Studies on the “uses of the past” have steadily and consistently advanced over the past twenty ye... more Studies on the “uses of the past” have steadily and consistently advanced over the past twenty years. Following the seminal studies by Hobsbawm and Ranger and Benedict Anderson on the role of narratives of the past in constructing (national) identities, and thanks the always more widespread practice of reception studies, the attention for cultural memory and lieux de mémoire, and following, many publications have investigated the role of nearer and further time layers in defining and determining structures of identity and senses of belonging across the world. Didactics of history has also contributed a great deal to this field of studies, also thanks to the always more refined methodologies of school book analysis. Classical Antiquity has obviously not been neglected, and multiple studies have been dedicated to its role in the development and reinforcement of modern identities. Yet, not only some areas of the world have remained less considered than others, but most attention has been dedicated to national identities, nationalistic discourses, and their activation through historical narratives. This special issues of thersites wants to contribute further to research on the role of Classical Antiquity within modern identities, asking scholars to focus especially on areas that have been less strongly represented in scholarship until now.
Archaeology Hotspot Italy: Unearthing the Past for Armchair Archaeologists presents a comprehensi... more Archaeology Hotspot Italy: Unearthing the Past for Armchair Archaeologists presents a comprehensive overview of Italian archaeology. The main archaeological epochs-from the Paleolithic to the Middle Ages-and sites and the discoveries made in the last twenty years, as well as past and present great archaeologists, are thoroughly explored. This book also gives insight into the way in which archaeology is practiced today, dealing with controversies over interpretation of the past connected to different theoretical approaches and present-day social and political contingencies. One of the aims of Archaeology Hotspot Italy is to show the reader that archaeology is by no means a static discipline and that our knowledge of the past is continuously challenged by new discoveries and new approaches as well as by national and international heritage politics. It can be read either while staying comfortably at home or while traveling through Italy. Indeed, this book was conceived as a handbook on Italian archaeology for armchair archaeologists as well as an archaeological guide for those visiting Italy. It provides key information on unconventional and little-known archeological sites outside of the mass tourism circuits, as well as insights on must-see sites and monuments in Italy, such as Pompeii or the ancient city of Rome. The reader will find insights into the actual work of Italian archaeologists in current excavations and on the challenges that they have to face. This perspective is quite unique. By combining information on archaeological sites with insights into archaeological practice, this book enables the reader to fully understand the archaeological profession in Italy. This beautiful, full-color book features forty-four photographs and three maps.
Spatial variation and patterning in the distribution of artefacts are topics of fundamental signi... more Spatial variation and patterning in the distribution of artefacts are topics of fundamental significance in Balkan archaeology. For decades, archaeologists have been classifying spatial clusters of artefacts into discrete “cultures”, which have been conventionally treated as bound entities and equated with past social (or even ethnic) groups. The need for an up-to-date and theoretically informed dialogue on group identity in Balkan prehistory is the point of departure for this volume. Thirteen case studies covering the beginning of the Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age and written by archaeologists conducting fieldwork in the region, as well as by ethnologists with a research focus on material culture and identity, provide a robust foundation for exploring these issues. Each essay challenges long-established interpretations and provides a new, contextualised reading of the archaeological record. Bringing together the latest research (with an intentional focus on the central and western Balkans, i.e. former Yugoslavia), the chapters offer original perspectives on Balkan prehistory with relevance to the neighbouring regions of Eastern and Central Europe, the Mediterranean and Anatolia.
ABSTRACTLong-standing archaeological narratives suggest that the 3rd millennium cal BC is a key p... more ABSTRACTLong-standing archaeological narratives suggest that the 3rd millennium cal BC is a key period in Mediterranean and European prehistory, characterized by the development of extensive interaction networks. In the Balkans for instance, the identification of such interactions relies solely upon typological arguments associated with conflicting local terminologies. Through a combination of 25 new radiocarbon (14C) dates and re-examination of the existing documentation, this paper defines the absolute chronology for groups which were previously only broadly framed into the 3rd millennium BC central Balkans (modern-day Serbia and North Macedonia). These absolute dates allow us to establish with greater clarity the chronological relations between different cultural groups that represent the main cultural units of the central Balkans sequence for the 3rd millennium cal BC: Coţofeni-Kostolac, Bubanj-Hum II, Belotić-Bela Crkva, Armenochori, and Bubanj Hum III. When comparing together ...
In: J. Maran, R. Băjenaru, S.C. Alincăi, A.D. Popescu, S. Hansen (eds.), Objects, Ideas and Travelers. Contacts between the Balkans, the Aegean and Western Anatolia during the Bronze and Early Iron Age, Proc. Conf. to the memory of A. Vulpe 2020, Habelt, Bonn, pp. 65–83. , 2020
The Late Bronze Age (1700–900 BC) represents an extremely dynamic period for Mediterranean Europe... more The Late Bronze Age (1700–900 BC) represents an extremely dynamic period for Mediterranean Europe. Here, we provide a comparative survey of the archaeological record of over half a millennium within the entire northern littoral of the Mediterranean, from Greece to Iberia, incorporating archaeological, archaeometric, and bioarchaeological evidence. The picture that emerges, while certainly fragmented and not displaying a unique trajectory, reveals a number of broad trends in aspects as different as social organization, trade, transcultural phenomena, and human mobility. The contribution of such trends to the processes that caused the end of the Bronze Age is also examined. Taken together, they illustrate how networks of interaction, ranging from the short to the long range, became a defining aspect of the “Middle Sea” during this time, influencing the lives of the communities that inhabited its northern shore. They also highlight the importance of research that crosses modern boundar...
Trattamento e restituzione del Patrimonio culturale. Oggetti, resti umani, conoscenza, Atti dei webinar (10-11 novembre 2020 e 21-22 aprile 2021), a cura di Marco Arizza. Roma, Cnr Edizioni 2021., 2021
L’archeologia nasce come scienza nazionalista legata al sorgere degli stati nazionali, strumento ... more L’archeologia nasce come scienza nazionalista legata al sorgere degli stati nazionali, strumento ideologico per la costruzione dell’identità. Ruolo che si è amplificato con il colonialismo e con la sua declinazione più moderna, l’imperialismo, di cui è stata strumento ideologico e operativo, dalla spedizione di Napoleone in Egitto a oggi . In altre parole l’archeologia non è una scienza innocente – nessuna scienza lo è – ma sin dalle sue origini si configura come azione ‘politica’. In questo contributo vengono presentati due casi studio: la Sardegna e i Balcani occidentali. Attraverso la storia dello sviluppo dell’archeologia come disciplina scientifica, l’etica del racconto archeologico, ovvero la restituzione dell’archeologia alla società, viene esplorata seguendo le linee del rapporto fra scienza e politica.
This article focuses on the Cyclopean masonry walls of the city of Alatri, in the Latium Vetus, a... more This article focuses on the Cyclopean masonry walls of the city of Alatri, in the Latium Vetus, and on their role in the present identity-building process. Traditional chronology for these structures-now also supported by data from stratigraphic excavations-places them in the 4 th century BC, in the context of the Samnite Wars, in which this city of Hernician origin fought as an ally of Rome. Alternative theories, with deep roots in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and widespread among the inhabitants of Alatri, date these imposing walls many centuries earlier, and ascribe their construction to a group of Hittites who were fleeing from their capital Hattusa in Asia Minor and settled in central Italy. Dealing with pseudo-archaeologists and amateur scholars and their relationship to scientific archaeology, the case study addressed in this paper deals with the widespread problem of the relationship between mainstream archaeology and pseudo-archaeology, and their role in the identity-building process based on archaeological discourses. The complex problem of the relationship between the adoption of a multivocal approach and the dissemination of scientific results among society will also be analysed, also through a comparison with the case of Sardinia.
-- Full-text paper available here: https://rdcu.be/cmCGI --
The Late Bronze Age (1700-900 BC) r... more -- Full-text paper available here: https://rdcu.be/cmCGI --
The Late Bronze Age (1700-900 BC) represents an extremely dynamic period for Mediterranean Europe. Here, we provide a comparative survey of the archaeological record of over half a millennium within the entire northern littoral of the Mediterranean, from Greece to Iberia, incorporating archaeological, archaeometric, and bioarchaeological evidence. The picture that emerges, while certainly fragmented and not displaying a unique trajectory, reveals a number of broad trends in aspects as different as social organization, trade, transcultural phenomena, and human mobility. The contribution of such trends to the processes that caused the end of the Bronze Age is also examined. Taken together, they illustrate how networks of interaction, ranging from the short to the long range, became a defining aspect of the "Middle Sea" during this time, influencing the lives of the communities that inhabited its northern shore. They also highlight the importance of research that crosses modern boundaries for gaining a better understanding of broad comparable dynamics.
Les actes de cette rencontre sont en cours de publication aux presses de l'Académie de Vienne. 9.... more Les actes de cette rencontre sont en cours de publication aux presses de l'Académie de Vienne. 9. Voir T. K , « Συνδέοντας στρωματογραφίες στην Βόρεια Ελλάδα και Νότια Αλβανία », AErgoMak 29 (à paraître).
By adopting historical and sociological approaches to archaeology, this paper focuses on the deve... more By adopting historical and sociological approaches to archaeology, this paper focuses on the development of archaeology in Albania and Yugoslavia and their relation first to fascism and then to communism and socialist regimes. Identity issues based on archaeological discourse in former Yugoslavia and Albania are often perceived and regarded by western scholarship as extreme distortions and abuses of archaeological practice to promote nationalism. By providing a comparative and diachronic perspective, this paper aims to demonstrate that the way in which a society relates to its past is a complex phenomenon, and that political uses of archaeology in the western Balkans cannot be associated entirely with socialist regimes and communist ideologies. It is argued that different uses of archaeology are the product of a complex interaction between the development of archaeological discipline and historical, social and cultural trajectories.
In this study we present new absolute dates for the Early Eneolithic in Serbia. Four of them conf... more In this study we present new absolute dates for the Early Eneolithic in Serbia. Four of them confirm the recently obtained dates from that period (Bubanj-Hum I culture) but two samples (from Mokranjske stene and Bubanj) provide somewhat later dates for this period, although their stratigraphic context makes their interpretation difficult. Pottery from those sites, besides the typical examples, also shows particular stylistic and typological characteristics that resemble Galatin or Sãlcuþa IV cultures, so one can presume that the Bubanj-Hum I culture in Serbia may have lasted longer than what is generally assumed.
Les actes de cette rencontre sont en cours de publication aux presses de l'Académie de Vienne. 9.... more Les actes de cette rencontre sont en cours de publication aux presses de l'Académie de Vienne. 9. Voir T. K , « Συνδέοντας στρωματογραφίες στην Βόρεια Ελλάδα και Νότια Αλβανία », AErgoMak 29 (à paraître).
Introducing Ex Novo At the beginning of the 2000s, following a short and (too) optimistic period ... more Introducing Ex Novo At the beginning of the 2000s, following a short and (too) optimistic period of prosperity caused by the boom of commercial archaeology, Italian archaeology experienced a deep crisis. This seesawing situation was particularly evident in Rome, where the job market was unable to absorb the increasing number of archaeologists graduating from La Sapienzathe largest Archaeology Department in Italy-as well as from the other two universities of the city. Rome was (and still is) a magnet for archaeologists coming from the rest of the Peninsula, in particular from central and southern Italy, seeking jobs in both commercial and public sectors, as the survey carried out by Discovering the Archaeologists of Europe 2014 Research Project has clearly pointed out (Pintucci & Cella 2014). Job market crisis in archaeology, however, spread rapidly in the whole Peninsula. Soon the unemployment rate started to rise among the younger generation of archaeologists and so their discontent. It was in this situation that a group of students and fresh graduate archaeologists from La Sapienza in December 2004 decided to establish the CIA-Confederazione Italiana Archeologi (Italian Confederation of Archaeologists), the first association of professionals based in Italy whose main aim was safeguarding archaeological careers. A few months later, in 2005, the CIA designed a virtual open access space to foster dialogue among archaeologists, in an attempt to stimulate students, professionals working in both private and public sectors, scholars and researchers to challenge themselves on the role of archaeology in society. Ex Novo was born.
Studies on the “uses of the past” have steadily and consistently advanced over the past twenty ye... more Studies on the “uses of the past” have steadily and consistently advanced over the past twenty years. Following the seminal studies by Hobsbawm and Ranger and Benedict Anderson on the role of narratives of the past in constructing (national) identities, and thanks the always more widespread practice of reception studies, the attention for cultural memory and lieux de mémoire, and following, many publications have investigated the role of nearer and further time layers in defining and determining structures of identity and senses of belonging across the world. Didactics of history has also contributed a great deal to this field of studies, also thanks to the always more refined methodologies of school book analysis. Classical Antiquity has obviously not been neglected, and multiple studies have been dedicated to its role in the development and reinforcement of modern identities. Yet, not only some areas of the world have remained less considered than others, but most attention has been dedicated to national identities, nationalistic discourses, and their activation through historical narratives. This special issues of thersites wants to contribute further to research on the role of Classical Antiquity within modern identities, asking scholars to focus especially on areas that have been less strongly represented in scholarship until now.
Archaeology Hotspot Italy: Unearthing the Past for Armchair Archaeologists presents a comprehensi... more Archaeology Hotspot Italy: Unearthing the Past for Armchair Archaeologists presents a comprehensive overview of Italian archaeology. The main archaeological epochs-from the Paleolithic to the Middle Ages-and sites and the discoveries made in the last twenty years, as well as past and present great archaeologists, are thoroughly explored. This book also gives insight into the way in which archaeology is practiced today, dealing with controversies over interpretation of the past connected to different theoretical approaches and present-day social and political contingencies. One of the aims of Archaeology Hotspot Italy is to show the reader that archaeology is by no means a static discipline and that our knowledge of the past is continuously challenged by new discoveries and new approaches as well as by national and international heritage politics. It can be read either while staying comfortably at home or while traveling through Italy. Indeed, this book was conceived as a handbook on Italian archaeology for armchair archaeologists as well as an archaeological guide for those visiting Italy. It provides key information on unconventional and little-known archeological sites outside of the mass tourism circuits, as well as insights on must-see sites and monuments in Italy, such as Pompeii or the ancient city of Rome. The reader will find insights into the actual work of Italian archaeologists in current excavations and on the challenges that they have to face. This perspective is quite unique. By combining information on archaeological sites with insights into archaeological practice, this book enables the reader to fully understand the archaeological profession in Italy. This beautiful, full-color book features forty-four photographs and three maps.
Spatial variation and patterning in the distribution of artefacts are topics of fundamental signi... more Spatial variation and patterning in the distribution of artefacts are topics of fundamental significance in Balkan archaeology. For decades, archaeologists have been classifying spatial clusters of artefacts into discrete “cultures”, which have been conventionally treated as bound entities and equated with past social (or even ethnic) groups. The need for an up-to-date and theoretically informed dialogue on group identity in Balkan prehistory is the point of departure for this volume. Thirteen case studies covering the beginning of the Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age and written by archaeologists conducting fieldwork in the region, as well as by ethnologists with a research focus on material culture and identity, provide a robust foundation for exploring these issues. Each essay challenges long-established interpretations and provides a new, contextualised reading of the archaeological record. Bringing together the latest research (with an intentional focus on the central and western Balkans, i.e. former Yugoslavia), the chapters offer original perspectives on Balkan prehistory with relevance to the neighbouring regions of Eastern and Central Europe, the Mediterranean and Anatolia.
ABSTRACTLong-standing archaeological narratives suggest that the 3rd millennium cal BC is a key p... more ABSTRACTLong-standing archaeological narratives suggest that the 3rd millennium cal BC is a key period in Mediterranean and European prehistory, characterized by the development of extensive interaction networks. In the Balkans for instance, the identification of such interactions relies solely upon typological arguments associated with conflicting local terminologies. Through a combination of 25 new radiocarbon (14C) dates and re-examination of the existing documentation, this paper defines the absolute chronology for groups which were previously only broadly framed into the 3rd millennium BC central Balkans (modern-day Serbia and North Macedonia). These absolute dates allow us to establish with greater clarity the chronological relations between different cultural groups that represent the main cultural units of the central Balkans sequence for the 3rd millennium cal BC: Coţofeni-Kostolac, Bubanj-Hum II, Belotić-Bela Crkva, Armenochori, and Bubanj Hum III. When comparing together ...
In: J. Maran, R. Băjenaru, S.C. Alincăi, A.D. Popescu, S. Hansen (eds.), Objects, Ideas and Travelers. Contacts between the Balkans, the Aegean and Western Anatolia during the Bronze and Early Iron Age, Proc. Conf. to the memory of A. Vulpe 2020, Habelt, Bonn, pp. 65–83. , 2020
The Late Bronze Age (1700–900 BC) represents an extremely dynamic period for Mediterranean Europe... more The Late Bronze Age (1700–900 BC) represents an extremely dynamic period for Mediterranean Europe. Here, we provide a comparative survey of the archaeological record of over half a millennium within the entire northern littoral of the Mediterranean, from Greece to Iberia, incorporating archaeological, archaeometric, and bioarchaeological evidence. The picture that emerges, while certainly fragmented and not displaying a unique trajectory, reveals a number of broad trends in aspects as different as social organization, trade, transcultural phenomena, and human mobility. The contribution of such trends to the processes that caused the end of the Bronze Age is also examined. Taken together, they illustrate how networks of interaction, ranging from the short to the long range, became a defining aspect of the “Middle Sea” during this time, influencing the lives of the communities that inhabited its northern shore. They also highlight the importance of research that crosses modern boundar...
Trattamento e restituzione del Patrimonio culturale. Oggetti, resti umani, conoscenza, Atti dei webinar (10-11 novembre 2020 e 21-22 aprile 2021), a cura di Marco Arizza. Roma, Cnr Edizioni 2021., 2021
L’archeologia nasce come scienza nazionalista legata al sorgere degli stati nazionali, strumento ... more L’archeologia nasce come scienza nazionalista legata al sorgere degli stati nazionali, strumento ideologico per la costruzione dell’identità. Ruolo che si è amplificato con il colonialismo e con la sua declinazione più moderna, l’imperialismo, di cui è stata strumento ideologico e operativo, dalla spedizione di Napoleone in Egitto a oggi . In altre parole l’archeologia non è una scienza innocente – nessuna scienza lo è – ma sin dalle sue origini si configura come azione ‘politica’. In questo contributo vengono presentati due casi studio: la Sardegna e i Balcani occidentali. Attraverso la storia dello sviluppo dell’archeologia come disciplina scientifica, l’etica del racconto archeologico, ovvero la restituzione dell’archeologia alla società, viene esplorata seguendo le linee del rapporto fra scienza e politica.
This article focuses on the Cyclopean masonry walls of the city of Alatri, in the Latium Vetus, a... more This article focuses on the Cyclopean masonry walls of the city of Alatri, in the Latium Vetus, and on their role in the present identity-building process. Traditional chronology for these structures-now also supported by data from stratigraphic excavations-places them in the 4 th century BC, in the context of the Samnite Wars, in which this city of Hernician origin fought as an ally of Rome. Alternative theories, with deep roots in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and widespread among the inhabitants of Alatri, date these imposing walls many centuries earlier, and ascribe their construction to a group of Hittites who were fleeing from their capital Hattusa in Asia Minor and settled in central Italy. Dealing with pseudo-archaeologists and amateur scholars and their relationship to scientific archaeology, the case study addressed in this paper deals with the widespread problem of the relationship between mainstream archaeology and pseudo-archaeology, and their role in the identity-building process based on archaeological discourses. The complex problem of the relationship between the adoption of a multivocal approach and the dissemination of scientific results among society will also be analysed, also through a comparison with the case of Sardinia.
-- Full-text paper available here: https://rdcu.be/cmCGI --
The Late Bronze Age (1700-900 BC) r... more -- Full-text paper available here: https://rdcu.be/cmCGI --
The Late Bronze Age (1700-900 BC) represents an extremely dynamic period for Mediterranean Europe. Here, we provide a comparative survey of the archaeological record of over half a millennium within the entire northern littoral of the Mediterranean, from Greece to Iberia, incorporating archaeological, archaeometric, and bioarchaeological evidence. The picture that emerges, while certainly fragmented and not displaying a unique trajectory, reveals a number of broad trends in aspects as different as social organization, trade, transcultural phenomena, and human mobility. The contribution of such trends to the processes that caused the end of the Bronze Age is also examined. Taken together, they illustrate how networks of interaction, ranging from the short to the long range, became a defining aspect of the "Middle Sea" during this time, influencing the lives of the communities that inhabited its northern shore. They also highlight the importance of research that crosses modern boundaries for gaining a better understanding of broad comparable dynamics.
Les actes de cette rencontre sont en cours de publication aux presses de l'Académie de Vienne. 9.... more Les actes de cette rencontre sont en cours de publication aux presses de l'Académie de Vienne. 9. Voir T. K , « Συνδέοντας στρωματογραφίες στην Βόρεια Ελλάδα και Νότια Αλβανία », AErgoMak 29 (à paraître).
By adopting historical and sociological approaches to archaeology, this paper focuses on the deve... more By adopting historical and sociological approaches to archaeology, this paper focuses on the development of archaeology in Albania and Yugoslavia and their relation first to fascism and then to communism and socialist regimes. Identity issues based on archaeological discourse in former Yugoslavia and Albania are often perceived and regarded by western scholarship as extreme distortions and abuses of archaeological practice to promote nationalism. By providing a comparative and diachronic perspective, this paper aims to demonstrate that the way in which a society relates to its past is a complex phenomenon, and that political uses of archaeology in the western Balkans cannot be associated entirely with socialist regimes and communist ideologies. It is argued that different uses of archaeology are the product of a complex interaction between the development of archaeological discipline and historical, social and cultural trajectories.
In this study we present new absolute dates for the Early Eneolithic in Serbia. Four of them conf... more In this study we present new absolute dates for the Early Eneolithic in Serbia. Four of them confirm the recently obtained dates from that period (Bubanj-Hum I culture) but two samples (from Mokranjske stene and Bubanj) provide somewhat later dates for this period, although their stratigraphic context makes their interpretation difficult. Pottery from those sites, besides the typical examples, also shows particular stylistic and typological characteristics that resemble Galatin or Sãlcuþa IV cultures, so one can presume that the Bubanj-Hum I culture in Serbia may have lasted longer than what is generally assumed.
Les actes de cette rencontre sont en cours de publication aux presses de l'Académie de Vienne. 9.... more Les actes de cette rencontre sont en cours de publication aux presses de l'Académie de Vienne. 9. Voir T. K , « Συνδέοντας στρωματογραφίες στην Βόρεια Ελλάδα και Νότια Αλβανία », AErgoMak 29 (à paraître).
Introducing Ex Novo At the beginning of the 2000s, following a short and (too) optimistic period ... more Introducing Ex Novo At the beginning of the 2000s, following a short and (too) optimistic period of prosperity caused by the boom of commercial archaeology, Italian archaeology experienced a deep crisis. This seesawing situation was particularly evident in Rome, where the job market was unable to absorb the increasing number of archaeologists graduating from La Sapienzathe largest Archaeology Department in Italy-as well as from the other two universities of the city. Rome was (and still is) a magnet for archaeologists coming from the rest of the Peninsula, in particular from central and southern Italy, seeking jobs in both commercial and public sectors, as the survey carried out by Discovering the Archaeologists of Europe 2014 Research Project has clearly pointed out (Pintucci & Cella 2014). Job market crisis in archaeology, however, spread rapidly in the whole Peninsula. Soon the unemployment rate started to rise among the younger generation of archaeologists and so their discontent. It was in this situation that a group of students and fresh graduate archaeologists from La Sapienza in December 2004 decided to establish the CIA-Confederazione Italiana Archeologi (Italian Confederation of Archaeologists), the first association of professionals based in Italy whose main aim was safeguarding archaeological careers. A few months later, in 2005, the CIA designed a virtual open access space to foster dialogue among archaeologists, in an attempt to stimulate students, professionals working in both private and public sectors, scholars and researchers to challenge themselves on the role of archaeology in society. Ex Novo was born.
The archaeological site of Sovjan is situated on the edge of the Korçë Basin, southeastern Albani... more The archaeological site of Sovjan is situated on the edge of the Korçë Basin, southeastern Albania. Its remarkably long and well investigated stratigraphic sequence, spanning from the Neolithic till the Iron Age, makes it an important type-and reference-site for the whole region. At different periods of prehistory it was located on the shores of the former Lake Maliq that once filled the Korçë Basin, but was definitely drained in the 1940 ′ s. These permanent wetland conditions on the site allowed for a high degree of preservation of organic material, especially wood. Based on the current knowledge, level 8 of Sovjan contains the best-preserved wooden material of all the Early Bronze Age sites in the Balkans. Through the combination of dendrochronology and Bayesian modelling, i.e. wiggle-matching, a floating 269-years long tree-ring chronology was constructed, with an absolute end-date range falling between 2158 and 2142 cal BC (2σ). It was possible to establish that the dwellings and the trackway associated with the last occupation phase of level 8 are contemporaneous. Additionally, with the help of the new dendrochronological data and based on previously published charcoal dates, the absolute chronology of the subsequent level 7 is being narrowed-down to a range from the mid-22nd to mid-20th c. cal BC (2σ). The Early Bronze Age layers of the archaeological site of Sovjan, which are particularly pertinent for the 3rd millennium chronology of the southwestern Balkans, can now be dated with high precision for the first time and hence offer a major chronological reference point in the region.
Radiocarbon Dating the 3rd Millennium BC in the Central Balkans: a re-examination of the Early Bronze Age sequence, 2020
Long-standing archaeological narratives suggest that the 3rd millennium cal BC is a key period in... more Long-standing archaeological narratives suggest that the 3rd millennium cal BC is a key period in Mediterranean and European prehistory, characterized by the development of extensive interaction networks. In the Balkans for instance, the identification of such interactions relies solely upon typological arguments associated with conflicting local terminologies. Through a combination of 25 new radiocarbon (14 C) dates and re-examination of the existing documentation, this paper defines the absolute chronology for groups which were previously only broadly framed into the 3rd millennium BC central Balkans (modern-day Serbia and North Macedonia). These absolute dates allow us to establish with greater clarity the chronological relations between different cultural groups that represent the main cultural units of the central Balkans sequence for the 3rd millennium cal BC: Coţofeni-Kostolac, Bubanj-Hum II, Belotić-Bela Crkva, Armenochori, and Bubanj Hum III. When comparing together the chronologies for material culture, funerary treatment of the body, and funerary architecture, there are no easily discernible patterns. We observe instead a complex mix of traits criss-crossing over a wide area encompassing the Pannonian basin, the central Balkans and the Greek peninsula.
Recent research projects have provided new data to tackle the issue of long range cultural contac... more Recent research projects have provided new data to tackle the issue of long range cultural contacts and movements of small human groups across the Central Mediterranean during the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. This complex phenomenon, whose epicentre was probably the Dalmatian culture of Cetina, implies intertwined processes of interactions between various regions. Unlike the previous periods, when evidence of cross-cultural contacts mostly consists of similarities in the material culture between regions, in the period under scrutiny it is possible to recognise both close parallels in pottery production and the circulation of imports/ imitations of artefacts made of bone/antler, stone and metal. The paper offers a brief reconsideration of the available data from the western Balkans, western Greece and from various contexts in southern Italy, Sicily and the small adjacent islands that were involved in these long-range interactions. A critical evaluation of the incidence of allogenous artefacts in the various contexts is also provided. The impact of the Bell Beaker phenomenon in the area under scrutiny is also discussed. This was in fact marginal, though Bell Beaker-type elements did actually co-exist with western Balkan-type ones in some of the examined regions. Finally, the chronological aspect of the ‘Cetina phenomenon’ is discussed: two sub-phases in these processes of interactions are argued to be discernible, which helps a more detailed understanding of the socio-ideological mechanisms at play on the local scale.
Fernández-Götz, M.; Nimura, C.; Stockhammer, P. and Cartwright, R. (eds.) (forthcoming, 2022): Rethinking Migrations in Late Prehistoric Eurasia. Proceedings of the British Academy. Oxford University Press, Oxford., 2023
- the manuscript will be available on SocArxiv soon -
This paper discusses the tension between ... more - the manuscript will be available on SocArxiv soon -
This paper discusses the tension between hard-science-driven and anthropology-driven approaches to human migration in Late Prehistory, especially focussing on the 3rd millennium BC. In order to understand the relevant issues at the core of these tensions, we discuss recent researches addressing prehistoric migrations based on aDNA data and confront them with research that adopt an anthropological and social approach as well as with research that deal with present migrations by adopting an archaeological approach. Migration models based on genomic research provoked heated debate among archaeologists. In the conclusions we propose possible ways to go further in research on past migrations and avoid entrenchments and circular arguments.
To be inserted in the next issue, papers should be submitted at the latest by the 30 of April 2024. Please note that articles that are not submitted following the style guidelines will not be considered. Please take care to make your manuscript Anonymous. For inquiries do not hesitate to contact our Editorial Board.
In English-speaking and Northern European countries, the perception of archaeology as a common go... more In English-speaking and Northern European countries, the perception of archaeology as a common good was widely spread even before the actual formalization of Public Archaeology as a specific curriculum offered by several universities. Not surprisingly, such an earlier interest led to the development of a markedly north-eurocentric perspective on the topic, which keeps steering much of the current reflection on Public Archaeology despite the emergence of multiple and alternative standpoints on the matter, further deepening the great divide between the archaeologies of Northern and Southern countries.
The sixth issue of Ex Novo explores how ‘peripheral’ regions currently approach both the practice and theory of public archaeology placing particular emphasis on usually underrepresented regions of Eastern and Central Europe, the Mediterranean and beyond.
The second part of this issue, content-wise the richest published so far, is dedicated to contributions not directly related to the theme of public archaeology, followed by the traditional reviews and interviews section.
The third and final part of this volume features a series of interviews held in March 2021 within the framework of the Italian Confederation of Archaeologists (CIA) Annual Meeting. Being deeply rooted in the aims and scopes of the confederation, Ex Novo took this opportunity to pose several pressing questions to scholars who inspired and still steer the editorial choices of this journal, namely: Felipe Criado-Boado, Yannis Hamilakis, Cornelius Holtorf, Lynn Meskell and Elisabeth Nicklasson.
It has been abundantly demonstrated that theories and paradigms in the humanities are influenced ... more It has been abundantly demonstrated that theories and paradigms in the humanities are influenced by historical, economic and socio-cultural conditions, which have profoundly influenced archaeology’s representation of migration. This was mostly conceived as the study of the movement of large and homogenous population groups, whose identity was often represented as ethnically characterized. The present-day shift of attention from collective to individual agency and the countless facets of migration goes hand in hand with new socio-political and cultural scenarios such as the extraordinary migratory flows into Europe, shifting boundaries, alternative forms of citizenship and identity, and the emergence of emotive reactionism.
The third issue of Ex Novo gathers multidisciplinary contributions addressing mobility to understand patterns of change and continuity in past worlds; reconsider the movement of people, objects, and ideas alongside mobile epistemologies, such as intellectual, scholarly or educative traditions, rituals, practices, religions and theologies; and provide insights into the multifaceted relationship between mobile practices and their shared meanings and how they are represented socially and politically.
Vol.4 2019 The fourth volume of Ex Novo has the pleasure to host Heleen van Londen, Marjo Schlama... more Vol.4 2019 The fourth volume of Ex Novo has the pleasure to host Heleen van Londen, Marjo Schlaman, and Andrea Travaglia as guest editors of the special issue titled The Natural and The Cultural. Integrating Approaches in Landscape Heritage Management. This timely collection of peer-reviewed papers and short essays seek to bridge the longstanding gap between natural and cultural heritage when it comes to landscape management. To this end, the editors foster a combined approach to both domains by promoting stronger internal cooperation and the systematic engagement of new forms of integrated heritage with the external world.
The volume contributes to the debate on the new role of heritage in an ever changing framework for land use, infrastructural investment and sustainable development at national and international levels. All contributions are based on the papers presented in two sessions at the EAA annual meeting in Maastricht 2017.
The second issue of Ex Novo hosts papers exploring the various ways in which the past is remember... more The second issue of Ex Novo hosts papers exploring the various ways in which the past is remembered, recovered, created and used. In particular, contributions discuss the role of archaeology in present-day conflict areas and its function as peacekeeping tool or as trigger point for military action.
Maja GORI, Martina REVELLO LAMI, Alessandro PINTUCCI, Elisa CELLA Editorial
The Impact of the Fall of Communism on European Heritage. Proceedings of the 20th EAA Meeting held in Istanbul 10–14 September 2014. Special issue edited by Maja Gori & Valerie Higgins
Elisa CELLA, Maja GORI & Alessandro PINTUCCI Archaeology in the Adriatic. From the Dawn to the Sunset of Communist Ideologies
Valerie HIGGINS Are We Still Illyrians?
Dana PHELPS Heritage for Development, Multiethnic Communities, and the Case of Butrint National Park on the Albanian- Greek Border
Francesco IACONO & Klejd L. KËLLIÇI Exploring the Public Perception of Communist Heritage in Post-communist Albania
Elisa CELLA, Maja GORI & Alessandro PINTUCCI The Trowel and the Sickle. Italian Archaeology and its Marxist Legacy
Giulia VOLLONO Exploring Approaches to Italian Early Medieval Archaeology in Post-Communist Europe
Appendix Perché l’Archeologia? An interview with Giovanni Azzena, Barbara Barich, Giampietro Brogiolo, Renato Peroni, Mario Torelli by Confederazione Italiana Archeologi (with editors’ note)
Reviews Satricum – Scavi e reperti archeologici. Exhibition in Le Ferriere, province of Latina, Italy, 11 June 2014 – 11 January 2015 (prolonged until 1 June 2017) and M. Gnade (ed.), 2007: Satricum. Trenta anni di scavi olandesi, Amsterdam: Amsterdams Archeologisch Centrum, Universiteit van Amsterdam. 208 pp. ISBN 978-90-78863-14-4. € 25,00. Reviewed by Niels STEENSMA
Over the last decades, archaeological heritage has suffered considerably from threats caused by a... more Over the last decades, archaeological heritage has suffered considerably from threats caused by armed conflict. The destruction of Bamiyan's Buddhas in Afghanistan, the Iraqi museums ransacking and looting and, more recently, the destruction of Palmyra by Daesh (also referred to as IS, ISIS or ISIL) are among the most famous examples. Before they were damaged, the public did not know most of these heritage sites, which, nevertheless, were appropriated as symbols of Western values against the ideology of Islamic extremists. UNESCO defined the deliberate destruction of Syria's cultural heritage as a war crime and the academic world is launching several projects aiming at preserving endangered archaeological heritage. At the same time, antiquity trafficking from Syria and Iraq to Europe and United States represents one of the most relevant revenues for Daesh. The debate on the notion of appropriation and ownership, the role of a globalized scientific archaeology and the impact of armed conflict on archaeological practice are topics that this issue of Ex Novo wants to address. We will welcome papers exploring the various ways the past is remembered, recovered, created, and used. In particular, we want to discuss the role of archaeology in present-day conflicts and its function as peacekeeping tool or as a weapon of war.
The third issue of Ex Novo welcomes multidisciplinary theory-based contributions seeking to test ... more The third issue of Ex Novo welcomes multidisciplinary theory-based contributions seeking to test and reassess the centrality of mobility studies to understand patterns of change and continuity in past and modern worlds; reconsider the movement of people, objects, and ideas alongside mobile epistemologies, such as intellectual, scholarly or educative traditions, rituals, practices, religions and theologies; and provide insights into the multifaceted relationship between mobile practices and their shared meanings and how they are represented socially and politically.
Emilie Sibbesson, Ben Jervis and Sarah Coxon, eds. Insight from Innovation: New Light on Archaeol... more Emilie Sibbesson, Ben Jervis and Sarah Coxon, eds. Insight from Innovation: New Light on Archaeological Ceramics. Papers Presented in Honour of Professor David Peacock’s Contributions to Archaeological Ceramic Studies. (Southampton Monographs in Archaeology, New Series 6. St. Andrews: The Highfield Press, 2016, xxxvi and 277pp., 85 colour and b/w illustr., 13 tables, ISBN: 978-0-9926336-4-6)
This poster presents the first results of petrographic analyses on Cetina and Cetina-like ceramic... more This poster presents the first results of petrographic analyses on Cetina and Cetina-like ceramics from key sites of Dalmatia and the Peloponnese. This study aims at addressing some aspects of the so-called Cetina phenomenon that have not been investigated as yet. The Cetina culture arose in Dalmatia in the mid-3rd millennium BC. It is mainly known for its burials consisting in inhumations or incinerations under stone barrows that are often grouped together to form clusters. Distinctive Cetina ceramics are bowls with thickened rims and beakers decorated with geometric incised and impressed patterns. During the second half of the 3rd millennium BC pottery strongly characterised by Cetina features spread across the central Mediterranean and this is widely considered to be evidence of a vast network of interconnections reflecting the movement of small human groups. In particular, Cetina-like ceramics have been found at a number of Early Bronze Age sites in the Peloponnese. However, aside from a stylistic comparison, nothing has been done to explain differences and similarities between these ceramics from a technological point of view. Given the huge differences in pottery traditions from Dalmatia and the Peloponnese in the Early Bronze Age, this matter is of particular interest. Analysed sherds from Dalmatia come from three clusters of tumuli: Brnjica, Poljakuše (Šibenik) and Vučevica (Split), while samples from the Peloponnese come from the sites of Olympia and Andravida Lechaina (Elis), which have yielded a number of Cetina-like sherds. These analysed sample sets have common stylistic traits, but also technological differences that sometimes can be macroscopically recognised. This variation might result from natural variability in the available raw material sources. On the other hand, it might be due to specific technological choices and traditions possibly linked to the existence of multiple communities of practice under the umbrella of the Cetina phenomenon.
CHAT 2017 Conference in Amsterdam: Heritage, Art, Memory, and Agency, 2017
Italian archaeology has an ambiguous role in the construction and deconstruction of present ident... more Italian archaeology has an ambiguous role in the construction and deconstruction of present identities. Unlike in other European countries, in Italy the material traces of the past are not regarded as national or ethnic identity markers. Fascist Ventennio was the epoch in which the top-down efforts in promoting archaeology as national identity building tool along the process of creating the Italian Nation was at its acme. The idea of a heritage directly inherited from ancient Rome was largely employed to foster Italian identity building and to justify imperialism across the Mediterranean and in Africa. When it comes to identity issues, archaeological heritage can be regarded as dissonant heritage, for both Italians and immigrants with a background in the former colonies. To this end, we present two examples: the current flows of migrants reaching Italy through the Libyan Corridor from the former fascist Africa Orientale Italiana, and the case of the Caput Adriae region, where the systematic Italianization imposed by the Fascism on the Slav population triggered a dramatic state-induced " ethnic metamorphosis " , as aptly framed by P. Purini (2010). Both case studies are material legacies from Fascist Imperialism, the embodiment of Italian uncomfortable heritage and part of an unsolved collective memory, which still affects dramatically the way in which Italy relates to its past and its present.
The Prespa and Ohrid lake region, today separated in three modern countries, does not only form a... more The Prespa and Ohrid lake region, today separated in three modern countries, does not only form a unique ecosystem, but also has a rich shared prehistoric cultural heritage. The present paper aims at summarising the research on this region’s Bronze and Early Iron Age occupation, at attempting its definition as geographical and cultural unit, and to bring it into relation with contemporary material cultures of Western Macedonia, which is equally characterised by rivers and lake systems. Sovjan and Maliq, two sites located on the shore of the today dried lake Maliq, are the major stratigraphical references for this region for the Bronze and Early Iron Age up to around 800 BC when they were abandoned due to the raising water level. Unlike for the Early and Middle Bronze Age, evidence for the Late Bronze Age and the transition to the Early Iron Age also comes from the shores of the Great Prespa and Ohrid lakes in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Sveta Nedela and Plocha Michov Grad), while in the Early Iron Age the settlements shifted towards the mountain tops. Early Bronze Age, connections with the better known sites of Western Macedonia, Armenochori, are fewer than expected, mainly reduced to the typical kantharoi. Nonetheless, the lake region must have been integrated into a wider network encompassing Macedonia and the south-western Balkans. As the identification of Middle Bronze Age material culture is still difficult in Macedonia apart for the coastal sites, it is almost impossible to discuss connections. Sovjan layer 6 might help to define this phase for a larger region and to identify contemporary assemblages. The Late Bronze Age is well known for its increase of mobility and connectivity. River valleys as the Aliakmon played an important role in this development and they were the ways through which Mycenaean and other imports reached remote inland areas as the Korçë basin. The area of Aiani was a major centre of Western Macedonia, but its role as mediator of material culture towards Kastoria and the lake region is not yet entirely clear. Matt painted pottery is an important means for the identification of influences, but the chronological divergence between Macedonia and SE Albania must first be explained. While the EIA tumuli of SE Albania find their parallels in Epirus, the phenomenon of hillforts is equally known in Western Macedonia, e.g. around Siatista, and attests to significant socio-political changes.
Located in the Korçë Basin close to the border between Greece, Albania and FYRO Macedonia, 820 m ... more Located in the Korçë Basin close to the border between Greece, Albania and FYRO Macedonia, 820 m above sea level. Sovjan's stratigraphic sequence spans the Early Neolithic to the Iron Age and thus holds an important place in the archaeology of the south-western Balkans. The French-Albanian excavations at Sovjan (1993 to 2006 by the Institute of Archaeology in Tirana and the French School at Athens) revealed the remains of wooden pile dwellings dating to the Bronze and Iron Age. These are similar to earlier structures from the nearby Maliq, a well-known site with which
The s.c. smoking pots are vessels with roughly pear--shaped or squat globular bodies that have a ... more The s.c. smoking pots are vessels with roughly pear--shaped or squat globular bodies that have a wide lateral opening emphasized by a thickened rim and a small cylindrical neck culmina/ng in a circular opening. A single ver/cal strap handle on the body is opposite the lateral opening. In Sovjan, Albania, 3 examples of smoking pots are known so far (type F1, Gori 2015).
At the end of the Early Bronze Age in south-western Balkans some dramatic social and cultural cha... more At the end of the Early Bronze Age in south-western Balkans some dramatic social and cultural changes took place. By the gaps present in the stratigraphic sequences of the numerous Tells that characterized the landscape of the region, can be deduced a reassessment of the settlement patterns. Meanwhile the metalworking increased in popularity and further important changes are observed also in pottery production. The quality of ceramic fell and the decorated pottery almost disappeared. Since the first pioneering work of Heurtley at the beginning of the last century, geographic Macedonia was always considered as a periphery, a sort of buffer zone between the Danube – Carpathian basin and Greece. Its active role as cultural intermediary between these different areas was neglected on the basis of its assumed backwardness and cultural isolation. Nevertheless, new researches in southern Albania and northern Greece demonstrate the contrary. This paper would like to explore through the analysis of the pottery production and consumption the important role that Macedonia had at the end of the Early Bronze Age in the long distance cultural interactions between the communities that inhabited the Danube – Carpathian basin and continental Greece. In particular, it will focus on the role of specific types of vessels that became popular during a limited period of time and were used in contexts connected to ritual practices. The wide geographic diffusion of these types and their utilization as means of cultural interaction reveal a common background of shared ideas, values and beliefs.
In the Late Bronze Age Europe a substantial increase in intentional deposition of bronze objects ... more In the Late Bronze Age Europe a substantial increase in intentional deposition of bronze objects disguised as hoards is clearly observed. They are composed of axes, swords, sickles and other objects deprived of their original function, broken, reduced to scraps, collected in large quantities and buried together. The hoards represent an outstanding quantity of wealth voluntarily alienated from the economic circuits of the prehistoric communities, a fact that gave rise to different interpretations of their economic and symbolic significance. This aspect is made more challenging from the pre-ponderal value recognized in the metal fragments and in the ingots of different shapes that appeared in the same archaeological contexts at the close of the Bronze Age.
One of the most controversial topics ongoing in the scientific debate regards archaeology and the... more One of the most controversial topics ongoing in the scientific debate regards archaeology and the role that it has in political issues, especially the ones linked to the concepts of ethnicity, cultural identity and nationalism. Archaeological remains are very powerful tools when they are used to give material reality to the historical narrative but also dangerous weapons when they are exploited to foster contemporary ethnic or identity-building issues. Archaeological objects can be indeed regarded as the material reflex of a population of the past considered to be the direct ancestor of a present ethnic group. The notion of ethnogenesis has known a big fortune in the Balkans because it allowed the former communist countries - but to some extent also the present democratic governments - to take possession of a distant past and to build up their new identity within modern political borders. In this way Thracian, Dacians and Illyrians are considered as the direct ancestors of the present Bulgarians, Rumanians and Albanians. This paper will be focused mainly on Albania and the Illyrian issue and on the complex plot of different factors that are strongly conditioning the Bronze Age and Iron Age archaeological scientific discourse. The paper will also make reference to the use of archaeological cultural heritage as part of the process of reinforcing national identity in some of the neighbouring countries: Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Kosovo and Greece.
This paper uses the “Illyrian concept” and the supposedly related archeological elements of cultu... more This paper uses the “Illyrian concept” and the supposedly related archeological elements of cultural heritage in the construction of national and transnational identities in the Balkans. We will concentrate on the Albanian example but will also make reference to the Slav use of “Illyria” and and the Slav and Greek use of archeological cultural heritage as part of the process of reinforcing national identity. The paper will argue that the use of cultural heritage creates elastic identities which often go beyond the evidence contained in the archeological heritage itself. Cultural heritage is not only abused and misused in the popularisation of national identity which is common enough, but also by the scientific community.
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https://global.gotomeeting.c... more Webinar Modalità di accesso: ingresso libero Evento online al link: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/129617213
The ReSoc conference Resources and Transformation in pre-modern Societies is organised by the Lei... more The ReSoc conference Resources and Transformation in pre-modern Societies is organised by the Leibniz Post-Doc School “Resources in Society” (ReSoc) hosted by the Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB) and the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum (DBM). The aim of the conference is to provide a forum for a transdisciplinary discourse on transformation of knowledge, culture and landscapes in relation to resources. In three sessions, with two distinguished keynote speakers each, we will cover aspects with a multitude of different methodological and theoretical perspectives.
Ascribed to the peninsula by the German geographer Zeune in 1808, the term Balkan – a chain of wo... more Ascribed to the peninsula by the German geographer Zeune in 1808, the term Balkan – a chain of wooded mountains in Turkish – describes the region’s main geographic features. Balkan landscape is indeed characterised by mountain ranges intersected by small plateaus and deep river valleys that give way to narrow plains near the sea. Throughout Balkan prehistory mountains alternately represented borders and zones of contact, whereas the river system played a major role as communication route, connecting inland areas to both the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Specifically focussing on the Balkan Peninsula, this session aims at understanding different aspects of the interplay between human groups and the mountainous landscape and its change over time. One of the main goals is to stimulate a theoretical informed debate based on archaeological evidence by cutting across traditional geographic, methodological, and chronological boundaries and by challenging established assumptions and interpretative frameworks In particular, the following topics will be discussed: 1) Appropriation of resources in a mountainous environment. These are intended as socially produced constructions expressing what people perceived as relevant for their life, and satisfying both physical and social needs. 2) Building local and “global” identities, change and endurance of cultural customs and socio-political relations 3) Mountains as sacred topography. Perception and reshaping of natural landscapes in connection with cult practices and funerary customs. We invite doctoral students, early career researchers, and established scholars to submit papers discussing their research in Balkan Prehistory. Papers adopting a comparative or diachronic perspective stressing both on local characteristics and interregionally shared features are especially welcome.
The Central Mediterranean is one of the most intensively researched regions of prehistoric Europe... more The Central Mediterranean is one of the most intensively researched regions of prehistoric Europe in subjects including, but not limited to, landscape and environment, settlement patterns, exchange and mobility, technology and economy, life-and death-ways, social complexity, and early urbanism. Recent discoveries and scientific analysis have furthered our understanding of its material and social dynamics, but debate is often hindered by hyper-specialisation as well as disciplinary and country boundaries discouraging comparative, cross-subject, and cross-period research. The session aims to take a 'critical snapshot' at prehistoric studies in the region since the time of the first EAA meeting. We will discuss key disciplinary developments occurred in the last 25 years and capture the most innovative present-day research advances, which may shape the agenda of Central Mediterranean prehistoric studies in the next 25 years. We invite doctoral students, early career researchers, and established scholars to submit papers discussing recent advances and new directions in central Mediterranean prehistory from the Palaeolithic to the Iron Age. The region ranges from the Southern Alps to coastal Tunisia/Libya and from the eastern Adriatic/Ionian Seas to Sardinia, Corsica, and Provence. The papers should offer broad, bold, and conceptually engaging perspectives in any subject of prehistoric studies, focusing on how research has challenged established paradigms and interpretations, or how it is likely to challenge them in the future. Collaborative papers cutting across traditional geographic, methodological, and period boundaries are especially welcome, as are those showing how the regional dynamics affected other areas of prehistoric Europe and the Mediterranean. A parallel poster session will host contributions with narrower period and area foci.
A collection of articles challenging the concept of archaeological culture and its relationship t... more A collection of articles challenging the concept of archaeological culture and its relationship to identity in Balkan archaeology. Case studies cover a wide area from Serbia to Greece and Anatolia and address relevant issues concerning the interpretation of the spatial distribution of artefacts.
BALKAN BRONZE AGE BORDERLAND II RETHINKING SOUTHERN BALKAN LBA / EIA INTERACTION.
committee 2016... more BALKAN BRONZE AGE BORDERLAND II RETHINKING SOUTHERN BALKAN LBA / EIA INTERACTION.
committee 2016: Tobias Krapf (Swisss School of Archaeology in Greece) Ole Aslaksen (University of Gothenburg) In collaboration with Maja Gori (Heidelberg University)
participation: CV and research interests by e-mail before the 30th of April 2016
Traditionally, the potter's wheel has been studied as a very distinct technological phenomenon wi... more Traditionally, the potter's wheel has been studied as a very distinct technological phenomenon within separate regions of the Mediterranean, rarely allowing for comparative perspectives on the appearance, adoption and sustained use of this technology within prehistoric societies. Our aim is to investigate the mechanisms underlying the adoption of the potter's wheel across multiple Mediterranean communities by highlighting inter-regional parallels, or variation, in factors affording or limiting technological change within prehistoric potting communities. This session seeks to integrate case studies across the Mediterranean basin, including Egypt, Anatolia, Cyprus, the Aegean, Italy, the Balkans, the Iberian peninsula and other islands of this region. We will explore aspects such as: -the application of technological or chaîne opératoire approaches for characterizing the adoption of the potter's wheel; -the application of different models for explaining the spread of the wheel in the Mediterranean (e.g. diffusion versus independent invention, etc.) -the relationship between social organization and adoption of technological innovation; -the impact of the potter's wheel on regional assemblages and practices; -how to assess the rate, or perceived success of potter's wheel adoption; -archaeometric/macrotrace analyses for investigating the different uses of the potter's wheel within ceramic production. We particularly encourage papers that draw from a range of fields beyond traditional artefact studies.
Il Convegno, organizzato per conto del "Centro Studi di Protostoria Renato Peroni" da Andrea Di R... more Il Convegno, organizzato per conto del "Centro Studi di Protostoria Renato Peroni" da Andrea Di Renzoni, Maja Gori e Alessandro Vanzetti, verterà sul concetto di fase archeologica e sulle relative transizioni, comunemente utilizzato nella ricerca protostorica per definire unità temporali significative per la ricostruzione delle vicende umane del passato.
Si accettano proposte di intervento fino al 31 gennaio.
Il materiale è consultabile qui o sul sito dell'IIPP http://www.iipp.it/?p=7605
We are pleased to announce the closing conference of the NPAP project. We started in 2007 with re... more We are pleased to announce the closing conference of the NPAP project. We started in 2007 with research that mainly concerns the ancient pottery of excavation in Italy (Satricum) and excavations in Greece (Halos, Zakynthos). The main aim was the development of new methodologies in archaeological pottery studies for increasing the quality and quantity of the information that can be derived from a basic ceramic dataset. Perspectives from a range of traditions in pottery studies were thus combined and integrated, such as technological, stylistic and geological approaches. Data from other regions mainly in Greece and Italy were also used and compared to increase the proportion of diagnostic material. In this conference the final results of the NPAP material studies will be presented and specific research questions regarding the cross-regional production, distribution and use (consumption) of pottery will be addressed. The NPAP final conference aims at facilitating dialogue and interaction between young and established researchers. Merging a wide spectrum of pottery analyses and adopting cross-regional and cross-temporal approaches, this conference will represent a innovative multidisciplinary event for all those working with ancient ceramics and interested in a holistic approach to the subject. Papadopoulos (keynote), Valentine Roux.
Within archaeology, interest in migration has been recently revived thanks to two different and u... more Within archaeology, interest in migration has been recently revived thanks to two different and unrelated factors. The first is a rapid advance in genomic and isotope research. Although not straightforward, information on movement provided by isotope analysis is not as controversial as the one produced by aDNA, which provided genetic evidence for large-scale movements of people in prehistory. Resulting migration models were criticized because considered too simplistic (e.g. Vander Linden 2016; Furholt 2018) and for being heavily pulled by culture-history (Heyd 2017), and were utilised to foster nationalist narratives (as occurred to Lazaridis et al. 2017, see Eisenmann et al. 2018). The second factor is present-day migration flow into Europe, which has attracted the attention of scholars in all of the social sciences. The so-called “migration crisis”, caused by climate change, conflict, dislocation/forced migration, and food insecurity has inspired research on past forced migrations (e.g. Driessen 2018), and has urged archaeologists to openly engage with ethical and political issues (Hamilakis 2017, 2018) challenging the way in which past and present migrations are understood and represented. What do have these approaches to migration to learn from each other? It is possible to reconcile paleogenetic and archaeo-anthropological research streams?
The Central Archaeological Area in Rome shows how the same ruins can be manipulated to fulfill di... more The Central Archaeological Area in Rome shows how the same ruins can be manipulated to fulfill different and variable political, economic and social needs. Late 19th century excavations in the Roman Forum aimed at finding the remains of the primigenial City, the capital of the newborn unified Italian state, while some decades later the same place was used as lieu de mémoire by Fascist regime propaganda –the urban landscape was reshaped by the notorious demolitions functional to the construction of Via dell’Impero. After World War II archaeological research in Rome lost its connection to national identity building and undergone a profound transformation: no excavations were carried out and the focus shifted on historical, topographic and material culture studies. In the early 1980s new excavations started and became the first and most representative experiences of urban archaeology in Italy, followed by archaeological works for the Underground in the 2000s. For the first time Italian archaeology faced the pressing need of transforming itself from a purely academic enterprise into modern public archaeology.This paper explores present day public archaeology in Italy and disentangles the multiple elements that contributed to its creation and development. Through the analysis of 19th and 20th century ideologies the role of archaeology in Italy will be examined focusing on Rome and the ideologies that have influenced present day approaches the most.
A collection of articles challenging the concept of archaeological culture and its relationship t... more A collection of articles challenging the concept of archaeological culture and its relationship to identity in Balkan archaeology. Case studies cover a wide area from Serbia to Greece and Anatolia and address relevant issues concerning the interpretation of the spatial distribution of artefacts.
This edited book stems from the session "Archaeology of Mountainous Landscapes in Balkan Prehisto... more This edited book stems from the session "Archaeology of Mountainous Landscapes in Balkan Prehistory" held at the 25th EAA in Bern. In that occasion the interplay between human groups and the mountainous landscape of the Balkan Peninsula and its change over time were discussed. The term Balkan-a chain of wooded mountains in Turkish-describes indeed the region's main geographic feature. In the session, however, the interconnection between different Balkan landscapes-mountain ranges intersected by small plateaus and deep river valleys that give way to narrow plains near the sea-emerged. It was stressed that if the river system played a major role as communication route, connecting inland areas to both the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, throughout the Prehistory the Balkan mountains represented more often zones of contact rather than barriers. Connectivity between close and faraway regions was addressed by tracing exchange routes and corridors, and by pointing out the key role of different types of raw materials, goods and social exchanges. What can (or could) be seen when interpreting the human use of space was also thoroughly discussed by addressing the role of Bronze and Iron Age barrows in structuring ritualscapes, and the visual dominance over the surrounding landscape of stone fortifications-in some cases monumental-enclosing hillforts. The following issues emerged during the lively session debate will be addressed in the volume: 1) Social and cultural meanings of spaces and places in the Balkan Peninsula. These include "natural" (such as peaks, woods, rivers and springs) and "anthropic" (such as settlements, cemeteries, and shrines) places of significance, and the paths and routes connecting them. 2) Building "local" and "global" identities, change and endurance of cultural patterns and socio-political relations in different landscapes. When do mountains, rivers, lakes and seas represent borders? When do they represent connecting spaces? 3) Sacred landscapes: perception and reshaping of natural landscapes in connection with cult practices and funerary customs. 4) Appropriation of resources in different environments. Resources are intended as socially produced constructions expressing what people perceived as relevant for their life, and satisfying both physical and social needs. The main goal of the proposed volume is to stimulate a theoretical informed debate based on archaeological evidence by cutting across traditional geographic, methodological, and chronological boundaries and by challenging established assumptions and interpretative frameworks. We strongly encourage you to keep this focus in your papers. Papers adopting a comparative or diachronic perspective stressing both local characteristics and features shared on an interregional scale are especially welcome.
Let's challenge old paradigms and experiment new ones together!
The two main shifts that Europea... more Let's challenge old paradigms and experiment new ones together! The two main shifts that European (and world) archaeology has experienced and that have challenged traditional paradigms of interpretation – the emergence of processual versus traditional archaeology starting from late 1960s, and the emergence of post-processual archaeology from the early 1980s – have not had much impact on research in Balkan Late Prehistory. That put much of Balkan archaeology firmly in the traditionalist camp and traditional explications of archaeological patterns accordingly endured. This is reflected in the persistence of the cultural-historical paradigm in the study of material culture, with a strong focus on typological sequences and relative chronologies to explain ethnogenies. If we consider, for example, widespread models explaining changes in material culture, they are mostly understood as a result of migration. This paradigm has never really been challenged and thus migrations continue to be regarded as destructive events, materialized by a new set of material culture (i.e. pottery) brought by migrants that replaces the one belonging to an autochthonous population. The Yugoslav wars and the economic downfall that followed the collapse of communist regimes in the Balkans in the 1990s have further impoverished the debate on these issues. Recently, the so-called 3rd scientific revolution (Kristiansen 2014) has introduced a large array of new methods and techniques to Balkan Prehistory that are being increasingly applied and becoming a new standard in the discipline. That approach alone is nevertheless insufficient to fill the void left by the standstill of theoretical debate. This session aims to fill this gap by inviting scholars working on Balkan Late Prehistory (Neolithic to Iron Age) to challenge with novel theoretical approaches and methods the entrenched paradigms that are still widespread in archaeological interpretations, and to use Balkan archaeology with its rich source material as a laboratory for new models, paradigms, and approaches.
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In questo contributo vengono presentati due casi studio: la Sardegna e i Balcani occidentali. Attraverso la storia dello sviluppo dell’archeologia come disciplina scientifica, l’etica del racconto archeologico, ovvero la restituzione dell’archeologia alla società, viene esplorata seguendo le linee del rapporto fra scienza e politica.
The Late Bronze Age (1700-900 BC) represents an extremely dynamic period for Mediterranean Europe. Here, we provide a comparative survey of the archaeological record of over half a millennium within the entire northern littoral of the Mediterranean, from Greece to Iberia, incorporating archaeological, archaeometric, and bioarchaeological evidence. The picture that emerges, while certainly fragmented and not displaying a unique trajectory, reveals a number of broad trends in aspects as different as social organization, trade, transcultural phenomena, and human mobility. The contribution of such trends to the processes that caused the end of the Bronze Age is also examined. Taken together, they illustrate how networks of interaction, ranging from the short to the long range, became a defining aspect of the "Middle Sea" during this time, influencing the lives of the communities that inhabited its northern shore. They also highlight the importance of research that crosses modern boundaries for gaining a better understanding of broad comparable dynamics.
In questo contributo vengono presentati due casi studio: la Sardegna e i Balcani occidentali. Attraverso la storia dello sviluppo dell’archeologia come disciplina scientifica, l’etica del racconto archeologico, ovvero la restituzione dell’archeologia alla società, viene esplorata seguendo le linee del rapporto fra scienza e politica.
The Late Bronze Age (1700-900 BC) represents an extremely dynamic period for Mediterranean Europe. Here, we provide a comparative survey of the archaeological record of over half a millennium within the entire northern littoral of the Mediterranean, from Greece to Iberia, incorporating archaeological, archaeometric, and bioarchaeological evidence. The picture that emerges, while certainly fragmented and not displaying a unique trajectory, reveals a number of broad trends in aspects as different as social organization, trade, transcultural phenomena, and human mobility. The contribution of such trends to the processes that caused the end of the Bronze Age is also examined. Taken together, they illustrate how networks of interaction, ranging from the short to the long range, became a defining aspect of the "Middle Sea" during this time, influencing the lives of the communities that inhabited its northern shore. They also highlight the importance of research that crosses modern boundaries for gaining a better understanding of broad comparable dynamics.
imitations of artefacts made of bone/antler, stone and metal. The paper offers a brief reconsideration of the available data from the western Balkans, western Greece and from various contexts in southern Italy, Sicily and the small adjacent islands that were involved in these long-range interactions. A critical evaluation of the incidence of allogenous artefacts in the various contexts is also provided. The impact of the Bell Beaker phenomenon in the area under scrutiny is also discussed. This was in
fact marginal, though Bell Beaker-type elements did actually co-exist with western Balkan-type ones in some of the examined regions. Finally, the chronological aspect of the ‘Cetina phenomenon’ is discussed: two sub-phases in these processes of interactions are argued to be discernible, which helps a more detailed understanding of the socio-ideological mechanisms at play on the local scale.
This paper discusses the tension between hard-science-driven and anthropology-driven approaches to human migration in Late Prehistory, especially focussing on the 3rd millennium BC. In order to understand the relevant issues at the core of these tensions, we discuss recent researches addressing prehistoric migrations based on aDNA data and confront them with research that adopt an anthropological and social approach as well as with research that deal with present migrations by adopting an archaeological approach. Migration models based on genomic research provoked heated debate among archaeologists. In the conclusions we propose possible ways to go further in research on past migrations and avoid entrenchments and circular arguments.
To be inserted in the next issue, papers should be submitted at the latest by the 30 of April 2024.
Please note that articles that are not submitted following the style guidelines will not be considered. Please take care to make your manuscript Anonymous. For inquiries do not hesitate to contact our Editorial Board.
The sixth issue of Ex Novo explores how ‘peripheral’ regions currently approach both the practice and theory of public archaeology placing particular emphasis on usually underrepresented regions of Eastern and Central Europe, the Mediterranean and beyond.
The second part of this issue, content-wise the richest published so far, is dedicated to contributions not directly related to the theme of public archaeology, followed by the traditional reviews and interviews section.
The third and final part of this volume features a series of interviews held in March 2021 within the framework of the Italian Confederation of Archaeologists (CIA) Annual Meeting. Being deeply rooted in the aims and scopes of the confederation, Ex Novo took this opportunity to pose several pressing questions to scholars who inspired and still steer the editorial choices of this journal, namely: Felipe Criado-Boado, Yannis Hamilakis, Cornelius Holtorf, Lynn Meskell and Elisabeth Nicklasson.
The third issue of Ex Novo gathers multidisciplinary contributions addressing mobility to understand patterns of change and continuity in past worlds; reconsider the movement of people, objects, and ideas alongside mobile epistemologies, such as intellectual, scholarly or educative traditions, rituals, practices, religions and theologies; and provide insights into the multifaceted relationship between mobile practices and their shared meanings and how they are represented socially and politically.
The volume contributes to the debate on the new role of heritage in an ever changing framework for land use, infrastructural investment and sustainable development at national and international levels. All contributions are based on the papers presented in two sessions at the EAA annual meeting in Maastricht 2017.
Maja GORI, Martina REVELLO LAMI, Alessandro PINTUCCI, Elisa CELLA
Editorial
The Impact of the Fall of Communism on European Heritage. Proceedings
of the 20th EAA Meeting held in Istanbul 10–14 September 2014.
Special issue edited by Maja Gori & Valerie Higgins
Elisa CELLA, Maja GORI & Alessandro PINTUCCI
Archaeology in the Adriatic. From the Dawn to the Sunset of Communist Ideologies
Valerie HIGGINS
Are We Still Illyrians?
Dana PHELPS
Heritage for Development, Multiethnic Communities, and the Case of Butrint National Park on the Albanian- Greek Border
Francesco IACONO & Klejd L. KËLLIÇI
Exploring the Public Perception of Communist Heritage in Post-communist Albania
Elisa CELLA, Maja GORI & Alessandro PINTUCCI
The Trowel and the Sickle. Italian Archaeology and its Marxist Legacy
Giulia VOLLONO
Exploring Approaches to Italian Early Medieval Archaeology in Post-Communist Europe
Appendix
Perché l’Archeologia? An interview with Giovanni Azzena, Barbara Barich, Giampietro Brogiolo, Renato Peroni, Mario Torelli by Confederazione Italiana Archeologi (with editors’ note)
Reviews
Satricum – Scavi e reperti archeologici. Exhibition in Le Ferriere, province of Latina, Italy, 11 June 2014 – 11 January 2015 (prolonged until 1 June 2017) and M. Gnade (ed.), 2007: Satricum. Trenta anni di scavi olandesi, Amsterdam: Amsterdams Archeologisch Centrum, Universiteit van Amsterdam. 208 pp. ISBN 978-90-78863-14-4. € 25,00.
Reviewed by Niels STEENSMA
However, aside from a stylistic comparison, nothing has been done to explain differences and similarities between these ceramics from a technological point of view. Given the huge differences in pottery traditions from Dalmatia and the Peloponnese in the Early Bronze Age, this matter is of particular interest.
Analysed sherds from Dalmatia come from three clusters of tumuli: Brnjica, Poljakuše (Šibenik) and Vučevica (Split), while samples from the Peloponnese come from the sites of Olympia and Andravida Lechaina (Elis), which have yielded a number of Cetina-like sherds.
These analysed sample sets have common stylistic traits, but also technological differences that sometimes can be macroscopically recognised. This variation might result from natural variability in the available raw material sources. On the other hand, it might be due to specific technological choices and traditions possibly linked to the existence of multiple communities of practice under the umbrella of the Cetina phenomenon.
Sovjan and Maliq, two sites located on the shore of the today dried lake Maliq, are the major stratigraphical references for this region for the Bronze and Early Iron Age up to around 800 BC when they were abandoned due to the raising water level. Unlike for the Early and Middle Bronze Age, evidence for the Late Bronze Age and the transition to the Early Iron Age also comes from the shores of the Great Prespa and Ohrid lakes in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Sveta Nedela and Plocha Michov Grad), while in the Early Iron Age the settlements shifted towards the mountain tops.
Early Bronze Age, connections with the better known sites of Western Macedonia, Armenochori, are fewer than expected, mainly reduced to the typical kantharoi. Nonetheless, the lake region must have been integrated into a wider network encompassing Macedonia and the south-western Balkans. As the identification of Middle Bronze Age material culture is still difficult in Macedonia apart for the coastal sites, it is almost impossible to discuss connections. Sovjan layer 6 might help to define this phase for a larger region and to identify contemporary assemblages. The Late Bronze Age is well known for its increase of mobility and connectivity. River valleys as the Aliakmon played an important role in this development and they were the ways through which Mycenaean and other imports reached remote inland areas as the Korçë basin. The area of Aiani was a major centre of Western Macedonia, but its role as mediator of material culture towards Kastoria and the lake region is not yet entirely clear. Matt painted pottery is an important means for the identification of influences, but the chronological divergence between Macedonia and SE Albania must first be explained. While the EIA tumuli of SE Albania find their parallels in Epirus, the phenomenon of hillforts is equally known in Western Macedonia, e.g. around Siatista, and attests to significant socio-political changes.
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Evento online al link:
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Specifically focussing on the Balkan Peninsula, this session aims at understanding different aspects of the interplay between human groups and the mountainous landscape and its change over time.
One of the main goals is to stimulate a theoretical informed debate based on archaeological evidence by cutting across traditional geographic, methodological, and chronological boundaries and by challenging established assumptions and interpretative frameworks In particular, the following topics will be discussed:
1) Appropriation of resources in a mountainous environment. These are intended as socially produced constructions expressing what people perceived as relevant for their life, and satisfying both physical and social needs.
2) Building local and “global” identities, change and endurance of cultural customs and socio-political relations
3) Mountains as sacred topography. Perception and reshaping of natural landscapes in connection with cult practices and funerary customs.
We invite doctoral students, early career researchers, and established scholars to submit papers discussing their research in Balkan Prehistory. Papers adopting a comparative or diachronic perspective stressing both on local characteristics and interregionally shared features are especially welcome.
committee 2016:
Tobias Krapf (Swisss School of Archaeology in Greece)
Ole Aslaksen (University of Gothenburg)
In collaboration with Maja Gori (Heidelberg University)
participation:
CV and research interests by e-mail before the 30th of April 2016
Si accettano proposte di intervento fino al 31 gennaio.
Il materiale è consultabile qui o sul sito dell'IIPP http://www.iipp.it/?p=7605
undergone a profound transformation: no excavations were carried out and the focus shifted on historical, topographic and material culture studies. In the early 1980s new excavations started and became the first and most representative experiences of urban archaeology in Italy, followed by archaeological works for the Underground in the 2000s. For the first time Italian archaeology faced the pressing need of transforming itself from a purely academic enterprise into modern public
archaeology.This paper explores present day public archaeology in Italy and disentangles the multiple elements that contributed to its creation and development. Through the analysis of 19th and 20th century ideologies the role of archaeology in Italy will be examined focusing on Rome and the ideologies that have influenced present day approaches the most.
https://resoc-conference.github.io/DBM/Home_conference.html
The two main shifts that European (and world) archaeology has experienced and that have challenged traditional paradigms of interpretation – the emergence of processual versus traditional archaeology starting from late 1960s, and the emergence of post-processual archaeology from the early 1980s – have not had much impact on research in Balkan Late Prehistory. That put much of Balkan archaeology firmly in the traditionalist camp and traditional explications of archaeological patterns accordingly endured. This is reflected in the persistence of the cultural-historical paradigm in the study of material culture, with a strong focus on typological sequences and relative chronologies to explain ethnogenies. If we consider, for example, widespread models explaining changes in material culture, they are mostly understood as a result of migration. This paradigm has never really been challenged and thus migrations continue to be regarded as destructive events, materialized by a new set of material culture (i.e. pottery) brought by migrants that replaces the one belonging to an autochthonous population. The Yugoslav wars and the economic downfall that followed the collapse of communist regimes in the Balkans in the 1990s have further impoverished the debate on these issues. Recently, the so-called 3rd scientific revolution (Kristiansen 2014) has introduced a large array of new methods and techniques to Balkan Prehistory that are being increasingly applied and becoming a new standard in the discipline. That approach alone is nevertheless insufficient to fill the void left by the standstill of theoretical debate.
This session aims to fill this gap by inviting scholars working on Balkan Late Prehistory (Neolithic to Iron Age) to challenge with novel theoretical approaches and methods the entrenched paradigms that are still widespread in archaeological interpretations, and to use Balkan archaeology with its rich source material as a laboratory for new models, paradigms, and approaches.