Ferragosto

Spending a few days taking it slow in sweltering Rome... the Museo Nazionale Romano in the Palazzo Massimo just gets better every time I go back. The substantial remains of the "Scopri il Massimo" exhibit (18 December 2008 - 7 June 2009) are worth a look -- the paintings from the Columbarium in the Villa Pamphilj are wonderful (including the fisherman above).

First time I've seen the Warrior of Lanuvium's belt on display in the Baths of Diocletian (though it could have been out for years for all I know):

The Etruscan museum at the Villa Giulia is due to (re)open about a dozen galleries this fall [I happened to read this in a newspaper and failed to note the details].

In other news: Confiscation of smuggled antiquities in Calabria. [ANSA]

Update from Lecce (with pictures of Arpino)

"Cyclopean" Gate, Civitavecchia, Arpino

The hotel here in Lecce has free internet in the room, so here's a bit of an update. Having wrapped up work at Mt. Lykaion (site & blog) and spent a delightful but all-too-brief time in Athens, I made my way to Rome on the 17th of July. Since then a whirlwind of visits to Gabii, Arpino (see above and below), Paestum, Potenza, Matera, and now Lecce. Many more pictures will follow, as will discussion. For now, just these.

The medieval tower in Civitavecchia, Arpino.

The big news of the day has to do with Silvio Berlusconi and his recent scandals. Beyond the sex tapes, one recording has a man alleged to be Mr. Berlusconi talking about 30 Phoenician tombs found on the grounds of his private villa in Sardinia. The tombs have not been reported to the Ministry of Culture, as required by Italian law; this could bring a penalty of a year in jail...
(BBC; Guardian; L'Espresso: audio, transcription, and discussion). ...and I see David Meadows has fuller discussion at Rogueclassicism (of course).

Greetings from Athens

Apologies, dear readers (all four of you), for the lack of recent updates; preparations for summer field work and moving out of Philly have consumed my time. Posting will continue to be sporadic, but I'll try to provide at least minor updates on the work at Mt. Lykaion, starting June 1. I'm also planning an Italian excursion a bit later in the summer -- watch this space.

April 22, 2009

The British School at Rome has elected a new director to succeed Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, in the person of Christopher J. Smith. Professor Smith, currently Vice-Principal of the University of St Andrews, is the author of Early Rome and Latium: Economy and Society c. 1000 to 500 BC (1996) and The Roman Clan: The Gens from Ancient Ideology to Modern Anthropology (2006) as well as numerous articles on the development of early Rome. One of his current projects is A Very Short Introduction to the Etruscans [More info at BSR (.doc), St. Andrews].

Italy has drawn up a list of cultural monuments damaged by the Abruzzo earthquake whose restoration is up for 'adoption' by foreign governments. Among those monuments is the 16th century Forte Spagnolo, home to the National Museum of Abruzzo, where rescue workers recently discovered the skeleton of a prehistoric elephant still intact after the quake. [ANSA; bis]

PastHorizons gives notice of the Vultur Project, which "will focus upon the Lucanian Frontier as a sphere of pre-Roman cultural interaction and Late Roman stability."

T. Eckhart reviews B. Cunliffe, Europe Between the Oceans. Themes and Variations: 9000 BC to AD 1000 at BMCR.

Coverage of the city of Rome's purported 2762nd birthday at EternallyCool.

David Gill reports on the return of 14 objects to Italy by the Cleveland Museum of Art today as well as ancient bronzes passing through North America.

The BBC reports on a University of Sheffield DNA study to determine if Bronze Age copper mining in Wales involved a migration from the Mediterranean. [More info at Dienekes' Anthropology Blog]

Bill Caraher reflects on two years of archaeological blogging.

19 April 2009

A series of caves beneath L'Aquila were revealed by the deadly Abruzzo earthquake, some of which may have been used by prehistoric humans [Via Explorator; Adnkronos; Libero-news.it (bis)]

EternallyCool reports on chariot races in honor of Rome's upcoming birthday.

The collection of Pompeian frescoes will reopen in the Naples Museum on April 29, after a decade of being closed. (No word on when they'll be open next once the 29th has passed...)

A Franco Valente philippic on the destruction of (possibly Roman) stone terraces near Venafro in Molise.

An Italian study of 3000 middle- and high-school students in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain finds that Italian students show the least interest in museums and monuments while Spanish students show the most.

Another brick in the lodge - 18 April 2009

The Museo Archeologico Provinciale 'F. Ribezzo' (MAPRI) in Brindisi will reopen April 19 after two years of reorganization. Among the museum's collections are the bronzes recovered from a shipwreck off the Punta del Serrone, including a portrait of L. Aemilius Paulus [Archeologia Subacquea; Salentonline.it].

The archaeological site of Faragola in the Foggia province of Puglia will be inaugurated and opened to the public on April 24. The site, discovered in 2003, is best known for its sumptuous Late Antique villa, but shows evidence of occupation from the 6th c. BCE to the 8th c. CE [Via Viveur; more info in English and Italian, with much of the relevant bibliography available as pdfs].

The rock engravings from Valcamonica, in the Brescia province of Lombardy, are the subject of a new exhibition, 'La Valle Delle Incisioni,' which celebrates the centenary of their discovery in 1909 and the 30-year anniversary of their inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The exhibit, at the Palazzo Martinengo in Brescia, runs until May 10.

Brief piece on archaeological solidarity in the Abruzzo [ANSA].
Foreign funding for the restoration of cultural monuments in the Abruzzo [ANSA -- scroll down to the bottom].

The Weekly Bricolage: April 15, 2009

David Meadows skims the cream From the Italian Press at rogueclassicism.

The remains of the 7th c. BCE necropolis at Chiavari in Liguria, currently housed in Cicagna, could be moved to an exhibition space close to the location of the original excavation by this summer [Teleradiopace.tv; Google Maps]. It's not only the artifacts that are on display, but also, it seems the necropolis itself.

The Museo Bardini in Florence has reopened after a decade of restorations. Its collections run from antiquity up to the 18th century, with an emphasis on the Medieval and Renaissance.

The Palazzo Altemps in Rome is opening four new rooms for its Egyptian collection.

Clifford Ando reviews Edward Bispham, From Asculum to Actium. The Municipalization of Italy from the Social War to Augustus (2007) at BMCR; I note that "Bispham traces in relief the existence and history of the wide swaths of Italy that long remained unmunicipalized," though necessarily cursorily.

If your Italian interests run to the post-Antique, I note the recent publication (March 2009) of Paul Oldfield's City and Community in Norman Italy by Cambridge University Press. If you need to brush up on the intervening centuries, you might try C. Salvatore's Storia dell'Italia bizantina (VI-XI secolo). Da Giustiniano ai Normanni (2008).

When on Google Earth 18 is up at Scott McDonough's An Intermittent Waste of Time.

I can't let the recent earthquake in the Abruzzo pass without some words: a notice at Archeorivista. At The Guardian. The Italian Red Cross with the option of making a donation toward earthquake relief. MiBAC with information for donating to cultural heritage relief.

RAC and roll all night

Off to RAC and TRAC in lovely Ann Arbor for the weekend...

Picking pebbles out of a drain

(n.b. one word NSFW)

I've posted a video of Will Sheff of the band Okkervil River performing "A Stone" live in Milwaukee. This is a bit beyond our usual purview here at Tria Corda, but there's archaeological imagery throughout the lyrics—unintentional I'm sure—plus I happen to like the song.

"You love white veins, you love hard grey, the heaviest weight, the clumsiest shape, the earthiest smell, the hollowest tone..."

I originally heard "hard grey" as "hard grain," which would have made the description of the stone a bit more scientific; for some reason I imagined the stele of Hammurabi, though its hard-grained, heavy, clumsily-shaped diorite doesn't have white veins in evidence. Nor have I detected any particularly earthy smell about it; if anyone's ever given it a ding, could you let me know how it sounds?

"You love a stone, because it's smooth and it's cold. And you'd love most to be told that it's all your own."

As long as there is a demand for antiquities, looting will continue.

"You're out singing songs, and I'm down shouting names at the flickerless screen..."

Sounds like somebody got stuck doing the GIS work while everybody else nipped off for a drink...

"And I think I believe that, if stones could dream, they'd dream of being laid side-by-side, piece-by-piece, and turned into a castle for some towering queen they're unable to know."

I particularly dig this part: the agency, intentionality of objects; taking their meaning from being grouped into "castle," anyone?

I've posted the lyrics below, because the band's site is in Flash and doesn't allow for direct linking to particular bits...

Hot breath, rough skin, warm laughs and smiling, the loveliest words whispered and meant - you like all these things. But, though you like all these things, you love a stone. You love a stone, because it's smooth and it's cold. And you'd love most to be told that it's all your own. You love white veins, you love hard grey, the heaviest weight, the clumsiest shape, the earthiest smell, the hollowest tone - you love a stone. And I'm found too fast, called too fond of flames, and then I'm phoning my friends, and then I'm shouldering the blame, while you're picking pebbles out of the drain, miles ago. You're out singing songs, and I'm down shouting names at the flickerless screen, going fucking insane. Am I losing my cool, overstating my case? Well, baby, what can I say? You know I never claimed that I was a stone. And you love a stone. You love white veins, you love hard grey, the heaviest weight, the clumsiest shape, the earthiest smell, the hollowest tone - you love a stone. You love a stone, because it's dark, and it's old, and if it could start being alive you'd stop living alone. And I think I believe that, if stones could dream, they'd dream of being laid side-by-side, piece-by-piece, and turned into a castle for some towering queen they're unable to know. And when that queen's daughter came of age, I think she'd be lovely and stubborn and brave, and suitors would journey from kingdoms away to make themselves known. And I think that I know the bitter dismay of a lover who brought fresh bouquets every day when she turned him away to remember some knave who once gave just one rose, one day, years ago.

We now return to our irregularly-scheduled programming...

Snippets for March 30

MiBAC announces the launch of "Cultura Italia," a web portal for Italy's cultural heritage, which looks like it would bear some exploring (available in Italian or English).

Construction on the Museo Nazionale Archeologico di Adria has been completed after seven years; the new Roman section opened on March 28 (IGN/Adnkronos; museum pages).

Stephen Chrisomalis blogs about deciding whether or not to go to grad school in anthropology over at Glossographia... which leads me to a personal aside: I'll be starting work on a PhD in the Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology (IPCAA) at the University of Michigan this fall.

In the journals...

This is in no way an exhaustive list, but I note some articles relevant to pre-, very pre-, or not-so- pre-Roman Italy in recent periodicals...

C. Bottari et al., "Archaeological evidence for destructive earthquakes in Sicily between 400 B.C. and A.D. 600," Geoarchaeology 24.2 (2009): 147-175.

V. Compare et al., "Three-dimensional Resistivity Probability Tomography at the Prehistoric Site of Grotta Reali (Molise, Italy)," Archaeological Prospection 16 (2009): 53–63.

M. Mariotti Lippi et al., "Comparing seeds/fruits and pollen from a Middle Bronze Age pit in Florence (Italy)," Journal of Archaeological Science 36.5 (May 2009): 1135-1141.

M. Pluciennik, review of M. Fitzjohn (ed.). Uplands of ancient Sicily and Calabria: the archaeology of landscape revisited (Accordia Specialist Studies on Italy Volume 13). (2007), Antiquity 83 (2009): 233–234.

L.V. Rutgers et al., "Stable isotope data from the early Christian catacombs of ancient Rome: new insights into the dietary habits of Rome's early Christians," Journal of Archaeological Science 36.5 (May 2009): 1127-1134.

J.M. Thorn, "The invention of ‘Tarentine’ red-figure," Antiquity 83 (2009): 174–183 (cf. T.H. Carpenter, "Prolegomenon to the Study of Apulian Red-Figure Pottery," AJA 113.1 (2009): 39-56, already commented on here at Tria Corda).

M. Tröster, "Roman Hegemony and Non-State Violence: A Fresh Look at Pompey's Campaign against the Pirates," Greece and Rome 56 (2009): 14-33.


Reviews in The Classical Review 59.1, (April 2009):

- Shane Hawkins reviews Adams, The Regional Diversification of Latin 200 BC–AD 600 (106-109)
- amicus noster Angelo O. Mercado reviews De Melo, The Early Latin Verb System. Archaic Forms in Plautus, Terence, and Beyond (109-111)
-P. J. Davis reviews Rea, Legendary Rome. Myth, Monuments, and Memory on the Palatine and Capitoline (143-144)
-Karl-J. Hölkeskamp reviews Eckstein, Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate War, and the Rise of Rome (211-214)
-Roman Roth reviews Liébert, Regards sur la truphè étrusque (214-215)
-William E. Klingshirn reviews Engels, Das römische Vorzeichenwesen (753–27 v. Chr.). Quellen, Terminologie, Kommentar, historische Entwicklung (215-218)
-Christoph Reusser reviews Mannino, Vasi attici nei contesti della Messapia (480–350 a.C.) (237-239)
-Cesare Letta reviews Criniti (ed.), ‘Veleiates’. Uomini, luoghi e memoriae dell' Appennino piacentino-parmense (253-255)
-Heather Vincent reviews Clarke, Looking at Laughter. Humor, Power, and Transgression in Roman Visual Culture, 100 B.C.–A.D. 250. (257-260)
-Michael H. Crawford, notice on Marrazzo, Romagnoli, Stazio, & Taliercio (edd.), Presenza e funzioni della moneta nelle chorai delle colonie greche dall' Iberia al Mar Nero. Atti del XII Convegno organizzato dall' Università ‘Federico II’ e dal Centro Internazionale di Studi Numismatici, Napoli, 16–17 giugno 2000 (307)

News for March 24, 2009: the weekly bric-a-brac

The splendid-looking (anybody been?) exhibit 'Potere e Splendore. Gli antichi Piceni a Matelica,' which opened at Matelica, will be on display at Bologna's Museo Civico from 30 April to 13 September 2009. The exhibit's website is http://www.poteresplendore.it, and details on its manifestazione bolognese are here.

The Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Florence has a new partnership with the Getty, which will bring the Chimera of Arezzo (along with loans from Rome, Naples, Basel, New York, and Boston) to LA for an exhibition opening July 16. Also in the pipeline are exhibits of ancient bronzes and of Etruscan materials from the Florence collection (Artdaily; via the Cranky Professor).

The British Museum has been doing some housekeeping inside a 12th century portable altar, and found relics belonging to 39 different saints, including St. Benedict (Guardian; via Adrian Murdoch).

Greece returned to Italy two 11th c. CE tomb frescoes stolen from the Grotta delle Fornelle at Calvi (ancient Cales) in 1982 (ANSA; comments by David Gill)

Not strictly Italian, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were on its way there when it sank, and it's pretty cool besides: A Greek fisherman pulled up part of a late 2nd c. BCE bronze equestrian statue between Kos and Kalymnos off the coast of Asia Minor and turned it in (AP/New Observer):

The British Museum has been doing some housekeeping inside a 12th century portable altar, and found relics belonging to 39 different saints, including St. Benedict (Guardian; via Adrian Murdoch).

Gratuitous link of the month: "Bizarre Lobster-Sized Creature Was the Monster Predator of the Cambrian"

1a Rassegna del Cinema Archeologico a Trinitapoli

If you happen to be in northern Puglia over the next few months, you might stop by Trinitapoli to take in a showing of their archaeological film series... but mostly I'm posting this because I happen to like the poster!
The original poster pdf is here, and the full program with info on the films is here (also a pdf).

Sexing Up the Antiquities Market?

Over the past week or two, a certain antiquities gallery has begun sending out email updates titled "Can YOU find the antiquity?" with a link to an object for sale. The first object to be so treated was this pre-Dynastic Egyptian vessel; the photo showing it next to a pair of shapely female legs has since been removed, presumably to make way for number 2. The conceit, based on the responses provided-- e.g. "I couldn't see the antiquity and I stared at the picture for a good 10 minutes"; "This must be a joke; there is no antiquity in this picture"-- is that we are to be distracted by the other objet d'art present in the photo.

My objection is not to do with any notions of prudishness; the pictures involved are not terribly risqué. Rather, I object to promoting the sale of unprovenanced antiquities (I admit I don't know when the late William Bowmore, O.B.E., collected the piece) through association with attractive women. That's a clumsy way to put it, I know, but it'll have to do for now.

Perhaps it's something to do with the economy, I don't know. Are antiquities no longer sexy enough to sell on their own appeal? Are they slipping relative to fur coats (Carlos Picón wants one) and in need of a makeover?

Sabines and Peuceti(?)

I've been on the road visiting grad schools lately, so I'm a bit behind, but here's some non-Google Earth-related news for a change...

An exhibition titled "I Sabini popolo d'Italia, dalla storia al mito" ('The Sabines, people of Italy, from history to myth') is opening at the Vittoriano on March 20, and will run until April 26. [IGN, Exibart]


A newly-discovered 5th-1st(?) century BCE site at Castellaneta (photo above) near Taranto, Puglia, has been put under the watch of the Guardia di Finanza. The 1600 sq. m site includes both habitation and burial, and has yielded sarcophagi, tombstones, and column fragments. The Soprintendenza area manager Teresa Schojer says there's no money to conduct further excavation. [ANSA, La Repubblica]

When on Google Earth, No. 10

Q: What is When on Google Earth? A: It’s a game for archaeologists, or anybody else willing to have a go!

Q: How do you play it? A: Simple, you try to identify the site in the picture.

Q: Who wins? A: The first person to correctly identify the site, including its major period of occupation, wins the game.

Q: What does the winner get? A: The winner gets bragging rights and the chance to host the next When on Google Earth on his/her own blog!

ΠΟΤΕΝΓΟΥΓΕΛΟΓAΙΟΝΙΚΗΣ
#	Host:	Victor:	Site:	Period:
1.	Shawn Graham	Chuck Jones	Takht-i Jamshid / Persepolis terrace	Achaemenid period
2.	Chuck Jones	PDD	Church of Saint Simeon at Qalat Siman, Syria	5th-6th c. AD
2.1.	Chuck Jones	Paul Zimmerman	Qal’at al-Bahrain	16th c. AD
3.	Paul Zimmerman	Heather Baker	Baraqish (Yathill), Yemen	Minaean
4.	Heather Baker	Jason Ur	Mohenjo Daro	ca. 2600-1900 BC
5.	Jason Ur	Dan Diffendale	Monte Albán, Oaxaca, Mexico	1st-5th centuries CE
6.	Dan Diffendale	Claire of Geevor Mine	Segontium, Caernarfon, Wales	77ish to about 390 AD
7.	Claire of Geevor Mine	Ivan Cangemi	Carn Euny	ca. 500 BCE-100 CE
8.	Ivan Cangemi	Southie Sham	Monks Mound (Cahokia), Illinois USA	fl. 1050-1200
9.	Southie Sham	Dan Diffendale	Gergovia	fl. 1st c. BCE
10.	Dan Diffendale

When on Google Earth, no. 8

Q: What is When on Google Earth?
A: It’s a game for archaeologists, or anybody else willing to have a go!

Q: How do you play it?
A: Simple, you try to identify the site in the picture.

Q: Who wins?
A: The first person to correctly identify the site, including its major period of occupation, wins the game.

Q: What does the winner get?
A: The winner gets bragging rights and the chance to host the next When on Google Earth on his/her own blog!

Like so much in archaeology, this game comes to us from our methodological cousins in geology. Shawn Graham adopted their game, and modified it for our use at whenonge #1. Chuck Jones had the first correct answer, and then hosted whenonge #2. The mysterious and elusive PDD got #2 right but never claimed his prize, so Chuck struck back with whenonge #2.1. Paul Zimmerman got the correct answer to #2.1 and hosted whenonge # 3. Heather Baker got the correct answer to #3 and hosted whenonge # 4, and Jason Ur won and hosted whenonge # 5. Dan Diffendale won that, and hosted whenonge #6 . Claire at the Geevor Mine won #6 and hosted #7, which was won by Ivan Cangemi. Since Ivan is without a blog of his own, I offered to host it here at Tria Corda. Be the first to correctly identify the site above and its major period of occupation in the comments below and you can host your own!

When on Google Earth, No. 6

Q: What is When on Google Earth?
A: It’s a game for archaeologists.

Q: How do you play it?
A: Simple, you try to identify the site in the picture.

Q: Who wins?
A: The first person to correctly identify the site, including its major period of occupation, wins the game.

Q: What does the winner get?
A: The winner gets bragging rights and the chance to host the next When on Google Earth on his/her own blog!

Like so much in archaeology, this game comes to us from our methodological cousins in geology. Shawn Graham adopted their game, and modified it for our use at whenonge #1. Chuck Jones had the first correct answer, and then hosted whenonge #2. The mysterious and elusive PDD got #2 right but dropped the ball and never claimed his prize, so Chuck struck back with whenonge #2.1. Paul Zimmerman got the correct answer to #2.1 and hosted whenonge # 3. Heather Baker got the correct answer to #3 and hosted whenonge # 4, and Jason Ur won that round. His challenge of whenonge # 5 was over at AWBG, and I won that, so here we are... be the first to correctly identify the site above and its major period of occupation in the comments below and you can host your own!

In bocca al lupo!

From the Italian Press

A bunch of Italian news over the past few days; since we're still catching up, I'll just direct you to David Meadows' list at Rogue Classicism, "From the Italian Press."

One Steak with Catchup

Finally made it home from that little AIA/APA shindig in Philadelphia... here's a wrap-up of what happened while we were conferring.

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The Soprintendenza di Bari is digging at S. Severo near Foggia in the Apulian Tavoliere, in an area previously targeted by tombaroli. Among the finds was a 4th century BCE tomb containing a lower jawbone, a bit of an upper jawbone, and two bronze spearpoints -- the 'Daunian warrior' of the headlines. (ANSA, TeleRadioErre)

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Three "Crime Beat" Stories thanks to SAFE:

• The Palermo Carabinieri have arrested a man for attempting to sell on Ebay more than 500 artifacts looted from sites of numerous periods in Sicily. (Business Week)
• The Italian crackdown on looting is having an effect: the value of stolen or looted objects recovered in 2008 was more than double the value of such objects recovered in 2007. But the number of illegal digs in Italy increased by 15 percent, to a total of 238. (ArtInfo) ...of course, it's hard to say whether in fact the actual number of clandestine excavations increased, or whether the Carabinieri are just getting better at finding them.
• And, finally, the repatriations go both ways: Italy will return 3800 artifacts, mostly coins, stolen from Bulgaria and recovered in Verona (Sofia Echo). Nathan T. Elkins adds much more to the story at Numismatics and Archaeology...
  

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I see that Past Horizons is now selling trowels from Battiferro, so you don't have to order direct from Italy anymore...

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Finally, Jovanotti was King of Italy in 2008 -- at least as regards record sales. You know you love Jovanotti.