Ritrovamenti archeologici nell’oasi di Gargaresc agli inizi del Novecento: stampa dell’epoca e rassegna bibliografica

This study originates from the historical bibliography collected as part of the Digital Library of the Archaeology of Libya project. The archaeological discoveries made in the Gargaresc oasis between 1903 and 1912 were reconstructed and analysed on the basis of a bibliographical study comprising both specialist publications and contemporary press reports. The Bibliographical List and the Appendices with complete transcriptions of the texts drawn from the newspapers consulted – daily papers and periodicals – form an integral part of the sample study presented here. The text is divided into three parts: on the discovery of the painted tomb of Aelia Arisuth in 1903; on the discoveries made by Italian soldiers in the early months of 1912 during the Italo-Turkish war (mosaics and underground tombs); on the rediscovery of the painted tomb in April 1912. This analysis of both the academic publications and the newspapers of the time has made it possible to propose a reconstruction of the chronological sequence of archaeological discoveries and their location, and to gain at least a partial impression of some contexts that have been neglected in the scholarship, such as the vast necropolis of Gargaresc, or that are virtually unknown, such as the residential complex of the so-called Villino a Mare (Small Seaside Villa). The choice of news items, the way they are presented and the comments made by the war correspondents who reported on archaeological discoveries in these regions as they were being conquered almost in real time provide important information on the significance of the relationship with antiquity in the historical and cultural climate of the period.