Mar. 11 – Under the sands of the desert, along the Libyan coast, history has buried one of the richest Ancient Roman cities in the Mediterranean: Leptis Magna. Yet, thanks to the work carried out by Italian archaeologists, the center has come to light, along with Sabratha, another city in north-western Libya, founded by the Phoenicians and later conquered by the Romans. Since 1968, the University of Macerata, thanks to Antonino Di Vita – in 1962 Adviser to the Libyan government for the Antiquities of Tripolitania and, until 2011, Unimc professor and founder of the “Center for Research and Documentation on the archeology of North Africa” – executed excavations, research and the monumental restoration of Leptis Magna and Sabratha in close collaboration with the Libyan government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. To celebrate its 45 years of archaeological work in Libya, the University is organizing over the next few days an exhibition and a study day. The research activities of the University based in the Marche has allowed for the reconstruction of some of the most important monuments of North Africa, starting with the grandiose mausoleum B of Sabratha, which is 23 meters high and one of the finest examples of late Hellenistic “Baroque” architecture. The Mausoleum was excavated and raised from the ground after a long work of recovery of the blocks that had collapsed and scattered over an extended area. The archeological team also unearthed the sacred funeral Sidret – el- Balik area, the largest late Roman pictorial complex in Africa with its 180 square meters of painted walls, which collapsed in the earthquake of 365 AD. The Italian team also uncovered the monumental four-sided arch erected in Leptis Magna in honor of the emperor Septimius Severus and his family (residents in the city). After long and complex works of anastylosis and restoration, the arch has been completely cleaned and now welcomes visitors at the entrance of the city, much like it did many centuries ago. The team also studied some of the most important buildings of Oea, Sabratha and Leptis Magna, uncovered by the Italians before the war, which host temples and buildings of the old court, the Arch of Trajan, the amphitheater, the Leptis Magna circus, the amphitheater and the painted tombs of Sabratha. The painted tombs of Sabratha, an extraordinary heritage to protect and preserve, are the focus of the most recent restoration and enhancement efforts.
