Michela Schiff Giorgini

Biography

Born on 30 October 1923 in Padua, Michela Beomonte was the daughter of the officer Belisarion Beomonte and his wife Gemma Lucchesi. She studied at a liceo artistico and, like her older sister, Maria, she attempted to pursue a career in cinema. She had starring roles in Roberto Rossellini's A Pilot Returns in 1942, and then in Mario Mattoli's The Three Pilots and Gherardo Gherardi's Il nostro prossimo.

In 1946 she married Giorgio Schiff Giorgini, a successful banker whose family had close connections with the University of Pisa where his father, Robert Schiff, was a professor.

The couple moved to Paris amd travelled extensively, visiting America, Africa and Asia. After several trips to Egypt, Schiff Giorgini decided her vocation was to conduct excavation work at ancient Egyptian sites. With her husband's enthusiastic support and under the patronage of the University of Pisa, she embarked on her first mission to Soleb, Sudan, accompanied by two experts: French egyptologist Clément Robichon (as architect and archaeologist) and Dutch egyptologist Jozef Janssen (as epigraphist). In 1961, Janssen was replaced by Jean Leclant, Egyptology professor at the Sorbonne. From 1957 to 1977, Schiff Giorgini and her team spent six months each year in the Sudan, from October to March.

After arriving in Soleb in 1957, under Schiff Giorgini's efficient and well organized management, the team undertook a detailed examination of the temple, before undertaking excavations of its various components. Work was also carried out on the necropolis which was discovered some 800 metres from the temple. Intricate work was completed on the ruins each year until in 1963 when attention was directed at Sedeinga, about 15 km to the north, with its Temple of Queen Tiye, the wife of Amenhotep III. In the neighbouring Meroitic tombs, glassware was found among the funeral artefacts. An ancient road, some 40 km long, was discovered, linking the temples of Soleb and Sesebi. In the vicinity, at Nuri the tomb of the Ethiopian Pharaoh Taharqa was discovered.

In 1977, Schiff Giorgini left Sudan for the last time. She moved to Spain where she died on 3 July 1978 in Benissa, Alicante, after suffering from meningitis.