Rodolfo LancianiBorn 1 Jan 1847; died 21 May 1929 at age 82.Rodolfo Amadeo Lanciani was an Italian archaeologist was, from 1878, a professor of ancient topology, the study of the spacial relationships of physical features in an archaeological site. In this, he was an expert for Ostia and Rome. In Forma Urbis Romaehe published 46 plates of exquisitely detailed 1:1000 scale mapsmaking a definitive atlas of ancient ruins, streets and structures of ancient and modern (c.1900) Rome coded in different colours. Though present Rome may be different, the maps retain information on ruins no longer visible to the normal visitor.Starting at age 20, Lancini was an assistant at the excavation of Trajan's harbour at Porto, which he carefully described (1868). Later, he was appointed by the University of Rome to head excavations (1875) and discovered many important antiquities at Rome, Tivoli, and Ostia.«[Sources differ on date of birth. EB gives 1 Jan 1947; WWWSci gives 1 Jan 1946.] |
