Sassu, Rita

Profile

Rita Sassu is Associate Professor of Classical Archaeology at Unitelma Sapienza University of Rome and lecturer at the Polytechnic University of Bari and the European Institute of Design. She is director of Sapienza's archaeological mission at Gortyn (Crete, Greece), upon concession of the Italian Archaeological School at Athens. She is scientific responsible for the Cooperation Agreement between Unitelma Sapienza, the University of Peloponnese and the Institute of Sparta for the promotion of studies and research on the polis of Sparta and is also director of the annual archaeological Summer School dedicated to the knowledge of the Laconic city. She coordinates numerous research projects dedicated to classical archaeology, including the PRIN ArchiTa, concerning the monuments and the topography of Taranto.

She participated as a speaker to more than 200 conferences and she is author of more than 130 publications concerning classical archaeology, with particular reference to the archaeology of cult in ancient Greece (Lo spazio del culto. Elementi e strutture del santuario greco, Catania 2022), the relationship between public economy and sacred resources (Hiera chremata. Il ruolo del santuario nell'economia della polis, Roma 2014), the citizenship in the ancient world (The concept of Citizenship through ages, Roma 2016), and the cultural heritage (European Heritage Label, Roma 2019).

The scientific research focuses primarily on classical archaeology, with a particular emphasis on the study of the manifestations of cult and ritual practices as instruments to understand ancient societies. Other areas of research include the investigation of the Greek sanctuary and sacred architectures, the reconstruction of the public economy in the polis and its relationship with the sacred domain, classical sculpture, the urban and social organisation of the poleis, and citizenship in the Greco-Roman world. A particular research focus is the study of the ancient cities of Gortyn, Sparta and Taras.

She is member of editorial boards of scholarly journals, including Mediterraneo Antico, Thiasos. Rivista di archeologia e architettura antica, The Historical Review of Sparta, Quaderni di Architettura e Design. Her professional career also included studies and research on European cultural policies and the protection and valorisation of cultural heritage, on behalf of the European Commission and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, where she worked for more than a decade.