dozens of gold and silver jewelry pieces. Overall, he was responsible for the destruction of over 40 pyramids. Having found the treasure he was looking for, in 1836 Ferlini returned home. A year later he wrote a report of his expedition containing a catalog of his findings, which was translated to French and republished in 1838. He tried to sell the treasure, but at this time nobody believed that such high quality jewellery could be made in

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

. The treasures were finally sold in Germany: part were purchased by king

Ludwig I of Bavaria Ludwig I or Louis I (; 25 August 1786 – 29 February 1868) was King of Bavaria from 1825 until the German revolutions of 1848–49, 1848 revolutions in the German states. When he was crown prince, he was involved in the Napoleonic Wars. As ki ...

and are now in the State Museum of Egyptian Art of Munich, while the remaining – under suggestions of

Karl Richard Lepsius Karl Richard Lepsius (; 23 December 181010 July 1884) was a German people, Prussian Egyptology, Egyptologist, Linguistics, linguist and modern archaeology, modern archaeologist. He is widely known for his opus magnum ''Denkmäler aus Ägypten ...

and of

Christian Charles Josias von Bunsen Christian Charles Josias, Baron von Bunsen (; 25 August 1791 – 28 November 1860), was a German diplomat and scholar. He worked in the Papal States and England for a large part of his career. Life Early life Bunsen was born at Korbach, a ...

– was bought by the

Egyptian Museum of Berlin The Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection of Berlin () is home to one of the world's most important collections of ancient Egyptian artefacts, including the Nefertiti Bust. Since 1855, the collection is a part of the Neues Museum on Berlin's ...

where it still is. Tomb Giuseppe Ferlini Bologna

Ferlini died in Bologna on 30 December 1870, and was buried in the

Certosa di Bologna The Certosa di Bologna is a former Carthusian monastery (or charterhouse) in Bologna, northern Italy, which was founded in 1334 and suppressed in 1797. In 1801 it became the city's Monumental Cemetery which would be much praised by Byron and othe ...

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferlini, Giuseppe 1797 births 1870 deaths 19th-century Italian explorers Military personnel from Bologna Italian surgeons Archaeological theft Egyptian surgeons Physicians from Bologna People from the Papal States