THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI “L'ORIENTALE” TO THE 2013-2014 ERITREAN-ITALIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD SEASON AT ADULIS (original) (raw)
Adulis was the most important port for trade in the Horn of Africa during antiquity. It was the port of the urban settlements of the Eritrean and Ethiopian highlands and of the coastal and island people. As a port with a long time life, Adulis has been the gateway for people, ideas, goods and powers that had a major impact on the history of the Eritrean and Ethiopian highlands. The project of excavation at Adulis started in 2011, promoted by the Eritrean Government, Gruppo Piccini, and CeRDO, it is conducted in collaboration with scholars and archaeologists from the Northern Red Sea Regional Museum, the National Museum of Eritrea, the Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”, the Università Cattolica of Milan and the Politecnico of Milan. The main focus of the Adulis Project is the consolidation and preservation of the site so as the creation of an archaeological park and the dissemination of the project results to a wider public. In accordance with this main scope, since the beginning of the project, grants and time has also been allocated for stratigraphic excavations and for the study of the cultural history of the ancient port. Archaeological research have had as a goal, during the 2014 field season, to define the chronology of the town, to better understand the relation among the town, the river and the sea and to investigate the dynamics of interconnectivity among the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean through material finds.