Elisa Perego
University College London, Institute of Archaeology, Department Member
- Archaeology of Religion, Anthropology of Alcohol, Mediterranean Studies, Alcohol in late prehistory, Agency (Archaeological Theory), Literacy in Iron Age Italy, and 29 moreVenetic, Death and Burial (Archaeology), Romanisation of Veneto, Iron Age Veneto (Archaeology), Romanisation, Gender Archaeology, Archaeological Theory, Funerary Archaeology, Archaeology, Archaeology of pre-Roman Italy, Anthropology, Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, Protohistory, Italian Iron Age Archaeology, Italic Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Iron Age Italy, Bronze and Iron Ages in Italy (Archaeology), Marginality, Archaeology of Marginality, Marginalization, Archaeology of Inequality, Iron Age, Deviant burial (Archaeology), Prehistoric Archaeology, Mediterranean prehistory, Mediterranean archaeology, Late Bronze Age archaeology, and Archaeology of Mediterranean Tradeedit
- I am a Honorary Research Associate at UCL. I was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at OREA, the Austrian Academy of Sci... moreI am a Honorary Research Associate at UCL. I was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at OREA, the Austrian Academy of Sciences & Honorary Research Associate at Institute of Archaeology, UCL in 2017 to 2019. My work in archaeology focuses on social marginality, inequality and social change in the late prehistoric and early Roman central Mediterranean. I also work on European late prehistory and archaeological theory. My most recent research focuses on health and disability in relation to COVID-19.
In 2013-2014 I was the Ralegh Radford Rome Fellow at The British School at Rome, with a project entitled ''MICROPOLITICAL APPROACHES TO SOCIAL INEQUALITY: CASE STUDIES FROM FIRST-MILLENNIUM BC ITALY''.
In 2012-2013 I undertook a research project entitled ''MICRO-HISTORIES IN THE LONG-TERM PROCESS: MARGINALITY, GENDER AND ETHNICITY IN EASTERN CISALPINE GAUL, c. 400 BC – 25 AD'', supported by The Celtic Research Trust.
I completed my PhD at the Institute of Archaeology, UCL, in 2012. My doctoral research focused on the construction and negotiation of personhood in the Italian region of Veneto between the late Bronze Age and the early Roman period. Before starting my PhD, I undertook a Masters degree in Archaeology at UCL. My MA dissertation discussed issues of ritual and liminality in Iron Age Venetic funerary rites. In 2004, I was awarded a Laurea Magistrale in Classics and Archaeology by State University of Milan. My first degree thesis focused on gender and women's social role in Iron Age Veneto.
You are very welcome to contact me if you share the same interest for the archaeology of late prehistoric, protohistoric and early Roman Italy, or if you want more information about my work.edit
In the present-day world order, political disintegration, the faltering of economic systems, the controversial and yet dramatic consequences of global warming and pollution, and the spread of poverty and social disruption in Western... more
In the present-day world order, political disintegration, the faltering of economic systems, the controversial and yet dramatic consequences of global warming and pollution, and the spread of poverty and social disruption in Western countries have rendered ‘collapse’ one of the hottest topics in the humanities and social sciences. In the frenetic run for identifying the global causes and large-scale consequences of collapse, however, instances of crisis taking place at the micro-scale are not always explored by scholars addressing these issues in present and past societies, while the ‘voices’ of the marginal/non-élite subjects that might be the main victims of collapse are often silenced in ancient history and archaeology. Within this framework Collapse or Survival explores localised phenomena of crisis, unrest and survival in the ancient Mediterranean, with a focus on the first millennium BC. In a time span characterised by unprecedented high levels of dynamism, mobility and social change throughout that region, the area selected for analysis represents a unique convergence point where states rise and fall, long-distance trade networks develop and disintegrate, and patterns of human mobility catalyse cultural change at different rates. The central Mediterranean also comprises a wealth of recently excavated and highly contextualised material evidence, casting new light on the agency of individuals and groups who endeavoured to cope with crisis situations in different geographical and temporal settings. Contributors provide novel definitions of ‘collapse’ and reconsider notions of crisis and social change by taking a broader perspective that is not necessarily centred on élites. Individual chapters analyse how both high-status and non-élite social agents responded to socio-political rupture, unrest, depopulation, economic crisis, the disintegration of kinship systems, interruption in long-term trade networks, and destruction in war.
Research Interests:
In the first millennium BC, communities in Italy underwent crucial transformations which scholars have often subsumed under the heading of ‘state formation’, namely increased social stratification, the centralisation of political power... more
In the first millennium BC, communities in Italy underwent crucial transformations which scholars have often subsumed under the heading of ‘state formation’, namely increased social stratification, the centralisation of political power and, in some cases, urbanisation. Most research has tended to approach the phenomenon of state formation and social change in relation to specific territorial dynamics of growth and expansion, changing modes of exploitation of food and other resources over time, and the adoption of selected socio-ritual practices by the ruling élites in order to construct and negotiate authority. In contrast, comparatively little attention has been paid to the question of how these key developments resonated across the broader social transect, and how social groups other than ruling élites both promoted these changes and experienced their effects. The chief aim of this collection of 14 papers is to harness innovative approaches to the exceptionally rich mortuary evidence of first millennium BC Italy, in order to investigate the roles and identities of social actors who either struggled for power and social recognition, or were manipulated and exploited by superior authorities in a phase of tumultuous socio-political change throughout the entire Mediterranean basin. Contributors provide a diverse range of approaches in order to examijne how power operated in society, how it was exercised and resisted, and how this can be studied through mortuary evidence.
Section 1 addresses the construction of identity by focusing mainly on the manipulation of age, ethnic and gender categories in society in regions and sites that reached notable power and splendour in first millennium BC Italy. These include Etruria, Latium, Campania and the rich settlement of Verucchio, in Emilia Romagna.
Section 2 offers a counterpoint to Section 1 by focusing on the concepts of ‘periphery’, marginality and the frailty of élite (or sub-élite) power in phases of dramatic socio-political change. Moreover, this Section approaches the idea of identity construction in ‘fringe’ geographical areas that are sometimes overlooked in Anglophone scholarship, such as the Veneto, Samnium, western Emilia and Trentino–South Tyrol. With its overall emphasis on scholarly multivocality, this volume is one of the first ever to strongly advocate for a study of social exclusion and extreme social marginality in late prehistoric and proto-historic Italy.
Section 1 addresses the construction of identity by focusing mainly on the manipulation of age, ethnic and gender categories in society in regions and sites that reached notable power and splendour in first millennium BC Italy. These include Etruria, Latium, Campania and the rich settlement of Verucchio, in Emilia Romagna.
Section 2 offers a counterpoint to Section 1 by focusing on the concepts of ‘periphery’, marginality and the frailty of élite (or sub-élite) power in phases of dramatic socio-political change. Moreover, this Section approaches the idea of identity construction in ‘fringe’ geographical areas that are sometimes overlooked in Anglophone scholarship, such as the Veneto, Samnium, western Emilia and Trentino–South Tyrol. With its overall emphasis on scholarly multivocality, this volume is one of the first ever to strongly advocate for a study of social exclusion and extreme social marginality in late prehistoric and proto-historic Italy.
Research Interests:
The papers given at this conference range over many historic and prehistoric periods as well as continents and regions. Great strides have been made in recent decades in the various forms of botanical and physical analysis of... more
The papers given at this conference range over many historic and prehistoric periods as well as continents and regions. Great strides have been made in recent decades in the various forms of botanical and physical analysis of archaeological finds which have enabled students to gain greater insight into diet and cooking technologies than was possible when all they had to go on was the survival of artefacts. These papers emanate from the cutting edge of archaeological research, among the postgraduates who will one day make up the teaching force of the world's universities. The subjects covered in this year's proceedings include: Psychoactive consumption in Cypriot Bronze Age mortuary ritual. Elite ideology and feasting practices in Early Iron Age Greece. Intoxicating drinks and drunkards appearing in ancient Indian art and literature. The sixteenth century polemics about cold-drinking. Drinking in Roman taverns: water and wine storage and supply. Living and eating in coastal southern Brazil during Prehistory: a review. The deceased as metaphorical food in Iron Age Veneto (Italy). Food diversity in Mesolithic Scotland. Diversity and change in plant food consumption in Roman Britain. Feasting and the state in Uruk Mesopotamia. Prehistoric spoons: eating, drinking or holding. The book is in academic form; it is copiously illustrated with figures and tables.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This article approaches the agency of displaced people through material evidence from the distant past. It seeks to construct a narrative of displacement where the key players include human as well as non-human agents—namely, the... more
This article approaches the agency of displaced people through material evidence from the distant past. It seeks to construct a narrative of displacement where the key players include human as well as non-human agents—namely, the environment into which people move, and the socio-political and environmental context of displacement. Our case-study from ancient Italy involves potentially marginalized people who moved into agriculturally challenging lands in Daunia (one of the most drought-prone areas of the Mediterranean) during the Roman conquest (late fourth-early second centuries BCE). We discuss how the interplay between socio-political and environmental forces may have shaped the agency of subaltern social groups on the move, and the outcomes of this process. Ultimately, this analysis can contribute towards a framework for the archaeological study of marginality and mobility/displacement—while addressing potential limitations in evidence and methods.
Research Interests: History and Humanities
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Recent approaches to the study of past funerary rites have usually rejected any simplistic equivalence between social structure and funerary representation, as well as between funerary complexity and social complexity. Despite theoretical... more
Recent approaches to the study of past funerary rites have usually rejected any simplistic equivalence between social structure and funerary representation, as well as between funerary complexity and social complexity. Despite theoretical advancements in funerary archaeology, until recently poor and marginal tombs were often disregarded in favor of richer tombs displaying more sophisticated burial practices, or were simply attributed to low-ranking individuals or socio-cultural outsiders , with little consideration paid to the different nuances of the funerary record. In this article, we outline a research initiative which aims to provide a systematic investigation of social diversity and social marginality in protohistoric Italy, with particular attention to Veneto and Trentino South-Tyrol (" IN or OUT " project: Phases 1 and 2). Riassunto Recenti approcci allo studio degli antichi riti funerari generalmente respingono ogni generica corrispondenza tra struttura sociale e rappresentazione funeraria, così come tra la complessità funeraria e quella sociale. Fino a poco tempo fa, le sepolture povere e/o marginali erano trascu-rate rispetto a quelle più ricche che mostravano sofisticate pratiche rituali di seppellimento, ed erano comunemente attribuite a personalità di basso rango o a soggetti socialmente e cultural-mente estranei, talvolta con scarsa attenzione per le complesse sfumature del record archeolo-gico e dei suoi significati. In questo contributo proponiamo un'analisi sistematica della marginalità e della diversità sociale nell'Italia protostorica (progetto " IN or OUT "). L'elaborazione di dati funerari raccolti in Veneto ed in Trentino Alto Adige ha permesso di propor-re alcune osservazioni sull'organizzazione sociale delle comunità che abitavano queste regioni nell'età del Bronzo e del Ferro (" IN or OUT " fasi 1 e 2).
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This chapter offers a critical review of the main research approaches focusing on the body and the notion of the person in archaeology. Particular emphasis is placed upon research trends that have emerged in the last thirty years, as this... more
This chapter offers a critical review of the main research approaches focusing on the body and the notion of the person
in archaeology. Particular emphasis is placed upon research trends that have emerged in the last thirty years, as this
period witnessed the increasing importance of such themes in archaeological analysis. Initially, I discuss three research
agendas that have approached the human body from a positivist viewpoint, largely drawing on research methodologies
developed in the ‘hard sciences’ (i.e. bioarchaeology, processualism, and Darwinian and evolutionary archaeology).
Secondly, I discuss approaches that tend to explore the person as both a social and a biological entity, thereby focusing
on the socio-cultural practices through which past people were ‘constructed’ differently in different cultural contexts (i.e.
postprocessualism and interpretative archaeology). In the final sections of the chapter I critically assess two major strands
that have largely developed from this second framework, namely gender and personhood.
in archaeology. Particular emphasis is placed upon research trends that have emerged in the last thirty years, as this
period witnessed the increasing importance of such themes in archaeological analysis. Initially, I discuss three research
agendas that have approached the human body from a positivist viewpoint, largely drawing on research methodologies
developed in the ‘hard sciences’ (i.e. bioarchaeology, processualism, and Darwinian and evolutionary archaeology).
Secondly, I discuss approaches that tend to explore the person as both a social and a biological entity, thereby focusing
on the socio-cultural practices through which past people were ‘constructed’ differently in different cultural contexts (i.e.
postprocessualism and interpretative archaeology). In the final sections of the chapter I critically assess two major strands
that have largely developed from this second framework, namely gender and personhood.
Research Interests:
This report presents the preliminary results of the ‘‘IN or OUT’’ Project, a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort which aims to investigate social exclusion, marginality and the adoption of anomalous funerary rites in late prehistoric... more
This report presents the preliminary results of the ‘‘IN or OUT’’ Project, a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort which aims to investigate social exclusion, marginality and the adoption of anomalous funerary rites in late prehistoric Italy. In particular, this contribution explores the incidence and meaning of practices of ritual marginalisation and funerary deviancy in the region of Veneto between the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age period.
Research Interests:
This report presents the preliminary results of the ‘‘IN or OUT’’ Project, a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort which aims to investigate social exclusion, marginality and the adoption of anomalous funerary rites in late prehistoric... more
This report presents the preliminary results of the ‘‘IN or OUT’’ Project, a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort which aims to investigate social exclusion, marginality and the adoption of anomalous funerary rites in late prehistoric Italy. In particular, this contribution explores the incidence and meaning of practices of ritual marginalisation and funerary deviancy in the region of Veneto between the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age period.
Research Interests: Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Archaeological Method & Theory, Funerary Archaeology, and 16 moreBronze Age Europe (Archaeology), Social Archaeology, Marginalized Identities, Deviant burial (Archaeology), Late Bronze Age archaeology, Late Bronze Age Bioarchaeology, Iron Age Veneto (Archaeology), Mediterranean archaeology, Iron Age, Italian Iron Age Archaeology, Early Iron Age, Funerary Practices, Italian Bronze Age Archaeology, Marginalization, Death and Burial Archaeology, and The Archaeology of Marginality
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This contribution proposes a theoretical framework for the investigation of ethnicity, group membership and socio-political change in the Italian region of Veneto between the Final Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age (approximately 12th -... more
This contribution proposes a theoretical framework for the investigation of ethnicity, group membership and socio-political change in the Italian region of Veneto between the Final Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age (approximately 12th - 9th century BC). By drawing from research in the humanities and social science emphasising the multi-faceted, culturally variable and blurred nature of ethnicity, this article will suggest that a review of current approaches to ethnic formation in late prehistoric and proto-historic Italy is needed. In particular, I will propose a shift in the focus of research from the grand-scale of ethnogenesis as discussed in relation to macro-entities such as the Etruscans, the Veneti and the Latins – to the more subtle practices of interaction and identity negotiation that took place among social agents at the micro-scale. In doing so, I will tackle the issue of whether specific forms of social inclusion and construction of group membership that are attested in Veneto during the first-millennium BC might have started to develop before the Final Bronze Age/ Iron Age transition.
key words : Bronze Age and Iron Age Veneto ; Este ; ethnicity ; Frattesina ; marginality ; Padua ; social inclusion ; Venetic language
Questo contributo proporrà un inquadramento teorico per l'analisi della costruzione etnica, dell'inclusione sociale e del cambiamento socio-politico nella regione italiana del Veneto tra l'età del Bronzo Finale e la prima età del Ferro (XII-IX secolo a.C. circa). Sulla base di ricerche sviluppatesi nell'ambito delle science sociali e volte ad enfatizzare la natura complessa e variabile dell'etnicità nei diversi contesti culturali, questo articolo si propone di contribuire ad aprire un dibattito sulla validità degli approcci teorici correnti al problema della formazione etnica nell'Italia protostorica. In particolar modo, intendo suggerire un cambiamento di prospettiva dalle complesse pratiche di etnogenesi che poterono svilupparsi in relazione a macro-gruppi identificati per esempio negli Etruschi, nei Veneti o nei
Latini della tradizione classica - alle più sottili pratiche di negoziazione identitaria che
dovettero svilupparsi presso differenti agenti sociali al micro-livello della pratica quotidiana. In questo modo, tenterò di gettare luce sulla negoziazione di forme di inclusione sociale che cominciarono potenzialmente a svilupparsi in Veneto nelle fasi precedenti alla transizione tra Bronzo Finale e prima età del Ferro.
key words : Bronze Age and Iron Age Veneto ; Este ; ethnicity ; Frattesina ; marginality ; Padua ; social inclusion ; Venetic language
Questo contributo proporrà un inquadramento teorico per l'analisi della costruzione etnica, dell'inclusione sociale e del cambiamento socio-politico nella regione italiana del Veneto tra l'età del Bronzo Finale e la prima età del Ferro (XII-IX secolo a.C. circa). Sulla base di ricerche sviluppatesi nell'ambito delle science sociali e volte ad enfatizzare la natura complessa e variabile dell'etnicità nei diversi contesti culturali, questo articolo si propone di contribuire ad aprire un dibattito sulla validità degli approcci teorici correnti al problema della formazione etnica nell'Italia protostorica. In particolar modo, intendo suggerire un cambiamento di prospettiva dalle complesse pratiche di etnogenesi che poterono svilupparsi in relazione a macro-gruppi identificati per esempio negli Etruschi, nei Veneti o nei
Latini della tradizione classica - alle più sottili pratiche di negoziazione identitaria che
dovettero svilupparsi presso differenti agenti sociali al micro-livello della pratica quotidiana. In questo modo, tenterò di gettare luce sulla negoziazione di forme di inclusione sociale che cominciarono potenzialmente a svilupparsi in Veneto nelle fasi precedenti alla transizione tra Bronzo Finale e prima età del Ferro.
Research Interests:
This work shows how the integration of bio-archaeological and epigraphic data from the funerary context can be employed to shed light on important dynamics of identity construction, social change and cultural resistance in the Italian... more
This work shows how the integration of bio-archaeological and epigraphic data from the funerary context can be employed to shed light on important dynamics of identity construction, social change and cultural resistance in the Italian region of Veneto between the late Iron Age and the early Roman period (c. 300 BC – AD 50). This span of time coincides with a fundamental socio-political development in the history of this region, i.e. the expansion of Rome in northern Italy, which ultimately led to the disappearance of the Venetic language, lifestyle, political independence and material culture. This article is threefold. After an introductive overview of Iron Age Venetic society and material cultural, I discuss some aspects of the ‘Romanisation’ process in this region in terms of chronology, materiality and ritual. As my main case study, I focus on the widespread Venetic custom of placing the cremated remains of more than one individual in a single urn (bone mingling). This practice is interpreted as the extreme attempt to reunite in death individuals who must have been tied together by special bonds also in life. The persistence of bone mingling practices in early Roman Veneto – demonstrated by both osteological and epigraphic data – is discussed as a possible conscious step taken by the local communities to maintain a partially independent cultural identity in respect to the newcomers and the increasing pressure towards the adoption of novel funerary rituals due to the renewed political and social setting
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Funerary Archaeology, Bronze Age Europe (Archaeology), Deviant burial (Archaeology), Late Bronze Age archaeology, Late Bronze Age Bioarchaeology, and 6 moreMediterranean archaeology, Italian Iron Age Archaeology, Early Iron Age, Italian Bronze Age Archaeology, Bioarchaeology, Osteology, Paleopathology, and The Archaeology of Marginality
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
""SUMMARY This paper offers a preliminary analysis of funerary practices relating to food and drink consumption in the Italian region of Veneto between the Final Bronze Age and the late Iron Age (c. 1050-250 BC). My analysis focuses on... more
""SUMMARY
This paper offers a preliminary analysis of funerary practices relating to food and drink consumption in the Italian region of Veneto between the Final Bronze Age and the late Iron Age (c. 1050-250 BC). My analysis focuses on ritual practices and aspects of material culture which probably spread in Veneto after contacts with nearby populations from Etruria and Continental Europe.
In particular, I show that these potential cultural influences involved both the imitation and import of banqueting equipment as well as the introduction of selected ritual techniques relating to the preparation and distribution of alcoholic beverages, including potentially wine.
By analysing a sample of grave assemblages dating to the tenth century BC, in which pottery relating to food and drink consumption is extremely rare or absent, I suggest that Venetic funerary rites dating to the late Final Bronze Age did not put a particular emphasis on the exhibition of banqueting sets and, possibly, on food ingestion itself as a meaningful collective ritual. Nonetheless, a new interest for food and drink consumption at the time of the funeral seems to spread during the following century (c. 900-800 BC), when the deposition of banqueting equipment in the tomb alongside cinerary urns becomes more common; this equipment appears to include vessels imitating artefacts in use among nearby populations, but also potentially direct imports. During the eighth century, the spread of sophisticated banqueting sets in the wealthiest tombs found at the main settlements of Este and Padua reveals a further change in local funerary practices, possibly influenced by contacts with elite groups from Etruria and central Europe. This is suggested, for example, by the presence in these tombs of banqueting equipment either directly imported from foreign regions, or imitating vases (e.g. situlae) largely attested not only in Veneto but also in neighbouring areas.
Another phase of cultural change in relation to ritual drinking practices can be dated to the sixth century BC. In this century, the appearance of Attic pottery in Veneto might indicate a partial adoption of drinking rituals influenced by the Greek/Etruscan symposium. A possible representation of the ''reclining symposium'' is indeed offered by the bronze belt plate found in Este Carceri Tomb 48, c. 500-450 BC, which features a male drinker reclining on a couch and a woman who is about to pour drink in his cup. Notably, however, the emphasis put by the Carceri plate on the rite of pouring the beverage from a jug does not find a comparison in contemporary Venetic tombs from central Veneto: here, implements for pouring alcohol at the banquet (e.g. jugs) are rare or absent, while high-handled cups from removing liquids from larger containers remain common.
This preliminary analysis will be concluded by a discussion of extremely wealthy Este Ricovero Tomb 23/1984, the single deposition of a woman called Nerka Trostiaia. This grave, dating to the first half of the third century BC, is characterised by an extraordinarily sophisticated funerary ritual incorporating both Venetic and non-Venetic features.
RIASSUNTO
In questo intervento verrà proposta un’analisi preliminare di alcune pratiche funerarie legate al consumo di cibo e bevande alcoliche in Veneto tra l’Età del Bronzo Finale e l’inizio del III secolo a.C. Una particolare enfasi verrà riservata all’esame degli influssi culturali penetrati in Veneto a seguito del contatto con le popolazioni stanziate in Etruria e nell’area Nordalpina e Centroeuropea. Mostrerò che tali influenze possono essere definite sia in termini di acquisizione di elementi significativi della cultura materiale (importazione e imitazione di vasellame da banchetto), sia in termini di introduzione di specifiche tecniche rituali connesse alla preparazione e alla distribuzione del vino.
Partendo dall’analisi di una serie di corredi datati al X secolo, in cui la ceramica da mensa è rarissima o assente, suggerirò che il rituale funerario del tardo Bronzo Finale non poneva una particolare enfasi sull’esibizione delle suppellettili da banchetto e, possibilmente, sull’ingestione del cibo come rituale collettivo. Un nuovo interesse verso la consumazione di alimenti durante il rito funebre sembra diffondersi nel IX secolo, quando la deposizione di vasellame in associazione all’urna diventa più comune e può riguardare vasi direttamente importati o imitanti modelli mutuati dalle popolazioni confinanti. Il diffondersi di complessi servizi da banchetto nelle tombe emergenti di Este e Padova a partire dall’VIII secolo segnala un’ulteriore evoluzione del costume funerario locale, forse direttamente influenzato dal contatto con le elites Etrusche e Nordalpine, come suggerito dalla presenza di vasellame importato nelle deposizioni qui considerate. Una successiva fase di elaborazione culturale può essere datata a partire dal VI secolo a.C., quando la diffusione di ceramica attica nel Veneto è considerata possibile indizio dell’acquisizione di pratiche simposiache. Una significativa rappresentazione iconografica del banchetto reclinato di ascendenza greco-etrusca è offerta dalla placchetta Este Carceri 48 (prima metà del V secolo a.C.), la cui enfasi sui rituali del versare, tuttavia, non sembra trovare riscontro nel materiale funerario rinvenuto in Veneto. Questo breve excursus verrà concluso dall’analisi della ricchissima deposizione di Nerka Trostiaia, datata alla prima metà del III secolo, dove il rituale funerario adottato segnala una straordinaria sintesi di elementi autoctoni e stranieri. r""
This paper offers a preliminary analysis of funerary practices relating to food and drink consumption in the Italian region of Veneto between the Final Bronze Age and the late Iron Age (c. 1050-250 BC). My analysis focuses on ritual practices and aspects of material culture which probably spread in Veneto after contacts with nearby populations from Etruria and Continental Europe.
In particular, I show that these potential cultural influences involved both the imitation and import of banqueting equipment as well as the introduction of selected ritual techniques relating to the preparation and distribution of alcoholic beverages, including potentially wine.
By analysing a sample of grave assemblages dating to the tenth century BC, in which pottery relating to food and drink consumption is extremely rare or absent, I suggest that Venetic funerary rites dating to the late Final Bronze Age did not put a particular emphasis on the exhibition of banqueting sets and, possibly, on food ingestion itself as a meaningful collective ritual. Nonetheless, a new interest for food and drink consumption at the time of the funeral seems to spread during the following century (c. 900-800 BC), when the deposition of banqueting equipment in the tomb alongside cinerary urns becomes more common; this equipment appears to include vessels imitating artefacts in use among nearby populations, but also potentially direct imports. During the eighth century, the spread of sophisticated banqueting sets in the wealthiest tombs found at the main settlements of Este and Padua reveals a further change in local funerary practices, possibly influenced by contacts with elite groups from Etruria and central Europe. This is suggested, for example, by the presence in these tombs of banqueting equipment either directly imported from foreign regions, or imitating vases (e.g. situlae) largely attested not only in Veneto but also in neighbouring areas.
Another phase of cultural change in relation to ritual drinking practices can be dated to the sixth century BC. In this century, the appearance of Attic pottery in Veneto might indicate a partial adoption of drinking rituals influenced by the Greek/Etruscan symposium. A possible representation of the ''reclining symposium'' is indeed offered by the bronze belt plate found in Este Carceri Tomb 48, c. 500-450 BC, which features a male drinker reclining on a couch and a woman who is about to pour drink in his cup. Notably, however, the emphasis put by the Carceri plate on the rite of pouring the beverage from a jug does not find a comparison in contemporary Venetic tombs from central Veneto: here, implements for pouring alcohol at the banquet (e.g. jugs) are rare or absent, while high-handled cups from removing liquids from larger containers remain common.
This preliminary analysis will be concluded by a discussion of extremely wealthy Este Ricovero Tomb 23/1984, the single deposition of a woman called Nerka Trostiaia. This grave, dating to the first half of the third century BC, is characterised by an extraordinarily sophisticated funerary ritual incorporating both Venetic and non-Venetic features.
RIASSUNTO
In questo intervento verrà proposta un’analisi preliminare di alcune pratiche funerarie legate al consumo di cibo e bevande alcoliche in Veneto tra l’Età del Bronzo Finale e l’inizio del III secolo a.C. Una particolare enfasi verrà riservata all’esame degli influssi culturali penetrati in Veneto a seguito del contatto con le popolazioni stanziate in Etruria e nell’area Nordalpina e Centroeuropea. Mostrerò che tali influenze possono essere definite sia in termini di acquisizione di elementi significativi della cultura materiale (importazione e imitazione di vasellame da banchetto), sia in termini di introduzione di specifiche tecniche rituali connesse alla preparazione e alla distribuzione del vino.
Partendo dall’analisi di una serie di corredi datati al X secolo, in cui la ceramica da mensa è rarissima o assente, suggerirò che il rituale funerario del tardo Bronzo Finale non poneva una particolare enfasi sull’esibizione delle suppellettili da banchetto e, possibilmente, sull’ingestione del cibo come rituale collettivo. Un nuovo interesse verso la consumazione di alimenti durante il rito funebre sembra diffondersi nel IX secolo, quando la deposizione di vasellame in associazione all’urna diventa più comune e può riguardare vasi direttamente importati o imitanti modelli mutuati dalle popolazioni confinanti. Il diffondersi di complessi servizi da banchetto nelle tombe emergenti di Este e Padova a partire dall’VIII secolo segnala un’ulteriore evoluzione del costume funerario locale, forse direttamente influenzato dal contatto con le elites Etrusche e Nordalpine, come suggerito dalla presenza di vasellame importato nelle deposizioni qui considerate. Una successiva fase di elaborazione culturale può essere datata a partire dal VI secolo a.C., quando la diffusione di ceramica attica nel Veneto è considerata possibile indizio dell’acquisizione di pratiche simposiache. Una significativa rappresentazione iconografica del banchetto reclinato di ascendenza greco-etrusca è offerta dalla placchetta Este Carceri 48 (prima metà del V secolo a.C.), la cui enfasi sui rituali del versare, tuttavia, non sembra trovare riscontro nel materiale funerario rinvenuto in Veneto. Questo breve excursus verrà concluso dall’analisi della ricchissima deposizione di Nerka Trostiaia, datata alla prima metà del III secolo, dove il rituale funerario adottato segnala una straordinaria sintesi di elementi autoctoni e stranieri. r""
Research Interests:
Report of session on alcohol consumption in late prehistory held at the 2010 EAA Meeting in The Hague. Includes a brief overview of previous work done on the topic as well as our proposed directions for future research.
Research Interests:
"This paper has been discussed by Ruth Whitehouse (UCL) in her article ''Gender in Central Mediterranean Prehistory'' in D. Bolger (ed.) 2013. A Companion to Gender Prehistory. Blackwell... more
"This paper has been discussed by Ruth Whitehouse (UCL) in her article ''Gender in Central Mediterranean Prehistory'' in D. Bolger (ed.) 2013. A Companion to Gender Prehistory. Blackwell http://books.google.it/books?id=7TBtPpVWoH8C&pg=PT60&lpg=PT60&dq=a+companion+to+gender+prehistory&source=bl&ots=QCw3N4pFZ0&sig=Zi7bFG6KjCIZPCwlOgpx2m0xKxA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jVwMUdXROe774QTXpICIAw&redir_esc=y (Google Books); it has also been reviewed with A. Chaniotis' book by by Lynn E. Roller, University of California, Davis in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2012.12.08 (available online at http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2012/2012-12-08.html); another review of the edited volume is by Aurian Delli Pizzi (Université de Liège) in Kernos 25 (2012), 369-372 online at http://kernos.revues.org/2073
This paper explores issues of gender, agency, and ritual in Iron Age Veneto (It-aly). The standpoint of my work is to acknowledge the troubled relation between gender and agency both in mainstream archaeological discourse and in society at large. Although the condition of women in the West has greatly improved in the last decades, some persistent gender prejudices still describe women as passive, powerless, and vain, especially in countries such as Italy, where feminism may have had a minor impact, and a recent backlash against female rights has been taking place. As a consequence, ‘agency’ is often related to male individuals ca-pable of action. In some contexts such as non-egalitarian and ‘traditional’ fami-lies, female passivity is still both praised and patronised. On the one hand, active and enterprising women are blamed for their supposed aggressiveness and lack of femininity, traditional moral values and maternal instinct. On the other, women are held responsible for their weakness, which becomes an excuse to justify fe-male oppression at an ideological level. This partial lack of focus on female prow-ess, competency, and independence in society at large may be partially responsi-ble for the scarcity of archaeological studies on women’s agency. Since agency is generally conceived as a human capability mainly displayed in supposed male contexts such as production, trade, politics, and the public sphere, even when no specific reference is made to the gender of the agent, the latter is automatically ‘gendered male by association with (first) traditional male behaviours emphasis-ing ‘action’, and (second) with western male-associated personal qualities empha-sising decisiveness and assertiveness’.
The aim of my work is twofold. First, I discuss how female agency can be re-cognised in the archaeological record. Following a careful scrutiny of the data, I shall argue that Venetic women were not deprived of agency; I will provide sev-eral examples of their active involvement in high-level cultic and funerary activi-ties. Secondly, I suggest that gender theory can be a powerful tool to explore thorny issues in the anthropology and archaeology of agency such as the dialect between social structure and people’s free will. Venetic mortuary practices and public cults are analysed to show how ritual was employed both to reproduce suit-able social roles and to subvert the existing social order. The redundancy of reli-gious performance, the reproduction of standardized iconographies, and the main-tenance of ancestral funerary practices were set against dynamics of innovation which accompanied major changes in the social body as a whole. A particular emphasis is placed on the way in which agency was expressed through the me-dium of objects, spaces, and dead bodies, with the aim to offer a more nuanced view of the respective involvement of women and men in the ritual sphere.""
This paper explores issues of gender, agency, and ritual in Iron Age Veneto (It-aly). The standpoint of my work is to acknowledge the troubled relation between gender and agency both in mainstream archaeological discourse and in society at large. Although the condition of women in the West has greatly improved in the last decades, some persistent gender prejudices still describe women as passive, powerless, and vain, especially in countries such as Italy, where feminism may have had a minor impact, and a recent backlash against female rights has been taking place. As a consequence, ‘agency’ is often related to male individuals ca-pable of action. In some contexts such as non-egalitarian and ‘traditional’ fami-lies, female passivity is still both praised and patronised. On the one hand, active and enterprising women are blamed for their supposed aggressiveness and lack of femininity, traditional moral values and maternal instinct. On the other, women are held responsible for their weakness, which becomes an excuse to justify fe-male oppression at an ideological level. This partial lack of focus on female prow-ess, competency, and independence in society at large may be partially responsi-ble for the scarcity of archaeological studies on women’s agency. Since agency is generally conceived as a human capability mainly displayed in supposed male contexts such as production, trade, politics, and the public sphere, even when no specific reference is made to the gender of the agent, the latter is automatically ‘gendered male by association with (first) traditional male behaviours emphasis-ing ‘action’, and (second) with western male-associated personal qualities empha-sising decisiveness and assertiveness’.
The aim of my work is twofold. First, I discuss how female agency can be re-cognised in the archaeological record. Following a careful scrutiny of the data, I shall argue that Venetic women were not deprived of agency; I will provide sev-eral examples of their active involvement in high-level cultic and funerary activi-ties. Secondly, I suggest that gender theory can be a powerful tool to explore thorny issues in the anthropology and archaeology of agency such as the dialect between social structure and people’s free will. Venetic mortuary practices and public cults are analysed to show how ritual was employed both to reproduce suit-able social roles and to subvert the existing social order. The redundancy of reli-gious performance, the reproduction of standardized iconographies, and the main-tenance of ancestral funerary practices were set against dynamics of innovation which accompanied major changes in the social body as a whole. A particular emphasis is placed on the way in which agency was expressed through the me-dium of objects, spaces, and dead bodies, with the aim to offer a more nuanced view of the respective involvement of women and men in the ritual sphere.""
Research Interests:
"The present study explores the role of textile in Venetic funerary rituals between the Final Bronze Age and early Roman period (c. 1050 BC - AD 25). Veneto is a region located in north-east Italy where a complex social organisation... more
"The present study explores the role of textile in Venetic funerary rituals between the Final Bronze Age and early Roman period (c. 1050 BC - AD 25).
Veneto is a region located in north-east Italy where a complex social organisation emerged since the beginning of the Iron Age period (approximately 900 BC). There is evidence that during the 1st millennium BC this region was inhabited by an Indo-European population, namely the Veneti mentioned in Graeco-Roman historical sources. Veneto was annexed to the Roman State in the 1st century BC, but Romanisation was a longer and gradual socio-cultural process taking place between the 2nd century BC and the early 1st century AD.
Regular excavations of Venetic tombs started in 1876 and have continued to the present day. In recent years, a greater attention has been paid to the identification and preservation of organic specimens found in the funerary context. In particular, the introduction of sophisticated micro-excavation techniques has permitted the identification of textile in the form of burned fragments, mineralised remains, yarn and even imprints on objects and mud. Overall, the evidence available indicates that textiles were widely used during Venetic funerals for a variety of ritual and practical purposes. For example, the bones of the dead were placed in a shroud or a textile container before their deposition in cremation urns. The use of wrapping the urn with a cloth, or even with a real ‘dress’ adorned with ornaments, has been noticed in several elite graves. This ritual practice seems to indicate that the urn may have been conceived as a symbol of the deceased him/herself, or a surrogate of his/her body. There is also increasing evidence that grave goods were sometimes wrapped in a cloth similarly to cinerary urns.
By analysing a sample of over 400 Venetic cremation graves that have been published between the early 20th century and 2008, this preliminary study is intended to evaluate the informative potential of both recent findings and tombs excavated in the past. Funding is currently sought to carry out a much larger project involving an extensive study of textiles in Iron Age northern Italy."
Veneto is a region located in north-east Italy where a complex social organisation emerged since the beginning of the Iron Age period (approximately 900 BC). There is evidence that during the 1st millennium BC this region was inhabited by an Indo-European population, namely the Veneti mentioned in Graeco-Roman historical sources. Veneto was annexed to the Roman State in the 1st century BC, but Romanisation was a longer and gradual socio-cultural process taking place between the 2nd century BC and the early 1st century AD.
Regular excavations of Venetic tombs started in 1876 and have continued to the present day. In recent years, a greater attention has been paid to the identification and preservation of organic specimens found in the funerary context. In particular, the introduction of sophisticated micro-excavation techniques has permitted the identification of textile in the form of burned fragments, mineralised remains, yarn and even imprints on objects and mud. Overall, the evidence available indicates that textiles were widely used during Venetic funerals for a variety of ritual and practical purposes. For example, the bones of the dead were placed in a shroud or a textile container before their deposition in cremation urns. The use of wrapping the urn with a cloth, or even with a real ‘dress’ adorned with ornaments, has been noticed in several elite graves. This ritual practice seems to indicate that the urn may have been conceived as a symbol of the deceased him/herself, or a surrogate of his/her body. There is also increasing evidence that grave goods were sometimes wrapped in a cloth similarly to cinerary urns.
By analysing a sample of over 400 Venetic cremation graves that have been published between the early 20th century and 2008, this preliminary study is intended to evaluate the informative potential of both recent findings and tombs excavated in the past. Funding is currently sought to carry out a much larger project involving an extensive study of textiles in Iron Age northern Italy."
Research Interests:
In this article I discuss the possibility that the Iron Age Veneti of Northern Italy believed in magic. By drawing on ethno-historical comparisons and contextual analysis, I suggest that items such as pierced shells, coral, amber, glass... more
In this article I discuss the possibility that the Iron Age Veneti of Northern Italy believed in magic. By drawing on ethno-historical comparisons and contextual analysis, I suggest that items such as pierced shells, coral, amber, glass beads and bronze pendants were possibly employed as amulets by children, women and, far more rarely, by men. I also examine the placing of selected non-edible animal remains such as horns, teeth, and astragali (knucklebones) in ritual contexts, suggesting than their meaning, whether magical, religious or more mundane, can be understood only through a careful evaluation of the circumstances of deposition. I finally point out that the study of magic in prehistory has been often passed over and devalued, probably for a lack of written sources and proper evidence. On the contrary, I argue that a more holistic approach to ritual and to the several layers of meaning embedded in magical objects can offer valuable insights into wider issues such as the management of power and the construction of past individuals' social and personal identities.
Research Interests: Archaeology, Italian (European History), Mediterranean prehistory, Archaeology of Religion, Funerary Archaeology, and 7 moreSocial zooarchaeology, Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, Ritual Zooarchaeology, Mediterranean archaeology, Iron Age, Italic Archaeology, and Italic Archaeology, Etruscology, Greek and Roman Archaeology
This paper will explore the ubiquitous relationship between food and mortuary rituals in pre-Roman Veneto (Italy). By analysing a wealth of grave assemblages from the main Venetic localities, it is argued that food consumption was related... more
This paper will explore the ubiquitous relationship between food and mortuary rituals in pre-Roman Veneto (Italy). By analysing a wealth of grave assemblages from the main Venetic localities, it is argued that food consumption was related to death at several different levels. On the one hand, as suggested by commonplace explanations, food residuals and culinary implements placed within the tomb may be interpreted as offerings for the dead, or the remains of the funerary banquet consumed in honour of the deceased. On the other hand, however, a more profound contiguity between mortuary rituals and eating practices is implied by the employment of culinary vessels as urns. The adoption of a range of cooking vessels and liquid-containers as urns suggests that human remains may have been conceived as metaphorical food, with the possibility, for the mourners, to elaborate symbolic links between selected foods and the dead, probably in relation to his/her gender, age and rank. Finally, I will support this interpretation of Venetic funerary rituals by looking at anthropological research on the relation between dying and eating, and at the archaeological case of Etruria, where the deposition of exceptional cremated males in food and wine-containers has been interpreted as a form of solemn sacrifice.
Research Interests:
This poster explores the use of non-cremated human remains as sacred objects and ritual offerings in Iron Age Veneto (950-50 BC). In particular, I examine a group of anomalous inhumation burials from different Venetic cemeteries to argue... more
This poster explores the use of non-cremated human remains as sacred objects and ritual offerings in Iron Age Veneto (950-50 BC). In particular, I examine a group of anomalous inhumation burials from different Venetic cemeteries to argue that human sacrifice, or at least the intentional exploitation of human remains for ritual purposes, was not an unknown practice in the context under study. This evidence raises important questions concerning the social standing of the victims of such rituals as well as on the relation between religion, ritual and political power in the Venetic society.
Research Interests:
The aim of this paper is to investigate the social structure of the family in Iron Age and early Roman Veneto (Italy) through the analysis of selected aspects of the local funerary record, mainly the treatment reserved to the dead body... more
The aim of this paper is to investigate the social structure of the family in Iron Age and early Roman Veneto (Italy) through the analysis of selected aspects of the local funerary record, mainly the treatment reserved to the dead body and epitaphs. In the attempt to reconstruct features of Venetic kin relationships, my primary focus is on the widespread custom of placing the bones belonging to different cremated individuals in a single funerary vessel (bone mingling). This practice, which spread in Veneto from at least the late Bronze Age to the Roman period, and is also known in neighbouring regions, is interpreted as the extreme attempt to reunite in death individuals who must have been tied up by special bonds also in life. Statistical analysis of a sample including more than 300 dead individuals from different Venetic localities is employed to shed light on the frequency and modalities of bone mingling practices and to identify the social criteria which motivated the burial of a person alone or in the same urn with other people. By analysing the overall pattern of sex and age distribution of the sample, I suggest that bone mingling practices were adopted to deal with the deposition of close relatives, probably the members of nuclear families. A careful scrutiny of late Venetic and early Roman inscriptions found on funerary vessels (3rd century BC – 1st century AD) further reinforces this hypothesis, although the existence of possible alternative modalities of disposing the dead may be suggested by a few epitaphs.
Research Interests:
Although there is still scant evidence concerning Venetic everyday cuisine, the analysis of the ways in which tableware and cooking equipment were used and exploited casts light on the ritual value ascribed by the inhabitants of late... more
Although there is still scant evidence concerning Venetic everyday cuisine, the analysis of the ways in which tableware and cooking equipment were used and exploited casts light on the ritual value ascribed by the inhabitants of late prehistoric Veneto to formal dining practices.
The ritual manipulation of culinary implements and the widespread diffusion of forms of sacrifice related to food consumption reveal that the act of eating and drinking could become a means to structure special relations between the deity, the living and the dead. Ceremonial practices such as the voluntary breakage of ceramics in sanctuaries and funerary contexts, the placing of dining sets in the grave and under the floor of houses, and the use of cooking and/or drinking vessels as urns were fundamental to negotiate social memory, gender roles and power relations between dominant and subordinate social groups.
The aristocratic patterns of food consumption identifiable in the archaeological record show how political strategies of dominance and control were enhanced through the manipulation of foodways. The use of imported sympotic cups by the elites, for instance, suggests that the related consumption of a specific beverage (probably wine) was a means to support the claims of the local leaders in the political arena. The practice of banqueting, given ritual significance through allusions to the religious sphere and the Greek symposium, became a locus of disparity between the uppermost elite who were the terminal of - and perhaps controlled - the commercial routes through which Attic cups entered the Veneto and the social segments who had a marginal role in these exchanges.
The ritual manipulation of culinary implements and the widespread diffusion of forms of sacrifice related to food consumption reveal that the act of eating and drinking could become a means to structure special relations between the deity, the living and the dead. Ceremonial practices such as the voluntary breakage of ceramics in sanctuaries and funerary contexts, the placing of dining sets in the grave and under the floor of houses, and the use of cooking and/or drinking vessels as urns were fundamental to negotiate social memory, gender roles and power relations between dominant and subordinate social groups.
The aristocratic patterns of food consumption identifiable in the archaeological record show how political strategies of dominance and control were enhanced through the manipulation of foodways. The use of imported sympotic cups by the elites, for instance, suggests that the related consumption of a specific beverage (probably wine) was a means to support the claims of the local leaders in the political arena. The practice of banqueting, given ritual significance through allusions to the religious sphere and the Greek symposium, became a locus of disparity between the uppermost elite who were the terminal of - and perhaps controlled - the commercial routes through which Attic cups entered the Veneto and the social segments who had a marginal role in these exchanges.
Research Interests:
"The aim of this paper is to shed light on cultic practices in Iron Age Veneto (first millennium BC) through a focus on culinary implements, a class of artefacts often undervalued in mainstream archaeology. The area under study is roughly... more
"The aim of this paper is to shed light on cultic practices in Iron Age Veneto (first millennium BC) through a focus on culinary implements, a class of artefacts often undervalued in mainstream archaeology. The area under study is roughly coincident with the territory occupied today by the administrative region of Veneto, located in Northeast Italy between the Alps, the Adriatic Sea and the Po Valley. Circa 15 cult places are known from different Venetic localities, ranging from peak sacred sites to suburban sanctuaries surrounding the main settlement of Este. Evidence of large quantities of animal bones, vegetal remains and culinary implements excavated in sacred sites testifies that food and beverage consumption was one of the main aspects of Venetic religious practice. Culinary equipment consisted of a wide array of artefacts, including instruments for meat butchering and roasting, humble food containers and elegant cups for wine consumption imported from Greece.
By drawing on anthropological research which has long recognised the importance of eating and drinking as powerful metaphors and practices engaged in the negotiation of socio-political and economic dynamics, this paper explores how material culture specifically related to food preparation, distribution and ingestion was employed to frame narratives of identity, sociality and power. Analysis of the typology, provenance and chronology of culinary implements is devoted to identify patterns of use related to the pursuing of specific collective strategies involving diverse social actors (deities and worshippers, elite and non-elite members, local people and foreign merchants). Given the value of culinary equipment as a vehicle for the expression of social concerns regarding the relation with the supernatural, the value of food as a medium of affiliation and the elaboration of political strategies via ritual commensality, I argue that such categories of artefacts bear multifaceted meanings and deep social significance, and would deserve further attention."
By drawing on anthropological research which has long recognised the importance of eating and drinking as powerful metaphors and practices engaged in the negotiation of socio-political and economic dynamics, this paper explores how material culture specifically related to food preparation, distribution and ingestion was employed to frame narratives of identity, sociality and power. Analysis of the typology, provenance and chronology of culinary implements is devoted to identify patterns of use related to the pursuing of specific collective strategies involving diverse social actors (deities and worshippers, elite and non-elite members, local people and foreign merchants). Given the value of culinary equipment as a vehicle for the expression of social concerns regarding the relation with the supernatural, the value of food as a medium of affiliation and the elaboration of political strategies via ritual commensality, I argue that such categories of artefacts bear multifaceted meanings and deep social significance, and would deserve further attention."
Research Interests:
The article is available open access at http://www.ubiquitypress.com/files/009-writingasmaterialpractice-ch13.pdf
The full book can be found online at http://www.ubiquitypress.com/files/009-writingasmaterialpractice.pdf
The full book can be found online at http://www.ubiquitypress.com/files/009-writingasmaterialpractice.pdf
Research Interests:
"Feminist archaeology has prompted scholars to reconsider gender roles in ancient Mesoamerica. Current research, however, tends to focus on elite women, classes and sites. Although I do not ignore the potential of these sources, in this... more
"Feminist archaeology has prompted scholars to reconsider gender roles in ancient Mesoamerica. Current research, however, tends to focus on elite women, classes and sites. Although I do not
ignore the potential of these sources, in this paper I am mainly concerned with issues such as the phenomenology of bodies and spaces, subroyal ritual actions, and daily activities such as
cooking and weaving. My aim is to offer an overview of the most recent studies on gender in Maya archaeology and to provide ideas for further research by emphasising the need to engender ritual and individuate female discourses in the archaeological record."
ignore the potential of these sources, in this paper I am mainly concerned with issues such as the phenomenology of bodies and spaces, subroyal ritual actions, and daily activities such as
cooking and weaving. My aim is to offer an overview of the most recent studies on gender in Maya archaeology and to provide ideas for further research by emphasising the need to engender ritual and individuate female discourses in the archaeological record."
Research Interests:
Invited talk delivered at the OREA Workshop: South Wind. Late Bronze Age cultural phenomena and influences from the Adriatic region to the north. (Austrian Academy of Sciences, 06.04.2017). ABSTRACT Between the late Bronze Age and the... more
Invited talk delivered at the OREA Workshop: South Wind. Late Bronze Age cultural phenomena and influences from the Adriatic region to the north. (Austrian Academy of Sciences, 06.04.2017).
ABSTRACT
Between the late Bronze Age and the Iron Age, many human societies in the central Mediterranean and continental Europe underwent crucial socio-political changes that scholars have subsumed under the headings of increased social stratification, the centralization of political power, and in some cases urbanization and statehood.
This pivotal turning point in European history was a non-linear process of development that displayed marked regional diversity and phases of accelerated evolution followed by collapse or crisis at the micro-scale. Notably, transformation in socioeconomic and political structuring was accompanied by dramatic changes in ritual, religious ideology and funerary practice (e.g. spread of cremation), which seem to testify to evolving social ideas about gender, personhood, identity and the body.
In many contexts, such as Italy, research on rising social stratification has often focused on large-scale narratives of resource exploitation, settlement re-organization and evolving trade routes – or on the elite social segments that supposedly spearheaded these processes. By contrast, this paper will draw attention to the individuals that were marginalized, abused and exploited in connection with the power dynamics that developed as part of these transformations.
Within the framework of an archaeology of marginality (see Perego and Scopacasa 2016), I will address and debate some key theoretical and methodological issues (e.g. role of bioarchaeology) that may contribute to new perspectives in Urnfield and Final Bronze Age research.
Bibliography: E. Perego and R. Scopacasa (2016) Burial and social Change in First-millennium BC Italy: Approching Social Agents. Gender, personhood and marginality. Oxford: Oxbow.
ABSTRACT
Between the late Bronze Age and the Iron Age, many human societies in the central Mediterranean and continental Europe underwent crucial socio-political changes that scholars have subsumed under the headings of increased social stratification, the centralization of political power, and in some cases urbanization and statehood.
This pivotal turning point in European history was a non-linear process of development that displayed marked regional diversity and phases of accelerated evolution followed by collapse or crisis at the micro-scale. Notably, transformation in socioeconomic and political structuring was accompanied by dramatic changes in ritual, religious ideology and funerary practice (e.g. spread of cremation), which seem to testify to evolving social ideas about gender, personhood, identity and the body.
In many contexts, such as Italy, research on rising social stratification has often focused on large-scale narratives of resource exploitation, settlement re-organization and evolving trade routes – or on the elite social segments that supposedly spearheaded these processes. By contrast, this paper will draw attention to the individuals that were marginalized, abused and exploited in connection with the power dynamics that developed as part of these transformations.
Within the framework of an archaeology of marginality (see Perego and Scopacasa 2016), I will address and debate some key theoretical and methodological issues (e.g. role of bioarchaeology) that may contribute to new perspectives in Urnfield and Final Bronze Age research.
Bibliography: E. Perego and R. Scopacasa (2016) Burial and social Change in First-millennium BC Italy: Approching Social Agents. Gender, personhood and marginality. Oxford: Oxbow.
Research Interests:
Paper presented at the ‘‘Craft and Production in the European Iron Age’’ conference (University of Cambridge)
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Questo contributo proporrà un inquadramento teorico per l'analisi della costruzione etnica, dell'inclusione sociale e del cambiamento socio-politico nella regione italiana del Veneto tra l'età del Bronzo Finale e la prima età del Ferro... more
Questo contributo proporrà un inquadramento teorico per l'analisi della costruzione etnica, dell'inclusione sociale e del cambiamento socio-politico nella regione italiana del Veneto tra l'età del Bronzo Finale e la prima età del Ferro (XII-IX secolo a.C. circa). Sulla base di ricerche sviluppatesi nell'ambito delle science sociali e volte ad enfatizzare la natura complessa e variabile dell'etnicità nei diversi contesti culturali, questo articolo si propone di contribuire ad aprire un dibattito sulla validità degli approcci teorici correnti al problema della formazione etnica nell'Italia protostorica. In particolar modo, intendo suggerire un cambiamento di prospettiva dalle complesse pratiche di etnogenesi che poterono svilupparsi in relazione a macro-gruppi identificati per esempio negli Etruschi, nei Veneti o nei Latini della tradizione classica - alle più sottili pratiche di negoziazione identitaria che dovettero svilupparsi presso differenti agenti sociali al micro-livello della pratica quotidiana. In questo modo, tenterò di gettare luce sulla negoziazione di forme di inclusione sociale che cominciarono potenzialmente a svilupparsi in Veneto nelle fasi precedenti alla transizione tra Bronzo Finale e prima età del Ferro.
This contribution proposes a theoretical framework for the investigation of ethnicity, group membership and socio-political change in the Italian region of Veneto between the Final Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age (approximately 12th – 9th centuries BC). By drawing on research in the humanities and social science emphasising the multi-faceted, culturally variable and blurred nature of ethnicity, this article will suggest that a review of current approaches to ethnic formation in late prehistoric and proto-historic Italy is needed. In particular, I will propose a shift in the focus of research from the grand-scale of ethnogenesis as discussed in relation to macro-entities such as the Etruscans, the Veneti and the Latins – to the more subtle practices of interaction and identity negotiation that took place among social agents at the micro-scale. In doing so, I will tackle the issue of whether specific forms of social inclusion and construction of group membership that are attested in Veneto during the 1st-millennium BC might have started to develop before the Final Bronze Age/ Iron Age transition.
For information concerning the workshop cf, Blake et al 2014: http://mefra.revues.org/2435#ftn1
Hanno partecipato a questo incontro: Enrico Benelli (CNR-ISMA ; relazione: Culture arcaiche fra Tronto e Sangro: facies archeologiche o compagini etniche?), Salvatore Bianco (Soprintendenza per i Beni archeologici della Basilicata) e Ada Preite (EPHE ; relazione: Identificazione degli Enotri: fonti e modelli interpretativi), Anna Maria Bietti Sestieri (Università degli Studi del Salento ; relazione: The Villanovan in the Italian contemporary context: rule or exception?), Emma Blake (University of Arizona-AAR ; relazione: A Network Approach to Bronze Age regional groups), Stéphane Bourdin (EFR ; relazione: « Prétutiens », Vestins, Péligniens: problèmes d’identité ethnique en Italie centrale), Emmanuel Dupraz (Université Libre de Bruxelles ; relazione: Les Marses: confection et réélaboration d’une identité), Elisa Perego (BRS ; relazione: Final Bronze Age and social change in Veneto), Christopher Smith (BSR ; relazione: Early rituals of regional identity and kinship from Lazio).
This contribution proposes a theoretical framework for the investigation of ethnicity, group membership and socio-political change in the Italian region of Veneto between the Final Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age (approximately 12th – 9th centuries BC). By drawing on research in the humanities and social science emphasising the multi-faceted, culturally variable and blurred nature of ethnicity, this article will suggest that a review of current approaches to ethnic formation in late prehistoric and proto-historic Italy is needed. In particular, I will propose a shift in the focus of research from the grand-scale of ethnogenesis as discussed in relation to macro-entities such as the Etruscans, the Veneti and the Latins – to the more subtle practices of interaction and identity negotiation that took place among social agents at the micro-scale. In doing so, I will tackle the issue of whether specific forms of social inclusion and construction of group membership that are attested in Veneto during the 1st-millennium BC might have started to develop before the Final Bronze Age/ Iron Age transition.
For information concerning the workshop cf, Blake et al 2014: http://mefra.revues.org/2435#ftn1
Hanno partecipato a questo incontro: Enrico Benelli (CNR-ISMA ; relazione: Culture arcaiche fra Tronto e Sangro: facies archeologiche o compagini etniche?), Salvatore Bianco (Soprintendenza per i Beni archeologici della Basilicata) e Ada Preite (EPHE ; relazione: Identificazione degli Enotri: fonti e modelli interpretativi), Anna Maria Bietti Sestieri (Università degli Studi del Salento ; relazione: The Villanovan in the Italian contemporary context: rule or exception?), Emma Blake (University of Arizona-AAR ; relazione: A Network Approach to Bronze Age regional groups), Stéphane Bourdin (EFR ; relazione: « Prétutiens », Vestins, Péligniens: problèmes d’identité ethnique en Italie centrale), Emmanuel Dupraz (Université Libre de Bruxelles ; relazione: Les Marses: confection et réélaboration d’une identité), Elisa Perego (BRS ; relazione: Final Bronze Age and social change in Veneto), Christopher Smith (BSR ; relazione: Early rituals of regional identity and kinship from Lazio).
Research Interests: Mediterranean prehistory, Mediterranean Studies, Mediterranean, Archaeology of ethnicity, Ethnicity, and 6 moreMediterranean archaeology, Late Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, Late Bronze Age, Italic Archaeology, Etruscology, Greek and Roman Archaeology, Marginalization, and Final Bronze- Iron Age Veneto Region
Podium presentation at Expanding Boundaries. Science & Theory in Prehistoric Studies.
http://expandingboundaries.uk/
http://expandingboundaries.uk/
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Due to its favourable geographical position between the Alps, the Adriatic Sea and the Po Valley, the Italian region of Veneto has been a crossroads of peoples, cultures and intense flows of goods and ideas from prehistory to modern... more
Due to its favourable geographical position between the Alps, the Adriatic Sea and the Po Valley, the Italian region of Veneto has been a crossroads of peoples, cultures and intense flows of goods and ideas from prehistory to modern times. Recent research has highlighted the pivotal role of Iron Age Venetic populations in commerce and cultural exchange, with particular reference to the trade routes adopted, the typologies of the items moved from region to region and the whole range of social phenomena involved. The aim of this paper is to focus on the development of the Venetic symposium (circa 8th – 3rd centuries BC), in the attempt to elucidate how different modalities of cultural interaction between the Veneti and the populations located near and on the margin of their territory, especially the Etruscans, may have motivated the adoption or rejection of specific ritual practices related to the consumption of alcohol. Analysis of both Venetic and imported sympotic vessels unearthed in local cemeteries, sanctuaries and settlements as well as the scrutiny of iconographic representations of drinking scenes engraved and embossed on the products of situla art is employed to shed light on phenomena of acculturation and cultural resistance.
In this paper I will investigate some of the major social rearrangements which must have taken place in Veneto (Italy) on the verge of Romanization through the analysis of the local funerary record. By taking into account different lines... more
In this paper I will investigate some of the major social rearrangements which must have taken place in Veneto (Italy) on the verge of Romanization through the analysis of the local funerary record. By taking into account different lines of evidence including epigraphy and human remains analysis, I will shed some light on the elements of both change and continuity which can be recognised in the treatment of the dead body and the organization of the burial ground between the late Venetic Iron Age and the early Roman period (3rd century BC – 1st century AD). Apart from Latin written sources illustrating the increasing intervention of the Romans in local affairs, I will show how a clear process of social change is evident in the funerary sphere, with the appearance of new rituals and the adoption of new kinds of grave goods including strigils, coins and vessels extraneous to the local tradition. However, I will also emphasize how the persistence of traditional Venetic ritual practices such as the “bone mingling” (i.e. the placing of the remains of more than one individual in the same urn) may indicate that the local community was able to maintain a partially independent cultural identity in respect to the newcomers and the increasing pressure towards the adoption of novel funerary rituals brought about by the renewed political and social setting.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the social structure of the family in Iron Age and early Roman Veneto (Italy) through the analysis of selected aspects of the local funerary record, mainly the treatment reserved to the dead body... more
The aim of this paper is to investigate the social structure of the family in Iron Age and early Roman Veneto (Italy) through the analysis of selected aspects of the local funerary record, mainly the treatment reserved to the dead body and epitaphs. In the attempt to reconstruct features of Venetic kin relationships, my primary focus is on the widespread custom of placing the bones belonging to different cremated individuals in a single funerary vessel (bone mingling). This practice, which spread in Veneto from at least the late Bronze Age to the Roman period, and is also known in neighbouring regions, is interpreted as the extreme attempt to reunite in death individuals who must have been tied up by special bonds also in life. Statistical analysis of a sample including more than 300 dead individuals from different Venetic localities is employed to shed light on the frequency and modalities of bone mingling practices and to identify the social criteria which motivated the burial of a person alone or in the same urn with other people. By analysing the overall pattern of sex and age distribution of the sample, I suggest that bone mingling practices were adopted to deal with the deposition of close relatives, probably the members of nuclear families. A careful scrutiny of late Venetic and early Roman inscriptions found on funerary vessels (3rd century BC – 1st century AD) further reinforces this hypothesis, although the existence of possible alternative modalities of disposing the dead may be suggested by a few epitaphs.
This paper explores how human remains were employed and manipulated to negotiate the dead individual’s identity among the Iron Age Veneti of Northern Italy. The main purpose of the paper is to highlight the distinct role attributed to... more
This paper explores how human remains were employed and manipulated to negotiate the dead individual’s identity among the Iron Age Veneti of Northern Italy. The main purpose of the paper is to highlight the distinct role attributed to cremation and inhumation in expressing differences in identity, personhood and social status. Cremation, by far the most diffused funerary ritual in Veneto, was often reserved to individuals of high social level and, through the manipulation of bones, urns and grave goods, was employed to renegotiate the identity of the deceased during the funeral, especially in elite depositions. However, the presence of cremation graves in marginal areas of the necropolis and with no grave goods at all was not uncommon, testifying the employment of cremation in rituals which involved the members of non-elite social strata.
On the other hand, the significance of inhumation in defining the dead individual’s social position is still unclear, although the general scarcity of grave goods and the absence of ritual complexity in inhumation graves seems to suggest that these people retained a marginal role in Venetic society. Evidence of human sacrifice, dismemberment and burials where humans were given the same funerary ritual of animals also indicates the possible condition of inferiority of those granted inhumation. However, the existence of inhumation graves containing offerings and prepared with care implies that inhumation rituals as well as cremation may assume a variety of forms and meanings, allowing the living to negotiate and express different social roles for the dead.
On the other hand, the significance of inhumation in defining the dead individual’s social position is still unclear, although the general scarcity of grave goods and the absence of ritual complexity in inhumation graves seems to suggest that these people retained a marginal role in Venetic society. Evidence of human sacrifice, dismemberment and burials where humans were given the same funerary ritual of animals also indicates the possible condition of inferiority of those granted inhumation. However, the existence of inhumation graves containing offerings and prepared with care implies that inhumation rituals as well as cremation may assume a variety of forms and meanings, allowing the living to negotiate and express different social roles for the dead.
In this paper I examine how human bodies were sublimated into objects and objects were enclosed into narratives of personhood to reconstruct the identity of the deceased in pre-Roman Italy. In analysing funerary practices occurring among... more
In this paper I examine how human bodies were sublimated into objects and objects were enclosed into narratives of personhood to reconstruct the identity of the deceased in pre-Roman Italy. In analysing funerary practices occurring among the Veneti of Northern Italy and the Etruscans, I note that death, particularly when followed by cremation, had a violent and destructive impact on the identity of the dead and the physical integrity of the body. Clear evidence, however, shows that attempts to overcome the great blankness left behind by death were carried out through the manipulation of urns, human remains and grave goods.
Adorned with jewels, cloths, belts and weapons, urns were given humanlike qualities and employed to reshape the broken corpse of the dead. Similarly, grave goods such as ornaments and tools, placed both inside and near the funerary vessel, became an extension of the body and a means to reconstruct the lost identity of the deceased. In this progression from destruction to “rebirth” after death, the boundaries between Object and Body, between Human and Thing were broken and renegotiated to create a hybrid entity composed of both organic substances (bones) and artefacts.
In taking further the process of humanisation of the objects interred with the dead, practices such as the mingling of bones of different dead individuals in the same urn, the exchange of grave goods between different funerary vessels and the presence of infant depositions which were granted the funerary ritual of adults (and vice versa) reveal that the identity reconstructed after cremation was extremely fluid and not necessarily related to the social and personal condition of the deceased before death.
Adorned with jewels, cloths, belts and weapons, urns were given humanlike qualities and employed to reshape the broken corpse of the dead. Similarly, grave goods such as ornaments and tools, placed both inside and near the funerary vessel, became an extension of the body and a means to reconstruct the lost identity of the deceased. In this progression from destruction to “rebirth” after death, the boundaries between Object and Body, between Human and Thing were broken and renegotiated to create a hybrid entity composed of both organic substances (bones) and artefacts.
In taking further the process of humanisation of the objects interred with the dead, practices such as the mingling of bones of different dead individuals in the same urn, the exchange of grave goods between different funerary vessels and the presence of infant depositions which were granted the funerary ritual of adults (and vice versa) reveal that the identity reconstructed after cremation was extremely fluid and not necessarily related to the social and personal condition of the deceased before death.
This paper explores the relation between agency and ritual among the Iron Age Veneti of Northern Italy. Agency is defined here as the subtle overlap between the pervasive constrictions imposed by the social system on individuals and... more
This paper explores the relation between agency and ritual among the Iron Age Veneti of Northern Italy. Agency is defined here as the subtle overlap between the pervasive constrictions imposed by the social system on individuals and people’s creative responses to them. The dialect between social structure and people’s free will is explored through the lens of gender theory. Mortuary practices and public cults are analysed to show how ritual was employed both to reproduce suitable social roles and to subvert the existing social order. The redundancy of the religious performance, the reproduction of standardized iconographies and the maintenance of ancestral funerary practices were set against dynamics of innovation which accompanied major changes in the social body as a whole. While pursuing my analysis of collective and individual agents between innovation and tradition, I will highlight how both genders became either recepients or active promoters of ritual, with particular emphasis on women’s roles as performers and receivers.
The aim of this paper is to shed light on cultic practices in Iron Age Veneto (first millennium BC) through a focus on culinary implements, a class of artefacts often undervalued in mainstream archaeology. The area under study is roughly... more
The aim of this paper is to shed light on cultic practices in Iron Age Veneto (first millennium BC) through a focus on culinary implements, a class of artefacts often undervalued in mainstream archaeology. The area under study is roughly coincident with the territory occupied today by the administrative region of Veneto, located in Northeast Italy between the Alps, the Adriatic Sea and the Po Valley. Circa 15 cult places are known from different Venetic localities, ranging from peak sacred sites to suburban sanctuaries surrounding the main settlement of Este. Evidence of large quantities of animal bones, vegetal remains and culinary implements excavated in sacred sites testifies that food and beverage consumption was one of the main aspects of Venetic religious practice. Culinary equipment consisted of a wide array of artefacts, including instruments for meat butchering and roasting, humble food containers and elegant cups for wine consumption imported from Greece.
By drawing on anthropological research which has long recognised the importance of eating and drinking as powerful metaphors and practices engaged in the negotiation of socio-political and economic dynamics, this paper explores how material culture specifically related to food preparation, distribution and ingestion was employed to frame narratives of identity, sociality and power. Analysis of the typology, provenance and chronology of culinary implements is devoted to identify patterns of use related to the pursuing of specific collective strategies involving diverse social actors (deities and worshippers, elite and non-elite members, local people and foreign merchants). Given the value of culinary equipment as a vehicle for the expression of social concerns regarding the relation with the supernatural, the value of food as a medium of affiliation and the elaboration of political strategies via ritual commensality, I argue that such categories of artefacts bear multifaceted meanings and deep social significance, and would deserve further attention.
By drawing on anthropological research which has long recognised the importance of eating and drinking as powerful metaphors and practices engaged in the negotiation of socio-political and economic dynamics, this paper explores how material culture specifically related to food preparation, distribution and ingestion was employed to frame narratives of identity, sociality and power. Analysis of the typology, provenance and chronology of culinary implements is devoted to identify patterns of use related to the pursuing of specific collective strategies involving diverse social actors (deities and worshippers, elite and non-elite members, local people and foreign merchants). Given the value of culinary equipment as a vehicle for the expression of social concerns regarding the relation with the supernatural, the value of food as a medium of affiliation and the elaboration of political strategies via ritual commensality, I argue that such categories of artefacts bear multifaceted meanings and deep social significance, and would deserve further attention.
Although there is still scant evidence concerning Venetic everyday cuisine, the analysis of the ways in which tableware and cooking equipment were used and exploited casts light on the ritual value ascribed by the Veneti to formal dining... more
Although there is still scant evidence concerning Venetic everyday cuisine, the analysis of the ways in which tableware and cooking equipment were used and exploited casts light on the ritual value ascribed by the Veneti to formal dining practices.
The ritual manipulation of culinary implements and the widespread diffusion of forms of sacrifice related to food consumption reveal that the act of eating and drinking could become a means to structure special relations between the deity, the living and the dead. Ceremonial practices such as the voluntary breakage of ceramics in sanctuaries and funerary contexts, the placing of dining sets in the grave and under the house floor, and the use of cooking vessels as urns were fundamental to negotiate social memory, gender roles and power relations between dominant and subordinate classes.
The aristocratic patterns of food consumption identifiable in the archaeological record show how political strategies of dominance and control were enhanced through the manipulation of foodways. The use of imported sympotic cups by the elites, for instance, suggests that the related consumption of a specific beverage (probably wine) was a means to support the claims of the local leaders in the political arena. The practice of banqueting, given ritual significance through allusions to the religious sphere and the Greek symposium, became a locus of disparity between the uppermost elite who were the terminal of - and perhaps controlled - the commercial routes through which Attic cups entered the Veneto and the social segments who had a marginal role in these exchanges.
The ritual manipulation of culinary implements and the widespread diffusion of forms of sacrifice related to food consumption reveal that the act of eating and drinking could become a means to structure special relations between the deity, the living and the dead. Ceremonial practices such as the voluntary breakage of ceramics in sanctuaries and funerary contexts, the placing of dining sets in the grave and under the house floor, and the use of cooking vessels as urns were fundamental to negotiate social memory, gender roles and power relations between dominant and subordinate classes.
The aristocratic patterns of food consumption identifiable in the archaeological record show how political strategies of dominance and control were enhanced through the manipulation of foodways. The use of imported sympotic cups by the elites, for instance, suggests that the related consumption of a specific beverage (probably wine) was a means to support the claims of the local leaders in the political arena. The practice of banqueting, given ritual significance through allusions to the religious sphere and the Greek symposium, became a locus of disparity between the uppermost elite who were the terminal of - and perhaps controlled - the commercial routes through which Attic cups entered the Veneto and the social segments who had a marginal role in these exchanges.
The decay of the corpse is a slow and often disturbing process which humans have tried to prevent, conceal, or accelerate. This paper explores how the Iron Age Veneti of Northern Italy chose extremely complex modalities of dealing with... more
The decay of the corpse is a slow and often disturbing process which humans have tried to prevent, conceal, or accelerate. This paper explores how the Iron Age Veneti of Northern Italy chose extremely complex modalities of dealing with the dissolution of the body. When cremation was adopted, the rapid and violent destruction of the cadaver on the pyre had its counterpart in the symbolic re-creation of the person at the end of the funeral, with the placing of bones and grave goods in the urn. The ritual manipulation of urns, pyre debris and bodily remains allowed the survivors to overcome the distressing experience of death and to re-negotiate relations of power within the wider community
In this paper I explore the concepts of corporeal hybridism and body substitution by showing how human bodies were sublimated into objects and objects were enclosed into narratives of personhood to reconstruct the identity of the deceased... more
In this paper I explore the concepts of corporeal hybridism and body substitution by showing how human bodies were sublimated into objects and objects were enclosed into narratives of personhood to reconstruct the identity of the deceased in pre-Roman Italy. By focusing on ritual practices occurring among the Veneti of Northern Italy and the Etruscans, I note that death, especially when followed by cremation, had a violent and destructive impact on the identity of the dead and the physical integrity of the body. Clear evidence, however, shows that attempts to overcome the disruptive consequences of death were carried out through the manipulation of urns, human remains and grave goods. Adorned with jewels, cloths, belts and weapons, urns were given humanlike qualities and employed to reshape the broken corpse of the dead. Similarly, grave goods such as ornaments and tools, placed both inside and near the funerary vessel, became an extension of the body and a means to reconstruct the lost identity of the deceased. In this process from destruction to “rebirth” after death, the boundaries between “object” and “body” were broken and renegotiated to create a hybrid entity composed of both organic substances (the bones) and artefacts. The accurate process of interment at the end of the funeral clearly reveals how the hybrid unit was intended to take the place of the real body of the deceased.
The aim of this paper is to investigate some of the major social rearrangements which must have taken place in Veneto (Italy) on the verge of Romanization through the analysis of the local funerary record. By taking into account different... more
The aim of this paper is to investigate some of the major social rearrangements which must have taken place in Veneto (Italy) on the verge of Romanization through the analysis of the local funerary record. By taking into account different lines of evidence including epigraphy, human remains analysis and spatial analysis, I will shed some light on the elements of both change and continuity which can be recognised in the treatment of the dead body and the organization of the burial ground between the late Venetic Iron Age and the early Roman period (3rd century BC – 1st century AD). Apart from Latin written sources illustrating the increasing intervention of the Romans in local affairs, I will show how a clear process of social change is evident in the funerary sphere, with the appearance of new rituals and the adoption of new kinds of grave goods including strigils, coins and vessels extraneous to the local tradition. However, I will also emphasize how the persistence of traditional Venetic ritual practices such as the bone mingling (i.e. the placing of the remains of more than one individual in the same urn) indicates that the local community was possibly able to maintain a partially independent cultural identity in respect to the newcomers and the increasing pressure towards the adoption of novel funerary rituals due to the renewed political and social setting.
"The aim of this paper is to discuss the value and employment of Situla Art as a form of picture writing, with particular focus on iconographic and communicative practices developed in Iron Age Veneto (northeast Italy) around the... more
"The aim of this paper is to discuss the value and employment of Situla Art as a form of picture writing, with particular focus on iconographic and communicative practices developed in Iron Age Veneto (northeast Italy) around the mid-first millennium BC. Situla Art was an artistic and craft tradition which spread from the 7th to the 3rd century BC in the North Adriatic basin between the Po Valley and the Danube plain. This complex decorative technique implied the embossing and engraving of series of images on bronze items as diverse as vessels, helmets, knife sheaths, belt plates and mirrors. Ornamentation was usually naturalistic and included human figures involved in processions, feasts, games, military parades, and sexual intercourse, objects taken from everyday life and decorative elements such as animals and vegetables. Recent research by Italian scholar Luca Zaghetto has suggested interpreting the iconographic motifs of Situla Art as a real language, with its own rules which can be decoded on the basis of structural linguistics and semiotic approaches to reconstruct the whole meaning of the “text”. In this perspective every single iconic element is considered as a word, while strings of related images are equivalent to sentences and the entire decorated object expresses the full meaning of a complete text, or a discourse, in which the individual elements are combined together to convey a message far more complex than the mere sum of its basic components.
In taking further this approach, I briefly compare Situla Art to past and present forms of picture writing, including modern icons, and I consider to what extent such complex forms of pictography share common features with alphabetic writing. Although elements exist to suggest that Situla Art may have been a form of picture writing, I advocate the need to break down the somewhat artificial dichotomy between traditional writing systems and other means of communication, including ideography, to consider both Situla Art and the Venetic alphabetic script as two of the components of the entire communicative system in use in Iron Age Veneto. I employ the concept of iconic literacy – the capacity of producing and interpreting images – to compare the elaboration and fruition of Situla Art and traditional literacy, in the attempt to elucidate their respective modes of production, diffusion and consumption, with particular reference to the exploitation of the final product by the appropriate recipients, usually elite members. I conclude this paper by analysing how both the products of Situla Art and inscribed objects were employed to negotiate and promote the social role of high-ranking Venetic individuals in a variety of rituals, especially the funeral and the symposium. As both Situla Art and traditional literacy as well as specific mortuary and sympotic practices spread in Veneto as a consequence of deep cultural contact with Etruria, I explore how the adoption and re-elaboration of foreign habits, techniques and consumption practices shaped the Venetic elite lifestyle and communicative system.
"
In taking further this approach, I briefly compare Situla Art to past and present forms of picture writing, including modern icons, and I consider to what extent such complex forms of pictography share common features with alphabetic writing. Although elements exist to suggest that Situla Art may have been a form of picture writing, I advocate the need to break down the somewhat artificial dichotomy between traditional writing systems and other means of communication, including ideography, to consider both Situla Art and the Venetic alphabetic script as two of the components of the entire communicative system in use in Iron Age Veneto. I employ the concept of iconic literacy – the capacity of producing and interpreting images – to compare the elaboration and fruition of Situla Art and traditional literacy, in the attempt to elucidate their respective modes of production, diffusion and consumption, with particular reference to the exploitation of the final product by the appropriate recipients, usually elite members. I conclude this paper by analysing how both the products of Situla Art and inscribed objects were employed to negotiate and promote the social role of high-ranking Venetic individuals in a variety of rituals, especially the funeral and the symposium. As both Situla Art and traditional literacy as well as specific mortuary and sympotic practices spread in Veneto as a consequence of deep cultural contact with Etruria, I explore how the adoption and re-elaboration of foreign habits, techniques and consumption practices shaped the Venetic elite lifestyle and communicative system.
"
Research Interests:
This paper will explore the ubiquitous relationship between food and mortuary rituals in pre-Roman Veneto (Italy). By analysing a wealth of grave assemblages from the main Venetic localities, it is argued that food consumption was related... more
This paper will explore the ubiquitous relationship between food and mortuary rituals in pre-Roman Veneto (Italy). By analysing a wealth of grave assemblages from the main Venetic localities, it is argued that food consumption was related to death at several different levels. On the one hand, as suggested by commonplace explanations, food residuals and culinary implements placed within the tomb may be interpreted as offerings for the dead, or the remains of the funerary banquet consumed in honour of the deceased. On the other hand, however, a more profound contiguity between mortuary rituals and eating practices is implied by the employment of culinary vessels as urns. The adoption of a range of cooking vessels and liquid-containers as urns suggests that human remains may have been conceived as metaphorical food, with the possibility, for the mourners, to elaborate symbolic links between selected foods and the dead, probably in relation to his/her gender, age and rank. Finally, I will support this interpretation of Venetic funerary rituals by looking at anthropological research on the relation between dying and eating, and at the archaeological case of Etruria, where the deposition of exceptional cremated males in food and wine-containers has been interpreted as a form of solemn sacrifice.
In this paper I explore ritual practices of drinking in Iron Age Veneto (northern Italy), with a particular emphasis on the funerary evidence from the main settlement of Este in the core of the region. Although an exceptional resumption... more
In this paper I explore ritual practices of drinking in Iron Age Veneto (northern Italy), with a particular emphasis on the funerary evidence from the main settlement of Este in the core of the region. Although an exceptional resumption of the excavation and publication activity has recently enlarged our knowledge of the entire region, a serious issue in Venetic archaeology of food consumption is the lack of chemical analysis of the food residues found in the vessels buried in the grave. No direct evidence is therefore available for the consumption of alcohol. My focus is on those implements which – according to appropriate comparisons with other cultural areas, Situla Art iconography and specific associations in relevant Venetic tomb assemblages (e.g. Ricovero tomb 236) – may have been employed to prepare, transport, mix, filter and consume alcoholic beverages, especially in the context of formalised drinking practices. This equipment includes bronze containers such as situle and ciste, strainers, ladles, dipping cups, imported drinking vessels (e.g. Greek skyphoi and kylikes) and late Iron Age jugs and amphorae. By analysing the funerary context of deposition of such implements, I draw some preliminary conclusions on the ritual value of Venetic formalised drinking and on the social status of the dead individuals to whom complete or partial drinking sets were offered. My specific aim is to shed light on the possible attribution of these ritually charged implements to those individuals often neglected by mainstream scholarship, such as women, children and the non-elite deceased.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The conference will be held at The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and the UCL Institute of Archaeology (Room 612 on the 6th floor) on 24th and 25th October 2014. Registration will start on Friday 24th October in Room 106 at the... more
The conference will be held at The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and the UCL Institute of Archaeology (Room 612 on the 6th floor) on 24th and 25th October 2014.
Registration will start on Friday 24th October in Room 106 at the UCL Science Library. For those who do not have a valid UCL library card to enter the Science Library directly, Room 106 can be also accessed through The Petrie Museum. Registration will continue on Saturday 25th October at the UCL Institute of Archaeology (Room 609/staff common Room, adjacent to Room 612).
Further information can be found on http://expandingboundaries.uk/
PLEASE NOTE: the conference is FREE of charge, but we require a small donation of £5 to cover the costs of wine reception and coffee breaks.
PLEASE ALSO NOTE: if on Saturday 25th you wish to take lunch at the Institute of Archaeology for a small extra-charge, please let us know ASAP.
Thank you very much.
We look forward to welcome you in London.
Best wishes,
Veronica and Elisa
Registration will start on Friday 24th October in Room 106 at the UCL Science Library. For those who do not have a valid UCL library card to enter the Science Library directly, Room 106 can be also accessed through The Petrie Museum. Registration will continue on Saturday 25th October at the UCL Institute of Archaeology (Room 609/staff common Room, adjacent to Room 612).
Further information can be found on http://expandingboundaries.uk/
PLEASE NOTE: the conference is FREE of charge, but we require a small donation of £5 to cover the costs of wine reception and coffee breaks.
PLEASE ALSO NOTE: if on Saturday 25th you wish to take lunch at the Institute of Archaeology for a small extra-charge, please let us know ASAP.
Thank you very much.
We look forward to welcome you in London.
Best wishes,
Veronica and Elisa
Research Interests:
Abstracts of no more than 200 words for poster presentation should be sent to Veronica Tamorri (Durham University) and Elisa Perego (UCL) at exbo14@gmail.com by 14th October 2014. For further information, please contact the conference... more
Abstracts of no more than 200 words for poster presentation should be sent to Veronica Tamorri (Durham University) and Elisa Perego (UCL) at exbo14@gmail.com by 14th October 2014. For further information, please contact the conference organisers.
EXBO 2014 will feature the following sessions:
Session 1: Thinking outside the Archaeology box: new technologies applied to the past
Session 2: Diverse approaches to rock-art
Session 3: Funerary archaeology: method and theory
Session 4: Coercion, marginality and the rise of state authority
Session 5: Science-based approaches to the past and past technology
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Prof. M. Parker Pearson (University College London)
EXBO 2014 will feature the following sessions:
Session 1: Thinking outside the Archaeology box: new technologies applied to the past
Session 2: Diverse approaches to rock-art
Session 3: Funerary archaeology: method and theory
Session 4: Coercion, marginality and the rise of state authority
Session 5: Science-based approaches to the past and past technology
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Prof. M. Parker Pearson (University College London)
Research Interests: Egyptology, Bioarchaeology, Mediterranean prehistory, Egyptian Archaeology, Rock Art (Archaeology), and 7 moreArchaeological Method & Theory, Funerary Archaeology, The archaeology of state formation, Mediterranean archaeology, Social Inequality, Science-Based Archaeology, and Social Complexity (Archaeology)
Research Interests:
Forthcoming: Collapse or Survival? Micro-dynamics of crisis, change and socio-political endurance in the first-millennium BC central Mediterranean/Collasso o sopravvivenza? Micro-dinamiche di crisi, cambiamento e resistenza socio-politica nel Mediterraneo centrale durante il primo millennio a.C.more
This meeting is the first outcome of an ongoing network aiming to develop new ways of exploring social change, by looking at the consequences of accelerated socio-political transformations on marginal landscapes, alternative social actors... more
This meeting is the first outcome of an ongoing network aiming to develop new ways of exploring social change, by looking at the consequences of accelerated socio-political transformations on marginal landscapes, alternative social actors vis-a-vis elite men, and in view of micro-contexts where our categories of 'crisis', 'collapse' and 'continuity' blur.
Il frutto iniziale di ricerca svolta nell'ambito di un network internazionale di studiosi, questo simposio affrontera' il tema del cambiamento sociale da una prospettiva innovativa, focalizzandosi sugli effetti delle talora drammatiche trasformazioni socio-politiche occorse nel Mediterraneo centrale nel primo millennio a.C. su (a) regioni e paesaggi marginali, (b) attori sociali alternativi rispetto a soggetti maschili appartenenti a classi sociali elitarie, e (c) micro-contesti la cui complessita' ci obbliga a rinegoziare la definizione di categorie come 'collasso', 'crisi' e 'continuita''.
""
Il frutto iniziale di ricerca svolta nell'ambito di un network internazionale di studiosi, questo simposio affrontera' il tema del cambiamento sociale da una prospettiva innovativa, focalizzandosi sugli effetti delle talora drammatiche trasformazioni socio-politiche occorse nel Mediterraneo centrale nel primo millennio a.C. su (a) regioni e paesaggi marginali, (b) attori sociali alternativi rispetto a soggetti maschili appartenenti a classi sociali elitarie, e (c) micro-contesti la cui complessita' ci obbliga a rinegoziare la definizione di categorie come 'collasso', 'crisi' e 'continuita''.
""
Research Interests:
With its great regional diversity and variety of community forms and networks, Italy offers a unique context for exploring how and why communities developed towards socio-political complexity from the Iron Age (9th century BC) to the... more
With its great regional diversity and variety of community forms and networks, Italy offers a unique context for exploring how and why communities developed towards socio-political complexity from the Iron Age (9th century BC) to the Archaic period (6th-5th century BC). By analysing the rich funerary evidence of 9th – 5th century BC Italy, the aim of this workshop is to investigate the role people had in promoting and directing social change as well as the impact that major historical phenomena (e.g. ‘urbanisation’) had on individuals or specific groups of individuals. We are especially interested in how the social role of women, children, the elderly and non-elite individuals can be reconstructed from the way in which these roles are expressed/negotiated through mortuary ritual. We wish to maintain a broad geographical scope, and are especially keen to have contributions on less ‘mainstream’ regions (such as the Veneto and Samnium) preferably addressing the following questions:
- Does the presence of women, sub-adults, elderly and non-elite people change through time and/or in different regions of Italy, and what does this tell us about how representative the funerary evidence is of society at large?
- What is the relationship between social status and gender/age identities? When does gender/age become more/less important in ritual expressions of status and social structure?
- How do we interpret the involvement of women and sub-adults in empowering activities such as ritual drinking? How does the ritual use of alcohol/food in the funerary sphere function as a means to negotiate the role and status of the dead and the mourners?
- Is the placement of the dead in the landscape indicative of issues of territoriality, and when is the use of cemeteries suggestive of communal commitment to specific places?
The deadline for abstracts is April 15th. Later submissions may be considered but we advise potential speakers to contact us by the deadline above. There will be flexibility regarding the length of papers, which can last from 20-45 minutes. Titles and abstracts (around 200 words) should be sent to the workshop convenors: Elisa Perego (elisaperego78@yahoo.it) and Rafael Scopacasa (rs236@exeter.ac.uk). The deadline for registration is April 30th, but we strongly advise those interested in accommodation at the BSR to contact Rafael Scopacasa before that date.
Workshop convenors:
Elisa Perego
PhD candidate
Institute of Archaeology
University College London
31-34 Gordon Square
London WC1H 0PY
United Kingdom
Rafael Scopacasa
Ralegh Radford Rome Fellow
The British School at Rome
Via Gramsci 61, Roma 00197
- Does the presence of women, sub-adults, elderly and non-elite people change through time and/or in different regions of Italy, and what does this tell us about how representative the funerary evidence is of society at large?
- What is the relationship between social status and gender/age identities? When does gender/age become more/less important in ritual expressions of status and social structure?
- How do we interpret the involvement of women and sub-adults in empowering activities such as ritual drinking? How does the ritual use of alcohol/food in the funerary sphere function as a means to negotiate the role and status of the dead and the mourners?
- Is the placement of the dead in the landscape indicative of issues of territoriality, and when is the use of cemeteries suggestive of communal commitment to specific places?
The deadline for abstracts is April 15th. Later submissions may be considered but we advise potential speakers to contact us by the deadline above. There will be flexibility regarding the length of papers, which can last from 20-45 minutes. Titles and abstracts (around 200 words) should be sent to the workshop convenors: Elisa Perego (elisaperego78@yahoo.it) and Rafael Scopacasa (rs236@exeter.ac.uk). The deadline for registration is April 30th, but we strongly advise those interested in accommodation at the BSR to contact Rafael Scopacasa before that date.
Workshop convenors:
Elisa Perego
PhD candidate
Institute of Archaeology
University College London
31-34 Gordon Square
London WC1H 0PY
United Kingdom
Rafael Scopacasa
Ralegh Radford Rome Fellow
The British School at Rome
Via Gramsci 61, Roma 00197
As archaeological and ethnographic studies have clearly revealed, the post-mortem treatment of the corpse may assume an almost endless variety of forms and meanings. Cremation, embalming, mummification, secondary burial and exposure to... more
As archaeological and ethnographic studies have clearly revealed, the post-mortem treatment of the corpse may assume an almost endless variety of forms and meanings. Cremation, embalming, mummification, secondary burial and exposure to wild animals are just few of the several procedures adopted by different human groups to deal with the deceased. As the subject of such practices, the body stands at the centre of the funerary ritual as a metaphorical tissue which connects the society of the living and the world of the dead. In this exchange in which the mourners forge their underworld to mirror, translate and re-work their culture and society, and the dead exert an indirect agency over the living, an osmotic relation is established between the two spheres of existence. Further, the extreme malleability of human remains allows the funeral’s participants to bring about meaningful practices that are apt at reconstructing the social order after the traumatic event of death, and at expressing beliefs concerning the afterlife and the destiny of the soul.
This session will explore taboos related to corporality and decay, the interconnectivity between bodies and grave goods and the permanence and ephemerality of corpses, performances and funerary monuments. Papers are invited to investigate different perspectives on ancestrality, the creation of social memory via mortuary behaviour, and the negotiation of relational modes of personhood through the disarticulation and mingling of dead bodies.
The aim of the session is to bring together young researchers and experts from prehistoric and historical archaeology to discuss new theoretical approaches to the study of the body in funerary practices. Scholars from historical archaeology are particularly encouraged to apply in order to illuminate how theoretically-laden frameworks, enriched with the wealth of data and written sources, can be employed to cast further light on bodily practices in the archaeological record.
This session will explore taboos related to corporality and decay, the interconnectivity between bodies and grave goods and the permanence and ephemerality of corpses, performances and funerary monuments. Papers are invited to investigate different perspectives on ancestrality, the creation of social memory via mortuary behaviour, and the negotiation of relational modes of personhood through the disarticulation and mingling of dead bodies.
The aim of the session is to bring together young researchers and experts from prehistoric and historical archaeology to discuss new theoretical approaches to the study of the body in funerary practices. Scholars from historical archaeology are particularly encouraged to apply in order to illuminate how theoretically-laden frameworks, enriched with the wealth of data and written sources, can be employed to cast further light on bodily practices in the archaeological record.
During the last twenty years the anthropology of alcohol consumption has greatly expanded. Almost at the same time, related archaeological research has gained momentum following seminal works by Sherratt and Dietler. Alcohol is now well... more
During the last twenty years the anthropology of alcohol consumption has greatly expanded. Almost at the same time, related archaeological research has gained momentum following seminal works by Sherratt and Dietler. Alcohol is now well understood as a meaningful embodied artefact and a powerful catalyst of socio-political dynamics of change, integration and exclusion. However, we strongly feel that a systematic approach to the role of fermented beverages in past societies is still lacking in many European countries. Previous research on the topic has mainly focused on a narrow range of themes such as colonial encounters, trade, commensality, elite consumption and analysis of drinking implements in terms of origin, typology and diffusion. A
large array of topics already discussed in mainstream anthropological discourse has been left relatively unexplored. Comprehensive methodological and theoretical reflection is partially missing. The aim of this session is to offer a remedy to the pitfalls identified in current archaeological research by exploring the social role of practices of alcohol consumption in Bronze and Iron Age Europe in the more general framework of ritually formalized food practices. Contributors are welcome to engage with topics which include but are not limited to:
- the construction of identity and selfhood via alcohol consumption;
- the role of gender, age, rank, religion and ethnicity in determining people’s approach to the beverage: papers are particularly encouraged to investigate the possible engagement of women, children, non-elite and marginal
individuals to drinking habits;
- the interplay between practices of alcohol and solid food
consumption at the funeral and in other ritual contexts;
- the impact of innovative approaches to the materiality of alcohol production and fruition;
- we also wish to investigate the yet scarce, but sometimes very significant, data derived from scientific residue analysis of containers, in order to insert new material into the debate.
large array of topics already discussed in mainstream anthropological discourse has been left relatively unexplored. Comprehensive methodological and theoretical reflection is partially missing. The aim of this session is to offer a remedy to the pitfalls identified in current archaeological research by exploring the social role of practices of alcohol consumption in Bronze and Iron Age Europe in the more general framework of ritually formalized food practices. Contributors are welcome to engage with topics which include but are not limited to:
- the construction of identity and selfhood via alcohol consumption;
- the role of gender, age, rank, religion and ethnicity in determining people’s approach to the beverage: papers are particularly encouraged to investigate the possible engagement of women, children, non-elite and marginal
individuals to drinking habits;
- the interplay between practices of alcohol and solid food
consumption at the funeral and in other ritual contexts;
- the impact of innovative approaches to the materiality of alcohol production and fruition;
- we also wish to investigate the yet scarce, but sometimes very significant, data derived from scientific residue analysis of containers, in order to insert new material into the debate.
Research Interests:
Poster presentation delivered by M. Saracino, E. Perego, L. Zamboni and V. Zanoni at the Expanding Boundaries Conference, held at the Petrie Museum and UCL Institute of Archaeology on 24-25 October 2014
Research Interests:
Poster presentation given at Expanding Boundaries 2014 Conference, the Petrie Museum & UCL Institute of Archaeology, 24-24 October (with R. Scopacasa)
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
"The present study explores the role of textile in Venetic funerary rituals between the Final Bronze Age and early Roman period (c. 1050 BC - AD 25). Veneto is a region located in north-east Italy where a complex social organisation... more
"The present study explores the role of textile in Venetic funerary rituals between the Final Bronze Age and early Roman period (c. 1050 BC - AD 25).
Veneto is a region located in north-east Italy where a complex social organisation emerged since the beginning of the Iron Age period (approximately 900 BC). There is evidence that during the 1st millennium BC this region was inhabited by an Indo-European population, namely the Veneti mentioned in Graeco-Roman historical sources. Veneto was annexed to the Roman State in the 1st century BC, but Romanisation was a longer and gradual socio-cultural process taking place between the 2nd century BC and the early 1st century AD.
Regular excavations of Venetic tombs started in 1876 and have continued to the present day. In recent years, a greater attention has been paid to the identification and preservation of organic specimens found in the funerary context. In particular, the introduction of sophisticated micro-excavation techniques has permitted the identification of textile in the form of burned fragments, mineralised remains, yarn and even imprints on objects and mud. Overall, the evidence available indicates that textiles were widely used during Venetic funerals for a variety of ritual and practical purposes. For example, the bones of the dead were placed in a shroud or a textile container before their deposition in cremation urns. The use of wrapping the urn with a cloth, or even with a real ‘dress’ adorned with ornaments, has been noticed in several elite graves. This ritual practice seems to indicate that the urn may have been conceived as a symbol of the deceased him/herself, or a surrogate of his/her body. There is also increasing evidence that grave goods were sometimes wrapped in a cloth similarly to cinerary urns.
By analysing a sample of over 400 Venetic cremation graves that have been published between the early 20th century and 2008, this preliminary study is intended to evaluate the informative potential of both recent findings and tombs excavated in the past. Funding is currently sought to carry out a much larger project involving an extensive study of textiles in Iron Age northern Italy.
"
Veneto is a region located in north-east Italy where a complex social organisation emerged since the beginning of the Iron Age period (approximately 900 BC). There is evidence that during the 1st millennium BC this region was inhabited by an Indo-European population, namely the Veneti mentioned in Graeco-Roman historical sources. Veneto was annexed to the Roman State in the 1st century BC, but Romanisation was a longer and gradual socio-cultural process taking place between the 2nd century BC and the early 1st century AD.
Regular excavations of Venetic tombs started in 1876 and have continued to the present day. In recent years, a greater attention has been paid to the identification and preservation of organic specimens found in the funerary context. In particular, the introduction of sophisticated micro-excavation techniques has permitted the identification of textile in the form of burned fragments, mineralised remains, yarn and even imprints on objects and mud. Overall, the evidence available indicates that textiles were widely used during Venetic funerals for a variety of ritual and practical purposes. For example, the bones of the dead were placed in a shroud or a textile container before their deposition in cremation urns. The use of wrapping the urn with a cloth, or even with a real ‘dress’ adorned with ornaments, has been noticed in several elite graves. This ritual practice seems to indicate that the urn may have been conceived as a symbol of the deceased him/herself, or a surrogate of his/her body. There is also increasing evidence that grave goods were sometimes wrapped in a cloth similarly to cinerary urns.
By analysing a sample of over 400 Venetic cremation graves that have been published between the early 20th century and 2008, this preliminary study is intended to evaluate the informative potential of both recent findings and tombs excavated in the past. Funding is currently sought to carry out a much larger project involving an extensive study of textiles in Iron Age northern Italy.
"
"In questo intervento verrà proposta un’analisi preliminare di alcune pratiche funerarie legate al consumo di cibo e bevande alcoliche in Veneto tra l’Età del Bronzo Finale e l’inizio del III secolo a.C. Una particolare enfasi verrà... more
"In questo intervento verrà proposta un’analisi preliminare di alcune pratiche funerarie legate al consumo di cibo e bevande alcoliche in Veneto tra l’Età del Bronzo Finale e l’inizio del III secolo a.C. Una particolare enfasi verrà riservata all’esame degli influssi culturali penetrati in Veneto a seguito del contatto con le popolazioni stanziate in Etruria e nell’area Nordalpina e Centroeuropea. Mostrerò che tali influenze possono essere definite sia in termini di acquisizione di elementi significativi della cultura materiale (importazione e imitazione di vasellame da banchetto), sia in termini di introduzione di specifiche tecniche rituali connesse alla preparazione e alla distribuzione del vino.
Partendo dall’analisi di una serie di corredi datati al X secolo, in cui la ceramica da mensa è rarissima o assente, suggerirò che il rituale funerario del tardo Bronzo Finale non poneva una particolare enfasi sull’esibizione delle suppellettili da banchetto e, possibilmente, sull’ingestione del cibo come rituale collettivo. Un nuovo interesse verso la consumazione di alimenti durante il rito funebre sembra diffondersi nel IX secolo, quando la deposizione di vasellame in associazione all’urna diventa più comune e può riguardare vasi direttamente importati o imitanti modelli mutuati dalle popolazioni confinanti. Il diffondersi di complessi servizi da banchetto nelle tombe emergenti di Este e Padova a partire dall’VIII secolo segnala un’ulteriore evoluzione del costume funerario locale, forse direttamente influenzato dal contatto con le elites Etrusche e Nordalpine, come suggerito dalla presenza di vasellame importato nelle deposizioni qui considerate. Una successiva fase di elaborazione culturale può essere datata a partire dal VI secolo a.C., quando la diffusione di ceramica attica nel Veneto è considerata possibile indizio dell’acquisizione di pratiche simposiache. Una significativa rappresentazione iconografica del banchetto reclinato di ascendenza greco-etrusca è offerta dalla placchetta Este Carceri 48 (prima metà del V secolo a.C.), la cui enfasi sui rituali del versare, tuttavia, non sembra trovare riscontro nel materiale funerario rinvenuto in Veneto. Questo breve excursus verrà concluso dall’analisi della ricchissima deposizione di Nerka Trostiaia, datata alla prima metà del III secolo, dove il rituale funerario adottato segnala una straordinaria sintesi di elementi autoctoni e stranieri."
Partendo dall’analisi di una serie di corredi datati al X secolo, in cui la ceramica da mensa è rarissima o assente, suggerirò che il rituale funerario del tardo Bronzo Finale non poneva una particolare enfasi sull’esibizione delle suppellettili da banchetto e, possibilmente, sull’ingestione del cibo come rituale collettivo. Un nuovo interesse verso la consumazione di alimenti durante il rito funebre sembra diffondersi nel IX secolo, quando la deposizione di vasellame in associazione all’urna diventa più comune e può riguardare vasi direttamente importati o imitanti modelli mutuati dalle popolazioni confinanti. Il diffondersi di complessi servizi da banchetto nelle tombe emergenti di Este e Padova a partire dall’VIII secolo segnala un’ulteriore evoluzione del costume funerario locale, forse direttamente influenzato dal contatto con le elites Etrusche e Nordalpine, come suggerito dalla presenza di vasellame importato nelle deposizioni qui considerate. Una successiva fase di elaborazione culturale può essere datata a partire dal VI secolo a.C., quando la diffusione di ceramica attica nel Veneto è considerata possibile indizio dell’acquisizione di pratiche simposiache. Una significativa rappresentazione iconografica del banchetto reclinato di ascendenza greco-etrusca è offerta dalla placchetta Este Carceri 48 (prima metà del V secolo a.C.), la cui enfasi sui rituali del versare, tuttavia, non sembra trovare riscontro nel materiale funerario rinvenuto in Veneto. Questo breve excursus verrà concluso dall’analisi della ricchissima deposizione di Nerka Trostiaia, datata alla prima metà del III secolo, dove il rituale funerario adottato segnala una straordinaria sintesi di elementi autoctoni e stranieri."
Recent research has demonstrated that wrapping the body of the dead was not an uncommon practice in Iron Age Veneto (Northern Italy). This paper explores the meaning of such practices in Venetic funerary rituals, with a particular... more
Recent research has demonstrated that wrapping the body of the dead was not an uncommon practice in Iron Age Veneto (Northern Italy). This paper explores the meaning of such practices in Venetic funerary rituals, with a particular emphasis on their employment as a means to negotiate the identity of different categories of individuals after death. The presence of textile remains either inside or on the external surface of several cinerary vessels excavated in wealthy cremation graves suggest that the bones and the urn of the elite deceased may have been wrapped in a cloth at the time of the funeral. The discovery of belts, ornaments, brooches and pins on and near many funerary vessels with evidence of wrapping indicates that such urns may have been embellished with a funerary outfit employed to reshape the broken corpse of the elite dead. In this symbolic process from destruction to “rebirth” after death, the boundaries between “object” and “body” were broken and renegotiated to create a hybrid entity composed of both organic substances (the bones) and artefacts (ornaments, urn-vessel and funerary dress). The accurate process of wrapping and interment at the end of the funeral clearly reveals how this hybrid unit was intended to take the place of the real body of the deceased. The presence of a cloth around one or even all the grave goods buried in a few tombs of recent discovery further suggests that a strong similarity was drawn between people and things. Evidence of wrapping has been also identified in the case of some inhumed individuals who were carefully buried after being enveloped in a shroud. Although Venetic inhumation rituals were probably given to individuals of an inferior social status in respect to those granted cremation, burials with wrapping denote care towards the deceased and were sometimes accompanied by grave goods. A different social condition can be suggested for those individuals who were dismembered and interred without any protection, sometimes in anomalous positions (e.g. face down).
Elisa Perego (2013–14) (2014). Ralegh Radford Rome Fellowship: Micro-political approaches to
social inequality: case-studies from first-millennium BC Italy. Papers of the British School at Rome,
82, pp 360-361 doi:10.1017/S0068246214000397
social inequality: case-studies from first-millennium BC Italy. Papers of the British School at Rome,
82, pp 360-361 doi:10.1017/S0068246214000397
Research Interests:
In this contribution, we shall explore the ritual displacement of human remains in selected contexts of Bronze Age and Iron Age northeast Italy. Notably ‘places’ and ‘bodies’ share the aspect of “liminality” and the deposition of human... more
In this contribution, we shall explore the ritual displacement of human remains in selected contexts of Bronze Age and Iron Age northeast Italy. Notably ‘places’ and ‘bodies’ share the aspect of “liminality” and the deposition of human skeletal remains signs crossing places, i.e. significant places which contribute to the ideological and symbolical organization of human space.
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Archaeology, Egyptology, Experimental Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, and 15 moreLandscape Archaeology, Mediterranean prehistory, Egyptian Archaeology, Rock Art (Archaeology), Funerary Archaeology, Archaeological GIS, Neolithic Archaeology, Death and Burial (Archaeology), Ancient Near East, Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt, Mediterranean archaeology, Prehistoric Rock Art, Arcaheological Theory, Predynastic Egypt, and Predynastic Naqada
"Prehistoric and protohistoric disciplines all over the world contribute to create cutting-edge theoretical and scientific approaches to the study of archaeological evidence. The richness and diversity of Egyptian, Nubian and Sudanese... more
"Prehistoric and protohistoric disciplines all over the world contribute to create cutting-edge theoretical and scientific approaches to the study of archaeological evidence. The richness and diversity of Egyptian, Nubian and Sudanese pre- and protohistoric landscapes have indeed stimulated similar debate in these fields, but on what themes and to what extent? How has the Egypto-Nubian contribution to on-going theoretical and scientific debates been welcomed by other prehistoric disciplines?
In order to answer these questions we encourage the participation of both prehistorians of Egypt/Nubia/Sudan and researchers from different backgrounds (e.g. archaeological sciences, Mediterranean, World and Comparative Archaeologies, Anthropology) who share an interest in prehistory and wish to provide theoretical and/or scientific-laden perspectives on research themes common to their disciplines and Egypto/Nubian archaeology.
In particular, alongside papers addressing the state of the discipline, we would like to invite speakers to focus on how the on-going dialogue between science and theory can inform research on cultural interaction and exchange; violence, inequality and social marginality; the rise of social complexity; landscape and body theory in pre- and protohistoric archaeology.
Abstracts of no more than 200 words for a twenty-minute paper should be sent to Veronica Tamorri and Dr Elisa Perego (exbo14@gmail.com) by Monday 14th July 2014. For further information, please contact the conference organisers."
In order to answer these questions we encourage the participation of both prehistorians of Egypt/Nubia/Sudan and researchers from different backgrounds (e.g. archaeological sciences, Mediterranean, World and Comparative Archaeologies, Anthropology) who share an interest in prehistory and wish to provide theoretical and/or scientific-laden perspectives on research themes common to their disciplines and Egypto/Nubian archaeology.
In particular, alongside papers addressing the state of the discipline, we would like to invite speakers to focus on how the on-going dialogue between science and theory can inform research on cultural interaction and exchange; violence, inequality and social marginality; the rise of social complexity; landscape and body theory in pre- and protohistoric archaeology.
Abstracts of no more than 200 words for a twenty-minute paper should be sent to Veronica Tamorri and Dr Elisa Perego (exbo14@gmail.com) by Monday 14th July 2014. For further information, please contact the conference organisers."