Gabii 2012

The 2012 season of excavation at Gabii has begun; you can follow the progress on the official dig blog, Lapis Gabinus; on the student blog, Ager Gabinus; on Facebook; and on Twitter.

You can also check out the Gabii team's contribution to the Day of Archaeology 2012.

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]

Quaternary International 267

A pile of articles on the Early and Middle Pleistocene in Italy in the latest volume of Quaternary International (Volume 267, 26 July 2012):

Santangelo et al., "Palaeolandscapes of Southern Apennines during the late Early and the Middle Pleistocene," 20–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.02.036

Bellucci et al., "The site of Coste San Giacomo (Early Pleistocene, central Italy): Palaeoenvironmental analysis and biochronological overview," 30–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.04.006

Pavia et al., "Stratigraphical and palaeontological data from the Early Pleistocene Pirro 10 site of Pirro Nord (Puglia, south eastern Italy)," 40–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2010.12.019

Arzarello et al., "Evidence of an Early Pleistocene hominin presence at Pirro Nord (Apricena, Foggia, southern Italy): P13 site," 56–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.01.042

Mancini et al., "Coupling basin infill history and mammal biochronology in a Pleistocene intramontane basin: The case of western L’Aquila Basin (central Apennines, Italy)," 62–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.03.020

Martínez-Navarro et al., "First occurrence of Soergelia (Ovibovini, Bovidae, Mammalia) in the Early Pleistocene of Italy," 98–102. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2012.02.031

Sardella and Petrucci, "The earliest Middle Pleistocene Crocuta crocuta (Erxleben, 1777) at Casal Selce (Rome, Italy)," 103–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2012.01.028

Etruscan Beer

Apropos, given the recently-mentioned 3 AM plans for Marzabotto, comes the news that Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head, Leonardo Di Vincenzo  of Birra del Borgo, and Dr. Pat McGovern of the Penn Museum are collaborating on a new project to make an Etruscan beer. The beer is being fermented in pithoi, while the recipe is based in part on the finds from the Casa Nocera necropolis of biconical urns containing the remains of hazelnuts, pomegranates, apples and grapes.

There is a nine-minute video explaining the project, which is well underway.

[Via MyBeerBuzz.com (x2); Birra del Borgo]

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).

The Return of Dionysus

The Etruscan Black Figure kalpis/hydria by the Micali Painter in Toledo will be returned to Italy—the latest in a long line of returns to have come through the Medici warehouse. Reports differ as to the cooperation between US federal officials, the Toledo Museum of Art, and Italy.

[Looting Matters; Sandusky Register; Adnkronos]

Ingrid D. Rowland on Trashing Hadrian's Villa

Ingrid D. Rowland writes on the plan of the (almost aptly-named) governor of Lazio, Renata Polverini, to dump Rome's trash a few hundred meters from the Villa of Hadrian, in the NYRB.

(Photo by the Birthday Warrior, used under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.)

Etruscan all-nighter at Marzabotto

 Notte magica nella città di Kainua. Aspettando il solstizio in compagnia degli Etruschi
A bit more than midnight at the museum...a guided tour of the site at 6 PM, then dinner with dishes "taken from the Etruscan tradition" (no word on whether couches are involved, but presumably this event will be co-ed), the museum at midnight, a lecture on beer at 3 AM followed by tasting of a chestnut brew... and don't forget the bagpipe procession to the necropolis at dawn!
(Night of June 23rd to the morning of the 24th.) [MiBAC]

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]

Tidbits from the Italian Press

A few weeks ago a gold cup dated to the Early Bronze Age was discovered at Montecchio Emilia. Its closest parallels come from Northwest Europe (Adnkronos; La Repubblica-Parma).

A large (17 cm) Nuragic bronze of a sitting priest(?) was found near Oristano, bringing the total of known seated Nuragic bronzes to three (ANSA; L'Unione Sarda).

A 4th c. CE mosaic depicting a mounted hunter spearing a boar was discovered by students at Empoli, loc. dell’Oratorio delle Muriccia, just southwest of Florence (la Nazione).

An exhibit is opening at the Museo Archeologico di Amelia entitled "Convivenze. Un percorso tra archeologia e arte contemporanea" (23 June - 8 July).

The University of Basel is digging in the Macchiabate necropolis at Francavilla Marittima (Paese24.it).

And the French are digging at Terravecchia/Giarratana near Ragusa (Ragusanews.com).

A French/Bolognese team are digging the Roman city at Ostra Vetera (AN), Marche (Valmisa).

Have to mention this educational intiative entitled "Calabria Jones"...

Jane Draycott interviewed re: "Bodies of Evidence"

In keeping up with BSR news:
As something of a follow-up to the Bodies of Evidence conference, Jessica Hughes of Classics Confidential interviews Jane Draycott on anatomical votives, Roman medicine, and gardens.

BSR seeking volunteers to dig at Segni

A new collaboration of the Archaeological Museum of Segni and the British School at Rome with the Soprintendenza for Lazio, with hopes of finding Archaic phases of the Temple of Juno Moneta, the early cathedral/Roman forum, and other traces of ancient settlement.

The Segni Archaeological Project
The BSR will be commencing a new joint excavation this summer at Segni in Southern Lazio. We are currently seeking a limited number of volunteers to participate in the excavation, running from the 27th August until the 21st September 2012. For further details seek the flyer or email Stephen Kay (s.kay@bsrome.it)

Details here.

(Photo by Roger Ulrich, used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.)

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).

Tria Corda rediviva

Updating from Rome (working at Sant'Omobono), in the middle of a heatwave...

Tria Corda: Autumn Edition

The every-other-month installment:

A sanctuary on the summit of Monte Cimino east of Viterbo: 1000 masl from 1000 BCE.

A mid-6th c. Etruscan tomb was located at Montalto di Castro, in the archaeological park of Vulci, after the arrest of tombaroli (21 photos and a video of the excavation accompany the article).

At Barrea, a few km from Alfedena along the Sangro river in Abruzzo, the tomb of a 4th c. BCE 'Samnite' 'warrior'.

Three 4th-3rd c. BCE tombs discovered by a farmer while plowing near Cerignola in the province of Foggia, Puglia. He promptly reported the discovery to the Carabinieri.

The tomb of an aristocratic Lombard lady near Lucca, dating to the first half of the 7th c. CE.

A new Late Etruscan dedicatory inscription from Populonia. The marble fragment, perhaps from an altar, was found in the vicinity of one of the three temples on the city's acropolis.

From back in September, Phil Perkins, David Ridgway, and Corinna Riva talk to Melvyn Bragg about the Etruscans on BBC Radio 4's "In Our Time".

A report on the 'inauguration' of the site of the Samnite sanctuary of Hercules at Campochiaro, near Campobasso.

The ongoing struggle against looting and antiquities traffickers continues:
- 77 individuals accused of involvement in a crime ring operating out of S. Sosti near Cosenza in Calabria; more than 1000 objects and 4000 coins seized.
- At the other end of the country, near Bolzano, three dinosaur eggs were among the 6400 paleontological objects seized from smugglers.
- A piece of an architrave stolen from the Terracina Museum in 1959 was discovered in a bar in the north of Rome, as were various other things.

Museums, queens and thieves

At Tarquinia, a "queenly" chariot/cart of the 7th c. BCE has been discovered in a tomb in the Tumulo della Regina. [Corriere della Sera; UnoNotizie]

The new Museo della Civiltà Sannitica at Pietrabbondante has been partially opened--or maybe not... [Nuovo Molise; ArcheoMolise]

Updates on the ongoing La Regina excavations at Pietrabbondante, including news on the so-called domus publica, over at PietrabbondanteBlog:
Nuove scoperte dagli ultimi scavi
A Pietrabbondante l’area sacra più importante della nazione sannitica

There's a bunch of artifacts from Molise (as well as Athens and Macedonia) on display in Thessaloniki for the exhibition "The Gift of Dionysos," including an ivory plaque with the head of the god, from Saepinum (image above). It runs through September of 2012. [ArcheoMolise]

A tombarolo from Ancona was arrested at Guardialfiera in Molise recently. Along with his metal detector and digging implements were found fragments of a bronze plate. [Primo Numero; ArcheoMolise]

The Paleochristian basilica at Larino got cleaned up thanks to private initiative. [Prima Pagina Molise]

Etruscan 4 and 6

The authors of a forthcoming article in Archaeometry use a new approach to assign values to the ambiguous Etruscan words sa and huth (4 and 6, respectively). The abstract follows:

The graphical and linguistic interpretation of the first six Etruscan numerals has long been confronted with the ambiguous assignment of the words huth and sa to either 4 or 6. Here, we show how the systematic combinatorial analysis of the numerals appearing on ancient southern Etrurian dice dated from the eighth to the third centuries bc, together with the careful comparison of the results with the only two existing dice carrying the alphabetical translations of the numerals conserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, finally allows unambiguous mathematical resolution of the linguistic riddle, allowing the firm attribution of the numeral 6 to the graphical value huth and 4 to sa. Combinatorial analysis of the numerals distribution on the six faces of the die shows that only two of the 15 possible numerical combinations were actually in use in southern Etruria, and that during the fifth century bc there was a marked shift from the typical (1–2, 3–4, 5–6) combination used in the early seventh- to fifth-century bc dice to the (1–6, 2–5, 3–4) combination used at later times and still largely adopted today. The largest body of archaeometric data on dice specimens from Etruria is presented, based on macroscopic examination, X-ray diffraction, DRIFT spectroscopy and density measurements.

Artioli, G., Nociti, V. and Angelini, I. (2011), Gambling with Etruscan Dice: A Tale of Numbers and Letters. Archaeometry. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2011.00596.x

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

Journal available: Periodico di Mineralogia

I note the online presence of the Periodico di Mineralogia, "an international journal of mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry, ore deposits, petrology, volcanology, and applied topics on environment, archaeometry and cultural heritage," based at La Sapienza. There's no explicit statement of open access, but all the issues from 1999 to 2010 are freely downloadable.

The journal's page is located at http://tetide.geo.uniroma1.it/riviste/permin/permin.html - click on "Issues Year xxxx" in the right hand column to access the issues.

A sampling of articles (all in English, by editorial policy) from 2010 include:

• Belfiore et al., "Western production of “Ionian cups of type B2”: a preliminary archaeometric study to identify workshops in eastern Sicily,"
• De Bonis et al., "Archaeometric study of roman pottery from Caudium area (Southern Italy),"
• De Francesco et al., "Preliminary chemical characterization of Roman glass from Pompeii,"
• B. Giammartini, "Mapping of the stones in the main façade of St. Giuliana castle (Umbertide, Italy),"
• Kastenmeier et al., "The source of stone building materials from the Pompeii archaeological area and its surroundings"
• Miriello et al., "Colour and composition of nodules from the Calabrian clay deposits: a possible raw material for pigments production in Magna Graecia,"
• Scarpelli et al., "Archaeometric study of sub-geometric pottery found in Potenza, Italy: relationship and trade between near indigenous centers," and
• Tucci et al., "Italica (Seville, Spain): use of local marble in Augustan age."