BAR Interviews Giovanni Pettinato

The following interview with Professor Giovanni Pettinato was conducted by BAR Editor Hershel Shanks on May 4, 1980.

Professor Pettinato was the original epigrapher of the Italian Mission to Ebla. He resigned following a bitter personal and scholarly dispute with the mission director and chief archaeologist, Paolo Matthiae. Matthiae has now appointed a 10-man committee to publish the Ebla tablets and other related finds and studies. This 10-man [Matthiae’s] committee is referred to several times in this interview.