Hellenism

Missione Archeologica Unibo ad Agrigento
6 giugno alle ore 9:28 ·
Field School 2018 - Hellenistic painting

The Archaeological and Landscape Park “Valley of the Temples” of Agrigento, in collaboration with the University of Bologna, organizes a Field School on Hellenistic painting which will take place from 3 to 26 October 2018 n the so called Hellenistic-Roman district of the Park, in the housing unit called "Casa III M".

The project includes a theoretical part and a practical part focused on the recovery of collapsed plaster fragments and ...
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Scuola di campo 2018-pittura ellenistica

Il Parco Archeologico e paesaggistico "Valle dei templi" di Agrigento, in collaborazione con l'università di Bologna, organizza una scuola di campo sulla pittura ellenistica che si svolgerà dal 3 al 26 ottobre 2018 n il cosiddetto ellenistico - Distretto Romano del parco, nell'unità abitativa chiamata "Casa III M".

Il progetto comprende una parte teorica e una parte pratica incentrata sul recupero dei frammenti di gesso crollati e sul loro consolidamento in situ.

Per ulteriori informazioni:
Web www.disci.unibo.it, www.parcodeitempli.it
Facebook @QER3BOLOGNA, @parcodeitempli
Instagram @missione_unibo, @valle_dei_templi_agrigento

Oppure CONTATTACI:
pitturaellenisticaqer3@gmail.com

The archaeometric examination of Derveni’s Grave I began in 1995. The tomb was discovered at the site of Derveni in Thessaloniki, during the excavation of the access - dromos to the Macedonian tomb III. The burial monument dates back to the early 3rd century B.C. The rich painting decoration of the tomb is of great interest.There are four zones in the painting decoration: in the lower part there is an imitation of ortho-
marble, whereas the next part is decorated with a yellow ochre paint, followed by a decorative zone, which is a crowned by a doric molding. The main decorative theme comprise of garlands of flowers, which are intermittently interrupted. The most interesting part is the upper zone, where a blue background is present, showing objects which are related to the grooming and the costumes of the buried woman. Herein the previously collected results are revisited and moreover, for the first time, new results related to the decorative features of the tomb are presented. Initially the following techniques were used: polarizing microscopy, optical emission spectroscopy (OEA) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). In the second step of the study, the following methods were employed: Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) in conjunction with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), Χ-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and FTIR spectroscopy. The distinctive architecture of the tomb is associated
with the two different architectural bases of frescoes. The stone of the masonry is calcareous sandstone with its main components: quartz, feldspars and calcite. In the upper zone, the masonry is covered by lime
mortars, coarse grains and fine grains. In the lower zone on the clay basis, the mortar with a high content of lime and clayish material is first applied, followed by the fine-grained lime mortar.The lime-clayish mortar with the coarse-grained aggregates of the lower zone was produced by adding quartz sand and clay materials to the lime, in a possible
ratio of 2:1:1.5.The lime mortar with the coarse-grained aggregates
of the upper zone was produced by adding quartz sand and crushed marble to the lime, in a ratio of lime: aggregates (inert) 1:2. In contrast to the internal coarse-grained mortars, the supernatant fine mortars of both zones are of the same nature, namely lime, but with different qualitative
and quantitative compositions. We therefore conclude that fine mortars were made of different batches of lime and not at the same time. In the fine mortars, the inert material was marble powder.The important pigments of the painting are: Cyan is Egyptian blue, in the composition of which cuprorivaite crystals were found along with glassy material. Yellow pigment is yellow ochre of the mineral goethite, dark red is hematite, bright red is cinnabar and bright green is malachite.The painting technique which was  Iplied in the tomb is «fresco a’secco» using lime as binder. In the multilayer layers, and to depict the growth of the shadow, it is likely that an organic binder was used. The brown sample used for luminescence modeling was studied using FTIR spectroscopy. Proteinaceous material was detected in the sample, which may be related to the use of an organic adhesive material.

Mount Alburchia (969,8 m high), a well recognizable relief in the southern sourroundings of the town of Gangi, was probably inhabited from archaic to the Late Antique (IV-V AD). To this later settlement are referred the stone walls and the finds unearthed by Vincenzo Tusa's excavations on the Mount, in 1958. There are two necropolis, one of them used in the period between the Classical and the Archaic Age (VII-V BC), while the other of the Hellenistic period (IV-III BC). The latter, located along a path from “case Salerno” to the Mount, was probably connected to the cult of the deads as heroes, inside niches carved the rock (aediculae), some monumental, located on the northern steep slop of Mount Alburchia. All of them were completely unearthed during the excavation campain carried on, between 2014 and 2015, from the Soprintendenza BB.CC.AA. of Palermo, in collaboration with Santo Ferraro. This sacred complex near Gangi, frequented during Hellenistic and Roman period, has several direct comparisons with several other Sicilian sites.

The paper surveys a corpus of Babylonian Cuneiform texts from the Hellenistic period by priestly authors associated with the temple of Marduk in Babylon. In the context of this literature, the Babylon priesthood engaged in an imaginative, literary (re‑)construction of their past and of their role in the present and the future,
in response to the new political situation in which they found themselves after the fall of the Persian empire. Excluded from the center of political
power, they found themselves in a difficult socioeconomic setting, but they also perceived new possibilities and perhaps new threats and challenges on the horizon owing to the new Greco-Macedonian regime. The historical-literary component of this literature has a particular interest in transitional phases (the Late Kassite period, the transition from Assyrian to Neo-Babylonian rule, the fall of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty), in the impact of foreign rule, and in the space for agency that this leaves for priests.
By exploring priestly agency vis-à-vis the figure of the king – whether the
traditional native ideal king, the new reality of a foreign king, or the absence of any king – priestly écriture pursued a group-internal objective: increasing selfesteem and self-awareness through emphasis on priestly competences, priestly achievements, and priestly exceptionality. The divine origin of cuneiform culture and erudition was construed here as the principal pillar on which priestly self-esteem rested. LBPL furthermore addressed foreign elites by offering them
insights into the nature of the priesthood and its competences, and by presenting models – positive and negative – for an interaction that would grant priests the role to which they aspired and allow the new elites to claim legitimacy on native Babylonian terms.
In conclusion, the paper argues that these Babylonian priestly writings offer an illustrative parallel case (mutatis mutandis) to Biblical 'Priesterschriften'.