On the 100th anniversary of the death of Luigi Pigorini, the great archaeologist and father of prehistoric archaeology in Italy, the Monumental complex of the Pilotta, in collaboration with Arkheoparma and Amici della Pilotta Association, organises a cycle of conferences dedicated to him: starting from one of his many fields of research, speakers will present the framework of current knowledge, much of which Pigorini anticipated more than a century ago.
Conferences calendar
Thursday 6th March, 5.00 p.m.
Maria Bernabò Brea
A new science ‘pulsating with actuality’. The birth of prehistoric archaeology
Thursday 27th March, 5.00 p.m.
Georgia Cantoni
Hosting worlds. The Ethnographic Collections of the Reggio Emilia Civic Museums
Thursday 10th April, 5.00 p.m.
Marco Baioni
Living on water. Alpine pile dwellings between research and valorisation
Thursday 8th May, 5.00 p.m.
Claudio Cavazzuti
Bronze Age cremations and urn fields in Parma, Emilia and Europe. What more do we know today than Pigorini?
Thursday 29th May, 5.00 p.m.
Michele Cupitò
Pigorini and the terramare organisation. What holds and what does not a hundred and fifty years later?
Biography
Born in Fontanellato in 1842, Luigi Pigorini entered the Museum of Antiquities in Parma at the age of 16 to work on coins. In 1861, after meeting P. Strobel, he abandoned his classical studies to devote himself to a ‘new science’, prehistoric archaeology or ‘palethnology’. In 1866, in front of prelates and cardinals, he was the first to speak in Rome about ‘High Antiquity’, initially arousing indignation but then interest.
Director of the Museum of Antiquities in Parma from 1867, in 1875 he was called to Rome to set up the National Prehistoric Museum of which he was to be director. In 1877 he succeeded in having the first chair of ‘Palethnology’ established and assigned to him, the only one in Europe until the early 20th century. In 1908, the City of Parma dedicated a medal and a grand celebration to him, ‘Prince of Palethnologists’. In 1912 he was appointed Senator of the Kingdom. In 1923 he moved to Padua, where he died on April 1st 1925 and where he was buried with a state funeral.