Maria Floriani Squarciapino

Maria Floriano Squarciapino studied at La Sapienza University in Rome and was a student of Pietro Romanelli,[1] graduating in 1939 with a thesis on the topic of the school of Aphrodisias.[2][3][4] She also developed an interest in the archaeology of North Africa in the Roman period,[3] and underwent training at the Scuola nazionale di Archeologi.[1]

Floriano Squarciapino became an inspector at the Soprintendenza for Ostia in 1946, where she worked closely with Italo Gismondi, Giovanni Becatti, Herbert Bloch and others.[3] After the publication of the excavations of the Ostian necropolis in 1959, Floriano Squarciapino turned her attention to the Ostia Synagogue, where she directed excavations in 1961-62.[5][6] In 1966 she became the superintedent of the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Ostia and held this position until 1974.[1] During the 1960s and 70s, Floriano Squarciapino also taught at La Sapienza, and in 1974 left the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Ostia to take up a position as Professor of the Archaeology and History of the Roman provinces (Archeologia e Storia delle provincie romane) at La Sapienza, which she held until her retirement in 1987.[2]

As well as her work at Ostia, Floriano Squarciapino also participated in excavations elsewhere, including the Roman Forum (1955-57), Leptis Magna, Tell Mardikh (1964-66) and in Albania.[4][2] A collection of her notes from excavations at Leptis Magna was published by Paola Finocchi in 2012.[7][8] Floriano Squarciapino also contributed to the Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, Classica e Orientale and led the editorial team at Fasti Archeologici from 1982 to 1997. She was the president of the Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica, a member of the Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia, the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Romani and the German Archaeological Institute.[3] In 1997 a special volume of the journal Archaeologica Classica was published in her honour.[9]

In 1975 Floriano Squarciapino was awarded the Antonio-Feltrinelli Prize, one of the most prestigious scientific awards within Italy.[10]

Squarciapino published extensively on Ostia and Roman Archaeology in North Africa, including:[11]

• Artigianato e industria (= Civiltà Romana. Band 20). Colombo, Rome 1942.
• La Scuola di Afrodisia (= Studi e materiali del Museo dell’Impero Romano. Nr. 3). Governatorato di Roma, Rome 1943.
• Il Museo della Via Ostiense (= Itineraria dei Musei e Monumenti d’Italia.) Band 91. Istituto poligrafico dello Stato, Rome 1955.
• ed. with Italo Gismondi: Le tombe di età Repubblicana e Augustea (= Scavi di Ostia. Band 3: I necropoli. Teil 1). Istituto poligrafico dello stato, Rome 1958.[12]
• I Culti orientali ad Ostia. Brill, Leiden 1962.[13]
• Leptis Magna (= Ruinenstädte Nordafrikas. Band 2). Raggi, Basel 1966.
• Sculture del foro severiano di Leptis Magna. «L’Erma» di Bretschneider, Rome 1974.