I wrote this article-interview some years ago (was it the 2006) with a view to publication in a local newspaper, then it did not and nothing was saved on a CD. I discovered today, it seems to me worthy of being shared.
The radio is giving for the third time the same song loud, a kind of theatrical work as the author knows where the rhythms are mixed Arab, not without grace singsong melodies familiar to the ear of a European. It takes an hour by van to leave the ancient Aleppo, where our plane landed, and reach the small village of Saraqeb in the district of Idlib, famous throughout Syria for its ice cream smoked. There are 27 degrees in October and although the van whizzes, thundering against the horn very old 50s American cars, the brand new highway. Curious: no toll or bridge, everything is left to common sense of the drivers (just) and their experience (many, fortunately) and the will of God, in full accord with Islam. Billboards along the highway, sometimes of Italian companies, and the ubiquitous face of the former President Hafez al-Assad, father of President Bashar: in many different ways, in all styles, all techniques. The new President has shown signs of opening, tentatively opening up the West, after all, studied medicine in London, he married the woman he loved and did remove a lot of propaganda posters that saturates the space. Of course, the Lebanese deal sheet, but the topic is taboo political, as well as appoint "in the country, Israel.
is late at night when the house of the Italian Archaeological Mission, planted a modern building on a central courtyard with a well, where they grow red pomegranates, we expect the director, Prof. Stefania Mazzoni University of Pisa. Working here for several years now and lead the mission funded by the Universities of Pisa and Bologna, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Research (PRIN). A petite person but extremely strong, yet affectionate, witty and so loved by her students, estimated by his colleagues for his professionalism. It is proverbial its preparation, so it is not uncommon to see her, eyes closed, groped a fragment of pottery, pronounce the diagnosis, "IVb Bronze Age," and noted with satisfaction when he opened his eyes. We are welcomed with maternal warmth, students and researchers came to Syria with a second flight to complete the team of the Mission, bringing with us from Italy newspaper, meats and coffee. The purpose of the trip: to complete the research project on the nearby Tell permanently by, make a series of prehistoric surveys in sunny flat Jazr, south of Aleppo (taking care cobras and scorpions), documenting some tell (in Arabic, the hills lie the remains of ancient settlements) with the help of topographic instruments, end the filing of the thousands of fragments of pottery found in excavations of previous spring at Tell Afis. The Mission is composed of several university professors, a large group of researchers, graduate and postgraduate students in archeology and - rare - several students who have the opportunity to field test the lessons learned in old Europe, all these are flanked by a pair of inspectors sent from Damascus.
Saraqeb, not far from Tell Afis, is a small village of the province. The Mission House on one overlooks the town square, a stone's throw from three minarets of many mosques, one of which charged a 25 megaphones: Ramadan is approaching, the muezzin to be sure I can reach all when he announces the end of fasting, or even worse, at four in the morning, the beginning of abstinence: "Allah is great and Muhammad is his Prophet." Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, during which we must observe an absolute fast of food and water from dawn to sunset, is a treasure and a disgrace together for a Westerner. During this time you can get closer to Muslim culture, look - almost have fun - the rush of people back home the evening of the announcement, "now we eat." For an hour and a half all disappear, go to refresh themselves, the shops are closed. However, when re-open, stay open until late at night. Ramadan, however, is a disgrace when you have to work: the workers are debilitated by the lack of water, timing of work are necessarily reduced, the time moves toward the inevitable early morning. Furthermore, although non-Muslims are not obliged to respect the fasting, is a serious discourtesy to eat or drink in public during the day.
Saraqeb, it was said, a small provincial town. A couple of pharmacies, one of which is managed by "Village head", a bazaar where you can buy everything (from snacks to jam with the hookah tobacco), a store of dried fruit, a computer store run by young people, called virgin and where to find pirated copies of Britney Spears Syrian a shop selling ladies' underwear with suspenders and gaudy Featured pythons of feathers, a stationer (madly in love with Susanna, geomorphology of the Mission), the Internet point managed by the young Yusuf, only contact with Italy, the home and family. The Italian Mission is well seen in the spring provides jobs for many workers, and always takes a cook-keeper, a driver, a guide, then archaeologists supply shops in the village, bringing a little 'well-being. Disposal of waste containers stored in public, they think, in order, cats, chickens, dogs, children and then a fire driven by some employee.
of cats will run several, one, that stubborn sense of timing with each year comes back to the home of the Mission was pregnant, he insists to doze in the chair of the director, regardless of allergy Prof. Mazzoni and threats.
The Mission's work is marked by the Muslim week, which celebrates Friday as our Sundays. On Thursday afternoon, archaeologists spend in the city of Aleppo, the hammam, the Museum of Citadel, or more frequently lost in the medieval covered souk, where you can buy luxury carpets, silver, textiles imported from Iran or Pakhistan, perfumed oils and characteristic irresistible chocolates trying the delicacy of Prof. A. Archi, a philologist at the University of Rome La Sapienza, which publishes the tablets of Ebla, gluttony publicly scolded in vain - as always secretly rejected - by his wife, Prof. Mazzoni. In the souk, visitors can get in touch with the people, speak English, French and a bit 'of Arabic and Italian, see the women of the house to shop, go in the neighborhoods of hardware, of wool, the upholsterers, butchers, of Pellai, tailors. On Friday is dedicated to discovering the shocking beauty of Syria, which are as fascinating as little known. The lack of tourism, while not accompanied by a lack of basic infrastructure, is a great blessing to the visitors avoid the crowds of noisy Tunisia or Egypt el'assalto irrepressible street traders and the prices are really affordable. Every inch of land here in past times that Syria was the scene of the episodes of the great fundamental story principles Syro-Palestine from the Bronze Age Ugarit, Mediterranean port now covered with yellow flowers and butterflies, and Ebla, pride and Italian pride of archeology in Syria, to the great Hellenistic rulers of the dynasty Seleucid who built cities such as Latakia (Lattakia today) and Apamea columns from the typical spiral groove, the imposing Roman ruins of Bosra, which was the birthplace of Philip the Arab, of Emesa, a city of the emperor Heliogabalus, and Oasis Palmyra, which evokes the secession of Oden and Zenobia in the Late Empire, the remains of ghost towns and abandoned the Byzantine monastery of St. Simon, from the splendor of the Umayyad Caliphs of Damascus, who built the grand mosque above the Roman temple, until the Crusades, with the castle of Masyaf and the imposing Krak des Chevaliers, impregnable stronghold of the Knights Hospitallers until the fourteenth century and down to Napoleon's memory faded, printed in the imagination of the traveler. Syria conceals enormous wealth, arising from a glorious past where peoples and cultures met and sometimes clashed. The legacy is now a multicultural Syria, where the Muslim majority are flanked by ancient and numerous communities of Christian religion, in a climate of peaceful coexistence, despite or perhaps because of the regime.
Leaving for the mission in spring 2006, we interviewed Professor Stephen Mazzoni, Director of the Italian Archaeological Mission at Tell Afis and Professor of Archaeology and History of the Near East, Prehistory and Early History of the Near East and Phoenician Archaeology at the University of Pisa, placing some questions about his activities in Syria.
- Prof. Mazzoni, there is a greater interest of ordinary people, students, institutions for your work in general after the Middle East is sadly come to the fore for the bloody events of recent years? How do you express?
I must admit that interest is great for archeology in general, but does not bind to the often tragic news of the Near East, in fact, sometimes, I regret to note a certain indifference to the current reality, a detachment from the economic, political and social situation, which also fills the pages of our newspapers. Often the knowledge of students as well as ordinary people are very limited and marred by clichés of preconceptions. An example is the Italian tourism declined sharply in the Middle East against the English, French, German and do not say in clear increase in certain countries that have suffered attacks recently, but in countries that have never had any problems.
- She worked several years with Paolo Matthiae, director of the famous archaeological site of Ebla mission of the University of Rome La Sapienza, and who organized a famous exhibition in Rome ("Ebla, the origins of urban civilization") on civilization Syrian. What could or should be the role of archeology (Italian) in the uneasy relationship between East and West in the so-called "clash of civilizations"?
In archeology of scientific research in general and the clash of civilizations thankfully gives way to a meeting of scholars across political boundaries and ideological rationalism and anxiety to us all of the new barrier-free. To say that this is research in general can be a factor in intercultural communication. Archaeology in recovering more plots of successive civilizations in different times and spaces can provide evidence of common heritage of an ancient past.
How the relationship with the Syrian institutions? And with the common people in Syria?
Best always, thanks to two important factors, the first is from the past, the presence of a class of officials, technicians of the local cultural heritage, archaeologists, particularly enlightened, open its collaborations with all foreign countries, and the result is that today operate in Syria about 80 institutions from around the world and
already so it was the '60s: not only the missions Traditional French, English and German, but American, Japanese and all of Europe, it's quicker to say who is missing! The second factor is the interest of political institutions to the culture, archaeological, cultural heritage, which led to the development of today's major archaeological parks such as Ebla. As evidence of political stability to the sector is the recent appointment of a vice-president for culture.
How was born The interest in the East?
It starts as cultivated by parents, a book of Egyptology of my mother, then the passage to India in 15 years, then the discovery of the Near East, so dynamic and driving force of novelty, as "intercultural" among independent companies but deeply penetrated.
What have been your course of study and your academic career?
fortunate in a time when young people's access to research possible, work and commitment, not like today. University of Rome and then in Pisa since 1975.
What projects are you currently treating?
The archaeological team of Tell Afis is not the more complex project: an excavation that is committed colleagues and several students and employees about 40 people.
What was the most exciting discovery of your career?
The Ebla archive of cuneiform tablets with that sea unthinkable (then) to Syria 2300 BC? Or maybe when he opened a hole in the floor of a hall of the palace in 1600 BC Ebla and always below, down in a tunnel (a little 'dusty actually) appeared some jar, then the twisted gold bracelets, then ...? No, maybe when, and always at Ebla, in the far ... better to leave out ... a worker picked up a piece of clay from the ground with many small wedges ... ah, a fragment of a cuneiform tablet, is first found at Ebla: eh, the usual luck of the new arrivals!
is rumored among the students that the gap has opened under his feet as he passed and that she has fallen into the grave that was discovered as well. Truth or myth?
has opened a gap and luckily I fell, I was nearby. Fortune favors anyway! But we would have entered through the front door hypogeum lying in a nearby room that still had to dig.
Can Tell Afis briefly tell us about? What importance does the site in the Middle East? What will the mission is going to start? Tell
Afis was the seat of a kingdom ruled around 800 BC by the Syrians, who then dominated Syria long opposed to the Assyrians. But his story has more ancient origins, early Chalcolithic age, when it was fortified town with megalithic walls, around 3500, and then continued to develop between 2300 and 1700 BC, becoming a center of about 30 ha. fortified spaces. Between 1300 and 735 BC developed into a city with ceremonial buildings, temples, granaries, city walls. Each year brings to light with patience and a slow piece of this complex puzzle, we know the full picture will not be able to piece together ever, but just a piece, however small to help us better understand this long succession of cultures over a period no comparisons. The last was the discovery of a fragment enrollment in Aramaic that mentions the powerful king of Aram-Damascus, Hazael found among the remains of a large public building where we will concentrate our efforts in the coming two months.
