Description

Institute of Aegean and Near Eastern Studies (ICEVO)
Former Institute for Mycenaean, Aegean and Anatolian Studies (ISMEA)

ISMEA, the oldest Institute of the CNR for the historical sciences, was founded in May 1968 by a group of illustrious scholars by transforming a previous research centre. The deciphering of the Mycenaean writing (Linear B), which since mid-Fifties created a great and justified enthusiasm among classical civilisation scholars, greatly stimulated studies on archaic Greece. This brought about a fruitful decision in research politics: organising a structure, parallel to the university ones, for a specialised and quick aggregation of new or internationally rapidly developing subjects, derived from classical philology and ancient history. Since the beginning the researches of the Institute focused also on the Anatolian civilisations of II and I millennia BC, contemporary with the Mycenaean world and with archaic Greece. Thus a multidisciplinary organisation was born, where classical and Myceaean philology, Greek archaic history, philologies of the ancient Near East and archaeological investigations on Minoans and Mycenaeans in Greece, prehistoric Cyprus, Anatolia in Hittite period and on Armenian Plateau in Urartian period contributed in reconstructing the history of pre-classical Mediterranean and Near-Eastern world. The results of the research, both pursued on its own and with external collaborations have been published in more than one hundred and thirty volumes in the different series edited by the Institute: “Incunabula Graeca”, “Biblioteca Cipriota”, “Corpus der hurritischen Sprachdenkmäler”, “Documenta Asiana”, and in hundreds of articles in the journal “Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici”. In his 35 years of activity ISMEA, now ICEVO, established itself internationally as a benchmark for the students of the ancient civilisations of central-eastern Mediterranean and Near East. In some important congresses organised by the Institute, at the CNR met eminent scholars of various fields and different schools and methodologies were confronted. The published proceedings – some of them in the series “Monografie Scientifiche” of CNR – testify the achievements of research of various subjects.
Presently both sectors of the Institute – Aegean and Near Eastern – are carrying on important philological and archaeological undertakings. The “Corpus of the Hurrian inscriptions” is a wide-ranging programme, performed for more than twenty years with the Freie Universität of Berlin and the Würzburg University (“Corpus der hurritischen Sprachdenkmäler”, published in Rome). It marked the birth of a new discipline, Hurritology, which originated and grew from traditional subjects, like Hittitology and Assiriology, which anyhow are successfully pursued.
A multidisciplinary project focuses on the Urartian civilisation (IX-VII centuries BC) and aims both at investigating, with successful international collaborations in difficult areas (Turkey, Armenia, Iran), the traces of its material culture and at fixing in general reference works the present level of our knowledge.
Specifical subjects, like Hurritology and Urartology, in Italy are studied only in this Institute and they are pursued at the highest international level. Modern research methods based on memorisation of all texts, in connection with traditional file cards, led to the creation of a specific programme. It gives different glossaries for the various languages transcribed from the cuneiform and it is the background of the future vocabularies that will make easier the interpretation of the languages.
The Institute since its beginning was part of a long, high level Italian tradition of Aegean, Minoan and Mycenaean studies. The study of the diffusion of the Mycenaean civilisation in Southern Italy, with its immediate territorial consequences, is carried on at the highest national and international levels. Our presence on the coast of Caria (western Turkey), result of an agreement with the Italian mission at Iasos, continues the old tradition of Aegean studies. The systematic study of the collections of Aegean, Cypriote and Near Eastern antiquities adds new value to the archaeological remains kept in the Italian museums.
This complex of activities helps in reconstructing aspects of the great history of the Mediterranean and of the Near East before Hellenism.

The research of the Institute for the Studies of the Aegean and Near Eastern Civilisations include the Bronze and Iron Age civilisations of the Aegean (Minoan, Mycenaean and Cycladic civilizations), of Anatolia (Hittite, Hurrian and Urartian civilisations) and of the Syrian-Mesopotamian region, with geographical, cultural and chronological extension towards neighbouring regions (Caucasus, Iran, Palestine, Egypt) and towards the study of the beginning and of the continuity of given cultural elements in periods preceding and following Bronze and Iron Age. Actually the study of the homeric poems and of later documents of the classical civilisation can be a very important factor for the comprehension of the historical memory on the earliest phases of Greek culture. The study of these civilisations, seen as a complex and in their interconnections, is carried on in Italian universities occasionally and disjointedly and it is dispersed in various departments. In the CNR instead, evident numerical and resource limits notwithstanding, totally original specialisations developed, wich profited of the pluri- and inter-disciplinary structure and are an added value to University traditions.
So ICEVO has the vocation for a deep reflection on the earliest phases of history, which originated the civilisations of Eastern Mediterranean and Near East, for a bridge towards the contemporary countries of that area (Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Armenia. Syria, Iran etc.) and for a joint effort with the colleagues who, in those countries, care for the reconstruction of their history – and therefore of our one too.
An important task of the ICEVO is the editorial activity. The journal SMEA and some monographic series published by the Institute have a worldwide circulation in highly specialized libraries.
The journal “Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici” (SMEA), edited since 1966 and open to the collaboration of many foreign scholars, publishes articles connected with pre-classical Aegean and Anatolian civilizations. It appears twice a year.
The series “Incunabula Graeca”, founded in 1961, has the aim of illustrating the origins of Greek civilization – in the widest sense of the term – with particular reference to the Mycenean and Homeric periods, through the publication of both original texts and historical, philological, linguistic and archaeological studies. Research relating to Aegean and Anatolian civilizations closely connected to the Greek Bronze Age have also been published. The volume nr. 102 of the series has been published in 2005.
The series “Documenta Asiana”, founded in 1994, publishes historical, philological, and archaeological studies on pre-classical Anatolia and neighbouring areas in ancient Western Asia. Eight volumes have appeared to date.
The series “Biblioteca di Antichità Cipriote” was founded in 1971 after the start of the Institute’s archaeological excavations at Aghia Irini. Its aim was to present both preliminary and final results of the archaeological work carried out in Cyprus by the Institute. Seven volumes appeared.
The series “Corpus der hurritischen Sprachdenkmäler” has the aim of publishing in transliteration with philological commentary the entire corpus of Hurrian inscriptions. Fifteen volumes have been published: they group together homogeneous texts, and each volume is be supplemented by differentiated glossaries (Hurrian, Hittite, Sumerian, Akkadian). A general dictionary of the Hurrian language will follow the publication of the complete corpus.
The proceedings of five conferences organized by the ICEVO was also published by the Institute in the series “Monografie Scientifiche” of the CNR.