Cirene 2008-2014. Attività archeologica dell’Università di Urbino

The Italian Archaeological Mission at Cyrene of the University of Urbino was launched after the war in 1957 by Sandro Stucchi, who inherited the legacy of the archaeologists and the Mission who rediscovered the city between 1913 and 1942. The eminent Master carried out excavations and restorations in the Agora Quarter, in the Sanctuary of Apollo, in the Sanctuary of Zeus and throughout the territory of Cyrene for 35 years, followed by Lidiano Bacchielli since 1991 and since 1996 by Mario Luni, working in the ancient city since 1968, until 2014. Now the Urbino Mission is under the responsibility of Valeria Purcaro and Oscar Mei. The expansive bibliography documents this fervent period of work and research to the last report of the activity between 1997 and 2007, published in the previous issue of "Libya Antiqua" (V, 2010, pp. 173-188). In this report you can see that since 1996 the archaeological rediscovery of Cyrene has continued by the University of Urbino in the Agora Quarter and in the Acropolis and that a large new excavation was opened in the extramural Sanctuary of Demeter, already identified by Mario Luni, with a doric temple hexastyle, a theater, monumental propylaeum, a great altar, other smaller monuments and several finds. Adjacent to the South in recent years the Sanctuary of Apollo Apotropaios has been discovered, with hexastyle peripteral temple, the altar, the hexastyle propylaeum, a series of oikoi and smaller monuments. It has also been documented in a comprehensive manner the "treasure" of jewelry and gold coins of Barce and then, only partially, the "Treasure of Benghazi", with high quality finds discovered in Cyrenaica before the Second World War. We can affirm that in the last 5 years we maintained continuity to the excavation and restoration in the same areas with license of the Archaeology Department of Libya, whose collaboration has always been broad and constructive. Most recently the Arch of Marcus Aurelius in Tripoli has been the subject of research, aimed at an urgent restoration The chronological range of the research includes the Libyan pre-Greek age (Slonta and the Agora Quarter), the Greek (Dioskourion, Agora, suburban sanctuaries of Demeter and of Apollo Apotropaios) and Roman period (Acropolis and temples of the Agora Quarter), until the disastrous earthquakes between the fourth and fifth centuries AD (“Casa del Ripostiglio” and more).