Clementina Panella

Clementina Panellais an Italianarchaeologist, a professor at theUniversity of Rome La Sapienza, where she teachesMethodologyof Archaeology. She has guided and co-written a number of articles on the commercial pottery of ancient Italy.
Panella's contribution has been in the field of modernamphorastudies, which combine careful observation, quantification and intensive research. She published her analysis of the amphoras from excavation at the baths atOstiainStudi Miscellanei 13(1968), 16 (1972), and especially 21 (1973). She has contributed to four major conferences which set the standard for amphora studies today:Recherches sur les amphores romaines, CollEFR 10 (Rome 1972);Méthodes classiques et méthodes formelles dans l'étude des amphores, CollEFR 32 (Rome 1977);Recherches sur les amphores grècques, BCH Suppl. 13 (Paris 1986) andAmphores romaines et histoire économique: Dix ans de recherche, CollEFR 114 (Rome 1989).She worked at Carthage in the early years of the UNESCO archaeological project there.
In addition, she prepared the conclusions of the symposium on sixth and seventh century ceramics in Italy that was held at Rome in honour of John W. Hayes, published asCeramica in Italia: VI-VII secolo: Atti del Convengo in onore di John W. Hayes, Roma 11-13 maggio 1995, L. Sagui, editor (Florence: Edizioni All’Insegna del Giglio, in series Biblioteca di Archeologia Medievale 14) 1998.
Her continuing interest in the testimony contributed by ancient amphoras, their imprintedbullaeof manufacture and the traces of the goods they carried, were reflected in her contribution toThe Ancient Economy, 2002She is often called upon to provide dates for amphorae found at otherwise hard-to-date sites, such asshipwrecks.
In excavations under her direction west of theColosseumand on the northeast slopes of thePalatine Hillin Rome, the foundations of theMeta Sudans, a fountain of the Augustan era,  were uncovered, together with other remains dating from the Late Republic through the Flavian eras. Nearby, on the lower slopes of the Palatine, her recent excavations showed traces of religious cult dating as far back as the late seventh century BCE.
With Patrizio Pensabene she co-editedArco di Constantino, tra archeologia e archeometria, which summed up the new interpretation of theArch of Constantineas entirely scavenged sculptural elements reused and modified from a Hadrianic context.
Her excavations in Rome, discovering lead roofing nails melted by the heat of theGreat Fire of Rome, were sketched for a general audience in the PBS "Secrets of the Dead" episode on the fire.
In 2006 two reports on the Palatine excavations were newsworthy. In June, the discovery of a carefully secreted wooden box containing imperial scepters and ceremonial lance-heads andhalberds, dating to the fourth century. The three scepters had handgrips oforichalcum, the prized golden-colored brass alloy, with glass andchalcedonyglobes.The following month her report that her team had uncovered the frescoed corridor of a grand aristocraticdomusof the first century BCE, the so-calledPalatine House,led to hopes that it may prove to be the birthplace ofAugustus. In 2015,The New York Timesreported on the discovery of the likely site of the shrine of theCuriae vetereswithin the area of Panella's excavation.