Margherita Guarducci facts for kids

Margherita Guarducci (born December 20, 1902, in Florence – died September 2, 1999, in Rome) was a famous Italian archaeologist and expert in ancient writings. She played a big role in important archaeological discoveries in the 20th century. She was a student of Federico Halbherr and finished his work after he passed away. She was the first woman to lead archaeological digs at the Vatican. She completed the excavations at Saint Peter's tomb and helped identify items found there as relics of Saint Peter. She also studied the Praeneste fibula and believed its inscription was not real.

Early Life and Career

Margherita Guarducci was a top archaeologist with the Italian Archaeological Mission in Crete. This mission was supported by the Italian Archaeological School of Athens. She published the work of her teacher, Federico Halbherr, called Inscriptiones Creticæ. This book contained ancient Greek and Latin writings found on the island of Crete. She also worked on uncovering artifacts related to the Gortyn code. She is best known for her writings about this important ancient law.

She became a professor of Epigraphy (the study of ancient inscriptions) and Ancient Greek at the Sapienza University of Rome. She held this position until 1973. She also continued to teach at the National School of Archeology in Rome, where she was also the director, until 1978. While teaching Greek epigraphy, she wrote four books on the subject. She also wrote a summary book covering Greek epigraphy from its beginnings to the late Roman Empire. After her teaching career, she was named a Professor Emerita at the University La Sapienza.

From 1956, she was part of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, a famous Italian academy. In 1969, she became a member of the Pontifical Academy of Archaeology. Guarducci received two special honorary degrees from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and the University of Rennes in France. Her books are now published by Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato.

Discoveries in Crete

Margherita Guarducci received her diploma in Bologna in 1924. She then attended the National School of Archeology in Rome starting in 1927. After that, she went to Athens. She was one of the first Italian women scholars to work as an archaeologist in Greece. She became the director of the Scuola Alessandro Della Seta. She led excavations on the island of Crete, which had been part of Greece since 1880.

In Crete, she met Federico Halbherr, an archaeology student from Florence. Guarducci started working with Halbherr and became his favorite student. They worked together during the excavations of the ancient Cretan city of Gortyna. Her work there continued even after Halbherr's death in 1930.

After Halbherr passed away, the project was led by Louis Pernier. Guarducci was very interested in epigraphy, the study of ancient writings. She took on the important task of finishing Halbherr's life's work. This was to gather all the Greek and Latin inscriptions from Crete after the 7th century BC into one collection. She spent a long time traveling across the island. She checked Halbherr's earlier readings, corrected them, and added new information. She worked on this full-time until 1931. Then, she became a professor of Ancient Greek epigraphy at the Università di Roma "La Sapienza". She taught there until 1950. During this time, she published the results of twenty years of her research. This work was called the Inscriptiones Creticæ, and it was published between 1935 and 1950. This collection is considered the most important collection of ancient writings from Crete. It also includes a major study of the archaeology and geography of the ancient city of Gortyna in Crete.

The Inscriptiones Creticæ is made up of four volumes. Each volume focuses on a different area of Crete:

• Tituli Cretæ mediæ præter Gortynios (Inscriptions of central Crete except Gortyna) (1935)
• Tituli Cretæ occidentalis (Inscriptions of western Crete) (1939)
• Tituli Cretæ orientalis (Inscriptions of eastern Crete) (1942)
• Tituli Gortynii (Inscriptions of Gortyna) (1950)

Each book includes a detailed list of other books and articles, divided into archaeology and epigraphs. The introductions explain the archaeological, geographical, and historical details of the areas. Each entry has photos, drawings of the inscriptions, written copies, and detailed explanations.

The Gortyn Code

In the fourth volume of her work, which focuses on the city of Gortyna, Guarducci studied the famous Great Law of Gortyna. This inscription was found by Federico Halbherr in 1884.

The inscription is carved on a curved wall inside a building called the Odeon. The wall is about 8 meters long and 175 centimeters high. The writing is arranged in twelve columns. It uses a special writing style called boustrophedon. This means that one line is written from left to right, and the next line is written from right to left, and so on. It is thought that there were eight more columns of writing on the left side of the wall, but these are now lost. This inscription is not a complete "code of laws." Instead, it is a collection of laws, updates to older laws, and new laws about specific topics. The Gortyn Code mainly contains laws about families, as well as rules for money and trade.

Epigrafia Greca

Margherita Guarducci's many years of teaching led to another very important work. This book is now a key resource for learning Greek epigraphy. It is called Epigrafia Greca and was published between 1967 and 1978. Guarducci designed this work not just for experts but also for students, hobbyists, and beginners. She believed that epigraphy "is one of the most active, fresh, and fun subjects in classical studies."

This work also has four volumes, each covering different topics:

• Caratteri e storia della disciplina. La scrittura greca dalle origini all'età imperiale (What the subject is about and its history. Greek writing from its beginnings to the Roman Empire) (1967)
• Epigrafi di carattere pubblico (Public inscriptions) (1969)
• Epigrafi di carattere privato (Private inscriptions) (1974)
• Epigrafi sacre, pagane e cristiane (Sacred inscriptions, both pagan and Christian) (1978)

The book is written in a clear and easy-to-understand style. It shows real examples alongside explanations, giving readers a "small collection" of Greek inscriptions. Each example includes photos, written copies, translations, explanations, and often references to other books. Each volume also has a large list of other books and articles. Because only a limited number of copies were printed, the volumes of Epigrafia Greca quickly sold out. Guarducci felt it was important to create a fifth book that would be a "summary" of the first four. This summary book was published in 1987 and was called L'epigrafia greca dalle origini al tardo impero (Greek epigraphy from its origins to the late Empire).

See also

In Spanish: Margherita Guarducci para niños