Arturo Issel

Who was Arturo Issel?

Arturo Issel was an Italian geologist, palaeontologist, malacologist and archaeologist. He is noted for first defining the Tyrrhenian Stage in 1914. Issel was also renowned at the time for his work on codifying information within anthropology and ethnology, for which he is still remembered.

Issel participated in several expeditions to East Africa, including that led by Orazio Antinori and Odoardo Beccari in 1870. He was appointed professor of Geology at the University of Genova in 1866. Issel was a close correspondent with anthropologist Elio Modigliani, and helped promulgate his ideas. Issel's son, Raffaele Issel, followed in his footsteps and was appointed professor of zoology at the University of Genova in 1923.

The Issel Bridge, an undersea ridge separating parts of the Tyrrhenian Sea, and the Issel Seamount were named in Arturo Issel's honor.

In 1865 Professor Arturo Issel, an Italian geologist, was searching for the presence of Neanderthal man in Malta. During one of his excursions in Wied Dalam, he came across a cave, half filled with soil and used as a cattle-pen. Issel thought that an excavation at the site could prove fruitful. He dug a trench in the cave’s loose soil and found human remains and a hippopotamus bone. Many followed in Issel’s footsteps.