D'ACUNTO Matteo

Matteo D’Acunto is Full Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Naples L’Orientale.
He teaches ‘Archaeology and history of art of Greece’, ‘Archaeology of Magna Graecia’ and ‘Archaeology of Greek colonization’ in the degree courses in archaeology (undergraduate and master) at the University of Naples L’Orientale. He is co-teacher of ‘Archaeology of Greece’ at the post-graduate School of Specialization in Archaeological Heritage of the Universities of Salerno and L’Orientale of Naples (‘Or.Sa.’).
He is a member of the Board of this School of Specialization. He is director of the A-rank scientific journal ‘AION Annali di Archeologia e Storia Antica’ and Coordinator of the ‘Centro studi su interazioni e scambi nel mondo antico e medievale’ (CEISMA) of the Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies of the University of Naples L’Orientale.
He is director of the archaeological mission of the University of Naples L’Orientale, which conducts excavations in the Greek-Roman urban area of Cumae in Campania, under a permit from the Ministry of Culture. He is in charge of the study and publication project of the necropolis of Ialysos (Rhodes, Greece), excavated during the period of the Italian occupation of the Dodecanese (in agreement with the Italian Archaeological School at Athens and in collaboration with the Department of Antiquities of the Dodecanese). He is a member of the study project of the inscriptions of Gortyn (Crete), in agreement between the Italian Archaeological School at Athens, the University of Naples L’Orientale and the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa. He has extensive experience in fieldwork, having worked, often in a coordinating role and in charge of publishing contexts and materials, in archaeological missions in Italy (Cumae, Pontecagnano, Paestum), Greece (Thronos in Crete and Kefalonia), Liby (Cyrene) and Turkey (Miletus).
His main field of research is the archaeology of the Greek world, especially from the Early Iron Age to the Classical period (10th-4th century BC). He has focused, through publications, on architecture, sculpture, ceramics and iconography, especially from Rhodes, Corinth, Crete, the Cyclades and Athens, as well as on the Greek colonization of southern Italy, with particular reference to Cumae and Pithecusae (Ischia). His publications and archaeological fieldwork have also been addressed to the study of urbanism in Greek and Roman times, with reference to the cities of Magna Graecia and with special attention paid to the continuity and transformation of town plan, and to hydraulic works, city walls and houses. Some of his essays make comparison between archaeological evidence and literary texts in the Greek world, with reference to Homeric archaeology and archaic poetry.
His publications include two monographs, 'Il mondo del vaso Chigi. Pittura, guerra e società a Corinto alla metà del VII sec. a.C.' (De Gruyter, Berlin – Boston, 2013) and 'Ialiso I. La necropoli: gli scavi italiani (1916-1934). I periodi protogeometrico e geometrico', vols. 1-2 (Italian Archaeological School, Athens 2020), as well as publications of excavations in Cumae from the Pre-Hellenic, Greek and Roman periods. He is the editor of several volumes: 'Lo Scudo di Achille nell’Iliade. Esperienze ermeneutiche a confronto' (Pisa 2009); 'I profumi nelle società antiche (Paestum 2012); Opere di regimentazione delle acque in età arcaica' (2020), 'Euboica II. Pithekoussai e l’Eubea tra Oriente e Occidente', vols. 1-2 (2020 e 2021) and 'Ktiseis. Fondazioni d’Occidente: intrecci culturali tra Gela, Agrigento, Creta e Rodi' (2023). He is the author of many contributions, published in Italian, English, French and German, many of them in A-rank journals, including chapters in international collective works and lemmas in dictionaries ('The Oxford History of the Archaic Greek World', 'The Oxford Classical Dictionary', 'Der Neue Pauly').
He has organized several international conferences and participated in numerous conferences as a speaker.