Giuseppe Fiorelli

Who was Giuseppe Fiorelli?

Giuseppe Fiorelli was an Italian archaeologist. His excavations at Pompeii helped preserve the city.

Fiorelli was born on 8 June 1823 in Naples. His initial work at Pompeii was completed in 1848. He was then imprisoned for some time because his radical approach to archaeology and strong nationalist feelings landed him in trouble with the foreign king of Naples. During his time as a political prisoner, he produced a three volume work entitled History of Pompeian Antiques. Years later, as a professor of archaeology at Naples University and director of excavations, he established the meticulous method of studying archaeological sites layer by layer. He founded a training school where foreigners as well as Italians could learn archaeological technique and made a particular study of the materials and building methods used in Pompeii. Fiorelli also hit upon the innovation of pumping plaster into the cavities left by the victims' bodies in the hardened lava, thereby producing casts of the corpses' clothing and features.