Fabrizio Sergio Donadoni (13 October 1914 – 31 October 2015) was an Italian archaeologist who worked by within the disciple of

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...

Biography

Born in 1914 in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for it ...

, he was fascinated by the ancient Egypt since childhood, with a particular interest on the

Greco-Roman period The Greco-Roman civilization (; also Greco-Roman culture; spelled Graeco-Roman in the Commonwealth), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were dir ...

. In 1931 he enrolled the

Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa The Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (commonly known in Italy as "la Normale") is a public university in Pisa and Florence, Tuscany, Italy, currently attended by about 600 undergraduate and postgraduate (PhD) students. It was founded in 1810 wi ...

and later he moved to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

and studied under

Gustave Lefebvre Gustave Lefebvre (17 July 1879 – 1 November 1957) was a French Egyptologist. As inspector for Middle Egypt for the Egyptian Antiquities Service headed by Gaston Maspero, he managed the partage of Ludwig Borchardt's excavations at el-Amarna, E ...

, Alexandre Moret and

Étienne Drioton Étienne Marie Felix Drioton (21 November 1889 – 17 January 1961) was a French Egyptologist, archaeologist, and Catholic canon. He was born in Nancy and died in Montgeron. Biography Etienne Drioton, his father, was originally from Burgundy wh ...

. Donadoni then moved to Egypt, and since 1935 he participated to an excavation campaign at Antinoopolis led by his teacher, the archaeologist

Evaristo Breccia Annibale Evaristo Breccia (18 July 1876, Offagna - 28 July 1967, Rome) was an Italian egyptologist, the second director of the Greco-Roman Museum of Alexandria and rector of the University of Pisa. Early life and studies He was born in Offagn ...

. In 1938 he was a student of Hermann Junker at

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...

. During the war, from 1938 to 1940, he joined the excavation of the Middle Kingdom temple of Medinet Madi led by

Achille Vogliano Achille is a French and Italian masculine given name, derived from the Greek mythological hero Achilles. It may refer to: People Artists * Achille Beltrame (1871–1945), Italian painter * Achille Calici (c. 1565–?), Italian painter * Ach ...

. At the end of the 1940s he returned to Italy and started teaching at the

University of Pisa The University of Pisa ( it, Università di Pisa, UniPi), officially founded in 1343, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. History The Origins The University of Pisa was officially founded in 1343, although various scholars place ...

, and later at the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...

.
In the late 1950s Donadoni was invited to join the team of archaeologists that operated the relocation of the

Abu Simbel temples Abu Simbel is a historic site comprising two massive rock-cut temples in the village of Abu Simbel ( ar, أبو سمبل), Aswan Governorate, Upper Egypt, near the border with Sudan. It is situated on the western bank of Lake Nasser, about ...

Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin language, Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue ...

due to the construction of the

Aswan High Dam The Aswan Dam, or more specifically since the 1960s, the Aswan High Dam, is one of the world's largest embankment dams, which was built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt, between 1960 and 1970. Its significance largely eclipsed the previous Aswan ...

and the subsequent formation of

Lake Nasser Lake Nasser ( ar, بحيرة ناصر ', ) is a vast reservoir in Southern Egypt and northern Sudan. It is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. Before construction, Sudan was against the building of Lake Nasser because it would enc ...

. Among his students at this time, notable were

Edda Bresciani Edda Bresciani (23 September 1930 – 29 November 2020) was an Italian Egyptologist. Life Bresciani was born in Lucca, and graduated in 1955 from the University of Pisa. She excavated at several places in Egypt and is mainly known for her work a ...

, and Anna Maria Roveri who later became his wife. His later, several excavations and studies are mostly concentrated in Nubia; among the others, since 1973 he excavated at

Jebel Barkal Jebel Barkal or Gebel Barkal ( ar, جبل بركل) is a mesa or large rock outcrop located 400 km north of Khartoum, next to Karima in Northern State in Sudan, on the Nile River, in the region that is sometimes called Nubia. The jebel is ...

. He also excavated the

26th Dynasty The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXVI, alternatively 26th Dynasty or Dynasty 26) dynasty was the last native dynasty to rule Egypt before the Persian conquest in 525 BC (although others followed). The dynasty's reign (664–525 ...

tomb TT27 at Thebes which belonged to Shoshenq, chief steward of the Divine Adoratrice Ankhnesneferibre.
A remarkable work by Sergio Donadoni is ''The Egyptians'', first published in English in 1997. Later in his life, Donadoni became Professor emeritus at the Sapienza University; he also was a member of the

Accademia dei Lincei The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini, Rome, Palazzo Corsini on the Vi ...

. In 2000 he was awarded with the

Grand Cross Grand Cross is the highest class in many orders, and manifested in its insignia. Exceptionally, the highest class may be referred to as Grand Cordon or equivalent. In other cases, there may exist a rank even higher than Grand Cross, e.g. Gran ...

of the

Order of Merit of the Italian Republic The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic ( it, Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana) is the senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-rankin ...

.Quirinale website
/ref> He died on 31 October 2015 in Rome.

Sources

1914 births Archaeologists from Palermo 2015 deaths Italian Egyptologists Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa alumni University of Pisa faculty Sapienza University of Rome faculty Members of the Lincean Academy Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Italian centenarians Men centenarians {{Italy-archaeologist-stub