Alla scoperta della Cirenaica. Esploratori, geografi e archeologi versus Senussi (1870-1915)

The Italian occupation of Libya was preceded by an intense exploration of the territory then under the control of the Ottoman Empire. These geographers, travelers, anthropologists, and archaeologists founded an Italian colonial «professionalism» as they gradually penetrated inland, either in collaboration or in competition with similar European and American mis- sions. These inland excursions exposed the visitors to the new and energetic Senussa brotherho- od, whose religious livelihoods included political and military characteristics. Archaeologists also began fomenting conflict on the ideological level by exposing the rich deposits of Greek- Roman antiquity present in Cyrenaica and Tripolitania. The myth of the Mare nostrum was thus reborn as the Italian right to control the Eastern Mediterranean.