Marco Bonechi

After training in Semitic philology at the University of Florence (with P. Fronzaroli) and in Assyriology at the Sorbonne and the CNRS in Paris (with J.-M. Durand and D. Charpin) in the 1980s, Marco Bonechi took part in several scientific projects (philological and archaeological salvage work) in the 1990s, focusing on cuneiform tablets and Syrian sites. He became a researcher at the CNR in Rome in 2001, and his interests range from the earliest historical phases of the Near East (and the Levant in particular) to the history of oriental studies. More specifically, he conducts Assyriological research on the pre-Sargonic cuneiform texts of Ebla, studying their lexicon, administration, prosopography, historical geography and religion. Working closely with archaeologists and historians, and with a strong comparative interest, he is also studying later cuneiform documents such as those from Mari and Kanesh. He is currently preparing new lexical and geographical repertories of the Ebla texts. As regards the history of studies, he is interested in the beginnings of Orientalist disciplines in Italy and in Victorian and Edwardian England, in both cases paying particular attention to the contemporary formative periods of Orientalism in Germany, France and the USA, with the aim of reconstructing the connections and entanglements of an era of manifestly international character.