Paolo Matthiae

 

Paolo Matthiae is an Italian archaeologist who was born in Rome on January 9, 1940. He is a professor of the History of Art of the Ancient Near East at the University of Rome La Sapienza; he has been Director of the Ebla Expedition since 1963—in fact, its discoverer—and has published many articles and books about Ebla and about the History of Art of Mesopotamia and Syria in general. In 1972 and 1973, Matthiae co-directed the excavation of Tell Fray in the Euphrates Valley that was to be flooded by Lake Assad, the reservoir of the Tabqa Dam, which was being constructed at that time.