Volume 94, 2019

Pages 1-38.

Since 2015, an international and multi-disciplinary research project supported by the Deutsche Forschungs-gemeinschaft (DFG) has been systematically studying the ‘Etruscan’ site of Bisenzio situated in the district of the modern town of Capodimonte (Viterbo), inland of South Etruria and west of Lake Bolsena. Considering that a community thrived there uninterruptedly between the late 10th century and the early 5th century BC, our knowledge of the evidence from both the residential area and the cemeteries is limited and unsystematic. This paper offers a short overview of the previous research and a more detailed comment on the investigations carried out during the first two years of the new research project.

Pages 39-58.

In the Archaeological Museum of Bari there is a bronze plaque realized in bas-relief depicting the image of a crouched bull with a human head looking back, identifiable with Achelous, perhaps coming from the site of Monte Sannace, an indigenous center of central Apulia, and dating back to the end of the 6th century BC. This artifact shows considerable stylistic and formal affinities, especially the softness of the lines and volumes, with an amber pendant of the British Museum which depicts the same subject made by the workshop of the ‘Armento Group’ and found in the eponymous site, located at about 200 km from the Apulian site. These stylistic similarities are also visible in other figured amber specimens produced in the same workshop and found at other Oenotrian sites. The comparisons with other artifacts made with other materials (ivory and bronze) lead one to think that the small bronze of Bari was made, on the specific request of an aristocratic indigenous person, by a traveling craftsman who knew models and iconographic patterns widespread during the Archaic age in Southern Italy and Etruria thanks to the contribution of the artisans of the Ionian school.

Pages 59-64.

New finds from Tuscania of Argonaut Painter’s oeuvre, in the geographic context of inland Etruria during the Interimsperiode. Comparisons are made with other vases by the same painter, whose workshop is probably to be placed in the Orvietan-Clusine district. The significance of ‘Manteljünglinge’ as stock figures.

Pages 65-86.

This paper examines gestures expressing emotion on classical Attic funerary reliefs: mourning and grief for the loss of a loved one or for one’s own untimely death, tenderness and affection for the deceased or a living relative, consolation for a bereaved family member, and verbal communication, which can be used to convey a variety of meanings: a last farewell, the pain felt by the mourners, or love for the dead kin. Emotional gestures are not particularly common in funerary relief scenes. They are however important, since they create a visual bond between two persons and can often help with identifying the deceased. They also place special emphasis on the powerful ties of familial love and kinship between the deceased and his/her grief-stricken relatives.

Pages 87-96.

This article deals with images on Faliscan red figure vases (ca. 390/380-300 BC). It aims to define the Athenian influences and Faliscan characteristics, and explain two enigmatic images by paying attention to visual narratives: extraction, omission, paradigmata and syntagmata. By excerpting Attic figurative scenes local vase painters created symbolic combinations of different mythological scenes.

Pages 97-126.

This paper is a continuation of a previous article by the author on Roman wine and oil production in central Marche and northern Abruzzo, published in this journal in 2011. In essence, it reflects on what five years of complementary research have contributed to our knowledge on the wine and oil business in this area between the Late Republican and the late antique period (2nd century BC-5th century AD). Through a substantial expansion of the original press database and a fresh blend of both older and newer data, the author further stresses the importance of this sector in central Adriatic Italy, while at the same time expanding our view on how it is represented archaeologically. In doing so, he revisits and refines several key-aspects of this topic, such as the chronology and layout of the production plants, as well as their relationship with wider processes of colonisation, urbanisation and agricultural exploitation in Roman Italy.

Pages 126-146.

The argument for an archaeological connection between Ostia’s four republican temples (the so-called Quattro Tempietti) and the inscriptions CIL XIV 375 and 376 has persisted for more than a century. Yet the evidence for this proposed connection does not stand up to scrutiny. This study traces out the curious development of this correlation and the tension that has arisen between the recently-proposed Augustan dates for 375 and the late Republican date for the construction of the Quattro Tempietti. It then turns to a critical examination of the archaeological evidence upon which the correlation has relied, and presents a preliminary analysis of the earliest stratigraphy of the temples.

Pages 147-160.

This contribution focuses on the Roman urban foundation ritual, the sulcus primigenius, and its related boundary, the pomerium. Rather than studying actual city foundations, such as the city of Rome itself and later Roman colonies, it addresses the metaphorical use of the sulcus primigenius and the pomerium in various media. By looking at inscriptions, bas-reliefs and coins, the paper argues that the image of the city founder and the plough was used in the imperial period to signpost a close connection to Rome, announce periods of political transformation or renewal, and advertise an extension of Rome’s spheres of influence.

Pages 161-182.

This article deals with the Roman re-used columns of the church of S. Pietro in Alba Fucens. The Corinthian capitals and the shafts of the naves are of Lunense marble, those on the sides of the apses are of local stone. We focus on the normalization of the Corinthian capital in the Augustan age through an analytical study. That is the consequence of styles popularized by Rome and Campania. They spread widely in Italy and in the Western provinces. We have also carried out the study of the normalization of the medieval Corinthian capitals in Abruzzo that the capitals of the iconostasis testify. The style of the second triumvirate is widely taken up in capitals and other decorations of the churches of the 12th and 13th centuries.

Pages 183-192.

The idea that the relief in the courtyard of Palazzo Rondinini in Rome is a votive relief, connected with the re-enactment of the foundation of the sanctuary of Asclepius on the Tiber Island, should be excluded. It is a part of a large mythological relief, whose entire narrative content escapes us. It was used for decorative purposes, with a landscape setting, in a rocky context with a river, its source and a cave. There is a snake, associated with the rocky ravines, the humidity of the ground and the water. Probably, as in the case of the Spada reliefs, it was completed in the upper margin with a heroic-mythological scene, which is impossible to recognise, due to its fragmentary state. Its height could support this hypothesis. Finally, we would like to prove Zoega’s thesis, according to which the large water jar may have belonged to a lost figure, sitting or lying in the upper register.

Pages 193-210.

This study aims to analyse the bronze statue of Hadrian found in Tel Shalem (in the territory of ancient Scythopolis, today Bet Shean, in Israel) and now located at the Israel Museum of Jerusalem. Several studies have been made on this statue, in particular analysing the peculiar scene depicted on the lorica of the emperor. This image, in particular, has been read in many different ways, without consensus on its proper interpretation. According to our analysis, there is a clear need to contextualise the statue in a wider and more complex background, linking it with its surroundings and the occasions that could have led to the erection of the statue. After re-examining in detail all prior theories and readings of the image on the emperor’s chest, we conclude that the statue was erected for some event before the Bar Kokhba revolt.

Pages 211-234.

The purpose of this article is to take a significant appurtenance of feminine fashion – the wig – and demonstrate its ideological function. We know that Roman women wore wigs in ‘real’ life. References in the literary sources and rare yet significant examples of surviving wigs and hairpieces provide solid evidence for the use of wigs by Roman women. However, the explicit depiction of wigs seems to have been restricted to a selection of women’s portraits dated to the late 2nd to 3rd century AD. This consequently marks a significant development in female representation, confined to a specific historical context. The purpose of this article is to understand why it was that these portraits presented women bewigged. What was the ideological function of these portraits and how can this more broadly inform our understanding of the cultural priorities of this era?

Pages 211-234.

Giovanni Mariti provides an account of the same archaeological discovery both in his Viaggi and in the later Dissertazione istorico-critica. The episode, occurred in Larnaca in 1767, might be interpreted as evidence of the interest for the emerging traces of ancient Kition (and, more generally, for the early history of Cyprus) increasingly perceived in that period. In this wider context, Mariti firstly acted as a ‘participant observer’ and then as an antiquity dealer. Indeed, he collected some of the objects he found at Larnaca and transfered them to Italy in order to partially donate them to the Accademia Etrusca in Cortona. Arguably, this particular aspect also denotes a peculiar change of role in Mariti’s attitude from connoisseur to collector.