50 Years Since the Discoveries at Mont’e Prama

Date: Mar 27, 2025

Location:

New York , United States The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University 1161 Amsterdam Avenue (south of 118th Street) New York, NY 10027

In 1974, thousands of shattered bits of limestone surfaced in a Sardinian field. Now reassembled into dozens of colossal statues, they tell of a powerful Mediterranean civilization from the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.
These figures and their site, a monumental necropolis, are among the most important archaeological discoveries of the past fifty years.  Expert researchers will gather for a symposium about discoveries made at this site by archaeologists, historians, conservators, and restorers.

After the talks, we'll celebrate the opening of a new gallery exhibition.

Registration link.

Opening remarks
Barbara Faedda, Italian Academy, Columbia; Paolo Carta, University of Trento
Fabrizio Di Michele, Consul General of Italy in New York
Giuseppe Meloni, Autonomous Region of Sardinia
Anthony Muroni, Mont’e Prama Foundation

Speakers
Anna Depalmas, University of Sassari
From small bronzes to stone statues: continuity and change in Sardinia’s Early Iron Age
Peter van Dommelen, Brown University
Nuragic nostalgia: celebrating the past in West Central Sardinia
Ilaria Orri, Mont’e Prama Foundation
Fifty years of Mont'e Prama: the discovery, development, and enhancement of the site
Seán Hemingway, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Mont'e Prama and The Met: a new international collaboration

Moderator
Steven Ellis, University of Cincinnati

Organizers: 
Barbara Faedda, Italian Academy, Columbia University
Paolo Carta, University of Trento 

Co-sponsors:
The Autonomous Region of Sardinia; the Mont’e Prama Foundation

This initiative is part of the Italian Academy's Sardinia Cultural Heritage Project which includes books from Columbia University Press, digital exhibitions and gallery exhibitions, and other conferences. In a related initiative, the Academy facilitated the loan of a 3000-year-old statue from Mont’e Prama to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This project is under the umbrella of the Academy’s International Observatory for Cultural Heritage.

Image: Centro di Conservazione Archeologica (CCA), Rome

 

Our address is:
The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University
1161 Amsterdam Avenue (south of 118th Street)
New York, NY 10027

Recording and photography:
This event may be photographed and filmed. By being present, you consent to the Italian Academy using such photographs and video for educational and promotional purposes. 

Guests with disabilities:
Columbia University makes every effort to accommodate individuals with disabilities.
The Italian Academy's wheelchair access is on the southern facade, near SIPA's glass doors.
Guests with disabilities can request assistance from the Academy—(212) 854-2306; itacademy@columbia.edu—or from Columbia's Office of Disability Services—(212) 854-2388; access@columbia.edu.