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Centro Studi Ricerche Ligabue


Giancarlo Ligabue

On the Occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Centro Studi Ricerche Ligabue

was born in Venice on 30th October 1931.

A Euro-MP, he was chairman of the Union for Europe party and member of the Commission for Culture in the European Parliament.

A graduate in paleontology from the Sorbonne, he has also received four honorary degrees: natural sciences (University of Modena, ltaly), philosophy (University of Venice, ltaly), archaeology (University of Lima, Perù), archaeology and history (University of Ashgabat, Turkmenistan). He is the president of the Venice Museum of Natural History and has produced hundreds of books, film, photos and scientific papers, the fruit of hundreds of expeditions organized by the Ligabue Study and Research Centre, of which he is president; the main fields of the Centre are anthropology, palaeontology and natural sciences. He has visited dozens of ethnic groups in danger of extinction in all major world regions and also discovered two hitherto unknown peoples who have had no previous contacts with Western civilisation. Moreover, he has unearthed about ten deposits of dinosaurs, some of which carry his name, and some fossil hominid sites.

A passionate and keen scholar of archaeology, he has understood for the last twenty years the importance of the cultures of Bactria and Margiana in the history of our planet. He has promoted and supported excavation campaigns in the oases of Gonur depe and Adji Kui in Turkmenistan, a country for which he has a particular respect and appreciation.

 

Il Punto Edizioni

The mission "Ancient Margiana"

The mission "Ancient Margiana" is the result of a collaboration among the Ministry of Culture, the Turkmen Radio-Television and the Centro Studi e Ricerche Ligabue of Venice, realised with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In my capacity as President of the Centro Studi e Ricerche Ligabue, I am conscious of my responsibility in officially presenting the results obtained by the mission 'Ancient Margiana', an Italian-Turkmen mission which for nearly twenty years has been operating with success in the desert of the Karakum in close collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of Turkmenistan and with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In the following pages, the director of the mission, Gabriele Rossi Osmida, illustrates the results of researches carried out in the citadel of Adji Kui 9 between 2003 and 2007 with the help of various specialists: architects, paleozoologists, paleobotanists, geologists, anthropologists, chemists, paleopathologists.

It is well to remember that this mission has worked for 12 months altogether with around 30 people, both technicians and workers, for a total of about 75, 000 working hours, coping with considerable fluctuations of temperature, sandstorms, even floods, and sharing this strip of desert with wolves, cobras and monitor lizards. I wish to pay tribute to the entire team, directed by the mission head Gabriele Rossi Osmida, who I should like to thank here for his unstinting dedication, for the capability and scientific rigour with which they have undertaken this project, working in complete understanding with the Authorities and with the Turkmen people. Our task, in accordance with our scientlfic research programme, has been aimed at gaining a better definition of the Prehistoric Culture of Margiana between the IV and fII millennia BC, a culture which demonstrates several points of contacts with other cultures of the same epoch but which, as a result of these contacts, was able to develop and redevelop its own unique character.

Opinions and hypotheses regarding the nature of this character crowd upon each other. We limit ourselves here to documenting the scientific results of the work we have carried out, offering some reflections from time to time. As far as the rest is concerned, we shall continue to work quietly and diligently with the modesty that we have always exercised.

In 2001 the Ligabue Centre's expedition headed by G. Rossi Osmida, having at that time a 10 years experience of scientific cooperation with Turkmenistan, began planning excavations at Adji-Kui, a group of little studied monuments of the Bronze Age situated in an old delta of the Murghap river. These settlements existed about four thousand years ago, in the period of flourishing of the settled farmer culture in the basin of this river, and present all the signs of the civilization which developed along the Mesopotamian way. The lower part of the Murghap, which according to the antique tradition is called Margiana, at that time represented a country occupied by several urbanized oases with large settlements at the centre. The Adji-kui oasis was discovered in 1976 bv an archaeological group leaded by I.S. Masimov (1941-2006) joining the expedition of the History Institute of the Academy of Science of Turkmenistan. The first digging test showed that the monument was significant, however its study has been managed in only a quarter of century thanks to the efforts of Gabriele Rossi Osmida and to the constant support of Professor Giancarlo Ligahue, who has done a lot to develop the cultural cooperation hetween Italy and Turkmenistan.

At present time, besides a large amount of important archaeological material, the structure of the settlements, which is typical of the architecture of the ancient Margiana, has been revealed. It is the same plan met in the monuments of the neighbouring oases Kelleli and Gonur: a rectangular yard space formed by adohe walls flanked by rectangular towers.

During the first years, the archaeologist Dr. Berdy Udeumuradov, who has a long practical experience of the study of' the Ancient Margiana, took part in the excavation of Adji-Kui 1 and 8. It is important to signal the productive work in the Adji-Kui expedition of a young Turkmen architect­-restorer graduated at the State Academy of Arts of Turkmenistan, Annamurad Orazov.

I am sure that further excavations at Adji-Kui under G.Rossi Osmida's  leadership will lead to new important discoveries and broaden our knowledge of one of the most interesting phases of the ancient history of Central Asia.

Centro Studio Ricerche Ligabue - Venezia

Il Punto Edizioni

Il Punto Edizioni - Italy
CENTRAL ASIA CULTURAL VALUES. Volume I  Number 1- March 2002. Periodico su arte, storia archeologia ed etnografia dell'Asia Centrale.
CENTRAL ASIA CULTURAL VALUES. Volume I Number 1- March 2002. Periodico su arte, storia archeologia ed etnografia dell'Asia Centrale.
CENTRAL ASIA CULTURAL VALUES. Volume I  Number 2 - June 2003. Periodico su arte, storia archeologia ed etnografia dell'Asia Centrale.
CENTRAL ASIA CULTURAL VALUES. Volume I Number 2 - June 2003. Periodico su arte, storia archeologia ed etnografia dell'Asia Centrale.
Winkelmann, Sylvia: SEALS OF THE OASIS from the Ligabue Collection. Il Punto  Edizioni 2004
Winkelmann, Sylvia: SEALS OF THE OASIS from the Ligabue Collection. Il Punto Edizioni 2004
MARGIANA. GONUR-DEPE NECROPOLIS. 10 years of excavations by Ligabue Study and Research Centre. Il Punto Edizioni 2002
MARGIANA. GONUR-DEPE NECROPOLIS. 10 years of excavations by Ligabue Study and Research Centre. Il Punto Edizioni 2002
Mukhammed Mamedov / Ruslan Muradov: GURGANJ. Architectural and Historical Guide. Il Punto 2001
Mukhammed Mamedov / Ruslan Muradov: GURGANJ. Architectural and Historical Guide. Il Punto 2001
Mario Polia: LA CORDIGLIERA DEL CONDOR. 15 anni di ricerche etno-archeologiche in Perù del Centro Studi Ricerche Ligabue. Il Punto Edizioni 2003
Mario Polia: LA CORDIGLIERA DEL CONDOR. 15 anni di ricerche etno-archeologiche in Perù del Centro Studi Ricerche Ligabue. Il Punto Edizioni 2003