Giuseppe Orefici

Giuseppe Orefici is the director of the Centro Italiano Studi Ricerche Archeologiche Precolombiane (CISRAP), which is based in Brescia, Italy. Before 1980 he conducted several archaeological studies in Algeria and Libya, and since 1980 he directs the CISRAP’s studies in Latin America, in particular in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala, Chile and Peru. In Peru he has conducted studies about rock art in the Amazon jungle, and in 1982 he took charge of the Nasca Project 1982-2012, which is part of the Peru-Italy Cultural Agreement. In 1984 he started concentrating the project’s efforts on excavating and researching the Cahuachi archaeological site, and in 2001 -After he celebrated twenty years of work with Nasca- he started a program for the revaluation of Cahuachi. From 1989 to 2001 he also directed several archaeological projects in the Island of Pascua (Chile), and currently, besides being director of the Nasca Project and the Antonini Archaeological Museum of Nasca, he is also director of the UNESCO-sponsored Tiwanako project in Bolivia. During his career he has received numerous awards, including a Honoris Causa doctorate from the Universidad Nacional Federico Villareal in 1989 and a Honoris Causa doctorate from the University of Ica in 2007. He has been scientific consultant to several important cultural events and exhibitions in the American continent and in Europe. As an author, he has published several books about Nasca, the Island of Pascua, Copán, Río La Venta, Ancient Rome and other archaeological subjects. As a professor, since 2003 he teaches doctorate courses on the Nasca culture at the Sorbonne University in Paris (France), and in 2008 he was appointed to teach doctorate courses at the Università Roma Tre (Italy).