Iron Age Mediterranean

The arrival of the Greeks in Campania is regarded as a key event in archaic history. Permanent settlement was preceded by periods of furtive trade and exchange under the term pre-colonization. The establishment of Pithekoussai on Ischia followed by a move to the mainland at Cuma is explained as marking a change from ‘pre-‘ to full colonial status. This expansion to the mainland was motivated by the lack of an agricultural chora at Pithekoussai leading to interactions with local groups on the mainland in order to procure food (Cerchiai 2010, 1995). Amongst these sites was pre-hellenic Cuma.
This indigenous settlement plays an important role within the narrative constructed for ancient Campania. The indigenous sites of Campania have been placed on a hierarchy of development, with pre-hellenic Cuma at the top, deemed to be more advanced than its contemporaries (Cerchiai 2010, D’Agostino 2008). This rests largely on its geographic location opposite Ischia and later status as a Greek colony rather than obvious technological superiority. Euboian Greeks are portrayed as taking control of this hilltop settlement through a violent and forceful push from Ischia (D’Agostino, 2006). This is based on ancient literary accounts which are much later in date and far from clear.

The physical evidence for this is further questionable. A lacuna between the pre-hellenic and Greek graves and a destruction level postulated for one side of the acropolis sustained the hypothesis of the indigenous settlement being wiped out and replaced by the Greek colony. New ceramic evidence from the necropolis and a domestic context suggests instead that when Cuma was founded Greeks and indigenes were living side-by-side (Greco and Mermati, 2010). The destruction level now appears the result of a later change in the Roman period that muddled the stratigraphy.

The picture of a settlement “born from a show of strength by the Greeks at the expense of the indigenous Opician inhabitants” (D’Agostino, 2008) can now no longer be sustained. A more complex picture thus requires a more nuanced interpretation. This paper will re-examine the establishment of Cuma in the wake of the new approaches to the Mediterranean (Malkin, 2011, Riva 2010, Hodos 2009, 2010, Horden and Purcell, 2000). Central to this will be a focus on networks, particularly the model of strong and weak ties (Granovetter, 1973, 1983). This paper proposes that rather than an act of violence, ties between elites enabled the formation of mixed communities and mixed cultures, and through the establishment of weak ties new opportunities were made available to both Greeks and indigenes alike.

Location: Contextualising “early Colonisation”: Archaeology, Sources, Chronology and interpretative models between Italy and the Mediterranean In memory of David Ridgway (1938-2012) Rome, Valle Giulia Academia Belgica, Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut, British School at Rome June, 21-23 2012

More Info: http://www.academiabelgica.it.cloud.seeweb.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=234&Itemid=154&lang=it

Event Date: Jun 23, 2012

Conference End Date: Jun 23, 2012

Conference Start Date: Jun 21, 2012

Abstract:
This paper addresses some aspects of ritualized commensality in the early stages of the Iron Age in Middle-Tyrrhenian Italy, by focusing on the variable configurations shown by the material culture linked to the consumption of alcohol or other elaborate beverages. Point of departure is the recognition of the political importance of commensality (either having at its centre alcoholic beverages or food) for most complex societies, as stressed by authors like A. Sherratt, M. Dietler and B. Arnold. A strong emphasis on drinking practices and secondarily on meat consumption is seen especially from the rich burial record of Etruria and the nearby region of Latium vetus, with a particular emergence of this phenomenon in the second phase of the EIA in South Etruria. Contrary to the common assumption that links sets of vases for consuming/serving alcohol mainly to the aristocratic warrior ethos, there appears a diversified distribution of drinking assemblages in graves belonging to both genders and to a wider range of social positions. The lavishness of many elite burials richly furnished with metal drinking equipments, both male and female, will be contrasted with the occurrence of many non-elite, or ‘sub-elite’ burials provided with specific classes of exotic ceramics or isolated bronze vessels for consuming liquids. Thus the possible existence of distinct levels of consumption of wine, expressed through the adoption of different kinds of material culture linked to specific rules of drinking etiquette, will be discussed.

EXTENDED CALL FOR PAPERS - 19th OF MAY

The University of Bradford is proud to host the 20th Iron Age Student Research Symposium (IARSS). The symposium will be held between the 31st of May and the 2nd of June, with papers, posters and presentations, followed by a guided visit to the Hull Museum on the 3rd of June.
IARSS is a research student focused conference, providing an opportunity for students to share their work, network and collaborate with others. This event is open for contributions from postgraduate research students and new researchers, however, Master students are also welcome to submit and participate in the conference. Although IARSS is promoted as an Iron Age conference, contributions from colleagues studying or working within related periods, such as the Late Bronze Age and Roman Iron Age are also welcome. IARSS has traditionally focused on Iron Age Britain, however we welcome contributions from those colleagues examining the Iron Age elsewhere in the world, including, but not limited to, Ireland, the European continent and the Near East.

For colleagues interested in participating, please submit an abstract between c.250-300 words and 5 keywords related to your research. Presentations should be 15-20 minutes long and in English. Posters may be bilingual but they must be understandable to English speakers and an abstract in English must be provided.

Abstracts should be sent to:
iarss2017@gmail.com until the 19th of May.

Resumo: A emergência de uma reflexão crítica sobre as Identidades de Género na prática arqueológica e no discurso sobre o Passado é um facto relativamente recente. Não obstante, a Arqueologia Feminista e a Arqueologia de Género têm já uma interessante e complexa história disciplinar, que ecoa os debates sobre a condição da Mulher, o Género e a Sexualidade no campo mais vasto das Ciências Sociais. No presente trabalho procuraremos em primeiro lugar contextualizar a Arqueologia Feminista e a Arqueologia de Género nesses debates mais amplos, expondo em seguida muito brevemente as principais linhas de força da evolução desses corpos teóricos dos anos ’80 ao presente. Finalmente, procurar-se-á apresentar em traços largos o potencial da Arqueologia de Género para a análise de uma realidade arqueológica concreta: a Idade do Ferro Orientalizante.

Palavras-chave: Identidades; Feminismo; Arqueologia de Género; Agenda; Idade do Ferro Orientalizante

Abstract: The emergence of a critical reflexion about Gender Identities in the archaeological practice and in the discourse about the Past is a fairly recent development. None the less, Feminist Archaeology and Gender Archaeology have already an interesting and complex disciplinary history, one which echoes the debate about the condition of Woman, Gender and Sexuality in the broader field of the Social Sciences. In this paper we attempt in the first place to contextualize Feminist and Gender Archaeology in those broader debates, presenting afterwards in a brief way the main lines of the evolution of those theoretical bodies from the 1980’s up to the present. Finally, we will attempt to establish in broad terms the potential of Gender Archaeology to the analysis of a concrete archaeological reality: the Orientalizing Iron Age.

Key words: Identities; Feminism; Gender Archaeology; Agenda; Orientalizing Iron Age

Résumé
Dans le cadre de la fouille du grand habitat du Bronze final et du premier âge du Fer de Cuciurpula, situé dans les montagnes du sud de la Corse, une prospection menée en 2011 dans un secteur encore inexploré a permis la découverte, en surface, d’un ensemble de onze vases céramiques. La mise en évidence des procédés de fabrication et l’étude des formes montrent une chronologie homogène, centrée vers le IVe siècle av. J.-C., soit la première partie du second âge du Fer. L’existence de ce lot pose la question de sa fonction, d’autant que sa mise en place succède d’au moins un siècle à l’abandon du village. Replacée dans le contexte culturel du sud de la Corse, l’analyse des techniques de finition et de décoration documentent certains traits particuliers assez révélateurs des évolutions stylistiques à l’œuvre dans cette partie de l’île à cette époque, notamment caractérisées par l’abandon progressif des registres ornementaux en « grains de riz » au profit d’ornementations et surfaçages réalisés au pinceau ou au peigne.

Riassunto
Cuciurpula, situato nelle montagne del sud della Corsica, si inserisce nel contesto dei grandi abitati del Bronzo Finale e della prima Età del Ferro. Un’indagine condotta del 2011 in un settore ancora inesplorato, ha portato alla luce undici vasi ceramici. Lo studio della tecnica di realizzazione e dello forme ha messo in evidenza una cronologia omogenea incentrata sul IV secolo a.C., ovvero la prima parte della seconda Età del Ferro. Ci si interroga sulla funzione di questi reperti soprattutto perché sono posteriori di circa un secolo all’abbandono dell’abitato. Contestualizzandoli nel quadro culturale della Corsica meridionale e analizzando le tecniche stilistiche, si nota il progressivo abbandono del registro decorativo a “grana di riso” mentre comparono decorazioni e trattamenti  superficiali realizzati con pennello o a pettine.

The Tyrrhenian Sea appears as a geographically well defined space, enclosed within the Italian coasts and the big islands. During the Proto-historic Age, therefore, this is the scenery of development for a mosaic of cultures whose some will produce the under-layer of great ancient civilizations. With the setting of the cultural, commercial and colonial nets, of archaic and then classic periods, native and far-away peoples here give their contribution to the building up of new complex identities, although joined together thanks to the shared vector of the navigations and of the exchanges. Their cohabitation on a territory more and more reduced by the economic tensions and by the early will of predominance, at the origin of the first international conflicts in the Western Mediterranean Sea, will arrive therefore very often to some worthy forms of syncretism and of melting, voluntary or forced ones. Therefore, Ligurians, Etruscans and other peoples of the Pre-Roman Italy, Sicilians, Sardinians, Corses, but also Greeks and Punicians have given a contribute, after a balance concept, continuously put under discussion, into writing almost four centuries of small or big stories, up to the arrival of the Roman world.
The aim of the international day of studies FERTIGE13 (acronym of Iron –Age-, Tyrrhenian –Sea-, Genoa 2013) is to make dynamic the net of the young researchers, gathering about a dozen of PhD students and PhD doctors (up to five years since the end of the PhD), from different nations, who deal subjects concerning the space and the chronology in this way defined for the meeting, with a special remark for the inter-disciplinary approaches. The lecturers will be invited to present some papers related to this subject, pointing out the setting within a context on an inter-regional scale and focusing on the concerned methods, in the optic to compare at the best the nowadays dynamics of research among the different institutions.

This workshop will be kept on Thursday the 5th of December 2013 at the University of Genoa (University of the Studies of Genoa, via Balbi 2, 16126 Genoa). The papers will be in Italian, French or English; they will last 20 minutes and they will be followed by 10 minutes of discussion.

A summary of about 300 words with the presentation of title and of the content of the paper, as well as the affiliation and statute remarks of the lecturer (or lecturers), jointly to a CV summarized in an A4, will have to be sent within the 15th of September 2013 to the organizing committee:

Eliana PICCARDI
Doctorant, Università degli Studi di Genova, Université d’Aix/Marseille I
elianapiccardi@gmail.com
and
Kewin PECHE-QUILICHINI
Chercheur associé, LAMPEA, Université Aix-Marseille I, LRA Corse
bainzu.di.baiucheddu@voila.fr

The summary will be submitted to the scientific board of the workshop who will examine every proposal in sight of the acceptation or not, and will communicate it within the 15th of October 2013.