Federico Halbherr

Who was Federico Halbherr?

Federico Halbherr was an Italian archaeologist and epigrapher, known for his excavations of Crete. A contemporary, good friend, and trusted advisor of Arthur Evans, he began excavating at Phaistos before Evans began excavating at Knossos. Some of his explorations were funded by the Archaeological Institute of America.

For all the time that he explored and excavated in Crete, and was accepted as a valued friend by the British and Americans, Halbherr was, strictly speaking, not Italian, but Austrian. His native city, Rovereto, was on the Austrian side of the border in what is now northern Italy. Halbherr's first education beyond secondary school was in Vienna. At heart, however, he was an Italian. He soon went to Italy to study with Comparetti. It was under the latter's auspices that he first excavated in Crete, to become known as an Italian archaeologist. He shared his deepest interests and also his politics with the English-speaking nationals. They were all against the Ottoman Empire.

His activities in Crete and his acceptance by the English-speakers came to a rather abrupt end in 1911 through no intent and no fault of his own. The Italian government developed imperial designs on Ottoman Libya, in those times ten years before the rise of Italian fascism. The Italo-Turkish War was to deliver Libya to Italian rule in 1913 by the Treaty of Ouchy, but meanwhile, in 1911, not long before the arrival of Italian troops, Halbherr turned up in Libya.