The Fisherman's Tomb: The True Story of the Vatican's Secret Search by John O'Neill

The Fisherman's Tomb: The True Story of the Vatican's Secret Search by John O'Neill

Author:John O'Neill [O'Neill, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Antiquities & Archaeology, Catholic, Christianity, History, Religion
ISBN: 9781681921402
Google: PWg5swEACAAJ
Amazon: 1681921405
Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor
Published: 2018-04-05T03:00:00+00:00


Chapter Fourteen

Margherita Guarducci

Epigraphy is the study of ancient inscriptions. There are few more subtle and difficult subspecialties of archeology. The locations of the ancient inscriptions are often dark, unpleasant, and sometimes even dangerous. Epigraphers are a fountainhead of interesting stories often populated with bandits, snakes, scorpions, and tomb robbers pilfering ancient remains. In addition to the arduous nature of the work, this specialty requires fluency in the dead language involved, and often the ability to understand colloquialisms and rapidly evolving meanings from long-gone worlds. On rare occasions, it requires actually decrypting inscriptions made in long-ago codes. The epigraphist is the Sherlock Holmes of archeology, discovering truth by linking ancient signs one to another, many with meanings that were in use for only a few decades.

Twentieth-century Italy was profoundly sexist. The Italian female stereotype of a mother cooking pasta was, in fact, not an atypical view held in that place and age. Margherita Guarducci profoundly broke the mold. By all descriptions, she could be considered an early Italian feminist, accomplishing amazing archeological breakthroughs in a time and profession dominated by men. She was deeply in love with men — but they were men who had died thousands of years before her birth. She had little use for the men or world of her time. While existing in the present, she lived in the past.

The great archeologists of fiction are invariably sophisticated men of great panache and impressive physical ability and appearance. Indiana Jones of Raiders of the Lost Ark battles natives, snakes, and Nazis with skill and aplomb. Professor Robert Langdon of The Da Vinci Code rushes through a variety of ancient sites adroitly avoiding a variety of deadly conspirators, accompanied by the beautiful Sophie Neveu. It is sometimes said that truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction must be written to seem possible. No writer of fiction could have invented Margherita Guarducci. The brilliant, real-life archeological genius Guarducci, whose discoveries would rival or exceed those of any fictional rivals, was a short, thin, frail-looking woman, whose uninspiring presence concealed an unconquerable spirit, intense energy, and a mind of utter genius. She was truly “a diamond bit” seeking the truth. Before her long life ended, she would perform mental feats, find archeological wonders, and fight battles at least as great as her counterparts in fiction.

She was born in Florence in 1902, to a family of ancient roots. Her long life began shortly after the new century opened. It would end only as the twentieth century closed. It was an amazing journey. Guarducci graduated in 1924 with a degree in archeology from the University of Bologna. She then attended courses and began her life’s work at the National School of Archeology in Rome and the Italian Archaeological School of Athens.143 Almost immediately, she was recognized by her teachers as a rare genius in early Greek epigraphy and became the leading accomplice of Federico Halbherr, a famous archeologist.144 Guarducci had a fanatical capacity for frenzied work — often under difficult conditions. It was her “firm, but gentle character” that defined Guarducci.



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.