« Origine de la collection des objets des peuples Saho issue de la Mission en Érythrée en 1905-1906 exposée au Museo di Antropologia ed Etnologia de Florence (Italie) »

During the Italian colonial period the first ethnographic expedition was the Eritrean Mission (1905-1906) in the Assaorta region, a territory stretching from the Red Sea to the north-western borders of Eritrea. It was entrusted to a multidisciplinary team composed of professionals such as geographers Giotto Dainelli (1878-1968) and Olinto Marinelli (1876-1926), for geological and geographical surveys, paleontologist and physical anthropologist Aldobrandino Mochi (1875-1931), and ethnologist Lamberto Loria (1855-1913) for the ethnological and photographic part. With regard to the tasks assigned to Mochi and Loria, it is possible to reconstruct the organization and conduct of the expedition, the methods of investigation and the conditions as well as the policies of production of historical and ethnographic data. One of the official aims of the Mission was to collect materials that would have enriched the collections of the Museo Nazionale di Antropologia e Etnologia founded by Paolo Mantegazza in 1869 in Florence.