A leading figure in Italian archaeology and Co-Director of the Italy Oman international research program studying the beginnings of navigation and long-distance trade in the Indian Ocean died at the age of 72 yesterday in Ravenna, Italy. A student of palaeo-economics and the social structure of early societies, he directed his efforts at the study of the relations between population resources in the systematic reconstruction of past landscapes and made many contributions to understanding Indus trade and archaeology in the region. He worked at Mohenjo-daro as co-director of the German - Italian RWTH/ISMEO project for mapping architectures and craft activities in the 1980s.

His colleague Dennys Frenez writes of this sad event, "The cremation ceremony will take place at Ravenna on this next Monday at 3.30 pm. Friend and colleagues are organizing a commemoration in Ravenna on March 5th at 3 pm."

Dr. Tosi is one of the archaeologists who helped bring Italians to the forefront of ancient Indus studies.

One of his essays is Cultural Relationships Beyond the Iranian Plateau: The Helmand Civilization, Baluchistan and the Indus Valley in the 3rd Millennium BCE

The Lothal Revisitation Project is from his 70th birthday commemoration volume My Life is like the Summer Rose (2014).

A brief biography of Maurizio Tosi.

Photo credit: ItaliaOman