Research

by Arianna Carta Spring 1961. In the Lanaittu Valley, beneath Mount Gutturgios, a group of speleologists from the Nuorese Caves Group climbs a rock face to a small cave in the Dorgali area. At the end of a narrow tunnel, they find what they weren't looking for: a nearly complete human skeleton…

On December 1 and 2, 2026, the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna will host "Mind over matter – The Materiality of Anthropomorphic Figurines," a workshop organized to mark the centennial of the discovery of the Venus II of Willendorf. Two days entirely dedicated to prehistoric anthropomorphic figurines, approached from different perspectives: the contexts…

There are things that, precisely because they've existed for a long time, end up seeming natural to us; patriarchy is one of them. Patriarchy is documented in many historical societies. We find it in laws, family structures, the transmission of property, religions, and the organization of power. For centuries, it has been justified...

There's a pamphlet, recently published in France, that deserves to be read twice. The first time to understand what it says. The second time to understand how it says it, and it's in that second reading that, in my opinion, lies the most interesting question. The title says it all: L'imposture…

by Alessandra de Nardis To restore comes from the Latin restituĕre, composed of: re-, “back”, “again”, “to the original point” and statuĕre, “to place”, “to place”, “to put in a state”. It therefore literally means “to put back in its place”, “to bring back to a previous state”, “to give back what had been taken away or lost[1]. In its core therefore, “to restore” implies a…

Introduction by Elvira Visciola and Alessandra De Nardis Marija Gimbutas (1921–1994) was one of the most original and unconventional voices in twentieth-century archaeology. Trained as an archaeologist and linguist, she was able to combine scientific rigor and an interdisciplinary vision, proposing a radically new interpretation of prehistoric European civilizations. At the heart of her work is…

by Alessandra de Nardis Not long ago, it was still taught that Homo Sapiens, then nicknamed Cro-Magnon[1], had arrived in Europe about 40.000 years ago and that he had gradually replaced the Neanderthal man, who finally became extinct 35.000-30.000 years ago. We were still firmly attached to the idea that we, Sapiens,…

by Eleonora Ambrusiano Valentia is a practically unknown deity although her name has historically remained well present and widespread in the toponyms spread throughout Umbria in the Terni area in particular (Valenza, a neighborhood and area in the city and, in the first outskirts, the hills of Valenza, and again Collevalenza village in the…

The recent death of Andrew Colin Renfrew, one of the great archaeologists of the last and present century, reopens the debate on the origin of the Indo-Europeans; his name is in fact linked to the Anatolian hypothesis as the original homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans, a theory opposed to the Kurganic one of Marija Gimbutas, according to which the Proto-Indo-Europeans would be…