Giovanni Verardi

Besides his activity as a field archaeologist, Verardi has devoted himself to the study of Indian iconography and Indian history. He retired in November 2007.

(ed.) Tang. Arte e cultura in Cina prima dell'anno Mille (Catalogue of the Exhibition, Naples, 16 December 2005 – 22 April 2006). Napoli 2006. (With L. Caterina).

(ed.) Nepalese and Italian Contributions to the History and Archaeology of Nepal. Proceedings of the Seminar Held at Hanuman Dhoka, Kathmandu, on 27–28 January 1995 (IsIAO Reports and

In 1981 he joined the Italian Archaeological Mission to Nepal, of which he became director in 1988. Research work was first carried out at the site of Harigaon in Kathmandu and after at the Aśokan site of Gotihawa in the Tarai, c. 25 km west of Lumbini.

In the 1980s Verardi participated in the activities of the German-Italian Mission to Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, where he could ascertain that the so-called stūpa-cum monastery rising upon the ruins of the Indus town is nothing but the articulated late phase of the Indus religious/ritual building, erroneously interpreted as a Buddhist structure by John Marshall. Between 1998 and 2003, Verardi was co-director of the Italian-Chinese team engaged in the excavation of the Fengxiansi monastery at Longmen near Luoyang, connected with the Empress Wu Zetian (AD 690‒705) and rebuilt during the Song dynasty.

As early as 1970 he joined the Italian Archaeological Mission to Afghanistan, where he started his work as field archaeologist at the Buddhist site of Tapa Sardar near Ghazni, in whose territory he carried out extensive surveys that led to the discovery of several groups of Buddhist rock-cut monasteries.

Giovanni Verardi (born 1947) is an Italian archaeologist specialising in the civilisations of central Asia and India. With extensive academic and fieldwork experience, he has published findings about sites in Afghanistan, Nepal, India, and China in particular. Verardi has joined or directed several long archaeological missions to central Asia, and held positions on numerous Italian scientific boards. He has a particular interest in Indian iconography and history.

Giovanni Verardi (born 1947) was a professor at the University of Naples of Oriental Studies ("L'Orientale"), Italy, where he taught Art and Archaeology of Central Asia and Art and Archaeology of India. He spent time in a number of universities outside Italy, including as a maître de conférences at the Collège de France in Paris, guest professor at the University of Kyoto, and visiting professor in Japan (Kyoto University, Seijō University, and International College for Advanced Buddhist Studies in Tokyo).