The Faculty of Archaeology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, together with the City of Poznań, invites you to an open lecture entitled "Watering the Empire: The Capitals of Assyria and their Irrigation Systems (9th-7th centuries BC)", to be delivered by Prof. Daniele Morandi Bonacossi. The lecture will take place on 14 May 2025 at 1:15 p.m. at Collegium Historicum, Room 1.43, ul. Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 7, Poznań.
DANIELE MORANDI BONACOSSI is a Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Udine. In 1987, he obtained a master's degree in Near Eastern Archaeology from the University of Padua. Between 1988 and 1990, he studied Near Eastern Archaeology at the Free University of Berlin on a DAAD scholarship. He earned his PhD from the Università L'Orientale in Naples in 1993, after spending two years at the Free University of Berlin (1990-1992). In 1995-1996, he held a NATO research fellowship at the University of Munich. Prof. Morandi Bonacossi has directed and participated in numerous archaeological excavations and field surveys across the Middle East (Syria, Oman, Yemen, Iraq). From 1999 to 2010, he served as Director of the University of Udine's archaeological mission at Mishrifeh/Qatna, and from 2008 to 2010 as Co-Director of the Italian archaeological mission in the Palmyra Desert region. Since 2012, he has led the Italian Archaeological Mission in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (Land of Nineveh Archaeological Project, Iraq).
His research focuses primarily on the study of human settlement patterns and interactions between people, the environment, resources, and survival strategies, as well as the archaeology of pastoralism and the material culture and organisation of complex societies, mainly in Syria, northern Iraq, and eastern Anatolia from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Age. Part of his work is also dedicated to the documentation, preservation, and management of endangered cultural heritage in Syria and Iraq. He is a member of Rashid International, a global initiative for the protection of Iraq's cultural heritage.