The University of Chicago

Outline & Contents

INTRODUCTION

The idea of this one-day conference arises from the convergence of interests in the fields of history and anthropology with respect to national heritage. The conference hosts scholars and graduate students currently researching national heritage and archaeology, as a lens to understanding modern applications of the ancient past in Italy (Magna Graecia, Sicily, Rome, Pre-Roman) and Greece. This colloquium is open to the community, and we welcome our academic colleagues to join our round table discussion at the end of the conference.

CONTEXT & AIMS OF THE CONFERENCE

Archaeology and history played a leading role in the recognition of national identities during the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century. Some have argued that modern states made intentional use of these subjects in the creation of national identities by rediscovering the past, excavating archaeological sites, and increasing museum collections according to programmatic political agendas. Classical antiquities, therefore, were at the core of this process.

Such topics have aroused considerable interest among scholars generating debates and new research. M. Díaz-Andreu (2007), for example, focused on the history of nineteenth-century archaeology and investigated the rise of nationalism and colonialism in Europe. The emergence of national identities, in parallel with the development of archaeology among European states (1800-1950), has been explored by N. De Haan, M. Eickhoff and M. Schwegman (2008).  Recently, scholars have focused on the history of archaeology and the origin of the political identities of specific nations such as Italy (Ceserani 2012; De Francesco 2013) and Greece (Hamilakis 2007).

The scope of this daylong conference is to explore these subjects and shed new light on the issue—especially with regard to Italy and Greece. Both states, which secured their liberation in the nineteenth-century, aimed for the consolidation of national heritage—promoting new excavations, creating state/regional museums, and utilizing the rich resources of ancient sites. Selected case studies will be presented by scholars and graduate students, who will discuss new perspectives on this meaningful aspect of modern European archaeology and the ancient past.

SESSIONS

This conference will include three main sessions, featuring visiting faculty speakers as well as PhD students regarding the archaeologies of Greece, Italy, and Magna Graecia. Two moderators (J. Hall, G. Anderson, & N. Marinatos) will chair sessions in addition to leading a final conference discussion.

Session One centers on Greek heritage and nationalism. Because of differences in evidence, this session will not be regionally specific as in the case with Sessions Two and Three. Primarily, this section will address the process of Greek national homogenization following the War of Independence after 1830 and how it affected various parts of Hellas. Archaeology has had a pervasive role in the recognition of Modern Greek heritage, and this session will address current debates regarding material culture and its influence on ideologies associated with identity. Have antiquities and archaeology produced an active past, or are they used merely as tool for recognizing an already existing identity? Michael Shanks and Christopher Tilley (1987) approached material culture through critical theory and post-structuralism.  This publication encouraged conversations about the role of archaeology and public interaction. Hence, this session will explore questions of Greek modernity and the role of archaeology for the Modern Greek State related to the initial approaches of this publication. How have excavations helped to inform modern conceptualizations of the ancient Greek past?

Session Two focuses on Italy where the capital city played a leading role in the history of Italian archaeology. The city was a center for antiquarian studies before the Italian Unification, of which Bartolomeo Borghesi (1781-1860) was the main representative. After Rome became the capital city of the Kingdom of Italy in 1870, the government focused on safeguarding antiquities and allocated funds for archaeological excavations. How did the Ministry of Public Education spread the concept of national identity on a nationwide scale? Did politicians influence state archaeology acting in Rome? Are modern populations better able to interact with their ancient past because of new technologies available in the field? This session focuses on both Roman and pre-Roman archaeology, in particular.

Session Three seeks to explore the history of archaeology in southern Italian regions (Magna Graecia), which travelers and antiquarians periodically visited performing their Grand Tour to sites such as Paestum, Pompeii, and Segesta. As wholly part of the ancient Magna Graecia and Graeco-Roman Sicily, these areas aroused interests among new professional archaeologists after the Unification. Sicily became the ‘domain’ of Antonino Salinas (1841-1914), Professor of Archaeology at the University of Palermo, who carried out excavations and increased the museum collections. The archaeologist Paolo Orsi (1859-1935) started his career in Sicily, mainly exploring Syracuse and Gela, and then moved to southern Italy, where he put into practice his rigorous method of inventorying and contextualizing finds. Did Salinas and Orsi conform to government policies on national archaeology? Did both archaeologists excavate to consolidate national identity or rather to enhance museum collections and research on unexplored sites? Can we assume that Sicilian archaeology evolved on a strictly regional dimension due to Salinas’ guidelines?

Max Koss, PhD candidate at the University of Chicago and Samuel H. Kress Foundation Provenance Research Fellow, explains how the Kress Foundation’s donation of 21 works to the University of Chicago served as foundation the Smart Museum’s collection and shaped the University’s Art History Department.