Today we share with you a conversation with Professor Massimiliano Nuzzolo - an Egyptologist who, under a grant obtained from the National Science Center, has been conducting successive excavations at Abu Ghurab for several years now. What's more, Prof. Nuzzolo has a daily connection with Poland, working at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In the following interview, he agreed to tell us more about his experiences working in Poland and abroad, the details of his research activities, as well as the achievements made during his years of archaeological work and his aspirations for the future.

How do you feel about Poland, especially after your stays abroad in the Czech Republic or France?

Poland is a lovely country with very welcoming people and extremely advanced services for citizens. It is therefore a country where I would definitely recommend to live. In comparison with my previous stays in countries like Czech Republic and France what has amazed me is the very high level of English of the population. This has helped me a lot in feeling at home both at work and in my private life.

How do you work with Poles?

I personally had a positive experience in working with Poles: I found them professional, precise in their field and flexible when needed, as well as endowed with a great enthusiasm for team working, something which was pivotal in my case.

Poles are doing well in your field. Enough to mention Professor Kazimierz Michałowski, the founder of the Polish school of Mediterranean archaeology, or, from our contemporaries, Professor Artur Obłuski or Professors Patrycja and Miłosz Giersz. Did any of the Polish archaeologists inspire you?

Polish Egyptology, as well as Polish Archaeology in general, has given a great contribution to the international scientific community, with prominent scholars like those you have mentioned. However, the scholar from whom I have personally learned more is professor Karol Myśliwiec, one of the main specialists in Old Kingdom Egypt (Third Millennium BCE) – the period of interest of my research project – that I had the pleasure to meet repeatedly already before settling down in Poland,

What is your area of expertise in Egyptology?

My research interests are focused on the period of Egyptian history named “Old Kingdom”, roughly corresponding to the III Millennium BCE and well known all over the world as the period of the construction of the giant pyramids. Scientifically, this is a crucial period on account of the fact that it’s in this very moment that the Egyptian culture was shaped in all it aspects, including art, architecture, religion and language.

How/during what project did your cooperation with the Polish Academy of Sciences begin?

I have known many colleagues from the Academy of Sciences long before moving to Poland, but in 2019, during an archaeological expedition in Egypt, I met professor Teodozja Rzeuska, the director of the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures at the Polish Academy of Sciences. After a long talk I thus decided to set up a project based on common research interest and to apply to the National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki).

Did you undertake any interesting Polish-Italian projects during that cooperation or do you rather work on your own? Are you involved in any such projects now?

As I mentioned before, I have won a prestigious and international call for projects in 2020 at the National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki) and I then moved to Poland. Thanks to this I could start a four-years research project which joins together, in the field and in a perfect synergy, the Academy of Sciences in Warsaw and the University of Naples L’Orientale, where I got my PhD long time ago.

Does your research work involve frequent trips to Egypt?

I usually go to Egypt at least twice a year, for long excavation campaigns that last for 3-4 months. I also often stay in Cairo for several weeks a year for doing research at the Egyptian Museum which has one of the most amazing collections of masterpieces from ancient Egypt and is renown worldwide.

Could you tell us about your current/past fieldwork in which you have participated?

I participated to several archaeological missions in the Mediterranean basin and I worked in prestigious research institutes in Egypt, France and Czech Republic. However, the main result of the work so far conducted in Egyptology by me has been the publication in 2019 of my first monograph, a 550 pages book on the Fifth Dynasty Sun Temples, a quite unique monument of pharaonic civilization which has been the primary subject of my study over the last 15 years.

Can you share the most interesting discoveries or findings to which your research contributed?

Thanks to my research project in Poland and the profitable cooperation with the University of Naples L’Orientale in the last three years we have obtained incredible results in the field, such as the discovery, at the site of Abu Ghurab, of one of the lost sun temples of ancient Egypt. This discovery is significant for Egyptology and has got a quite considerable echo also on national and international media, being announced officially, as one of the best discoveries of 2022, by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquity.

Are you planning to publish anything in near future?

First of all, I wish to finish the excavation at the site of Abu Ghurab before the end of the project in 2024 in order to get the full picture of the situation. Based on these data, I will then publish a big monograph on the topic with the main results of the work of the last years. The site was lastly excavated in 1901. For this reason, what we are doing in the field has a primary scientific significance, which will get more impact on both the wider audience and the scientific community after its publication.

What would you consider the biggest challenge in your work?

My utmost aspiration would be to find the sun temple of Neferirkara, the most famous out of the six sun temples known from the historical sources of the Fifth Dynasty. Many archaeologist before me were seeking for it but nobody ever managed to identify its location and unearth it.

Did you also meet other Italian scientists in Warsaw?

I have met a number of Italian scholars in Warsaw with whom I have created both scientific links and personal connections. I have to admit that Italians do actually have a very efficient and effective networking abroad, whereas they too often don’t do this in Italy. This is something we certainly have to improve in the future.

[Read more about Professor Nuzzolo's discoveries here.]