Profile

Historian and archaeologist of the Ancient Near East, he is a senior researcher of the National Research Council (Cnr) since 2023. His primary research field focuses on the Syro-Anatolian region, between the II and the I millennium B.C., with specific contributions on chronology, the diffusion of juridical formularies, and the archival practices.

At the same time, he also profoundly involved in the field of Digital Humanities, whom he contributed throughout the publication of specialistic contributions, the organization of workshops and courses, and the development of numerous original software. In this field of research, two distinct sub-areas are distinguishable.

From 2005, in collaboration with Prof. Carlo Zaccagnini (L’Orientale University of Naples) and Prof. Lucio Milano (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice), and with the financial support of MIUR, he coordinates the Progetto Sinleqiunnini. It is an integrated system for the management of large collections of texts in logo-syllabic scripts of the Ancient Near East, that has been employed already for the Middle Euphrates Digital Archive and the Ebla Digital Archives. From 2011, the project enlarged and also included historical sources of the Eastern Mediterranean area. In collaboration with Dr. Maurizio Del Freo (CNR – ISPC), the project started collecting Linear B texts (Liber | Linear B Electronic Resources).

A further area of interest in the Digital Humanities’ line of research concerns both the applications of quantitative methods for the study of historical geography and the development of software for the management of geo-historical data (HGIS).  In particular, his research addressed the topic of computational modeling of ancient itineraries, filling the gaps of written sources throughout probabilistic models. Finally, he realized ad hoc GIS applications for the management and the analysis of archaeological field-records of the site of Arslantepe (Malatya, Turkey), directed by Prof. Marcella Frangipane (Sapienza University of Rome), to whom he actively collaborates since 2015.

Publications

2018 

• Di Filippo, F., Sinleqiunnini: Designing an Annotated Text Collection for Logo-Syllabic Writing Systems, ed. by Annamaria De Santis and Irene Rossi, Crossing Experiences in Digital Epigraphy: From Practice to Discipline (Warsaw, Poland: De Gruyter, 2018) <https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110607208> 
• Di Filippo, F., M. Maiocchi, L. Milano, and R. Orsini, ‘The “Ebla Digital Archives” Project: How to Deal with Methodological and Operational Issues in the Development of Cuneiform Texts Repositories’, Archeologia e Calcolatori, 8 (2018), 117–42 
• Di Filippo, F., and L. Mori, ‘How Difficult? Mountain Roads and Pathways Reaching Ancient Melid (Malatya) in South-Eastern Anatolia: A Reconsideration’, SMEA NS, 4 (2018), 41–62 
• Frangipane, Marcella, Francesco Di Filippo, Federico Manuelli, and Lucia Mori, ‘Collapse or Transformation? Regeneration and Innovation at the Turn of the First Millennium BC at Arslantepe, Turkey’, Antiquity, 92 (2018) <https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2018.56> 

2016 

• Di Filippo, F., ‘Patterns of Movement through the Upper Mesopotamia: The Urbana-Yale Itinerary as a Case-Study’, in Libiamo Ne’ Lieti Calici. Ancient Near Eastern Studies Presented to Lucio Milano on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday by Pupils, Colleagues and Friends, ed. by P. Corò, E. Devecchi, N. De Zorzi, and M. Maiocchi, AOAT 436 (Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2016), pp. 451–81 

2014 

• Del Freo, M., and F. Di Filippo, ‘LiBER: Un Progetto Di Digitalizzazione Dei Testi in Scrittura Lineare B’, Archeologia e Calcolatori, 25 (2014), 33–50 

2011 

• Del Freo, M., L. Alberti, F. Di Filippo, and V. Lenuzza, ‘Un Progretto Di Digitalizzazione Dell’archivo in Lineare B Di Cnosso’, Smea, 53 (2011), 241–43 

2010 

• Di Filippo, F., ‘Two Tablets from the Vicinity of Emar’, in Ana Turri Gimilli, Studi Dedicati Al Padre Werner R. Mayer, S.J., 2010, pp. 105–15 

2008 

• Di Filippo, F., ‘Emar Legal Tablets: Archival Practice and Chronology’, in The City of Emar among the Late Bronze Age Empires. History, Landscape, and Society, ed. by L. D’Alfonso, Y. Cohen, and D. Sürenhagen, AOAT 349 (Münster, 2008), pp. 45–64 
• Di Filippo, F., ‘Gli Atti Di Compravendita Di Emar. Rapporto e Conflitto Tra Due Tradizioni Giuridiche’, in I Diritti Nel Mondo Cuneiforme. Mesopotamia e Regni Adiacenti (Atti Del Collegio Dei Diritti Antichi, Pavia 2006), ed. by M. Liverani and C. Mora (Pavia, 2008), vi, 206­ – 242 

2004 

• Di Filippo, F., ‘Notes on the Chronology of Emar Legal Tablets’, SMEA, 46 (2004), 175­ – 214