Beyond Vagnari: new themes in the study of south Italy in the Roman period

International colloquium, University of Edinburgh, 26-28 October 2012

The School of History, Classics and Archaeology is pleased to host an international colloquium on the study of south Italy in the Roman period that will bring together leading archaeologists and historians of ancient Lucania, Apulia and Bruttium. The conference will take place in Edinburgh on 26-28 October 2012.

Following the publication of the excavations at Vagnari by Prof. Alastair Small, an honorary research fellow in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, the workshop is intended to explore further the historical development of south Italy in Roman imperial times.

Confirmed speakers and chairs include Maureen Carroll (Sheffield), Marcella Chelotti (Bari), Amanda Claridge (RHUL), Michael Crawford (UCL), Helga di Giuseppe (Rome), Lisa Fentress (Rome), Helena Fracchia (Alberta), Maurizio Gualtieri (Perugia), Edward Herring (Galway), Philip Kenrick (Oxford), Maria Luisa Marchi (Foggia), Myles McCallum (Halifax), Tracy Prowse (McMaster), Nicholas Purcell (Oxford), Pasquale Rosafio (Lecce), Christopher Smith (Rome), Hans VanderLeest (Mount Allison), Domenico Vera (Parma), Giuliano Volpe (Foggia), and Douwe Yntema (Amsterdam).

Beyond Vagnari introduction; program and Call for Posters (due 1 September) here.

South Italy, Sicily and the Mediterranean: Cultural Interactions Conference

17th - 21st July 2012
La Trobe University
Melbourne, Australia

This conference will focus on the movement of people and interactions of culture in the Mediterranean region of Southern Italy and Sicily from antiquity until the present. The program will include exhibitions at the Hellenic Museum and the Museo Italiano of ancient Greek vases from Southern Italy and Sicily as well as other pieces from the collection of the Trendall Research Centre...

This inter-disciplinary conference seeks to foster critical analysis of geographical and chronological interconnections in Southern Italy and Sicily. Consideration of cultural interaction, population movements, and changing religious and philosophical ideas over a period of approximately 3000 years will prompt scholarly discussion around continuity and change over time in this region of the Mediterranean.

Program and abstracts available via the conference website. [I note that La Trobe has a TARDIS: Teaching Archaeological Research Discipline In Simulation.]

[Via rogueclassicism and the Classicists list]

Workshop: Whither Colonization? Rome, 25 June 2012

The workshop aims to trace the discussion on ancient colonization(s), with a comparative perspective, by presenting different situations currently defined as "colonial" ones, from the Uruk expansion of the 4th millennium BCE to Roman colonialism in the late 1st millennium BCE.

10.30 - Introduction - Alessandro Vanzetti
11.00 - Marcella Frangipane (Sapienza): The Uruk "expansion" to North Mesopotamia: some reflections upon its nature, reasons and forms
11.30 - Mario Liverani (emeritus Sapienza): The Old Assyrian Colonies in Anatolia (19th–18th centuries BC)
12.00–13.00 Discussion
13.00 - Lunch
14.30 - Terence d'Altroy (Columbia): Civilizing chaos: Imperial Inka resettlement
15.00 - Discussion
15.30 - Alessandro Guidi (Roma Tre): Etruscan colonies?
16.00 - Nicola Terrenato (Michigan): Redefining Roman Republican colonialism and imperialism in the post-colonial era
16.30 - Coffee Break
16.45 - Discussion
17.45 - Forum (After CeC): Mediterranean Colonization, I millennium BC
18.45–19.00 Concluding Remarks

Monday, June 25th, 2012 10:30–19:00
Sapienza Università di Roma
Piazzale A. Moro, 5
Museo dell’Arte Classica
Palazzo di Lettere - Città Universitaria - piano interrato

For further information, contact Alessandro Vanzetti (alessandro.vanzetti@uniroma1.it).

Lupa Capitolina: Novità?

The results of the latest study on the Capitoline She-Wolf are in: a Medieval (12th-13th c. CE) copy of an Etruscan original. Edilberto Formigli and others will present their research in a conference on the Capitoline tomorrow, 22 June 2012.
[Officina Archeologica (with program); Adnkronos]

Contextualising "early Colonisation." Rome, 21-23 June 2012

Contestualizzare la “prima colonizzazione”:

Archeologia, fonti, cronologia e modelli interpretativi fra l’Italia e il Mediterraneo.
In memoria di David Ridgway (1938-2012)

A whopper of a conference this week in Rome, hosted by the Academia Belgica along with the Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut and the British School at Rome. The substantial program is here, including substantial abstracts/outlines.

(Photo source: Lefkandi Excavations).

Workshop: Social change in Early Iron Age Southern Italy

This conference looks like a lot of fun...

May 5-6, 2011 - workshop internazionale
Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut Rome

Dinamiche sociali nell’Italia meridionale della Prima Età del Ferro /
Social change in Early Iron Age Southern Italy

The Italic March. Two conferences.

Five days, two conferences, one ocean in between.

There will be a conference at Brown titled "The Archaeology of Italy: The State of the Field 2011," March 18-19, 2011, organized by Jeffrey Becker and Sue Alcock. John Robb will deliver the keynote address.

The Joukowsky Institute will host a weekend symposium in March 2011 whose aim it is to discuss the current state of the archaeology of peninsular Italy in the twenty-first century, with an emphasis on the North American academy. With an interest not only in tracking the trends and methodologies in use in the archaeological investigation of this very important piece of the Mediterranean, the symposium also seeks to examine the place of peninsular Italian archaeology with respect to other geographical subfields of Mediterranean archaeology. Perhaps most importantly, the symposium will discuss not only the current state of the field, but also explore possible future directions, methodologies, and techniques to be employed.

The symposium will feature three sessions, one dealing with the current state of research, another future directions in research, and a third that will serve as forum for graduate students to discuss their own research and network with graduate colleagues and faculty. The organizers are seeking graduate student participants whose main research focus is the archaeology of peninsular Italy, broadly defined.

More information on the Brown conference available here.


The next day sees conference "Gods in Ruins. The archaeology of religious activity in Protohistoric, Archaic, and Republican central Italy" open at Oxford, March 20-22, 2011, organized by Ed Bispham and Charlotte Potts.

This conference will present the results of current or ongoing work on archaeological evidence for religious activities in central Italy prior to c.200 B.C.. By bringing together early-career academics, postdoctoral researchers, and advanced postgraduate students working on different aspects of material culture ranging from art history to archaeozoology, the conference aims to advance scholarly debate on cult activities in periods, places, and phenomena under-represented in the literary sources.

Speakers from Italy, Greece, Belgium, The Netherlands, America, and the United Kingdom offer delegates the opportunity to discuss work in progress in a variety of countries. Papers will address, among other topics, human sacrifice and ritual killing in Etruscan culture; the economic activities of Italic sanctuaries; Etruscan werewolves; maenadism in Etruria and Campania; and bronze Apennine votives. All papers will be delivered in English.

More information on the Oxford conference (including program) here.

A bit of this and that

Here's a hodgepodge of things that happened during the long summer months or a bit more recently, with no claim to completeness....

The conference "Etruscan Literacy in its Social Context" is going on currently, September 22-23, in London; follow link for program and abstracts.

Tudisca et al. 2010, "Firing technique characterization of black-slipped pottery in Praeneste by low field 2D NMR relaxometry" is available as an Article-in-Press from the Journal of Archaeological Science (subscription required).

Via Mark Pearce on the Italian-archaeology list comes the news that Vol. XX of Padusa, a must for the site of Frattesina, is freely available as a series of pdfs. A well-illustrated 80-page pdf that accompanies the exhibit in Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Fratta Polesine, "Il villaggio di Frattesina e le sue necropoli XII - XI secolo a.C.", is also available.

July 1 saw the reopening of the galleries of frescoes from the Villa della Farnesina, at the Palazzo Massimo.

A series of talks entitled "Storie interno a Monte Pallano" took place at Tornareccio in Abruzzo on July 31. The event kicked off an exhibit of the same name at the Centro Museale of Tornareccio, which will run until January 20, 2011. The highlight of the exhibit is the 7th c. BCE "Torso di Pallano." More information freely available in a pdf.

There was a month long exhibit entitled "Sulle tracce di Annibale. Gli scavi di Gereonium a Casacalenda" at the Museo Sannitico in Campobasso; of interest is a fragment of a limestone stele with a so-called symbol of Tanit on it, dating to the 3rd-2nd cs. BCE (see image above).

Brief mention of an Etruscan house discovered during construction in Arezzo.

An exhibit of Middle Bronze Age artifacts from the site of Faraglioni is going on display at the Museo Comunale in Ustica, while the first "Museo del Paesaggio" (Landscape Museum) in Italy has opened at Salemi in SW Sicily. Also near Sicily, some underwater finds off Gela, ranging from fragments of Attic pottery to a WWII American helmet. On the other side of the island, three Greco-Roman shipwrecks in the Aeolians.

And a letter from Sandro Bondi to Jovanotti....

News for February and March

So much for all that free time... here's a brief rundown of some things that have accumulated lately.

First of all, I've been extremely remiss in neglecting to mention my friend Ross Cowan's blog. Ross is the author of, among others, The Roman Conquests: Italy, and he's been blogging about related topics. Ross has also got an article in the latest issue of the magazine Ancient Warfare, which issue (table of contents) is dedicated to "A multitude of peoples: Before Rome ruled Italy" (you know you've always wanted a two-page spread painting of the Battle of Bovianum!). I also learn that Cambridge will be republishing Salmon's Samnium and the Samnites come April -- mirabile dictu!

Big news this month is the discovery at Gabii of an Archaic tripartite building identified as a regia [La Repubblica - photos; MiBAC].

Twenty Etruscan fossa tombs were discovered at Marina Velka near Tarquinia, two of which were hit by tombaroli, along with Roman habitation [Viterbo Oggi; Viterbo Notizie].

Artifacts from three museums in Castiglion Fiorentino (Arezzo) are on display at Castel Sant' Angelo until April 11.

The Pontecagnano museum has supposedly reopened.

There's a call for papers for an Accordia conference on Etruscan Literacy in its Social Context (22-23 September 2010), deadline April 30.

The X Incontro di Studi su Preistoria e Protostoria in Etruria (10-12 September 2010) has as its theme "L’Etruria dal Paleolitico al Primo Ferro. Lo stato delle ricerche". (more)


The latest Journal of Field Archaeology (Vol. 34, issue 4) includes "Remote Sensing and Archaeological Prospection in Apulia , Italy", by S.A. Ross, A. Sobotkova and G.-J. Burgers (pp. 423-438).

Greece and Rome (Vol. 57, issue 1: April 1, 2010):
E. Bragg, "Roman Seaborne Raids During the Mid - Republic : Sideshow or Headline Feature ?" (pp. 47-64)

The Classical Review (New Series), Volume 60, Issue 01, April 2010:
• Witcher on Isayev, Inside Ancient Lucania (2007)
• Mattingly on Revell, Roman Imperialism and Local Identities (2009)
• Roth on Wallace-Hadrill, Rome's Cultural Revolution (2008)
• Perfigli on Clark, Divine Qualities. Cult and Community in Republican Rome (2007)
• Bücher on Jehne & Pfeilschifter (eds.), Herrschaft ohne Integration? Rom und Italien in Republikanischer Zeit (2006)
• Hogg on Briquel, Mythe et révolution. La Fabrication d'un récit: la naissance de la république à Rome (2007)

Bryn Mawr Classical Review:
• I. Edlund-Berry on Daniele Federico Maras, Il dono votivo: Gli dei e il sacro nelle iscrizioni etrusche di culto.
• eadem on Laura Maniscalco (ed.), Il santuario dei Palici: un centro di culto nella Valle del Margi. Collana d'Area. Quaderno n. 11.
• C. Bailey on Harriet Flower, Roman Republics
• C. Smith on Sinclair Bell & Helen Nagy (eds.), New Perspectives on Etruria and Early Rome: In Honor of Richard Daniel De Puma
• N. Carayon on Castagnino Berlinghieri, Elena Flavia, Carmelo Monaco, Il sistema portuale di Catania antica: studi interdisciplinari di geo-archeologia marittima.
• G. van Heems on Enrico Benelli (ed.), Thesaurus Linguae Etruscae. I. Indice lessicale. Seconda edizione...

'Beyond Magna Graecia' conference follow-up

This past weekend I was in Cincinnati for the Semple Symposium "Beyond Magna Graecia: New Developments in South Italian Archaeology. The Contexts of Apulian and Lucanian Pottery." Turnout was quite frankly higher than I'd been expecting, possibly somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 -- the photo below, taken Friday around midday, doesn't really do it justice. As usual, it was good to catch up with a couple of friends and meet others for the first time.

So, have new developments taken us 'beyond Magna Graecia'? There was plenty of evidence on hand for a widespread corrective necessary in this A.T. period (After Trendall), to put South Italian Red Figure back into its contexts (Trendall frequently omitted such information in his publications, even when it was certainly known). Some of Trendall's attributions were questioned, painters divided and joined, but one of the take-aways was to what an extent the field still relies on his monumental works. In any case, those contexts turn out more often than not to be non-Greek. Moving from Messapia, up to Daunia, and then back through Peucetia, the papers provided a sensitive analysis of the way Red Figure ceramics were used and produced by both non-Greek and Greek inhabitants of Apulia, responding to local needs and customs.

Ted Robinson speaks on archaeometric analysis.

The art historical element, strong in traditional Anglophone scholarship on South Italy, was present at the conference, but it was clear that no one would today dispense with the archaeological context of the artifact class in question. Ted Robinson's work on archaeometric analysis is certainly a step in the right direction, and the wider exposure of information from ongoing excavations in Italy is welcome. That the work of Italian researchers is not more widely known is a problem, and one that is only part due to the difficulty of obtaining foreign publications. I hope that the published proceedings will do their part to lead a new generation of American students to learn Italian -- honestly, if one has already learned Latin and French, it shouldn't be that difficult!

Several speakers emphasized the continued importance of Taranto, so as not to throw the baby out with the Greek bathwater. But, despite some tantalizing new data, there is still no certainly clinching evidence of Red Figure production at Taranto, at least not of the sort found at Metaponto, likely though it may be.

The conference was organized with the express intent of publishing proceedings as an up-to-date state-of-the-field in English; the last few Semple Symposia have had an average of three years from lectern to library, so look for a volume in 2012, maybe -- perfect vacation reading for the apocalypse?

Thanks to all at Cincinnati.

Varia for October 4, 2009

In the Journals:
The latest issue (113.4) of the American Journal of Archaeology is available online, including:
-Elizabeth A. Meyer on "Writing Paraphernalia, Tablets, and Muses in Campanian Wall Painting" (abstract);
-Jeffrey Becker, Marcello Mogetto, and Nicola Terrenato uncover "A New Plan for an Ancient Italian City: Gabii Revealed" (abstract);
-John Oakley reviews the past decade in "Greek Vase Painting" (abstract);
-Bruce Hitchner's review article "Roman Republican Imperialism in Italy and the West" (link);
-and reviews of Archaeology and History in Sardinia from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages and Il Santuario dei Palici: Un centro di culto nella Valle del Margi.

Eric Poehler reviews Vedia Izzet, The Archaeology of Etruscan Society, in Rasenna 2.1 (2009).

This is a few years old, but I've just now run across it: M. Rubini, "A case of cranial trepanation in a Roman necropolis (Cassino, Italy, 3^rd century BC)," International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 18.1 (2007): 95-99 (Abstract).

Banditry:
Returns to Italy of an Italian-American's collection of Medieval and later material from the Mezzogiorno (link).

The Carabinieri busted a wineshop in Ardea and turned up 500 pieces, including a 3rd c. BCE urn, a marble statue of a "Persian" Artemis, and Archaic Latial votive material (link).

Conferences:
Via David Meadows at RogueClassicism, I note that the conference entitled "Moisa Epichorios: Regional Music and Musical Regions" (Ravenna 1-3 October 2009) had a session on "Ancient Italy: Magna Grecia and Etruria":

Antonella Provenza (Palermo) – The paean and Apollo’s cult in Magna Graecia: music therapy among the Early Pythagoreans
Marina F.A. Martelli (Milan) – L’italica armonia di Senocrate di Locri
Carolyn Bowyer (London) – Etruscan trumpets

Posters:
Emiliano Li Castro (Viterbo) – Il cuore nascosto di Diòniso
Angela Bellia (Palermo) – Mito, musica e rito nelle raffigurazioni dei pinakes del Persephoneion di Locri Epizefirii (VI – V sec. a.C.)
Anna Di Giglio (Foggia) – Strumenti a percussione nel mondo greco e magno greco: testimonianze letterarie e iconografiche
Giancarlo Germanà (Syracuse) – Gli dèi, gli uomini e la musica: analisi di un tema iconografico nelle importazioni attiche a Gela tra il VI ed il V secolo a.C.

Also from RogueClassicism, I note that the conference "OIKOS FAMILIA The Family in Antiquity: Framing the discipline in the 21st Century" (Gothenburg, 5-7 November 2009) will have a session on "Etruscan and Pre-Roman Family":

Key note addres: Marjatta Neilsen: Etruscan familes – the dead and the living
Jenny Högström Berntson: Women, Children and Votives in Magna Graecia
Elisa Perego: Iron Age and early Roman Veneto
Rafael Scopacasa: Familial Segregation and Communal Drinking in Ancient Appenine Italy

Conference: Beyond Magna Graecia

Beyond Magna Graecia:
New Developments in South Italian Archaeology
The Contexts of Apulian and Lucanian Pottery

November 12-14, 2009,
University of Cincinnati
A Semple Symposium

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(Or, "Apulian Red Figure: more than just a pretty vase"...?)

Free and open to the public. More info at the UC site