Volume 85, 2010

This study seeks to reassess the conventional chronology for the beginning of the Grey Series amphorae from the isle of Lesbos. Based on a rediscovery of a Lesbian amphora in a secured Iron Age IIB context at Tell Qudadi (Israel), it is suggested that the beginning of the Lesbian series should be dated to ca 700 BC (that is significantly earlier than previously assumed), similar to other archaic East Greek amphorae series (e.g., Samian, Chian and Clazomenian). The study is accompanied by thin-section and NAA analyses carried on the Lesbian amphorae from Tell Qudadi and Mezad Hashavyahu (Israel).

The present contribution discusses the notions of acculturation, ‘middle ground’, and hybridity, suggesting that one should frame in terms of hybridity only those colonial situations whereby volatile overlappings and intertwinings of identities and practices take place, changes in identity are the rule, and fluidity and multiplicity go beyond every static dichotomy. Attention is paid particularly to colonial encounters in archaic and classical Sicily. A reconsideration of the evidence suggests that there are no cogent reasons to think that ethnic differentiation was the most salient line of demarcation. Neither artifacts and practices were primarily characterised by their ethnic origin, nor a straightforward correlation between language and ethnic presence can be taken for granted. More specifically, archeological and inscriptional evidence coming from the settlements of Montagna di Marzo and Morgantina, as well from Castiglione di Ragusa and the Hyblaean region is taken into account. They are hinterland environments located in areas which have often been seen as partially Hellenized, in which the colonial encounters do not seem to have had the effect of crystallizing cultural identities. The conclusion seems inevitable that many areas of sixth-century Sicily should be seen in the same way as precolonial Africa is seen by J.-L. Amselle, the French anthropologist who criticized in an inspiring manner the anthropology of identities merely focused on ethnic categories. Those were areas in which ethnic and territorial boundaries were weak or even non existing, where we are not dealing with ethnic entities in contact or with abstract cultures that interact with each other, but rather with local contexts that are ‘ensembles flous’, as Amselle would say: places where varied relationships and senses of membership coexisted, where the identities were changeable and not ethnically salient, being thus multicultural.

The archaic terracotta figurine Budapest 77.104.A, belonging to the well-known class of Tarentine votives representing a reclining banqueter, is taken here as a starting point for a discussion concerning the artistic sources that determined the style and iconography of this class at its beginning. A number of comparisons with a wide range of works of art of the 6th century BC help to reconsider the assertion, generally accepted up to now, according to which the theme and the scheme of Tarentine banqueters would have been adapted directly from Eastern Greek art. A thorough stylistic analysis of early Tarentine banqueter types shows, in fact, that Eastern Greek models played a role in the formation of local types only as a part of a more complex whole, in which the impact of Laconian models must have been equally important. In fact, it seems more likely that the ultimate origin of the Tarentine banqueter scheme can be traced back to the art of its metropolis, Sparta. On the other hand, in the second half of the 6th century, an interest for East Greek models can be observed also in Laconian art itself, with strikingly similar results as it is shown by some coroplastic documents in Taras.

Current research on the colonies founded in Latium in the two centuries before 338 BC (priscae Latinae coloniae) focuses principally on historical issues, such as the question of who was responsible for their foundation. Little is known about the colonial settlements themselves. In this article, these settlements and their position in the wider socio-political context will be studied through the archaeological evidence. Based on the archaeological material, some new observations on the physical appearance of the colonial settlements will be made and it will be argued that some of the more traditional ideas on the colonies may need adjustment.

In the last decades the Salento peninsula has become a laboratory for archaeological research of pre-Roman, indigenous societies in Southern Italy. Since the early 1980’s, the Archaeological Centre of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam has contributed to this research by carrying out excavations, field surveys and remote sensing techniques in a range of landscape and settlement types throughout the northern half of the peninsula. In recent years, it has focused its attention amongst others on the site of I Castiedd’ di San Pancrazio Salentino, located in an area only marginally documented archaeologically. This article presents the preliminary results of the 2007 excavations that were carried out in close collaboration with the Royal Netherlands Institute at Rome and the Università del Salento. These excavations brought to light a series of houses which were organized along a well defined street pattern. In combination with the field surveys carried out in the same area, the digs indicate that the site of I Castiedd’ was among the larger pre-Roman, indigenous settlements of Salento and that it was continuously occupied from the early Iron age until the early Empire.

This article provides a catalogue of all Hellenistic alabaster urns from Chiusi and its territory with Greek mythological representations, preceded by a hypothesis concerning symbolic values of the scenes on the front of the urns.

During the first two decades of the Ghent excavations, it was thought that the area of the Tiberian sanctuary in Pessinus had been of little importance in Hellenistic times. It is probably true that the Hellenistic sanctuary of Cybele, as bequeathed by the Attalids of Pergamum, should not be identified with any of the structures found in the temple area. However, excavations have increasingly shown that the priests of Cybele may well have been involved in major building projects during the Hellenistic period in this particular part of Pessinus. Subsequently, the dawn of the Roman provincial era did not only witness a new sanctuary, it also brought along a very unambiguous urbanistic approach. With respect to the known history of the city, one may discern important symbols of and shifts in power in the genesis and destruction of these buildings.

The aim of this research is to reconstruct the outer appearance of the defences of the Bergkamen-Oberaden legionary fortress. The research project was prompted by plans for a full scale reconstruction of part of the northern defences in situ, comprising a 40 meters long section of the rampart as well as two interval towers. For this reason, the research focuses both on the rampart and the interval towers. Other elements of the fortress’ defence system, such as the gates, will be addressed in future research. Within the group of military defences built in the North-western region of the Roman empire during the Augustan era and the following century, the ground traces found in Oberaden follow a common pattern. This ‘footprint’ indicates that the rampart consisted of an earthen wall raised between two vertically placed revetments made of timber (i.e. Holz-Erde-Mauer). What the rampart and the interval towers looked like in more detail was examined through an analysis of a variety of sources ranging from ground traces and material remains of the Oberaden defences and of other sites, to information provided by literary sources such as Caesar and Vegetius. The relatively rare remains of the wooden revetment found in Oberaden en Valkenburg were particularly helpful. Considerations regarding the function of the defences and reflections on structural aspects and building practice also played a significant role in the reconstruction process.

Detailed statistical data have been combined in this article and provide how wall paintings and central mythological scenes, and with them a new luxurious taste, developed in Pompeian houses during the late Republic and early Empire. This development suggests there was a change in the social structure of the town. A new class gained influence, at the latest after the earthquake of AD 62, which led to a number of new families profiting from the reconstruction work. A new taste of luxury wall decorations with central mythological scenes spread out all over Pompeii, however most significant in the representative buildings of the rich inhabitants, who exhibited demonstratively their wealth. The rise of the ‘nouveaux riches’ is also reflected in a small number of new themes for paintings, which are repea t ed permanently and monotonously. The mythological figures are now interchangeable, and erotic situations and naked attractive persons are the central feature, rather than the actual mythological narrative.

Review article of Claudio Gallazzi, Bärbel Kramer, Salvatore Settis (eds), Il Papiro di Artemidoro (P.Artemid.). Con la collaborazione di Gianfranco Adornato, Albio Cesare Cassio, Agostino Soldati. Milano: LED Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto, 2008.