Andrea Babbi
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Early Concepts of Humans and Nature (RTG 1876) / Frühe Konzepte von Mensch und Natur (GRK 1876), Scientific Cooperating Partner
BACKGROUND
Dr Babbi graduated from University ‘La Sapienza’, Rome. He went on studying in Rome after he had succeeded the public exam to attend the three years course of ‘Specializzazione’ in Classical Archaeology (Etruscology) and got the title of Specialist in Archaeology. He got the PhD (Etruscology) at ‘La Sapienza University’ as well. In 2007 Dr. Babbi won the Prix Roger Lambrechts of the Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres & des Beaux-arts de Belgique with his Doctoral Thesis.
During the years at the Rome University Dr Babbi started a lasting collaboration with the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR – Dr. F. Delpino) and, from 2004 untill 2008, collaborated actively as Assistant Teacher (teaching activities, examining, administrative tasks, research, field research activities) in Etruscology and Italian Archaeology at the University of Molise (Campobasso, Prof. A. Naso).
In 2007 Dr. Babbi passed the public exam by the Scuola Italiana di Archeologia (SAIA) and got a ‘Perfezionamento’ (Post-Doc) in Aegean Prehistory and Early History. He returned to Rome where he could pursued the research on the Protovillanovan, Villanovan, Etruscan and the Italic pre-Roman cultures thanks to the support of the German Institute of Archaeology (DAI). He kept on researching in Greece thanks to a couple of scholarships of the Institute of Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP-Philadelphia) and contacts set up with several Greek colleagues and other European scholars and foreign Schools at Athens and on Crete.
In 2009 Dr. Babbi started a collaboration to the survey project of the Verucchio territory (Rimini, Italy) with Prof. Alessandro Naso Innsbruck University. In autumn 2009 Dr. Babbi was invited by the Antikensammlung and the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz of Berlin to study and publish the Warrior Tomb of Tarquinia stored at the Altes Museum of Berlin. Babbi set up and coordinated a European multidisciplinary team of 28 specialists togehter with Herr Uwe Peltz. In 2010 and 2011 Dr. Babbi worked as Gastwissenschaftler at the Prehistory and Early History Department at the University of Heidelberg (Prof. J. Maran) thanks to a Post-Doc Grant of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In 2011 and 2012 Dr. Babbi started research collaborations on Crete respectively with the Azoria (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Prof. D.C. Haggis) and the Prinias teams (University of Catania-CNR, Prof. D. Palermo and Dr. A. Pautasso). The latter collaboration is still working. In the summer of 2011 Dr. Babbi designed the International Conference «‘The Mediterranean Mirror’ Cultural Contacts in the Mediterranean Sea between 1200 and 750 B.C.», which he planned together with colleagues of the Madrid, Munich and Vienna Universities. In 2012 and 2014 Dr. Babbi worked at the Research Institut of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz (Mentor Prof. Markus Egg) as Research Fellow with the support of the Gerda Henkel Stiftung.
In November and December 2014 Dr. Babbi kept researching at the Research Institut of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz (Mentor Prof. Markus Egg) thanks to a Post-Doctoral grant of the RGZM itself. Between 2015 and 2017 Dr. Babbi worked as 'scientific employee' (i.e. Researcher) at the Research Institut of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz (Mentor Prof. M. Egg). As Ideator and Co-Principal Investigator Dr. Babbi coordinated the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) Scientific Project: "Bisenzio...", a co-operation with the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Prof. Chr. Pare) up to 2017.
Between Jan.-May 2019 Babbi got a Post-Doctoral grant of the RGZM to conclude and publish the study of the famous grave Artiaco 104 from Cumaen (Naples).
Between June 2019 and May 2020, Babbi will worked as a Post-Doc researcher in the framework of the Graduiertenkolleg 1876 "Frühe Konzepte von Mensch und Natur" Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz with a project on "Perception of humans and the Mediterranean Sea through the archaeological record and the written sources (early first Millennium BC): Theoretical reflections about the shaping, internalization, and dissemination of concepts". Since November 2019 Babbi holds a permanent post as a Researcher-Archaeologist at the Institute of Heritage Science of the National Research Council of Italy (ISPC-CNR).
CURRENT PROJECTS
- Bisenzio (Viterbo, Italy)
- The Late Geometric warrior tomb 'Artiaco 104' at Cumae (Naples)
- Perception of humans and the Mediterranean Sea through the archaeological record and the written sources (early first Millennium BC)
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Dr Babbi's research interests are many and varied, and include:
• Materialising Identities
• Iconography and Iconology
• Landscape, Environment, Settlement, and Cemeteries
• Multidisciplinary and Archaeometric investigations
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Joseph Maran, Prof. Dr. Markus Egg, Prof. Dr. Alessandro Naso, Dr. Filippo Delpino, Prof. Dr. Tanja Pommerening, Prof. Dr. Alexandra Busch, and Dr. Costanza Miliani
Dr Babbi graduated from University ‘La Sapienza’, Rome. He went on studying in Rome after he had succeeded the public exam to attend the three years course of ‘Specializzazione’ in Classical Archaeology (Etruscology) and got the title of Specialist in Archaeology. He got the PhD (Etruscology) at ‘La Sapienza University’ as well. In 2007 Dr. Babbi won the Prix Roger Lambrechts of the Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres & des Beaux-arts de Belgique with his Doctoral Thesis.
During the years at the Rome University Dr Babbi started a lasting collaboration with the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR – Dr. F. Delpino) and, from 2004 untill 2008, collaborated actively as Assistant Teacher (teaching activities, examining, administrative tasks, research, field research activities) in Etruscology and Italian Archaeology at the University of Molise (Campobasso, Prof. A. Naso).
In 2007 Dr. Babbi passed the public exam by the Scuola Italiana di Archeologia (SAIA) and got a ‘Perfezionamento’ (Post-Doc) in Aegean Prehistory and Early History. He returned to Rome where he could pursued the research on the Protovillanovan, Villanovan, Etruscan and the Italic pre-Roman cultures thanks to the support of the German Institute of Archaeology (DAI). He kept on researching in Greece thanks to a couple of scholarships of the Institute of Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP-Philadelphia) and contacts set up with several Greek colleagues and other European scholars and foreign Schools at Athens and on Crete.
In 2009 Dr. Babbi started a collaboration to the survey project of the Verucchio territory (Rimini, Italy) with Prof. Alessandro Naso Innsbruck University. In autumn 2009 Dr. Babbi was invited by the Antikensammlung and the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz of Berlin to study and publish the Warrior Tomb of Tarquinia stored at the Altes Museum of Berlin. Babbi set up and coordinated a European multidisciplinary team of 28 specialists togehter with Herr Uwe Peltz. In 2010 and 2011 Dr. Babbi worked as Gastwissenschaftler at the Prehistory and Early History Department at the University of Heidelberg (Prof. J. Maran) thanks to a Post-Doc Grant of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In 2011 and 2012 Dr. Babbi started research collaborations on Crete respectively with the Azoria (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Prof. D.C. Haggis) and the Prinias teams (University of Catania-CNR, Prof. D. Palermo and Dr. A. Pautasso). The latter collaboration is still working. In the summer of 2011 Dr. Babbi designed the International Conference «‘The Mediterranean Mirror’ Cultural Contacts in the Mediterranean Sea between 1200 and 750 B.C.», which he planned together with colleagues of the Madrid, Munich and Vienna Universities. In 2012 and 2014 Dr. Babbi worked at the Research Institut of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz (Mentor Prof. Markus Egg) as Research Fellow with the support of the Gerda Henkel Stiftung.
In November and December 2014 Dr. Babbi kept researching at the Research Institut of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz (Mentor Prof. Markus Egg) thanks to a Post-Doctoral grant of the RGZM itself. Between 2015 and 2017 Dr. Babbi worked as 'scientific employee' (i.e. Researcher) at the Research Institut of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz (Mentor Prof. M. Egg). As Ideator and Co-Principal Investigator Dr. Babbi coordinated the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) Scientific Project: "Bisenzio...", a co-operation with the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Prof. Chr. Pare) up to 2017.
Between Jan.-May 2019 Babbi got a Post-Doctoral grant of the RGZM to conclude and publish the study of the famous grave Artiaco 104 from Cumaen (Naples).
Between June 2019 and May 2020, Babbi will worked as a Post-Doc researcher in the framework of the Graduiertenkolleg 1876 "Frühe Konzepte von Mensch und Natur" Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz with a project on "Perception of humans and the Mediterranean Sea through the archaeological record and the written sources (early first Millennium BC): Theoretical reflections about the shaping, internalization, and dissemination of concepts". Since November 2019 Babbi holds a permanent post as a Researcher-Archaeologist at the Institute of Heritage Science of the National Research Council of Italy (ISPC-CNR).
CURRENT PROJECTS
- Bisenzio (Viterbo, Italy)
- The Late Geometric warrior tomb 'Artiaco 104' at Cumae (Naples)
- Perception of humans and the Mediterranean Sea through the archaeological record and the written sources (early first Millennium BC)
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Dr Babbi's research interests are many and varied, and include:
• Materialising Identities
• Iconography and Iconology
• Landscape, Environment, Settlement, and Cemeteries
• Multidisciplinary and Archaeometric investigations
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Joseph Maran, Prof. Dr. Markus Egg, Prof. Dr. Alessandro Naso, Dr. Filippo Delpino, Prof. Dr. Tanja Pommerening, Prof. Dr. Alexandra Busch, and Dr. Costanza Miliani
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Current Projects by Andrea Babbi
Furthermore, the main points of the third field research campaign are outlined (Ministerial Concession 04/06/24 Decree 784), which will take place in Bisenzio (Capodimonte, VT) from 26.08. to 05.10.2024. The aims of the 2024 Campaign are to complete the excavation of the burial mound unearthed in 2023, and to investigate the occurrence of a defensive structure only briefly described in reports from the early 20th century, as well as the nature of some geophysical anomalies recorded between 2015 and 2017, and the features of some burial grounds.
Stock Media provided by LeChuckz / Pond5
Si comunicano inoltre le linee guida della terza campagna di ricerche su campo (Concessione ministeriale 04/06/24 Decreto 784) che avrà luogo a Bisenzio (Capodimonte, VT) dal 26.08. al 05.10.2024. Obiettivi della Campagna 2024 sono il completamento dello scavo del tumulo sepolcrale portato in luce nel 2023, e il controllo della esistenza di una struttura difensiva solo fuggevolmente descritta nei resoconti dei primi del ‘900, della natura di alcune anomalie geofisiche registrate tra il 2015 e il 2017, e delle caratteristiche di alcuni nuclei sepolcrali.
Stock Media provided by LeChuckz / Pond5
The archaeological site is located on and around the "Monte Bisenzio" (404.8 m), which rises on the south-western shore of Lake Bolsena (305 m a.s.l. ca).
As in the past two years, the field research aims at confirming or ruling out the interpretation of the electromagnetic anomalies detected between 2015 and 2017 in the framework of the international and transdisciplinary "The Bisenzio Project".
A major contribution to The Bisenzio Project is provided by the numerous scientific collaborations with universities, research institutes and specialised companies, set up to outline as thorough a reconstruction of antiquity as possible. This video shows three collaborations that have featured in the 2023 stratigraphic archaeological excavation campaign too.
This is part of the extensive transdisciplinary research programme of "The Bisenzio Project" directed since 2018 by our researcher from the Rome headquarters Andrea Babbi in close synergy with the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie in Mainz (LEIZA).
Campaign 2023 aims to document specific features of the 'Olmo Bello' burial ground and the identification of the boundary between the city of the living and the community of the dead.
Questa rientra nell’ampio programma di ricerche transdisciplinari del “The Bisenzio Project” diretto dal 2018 dal nostro ricercatore della sede di Roma, Andrea Babbi in stretta sinergia con il Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie di Mainz (LEIZA).
Obiettivo della Campagna 2023 è la documentazione di alcune peculiarità del nucleo sepolcrale “Olmo Bello” e l’individuazione del confine tra la città dei vivi e la comunità dei morti.
Besides, Babbi and the PhD student Florian Miketta discussed some of the results of the survey research 2016. Finally, Babbi commented on some aspects of the analysis of the burial assemblages uncovered in the Olmo Bello cemetery between 1927-31.
Furthermore, the main points of the third field research campaign are outlined (Ministerial Concession 04/06/24 Decree 784), which will take place in Bisenzio (Capodimonte, VT) from 26.08. to 05.10.2024. The aims of the 2024 Campaign are to complete the excavation of the burial mound unearthed in 2023, and to investigate the occurrence of a defensive structure only briefly described in reports from the early 20th century, as well as the nature of some geophysical anomalies recorded between 2015 and 2017, and the features of some burial grounds.
Stock Media provided by LeChuckz / Pond5
Si comunicano inoltre le linee guida della terza campagna di ricerche su campo (Concessione ministeriale 04/06/24 Decreto 784) che avrà luogo a Bisenzio (Capodimonte, VT) dal 26.08. al 05.10.2024. Obiettivi della Campagna 2024 sono il completamento dello scavo del tumulo sepolcrale portato in luce nel 2023, e il controllo della esistenza di una struttura difensiva solo fuggevolmente descritta nei resoconti dei primi del ‘900, della natura di alcune anomalie geofisiche registrate tra il 2015 e il 2017, e delle caratteristiche di alcuni nuclei sepolcrali.
Stock Media provided by LeChuckz / Pond5
The archaeological site is located on and around the "Monte Bisenzio" (404.8 m), which rises on the south-western shore of Lake Bolsena (305 m a.s.l. ca).
As in the past two years, the field research aims at confirming or ruling out the interpretation of the electromagnetic anomalies detected between 2015 and 2017 in the framework of the international and transdisciplinary "The Bisenzio Project".
A major contribution to The Bisenzio Project is provided by the numerous scientific collaborations with universities, research institutes and specialised companies, set up to outline as thorough a reconstruction of antiquity as possible. This video shows three collaborations that have featured in the 2023 stratigraphic archaeological excavation campaign too.
This is part of the extensive transdisciplinary research programme of "The Bisenzio Project" directed since 2018 by our researcher from the Rome headquarters Andrea Babbi in close synergy with the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie in Mainz (LEIZA).
Campaign 2023 aims to document specific features of the 'Olmo Bello' burial ground and the identification of the boundary between the city of the living and the community of the dead.
Questa rientra nell’ampio programma di ricerche transdisciplinari del “The Bisenzio Project” diretto dal 2018 dal nostro ricercatore della sede di Roma, Andrea Babbi in stretta sinergia con il Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie di Mainz (LEIZA).
Obiettivo della Campagna 2023 è la documentazione di alcune peculiarità del nucleo sepolcrale “Olmo Bello” e l’individuazione del confine tra la città dei vivi e la comunità dei morti.
Besides, Babbi and the PhD student Florian Miketta discussed some of the results of the survey research 2016. Finally, Babbi commented on some aspects of the analysis of the burial assemblages uncovered in the Olmo Bello cemetery between 1927-31.
Three continuous sediment cores were collected up to 20 meters deep in the alluvial plain bordering the archaeological area. Lithostratigraphic analyses were carried out to characterize depositional facies and outline the evolution of the depositional system in relation to lake level oscillations. The sediment fractions were further examined for the recognition of microfauna and archaeological artifacts. Preliminary results suggest the presence of high-energy streams with archaeological evidence found up to a maximum depth of about 6 meters. At the same time, high-resolution bathymetric surveys were carried out on the submerged sector of the archaeological sites, providing a detailed isobath contours that revealed a complex morphology of the lakebed.
Two sediment cores about 5 m in depth were extracted from the lakebed offshore at 27 m water depth. Sedimentological analysis of lacustrine sediment revealed recurrent organic layers characterized by vegetal remains, consistent with the occurrence of remarkable lake level variations. Exploratory palynological analysis suggested a depositional hiatus in the uppermost portion of the cores. A suite of radiocarbon dates have been designed to define the chronological frame of the sedimentary sequences and to identify changes in timing and rate of sediment accumulation, both in the alluvial plain and the submerged lacustrine depositional environments.
Archaeological surveys and limited soundings have been carried out both in the fields around Mount Bisenzio and in the nowadays underwater region. The former provided evidence for a backdating of the earliest human presence in the area, the pace of the settlement evolution, as well as the extension of the residential area. The latter yielded contexts and stratigraphic sequences hinting at the lake level during the end of the archaic phase.
Palynological and palaeobotanical investigations of in-situ archaeological samples and plant macroremains from domestic contexts allow to reconstruct the surrounding vegetational landscape, outlining some aspects of human activities related to the exploitation of natural resources at the site.
‘worlds in-between’.
Il corredo della sepoltura 16 dalla necropoli di Olmo Bello a Bisenzio (Capodimonte, VT) è conservato a Roma, nel Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia. In base alle notizie pubblicate da Roberto Paribeni nel 1928, derivate dalle note fornitegli da Fausto Benedetti ed Enrico Stefani, autori della scoperta, è possibile riconoscere nel titolare del sepolcro una figura preminente della comunità visentina della seconda metà dell’VIII sec. a.C. Ad oggi gli studi sul contesto avevano meritoriamente evidenziato la pervasività degli influssi ‘egei’ nella scelta di alcuni elementi del corredo tombale. Le nuove ricerche, recuperando indizi di una vera e propria poliedricità culturale del defunto e di una sua possibile mobilità geografica, invitano a riconsiderare il dinamismo della comunità locale coeva nel quadro delle reti di contatti con le regioni medio-tirreniche di ‘frontiera’.
925 to 725 BC (Early Iron Age), the extent of the residential area almost reached that of the most important proto-urban centres in southern Etruria.
Despite the continuity of the necropolises and the occurrence of clusters of chamber tombs, between the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. (the Orientalizing and Archaic Ages) Bisenzio would have undergone a gradual decline, that culminated at the beginning of the 5th century B.C..
Though the scientific investigations date back to the 19th century, an exhaustive interpretive framework has always been lacking and several issues do call for further research: palaeo-landscape; early frequentation and evolution of the settlement area; underwater archaeological contexts; peri-urban burial areas and cultic-scape.
The lecture provides an overview of the knowledge available at the start of “The Bisenzio Project” and illustrates the interpretative paradigms with which such knowledge has been historically contextualised. Finally, new insights are provided and the possibility that the above-mentioned paradigms require assessment is evaluated.
Keeping all this in mind, such findings will be considered while focusing the attention on objective features and specific details concerning the different elements making up the figurines. Furthermore, the archaeological context, will be taken into consideration to canvass the possible function(s) of the space, from which the figurines originate. Concurrently, a cognitive approach as to the possible ways of handling/displaying these objects will be followed. Finally, reflections stemming from anthropological studies, intuitions elaborated in the psychological field, and the latest discoveries achieved by neurosciences, will be tested in order to try to approach the figurines from unusual perspectives.
Le variazioni climatiche e le conseguenti variazioni del livello del lago che ebbero luogo durante l’età del Bronzo, così come le particolari caratteristiche orografiche del sito, fecero di Bisenzio un fondamentale snodo delle reti di contatti dell’Etruria Meridionale. Paradossalmente è possibile che proprio questa importanza abbia contribuito a determinare la crisi della comunità visentina al principio del V sec. a.C., quando le più potenti comunità urbane della regione non tollerarono più l’esistenza di intraprendenti realtà aristocratiche nei territori limitrofi.
Fino ad anni recentissimi, nonostante le molteplici e lodevoli ricerche svolte nel passato, solo pochi dati certi erano disponibili. Oggi, grazie ai permessi concessi dalla Soprintendenza e al generoso finanziamento garantito dalla Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), un’équipe internazionale e multidisciplinare ha intrapreso uno studio accurato e di ampio respiro di Bisenzio e del suo distretto. Durante la conferenza saranno illustrate alcune delle nuove acquisizioni e le possibili ricadute sui modelli interpretativi usualmente adottati per l’Etruria meridionale, nonché le entusiasmanti prospettive di ricerca.
La conferenza costituisce inoltre l’occasione per presentare l’idea progettuale elaborata dalla Soprintendenza che, inserendosi nel tracciato del Progetto interdisciplinare e in piena armonia con esso, d’intesa con l’Amministrazione comunale di Capodimonte, intende realizzare il Museo Archeologico dell’antica città di Bisenzio nell’insigne complesso monumentale della Cascina, imponente granaio realizzato per volontà della famiglia Farnese.
By sailing the ‘black sea’ and playing a role in a physical and mental frontier milieu, multifaceted and permeable by nature and where newcomers-natives’ interactions had capital significance, these individuals likely developed a rather acute hodological perception of space. Such perception thrived in mental maps made up by threads connecting individuals acting as human nodes of webs of significance spreading across space and time. By dealing with a plethora of externalities these prominent individuals developed a transcultural attitude that allowed them to face alterities not only by displaying power and embarking in cultural and physical conflicts, but also by taking part in and setting up new cross-cutting ‘groups of solidarity’ reflecting the ebullient factional competitions shaking all the groups involved.
Such experiences made it possible for these people to internalize new sets of practice and significance so deeply that some of them could not help but introduce their seriously altered badges of identification to their community of origin when returning home.
By taking into consideration a few relevant funerary contexts located at Cumae near Naples and at Eretria on the Euboea Isle, dating to the transition of the 8th-7th century BC, this lecture aims to focus its attention on the ebullient webs of significance that enlivened the ethnic boundaries by splitting the otherwise clear-cut frontiers into a polyhedric and ebullient meshwork of circles of identity.
Sowohl die Klimaschwankungen und die daraus folgenden Seespiegelvariationen, die sich während der Bronzezeit zeigten, als auch die besondere Lage dieses Zentrums machten Bisenzio zu einem grundlegenden Knotenpunkt der intensiven Netzwerke Südetruriens. Gerade diese Relevanz bestimmt wahrscheinlich den Niedergang der Stadt um das frühe 5. Jh. v. Chr., nämlich als die mächtigsten benachbarten Städte die Koexistenz aristokratischer Enklaven nicht mehr tolerierten.
Trotz der früheren Forschungen gibt es heute nur wenige Anhaltspunkte, die meisten beschränken sich auf topographische Merkmale. Gegenwärtig wird die Geschichte von Bisenzio jedoch dank der Unterstützung der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft und der Kooperation zwischen der ‚Soprintendenza archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio per l'area metropolitana di Roma, la provincia di Viterbo e l'Etruria meridionale‘ und einer internationalen und multidisziplinären Arbeitsgruppe weitreichend und vielfältig erforscht.
Daher wurde 2015 die Forschung in Bisenzio wieder aufgenommen, um mit einem holistischen und transdisziplinären Ansatz die zahlreichen Altgrabungen zu dokumentieren und mit neuen Untersuchungen zusammenzuführen. Die neuen Ausgrabungen und Prospektionen beziehen sich gleichermaßen auf die Bestattungsplätz und die Siedlung. Dank verschiedener nicht-invasiver Forschungsaktivitäten war es möglich, die Dynamik zu skizzieren, die die Bisenzio-Gemeinschaft von einer protourbanen zu einer städtischen Dimension gebracht hat.
Die neue Forschungsphase, die zum Teil wegen der Pandemie erst vor kurzem reaktiviert wurde, bietet eine wertvolle Gelegenheit, den oben beschriebenen Ansatz zu bestätigen und zu erweitern, sowie einige der wichtigsten Interpretationsmodelle zu überdenken und neue, notwendige Modelle zu entwickeln.
The socio-political fragmentation of the Mediterranean meant the end of the previous long-distance interconnections, and an innovative «Mediterranean-wide web» emerged, made up of interlocking regional networks that was less based on established trade routes. The archaeological record hints at control of these local networks by elites who shared a warrior ideology though they expressed it differently in different regions.
The aim of this research is to investigate the cultural entanglement of these elites, their strategies of displaying power, exchange activities, negotiating tactics and aspects of hybridization in the local re-elaboration of overseas stimuli. These features led to the rise of Mediterranean ‘warrior’ elites who created a new, collective construct that lasted until the Orientalizing phenomenon and the complex ‘colonization’ process.
The period examined lasts from circa 1000 till 670 BC, a phase for which much new evidence is available thanks to ongoing excavations and publications but that has not been examined well in some of its overarching characteristics. The region covered stretches from the Levant to central Mediterranean.
The evidence yielded by the richest and meaningful mediterranean burials with weapons is contextualized through a cognitive approach, which will take into account the insights of Networks and Agency theories, Post-Colonial Archaeology and the latest theoretical trends referring to the cultural Entanglement.
The purpose is to to canvass a new historical and societal framework, that could offers new reflections on chronology, contacts between Mediterranean regions, resources, shared technological know-how, phenomena of appropriation and collective symbols and rituals.
Finally, the description of the strategies through which the various communities in the Mediterranean were able to rebuild this network of interconnections during a period of transformations will cast light on contemporary conditions of cultural and economical balances.