Emmanuel Anati was born in Florence in 1930 to Ugo and Elsa Castelnuovo, a family of
Jewish origin. In 1948, he got the scientific maturity in the "Righi" institute of
Rome. He then moved to
Jerusalem, where he graduated in archaeology from
Hebrew University in 1952. In 1959, Anati specialized in anthropology and social sciences at Harvard University. In 1960, he earned a Ph.D. in Literature at the Sorbonne in
Paris. Anati has performed excavations and archaeological research in
Israel (especially in the
Negev desert),
Spain,
France, and other European countries. Based on the results of his discoveries in the
Sinai Peninsula, Anati has become a supporter of the thesis that the
Biblical Mount Sinai is not to be identified as
Gebel Katherina, but as
Har Karkom instead; he also believes that the Exodus should be placed between the 24th and the 21st century BCE, instead of the traditional date between 17th and 13th century BCE. This identification has not gained acceptance:
Israel Finkelstein (who denies the historicity of the Exodus) described Anati's methods as "an anachronistic vestige from the 19th century", while
James K. Hoffmeier (who supports the historicity of the Exodus, but in the traditional 13th century date) has stressed that "the type of Early Bronze Age cultic installations discovered at Har Karkom have also been found in significant numbers in the southern desert, Negev, and Sinai—so Anati's finds are not unique". In the 1950s, Anati explored
Val Camonica, whose
rock carvings are one of the largest sites for rock art in
Europe. In 1964 he founded the
Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici (CCSP) in
Capo di Ponte, in order to study the prehistoric and tribal art and contribute to the enhancement of this cultural heritage. In 1962, he married Ariela Fradkin. == Works ==