Luigi Pernier (23 November 1874 – 18 August 1937) was an Italian archaeologist and academic now best known for his discovery of the

Disc of Phaistos The Phaistos Disc, or Phaistos Disk, is a disc of fired clay from the island of Crete, Greece, possibly from the middle or late Minoan civilization, Minoan Bronze Age (second millennium BC), bearing a text in an unknown script and language. Its ...

.''Hidden History''
by Brian Haughton (2006), p. 115, , accessed 8 March 2009

Career

From 1902 to 1916 he was inspector of 'Museums, Galleries and Excavations of Antiquities' in

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 ...

and carried out research at several central Italian sites; at the same time he joined the Italian Mission to

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

, directing its operations from 1906 to 1909 in place of Halbherr while the latter was detained in Italy. It was at this time that Pernier was involved in the discovery of the

Phaistos Disc The Phaistos Disc, or Phaistos Disk, is a disc of fired clay from the island of Crete, Greece, possibly from the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age ( second millennium BC), bearing a text in an unknown script and language. Its purpose and its ori ...

. At Cyrene, from 1925 to 1936, Pernier carried out ten excavation campaigns as part of the Italian Archaeological Mission and (with

Carlo Anti Carlo Anti (28 April 1889 – 9 June 1961) was an archaeologist and an officer in the army in the First World War and until 1922. Archaeologist Born in Villafranca di Verona, Anti studied at Verona and Bologna, where he graduated with Gherardo ...

) led the excavations on the Sanctuary of

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

. These duties kept him on the move so much that he died abroad, on

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

, where he was leading a course organised by the

Società Dante Alighieri The Dante Alighieri Society () is a society that promotes Italian culture and language around the world. Today this society is present in more than 60 countries. It was formed in Italy in July 1889. The society was named after Dante Alighieri (12 ...

.Prof. Luigi Pernier
''Nature'' 140, 495-496 (18 September 1937), accessed March 2009

Integrity

In summer 2008

Jerome Eisenberg Jerome M. Eisenberg (July 6, 1930 – July 6, 2022) was an American dealer in illegally looted antiquities. He had a son. Eisenberg died in July 2022 of pneumonia in a hospital in Manhattan, New York, at the age of 92. Antiquities handled by Eis ...

, described by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' as "a specialist in faked ancient art", accused Pernier of having forged his best known find, the Disc of Phaistos. A symposium was convoked to discuss the Disc in autumn 2008. Eisenberg argues that the disc can be dated by a thermoluminescence test, but in 2009 the Greek curators would not permit the disc to be examined. The authenticity of the Phaistos disc is supported by multiple discoveries made after the disc was excavated in 1908. A sealing found in 1955 shows the only known parallel to sign 21 (the “comb”) of the Phaistos disc. At the symposium, Eisenberg's hypothesis was therefore dismissed. Report on the international Phaistos disk conference
/ref>

Works

* ''A proposito di alcuni lavori eseguiti recentemente nell'interno del Teatro di Marcello''. Roma : Tipografia della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1901 * ''Commemorazione del socio Federico Halbherr fatta dal corrispondente''. Roma, Dott. Giovanni Bardi tipografo della Reale Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1931 * ''Di una citta ellenica arcaica scoperta a Creta dalla Missione italiana''. Roma : Calzone, 1909 * ''Heliogabalus : M. Aurelius Antoninus''. Roma : L. Pasqualucci, 1911 * ''Il disco di Phaestos con caratteri pittografici''. Roma : tip. dell'Unione editrice, 1909 * ''Il palazzo minoico di Festos : Scavi e studi della missione archeologica italiana a creta dal 1900 al 1934. Vol. I. Gli strati piu antichi e il primo palazzo. (r. Istituto d'archeologia e storia dell'arte)''. Roma : Ist. Poligr. Dello Stato, Libreria, 1935 * ''Il palazzo minoico di Festos : scavi e studi della Missione archeologica italiana a Creta dal 1900 al 1934''. Roma : Libreria dello Stato * ''Il tempio e l'altare di Apollo a Cirene : scavi e studi dal 1925 al 1934 : con 126 illustrazioni e dodici tavole fuori testo''. Bergamo : Istituto italiano d'arti grafiche, 1935 * ''L'Odeum dell'Agorà di Gortina presso il Leteo''. Bergamo : Istituto Italiano d'Arti Grafiche, 1927 * ''La raccolta archeologica Bargagli a Sarteano presso Chiusi''. Siena : Stab. d'Arti grafiche S. Bernardino, 1920 * ''Lavori eseguiti a Festos dalla Missione Archeologica Italiana dal 15 febbraio al 28 giugno 1901 : relazione''. Roma : .n. 1901 * ''Lavori eseguiti dalla Missione Archeologica italiana nel palazzo di Phaestos dal 10 Febbraio al 28 maggio 1902 : relazione''. Roma : Tipografia della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1903 * ''Lavori eseguiti dalla missione archeologica italiana in Creta dal 2 aprile al 12 settembre 1906 : relazione di Luigi Pernier al prof. Ettore De Ruggiero ...''. Roma : Tipografia della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1907 * ''Luigi Savignoni e la sua opera scientifica''. Firenze : Stab. tip. E. Ariani, 1918 * ''Mura laterizie e terrecotte figurate di Arezzo antica''. Roma : Tipografia della Reale Accademia naz. dei Lincei, 1920 * ''Nuove scoperte archeologiche a Tarquinii : (1904-1906)''. Roma : Tipografia della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1907 * ''Per lo studio del tempio etrusco''. Roma : Nuova Antologia, 1927 * ''Recenti scoperte archeologiche degl'italiani a Creta''. Roma : Nuova Antologia, 1927 * ''Ricognizioni archeologiche nelle sporadi''. Roma : E. Calzone, 1914, Tip. Ed. Romana * ''Ricordi di storia etrusca e di arte greca della città di Vetulonia''. Roma : Tipografia della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1914 * ''Scavi della missione archeologica italiana in Creta nel 1907''. Roma : Calzone, 1907 * ''Scavi della missione italiana a Phaestos, 1900-1901 : rapporto preliminare''. Roma : Tipgrafia della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1902 * ''Studi sul teatro di Marcello''. Roma : Tipografia Cuggiani, 1928 * ''Templi arcaici sulla Patela di Prinias : contributo allo studio dell'arte dedalica''. Bergamo : Istituto Italiano d'Arti Grafiche, 1914 * ''Tombe eneolitiche del Viterbese (Roma)''. Parma : Stab. tipo-litografico L. Battei, 1905 * ''Tumulo con tomba monumentale al Sodo presso Cortona''. Roma : Bardi, 1925 * ''Un singolare monumento della scrittura pittografica cretese''. Roma : Tipografia della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1909 * ''Vestigia di una Citta ellenica arcaica in Creta''. Milano : U. Hoepli, 1912

Notes

References

* Enzo Catani, "L'attività archeologica di Luigi Pernier a Cirene dal 1925 al 1936", in Lidiano Bacchielli (ed.), ''Quaderni di Archeologia della Libya'' n. 18, pp. 235–255, 2002, , * Editorial, "Prof. Luigi Pernier", ''Nature'', 140, 495–496 (18 September 1937) . {{DEFAULTSORT:Pernier 1874 births 1937 deaths Writers from Rome Italian archaeologists Italian classical scholars Sapienza University of Rome alumni Italian people of French descent Academic staff of the University of Florence