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Paolo Visonà

Education:
1980-1985 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor - Ph.D., Classical Art and Archaeology Dissertation: Punic Bronze Coinage: Circulation,Mint Attribution and Chronology
1977-1980 University of California, Santa Barbara - M.A., Art History
1973-1974 University of California, Berkeley - Exchange Student, Anthropology/Classics
1971-1976 Università degli Studi di Padova (Italy) - Laurea in Lettere Antiche
Biography:

 

 Paolo Visonà is a Mediterranean archaeologist specializing in the cultural interaction between Greek and indigenous populations, and in Greek territorial defense systems, in the Calabria region of southern Italy.  He holds a Laurea in Lettere Antiche from the University of Padua, in Italy, an M.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.  From 1987 until 2001 he conducted archaeological excavations at the Italic site of Contrada Mella (ancient Mamertion?); he co-edited the first excavation report volume Oppido Mamertina (Calabria – Italia).  Ricerche Archeologiche nel Territorio e in Contrada Mella in 1999.  Between 2005 and 2010, with support from the University of Kentucky and the Foundation for Calabrian Archaeology (a nonprofit corporation), he also directed the exploration of a Greek archaic and classical fort on the summit of Monte Palazzi, in the hinterland of ancient Locri Epizephyrii.  These investigations revealed that the main Greek cities in the toe of Italy built similar outposts to guard the mountainous borders of their territories against invasion by rival city-states.  Preliminary results of the Monte Palazzi project were highlighted in a 2011 exhibition at Lexington’s Central Library, which was made possible by a grant from the Archaeological Institute of America. (www.digcalabria.org/ under: Gallery).

     As a numismatist with expertise in Greek, Roman, and Byzantine coinage, Paolo Visonà has contributed three coin reports for the American excavations at Carthage and has written extensively on Carthaginian coins minted in Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, and southern Italy, as well as on the issues of the Greek colonies in Dalmatia.  His scholarly interests are focused upon the monetary economy of the Punic world before the Roman conquest.  After completing research on this topic as a Margo Tytus Fellow at the University of Cincinnati in 2011, he is currently preparing a corpus of Carthaginian bronze coins based on the holdings of museum collections worldwide.  A member of the American Numismatic Society and a Fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society, Visonà also serves as an officer of the Kentucky Society of the Archaeological Institute of America.  At the University of Kentucky, he offers courses on Greek and Roman art and visual culture, and on classical mythology. 

Research Interests:
Greek & Roman Archaeology
Numismatics
Coinage of Carthage
Selected Publications:

 

PUBLICATIONS:  Monographs

1999  Oppido Mamertina. Ricerche Archeologiche nel Territorio e in contrada Mella (Rome1999) [co-editor and co-author].

 

PUBLICATIONS:  Articles / Essays

2005

“The Coinage of Corcyra Melaina,” in INCC 2004.  Zbornik radova 4. medunarodnog numizmatickog kongresa u Hrvatskoj (Rijeka 2005), pp. 243-252.

“Greek-Illyrian Coins in Trade, 1904-2005,” Schweizerische Numismatische Rundschau 84 (2005).

 “L’insediamento tardoellenistico di contrada Mella,” in R. Agostino (ed.), Gli Italici del Metauros.  Catalogo della Mostra Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Reggio Calabria 29 aprile – 31 ottobre 2005 (Reggio Calabria 2005), pp. 127-131.

“The Skudljivac Hoard Reconsidered,” in Illyrica Antiqua. In memoriam Duje Rendic-Miocevic.  Medunarodni znanstveni skup o problemima anticke arhelogije, Zagreb, 6. – 8. studenoga 2003 (Zagreb 2005), pp. 451-454.

“Recenti e Nuovi Rinvenimenti di Monete Romane dalla Catena delle Tre Croci (Provincia di Vicenza),” in Annotazioni Numismatiche 15 (2005).

 “Ripostiglio di Monete d’Oro di Epoca Risorgimentale da Arzignano (Provincia di Vicenza),” in Annotazioni Numismatiche 15 (2005).

 

2005-2004

“Twenty-Two Alexanders in Ann Arbor,” in American Journal of Numismatics 16-17 (2004-2005).

 

2004

“Archaeology in the Language Classroom,” in PEALS.  The Journal of the Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers 41, no. 2 (Fall 2004), pp. 17-22.

 

2002

"Monetary Circulation on the Island of Vis (ISSA), c. 350 B.C. - A.D. 600," in N. Cambi, S. Cace, B. Kirigin (eds.), in Grcki utjecaj na istocnoj obali Jadrana (Greek Influence along the East Adriatic Coast), Proceedings of the International Conference held in Split from September 24th to 26th 1998 (Split 2002), pp. 319-373 [co-author].

 

2001

"Punic Coins from Sardinia on the Tyrrhenian Littoral," in  Annotazioni Numismatiche 11, s. III, no. 43, pp. 994-996.

 

2000

"A Hellenistic Gold Pendant from contrada Mella (Mamertion?), in Quaderni Ticiniesi di Numismatica e AntichitB Classiche 29 (2000), pp. 251-254.

"Nuovi rinvenimenti di Monete Greche e Romane Provinciali nel territorio Vicentino. Addenda a RMRVe IV/1 e IV/2," Rivista Italiana di Numismatica 101 (2000), pp. 63-73.      

"Due monete etrusche inedite e rare in collezioni italiane," in Schweizerische Numismatische Rundschau 79 (2000), pp. 27-34.