The LH IIIC Period in Arcadia and Imports from Southern Italy

Papers from the third international seminar on Ancient Arcadia, held at the Norwegian Institute at Athens, 7-10 May 2002In the last decades the publication of some important Mycenaean cemeteries in Achaea and Elis has revealed the presence of several bronze artefacts which show close affinities with the Late Bronze Age metalworking in the Western Mediterranean. The aim of this paper is to investigate the archaeological evidence related to the LH IIIC period in Arcadia, where some significant data could be connected with the Late Bronze Age of Southern Italy. The archaeological record examined includes a bronze sword from Palaikastro belonging to the much-discussed Naue II category, and a group of violin-bow fibulae and bronze pins, which show strong parallels with the Terramare culture and northern Adriatic metallurgical workshops. Finally, to close this picture of relations beween Arcadia and the Italian peninsula, we can mention the evidence from Punta Meliso (Apulia, Italy), where diagnostic Mycenaean pottery includes a type of belly-handled amphora which was very popular in Achaea and Arcadia during LH IIIB2 and IIIe

LA GRANDE THOLOS DI HAGHIA TRIADA: NUOVI DATI PER UN VECCHIO COMPLESSO

This paper presents the results obtained through a re-assessment of the archaeological record coming from tholos tomb A at Haghia Triada, Crete. The funerary structure was excavated in 1904 by F. Halbherr and E. Stefani, and was published only in 1930 by L. Banti, who showed a selection of the artefacts. The re-assessment has been carried out in two different levels: firstly, the reading of the handbooks of Halbherr and Stefani, provides new data in order to reconstruct the stratigraphical sequence and to propose a most detailed location of each finding. The second level encompasses the analysis of the burial offerings, according to the new proposal of classification suggested for the prepalatial ceramic assemblage of Knossos. It was also possible to re-examine the whole assemblage from tholos A, collected in Greece (Heraklion, Archaeological Museum) and partially in Italy (Rome, Museo Etnografico L. Pigorini). In both collections I was able to identify some artefacts not included in the Banti’s list. The re-investigation of this funerary complex allows me to conclude that tholos A showed a stratigraphical sequence with four different levels (fig. 1). The lower stratum (level 1) included pottery dated to EM IIB, while a specific group of pottery, especially including Fine Grey Ware, could be assigned to EM IIa. This latter evidence arises the question of the chronological, as well as spatial, relationship between tholos A and the nearby houses investigated by C. Laviosa in 1970 at 200 mt. South of the cemetery. The hypothesis is that tholos A was temporary abandoned in the same time when the nearby houses were build, according to the absence of Haghios Onouphrios pottery II among burial offerings found in the tombs. We can date this moment between the EM  IIa and an early stage  of EM IIb. A level containing (level 2) sand and without human bones separated the lower stratum from the subsequent level 3. The interpretation of this level, that represents a gap of the funerary activity in the tomb, seems strictly related to a similar evidence documented in other tholoi in the Mesara Plain, such as Vorou B and Lebena IIa. In all those cases, tholoi were temporary abandoned during the early phase of EM III, suggesting to interpret this evidence as a more wider phenomenon involved Southern Crete. The level 3 represents the reoccupation of the tholos and it includes pottery assemblage of EM III-MM IA The complex of Annexes built to the eastern side of tholos is dated to this period and is was connected to the ritual activities carried out in the necropolis, as the large amount of conical cups found in Room L suggests.The upper stratum (level 1) is related to the latest burial in the tomb and can be dated to MM IB-MM II A. This level is also connected to the construction of the nearby tholos B, that probably was built in order to provide a newly funerary structure, because in the protopalatial period the tholos A was totally full of burials.The collapse of the tomb, probably dated to MM III, transformed tholos A into a large mount and on the top of it an aryballos imitating Corinthian types was deposed at the beginnings of the VIIth B.C., perhaps for ritual purposes

Heinrich Schliemann e l’Italia: storie di archivi, narrazioni di uomini

Il nome di Heinrich Schliemann (Neubukow 1822 – Napoli 1890), disinvolto uomo di affari e visionario cultore di archeologia, continua a restare saldamente legato all’Italia a seguito della tragica morte avvenuta nel capoluogo campano il 27 dicembre 1890. Nonostante la popolarità del personaggio negli ambienti accademici ed intellettuali nazionali, pochi sono a conoscenza che lo studioso tedesco, instancabile viaggiatore, abbia trascorso lunghi soggiorni in Italia tra il 1858 e il 1890. La pr..

The LH IIIC Period in Arcadia and Imports from Southern Italy

In the last decades the publication of some important Mycenaean cemeteries in Achaea and Elis has revealed the presence of several bronze artefacts which show close affinities with the Late Bronze Age metalworking in the Western Mediterranean. The aim of this paper is to investigate the archaeological evidence related to the LH IIIC period in Arcadia, where some significant data could be connected with the Late Bronze Age of Southern Italy. The archaeological record examined includes a bronze sword from Palaikastro belonging to the much-discussed Naue II category, and a group of violin-bow fibulae and bronze pins, which show strong parallels with the Terramare culture and northern Adriatic metallurgical workshops. Finally, to close this picture of relations beween Arcadia and the Italian peninsula, we can mention the evidence from Punta Meliso (Apulia, Italy), where diagnostic Mycenaean pottery includes a type of belly-handled amphora which was very popular in Achaea and Arcadia during LH IIIB2 and IIIe

Sepolture anomale e mutilazioni rituali

L’articolo prende in esame alcuni casi di “sepolture anomale” identificabili archeologicamente in due siti campione della Sicilia centro-orientale, Ciavolaro di Ribera (Agrigento) e Paolina (Ragusa). Entrambi i complessi si riferiscono alla cultura di Castelluccio (2100-1650 a.C. cal.) che rappresenta in Sicilia l’antica età del Bronzo. I due siti, pur nelle diversità dell’azione tafonomica e di architettura funeraria, presentano numerosi elementi in comune sul piano del sistema di manipolazione e selezione delle ossa umane. In entrambi i complessi si registra la presenza di un rituale post deposizionale che prevede la selezione e conservazione di ossa lunghe e crani. Solo nel caso di Paolina si registra una specifica selezione di calotte craniche deposte all’interno di due ambienti costruiti a lastre ortogonali, stanze A e C, forse di tipo ipetrale. Nel più ampio panorama del sistema funerario delle comunità castellucciane, dove per le sepolture ad esse collegate si registra di norma la rimozione successiva dei corpi all’interno del tipo di tomba a grotticella artificiale, i casi di Ciavolaro e Paolina rappresentano un formidabile esempio di regola d’eccezione, verosimilmente collegata a personaggi morti in condizioni particolari (Ciavolaro) o legati simbolicamente a segmenti di rango elevato (Paolina).This paper focuses on some examples of “deviant burials” archaeologically identifiable in two sites of central-eastern Sicily, Ciavolaro near Ribera (Agrigento) and Paolina near Ragusa. Both complexes date back to the Culture of Castelluccio (2100-1650 BC cal.), which represents the Early Bronze Age in Sicily. Despite some differences in the taphonomy and in the funerary architecture, both sites show deep similarities in the ritual action of manipulation and selection of human bones. In both sites, a post-depositional ritual of selection of long bones and skulls is attested. Only at Paolina one can identify a specific selection of skulls stored inside two rooms, A and C, built of orthogonal stones. It is possible, however, that the building was open-air. In the wider picture of the burial rituals of the Castelluccian communities who mostly used multiburial depositions inside rock-cut tombs, Ciavolaro and Paolina both represent a rare example of “exception to the rule”, probably related to individuals dead in singular conditions (Ciavolaro) or symbolically related to high-ranks members of the family (Paolina)

Relazioni tra l'Italia centro-meridionale, la Sicilia e l'area egeo-balcanica durante l'Eneolitico

Gli autori considerano i rapporti tra la Sicilia, l'Italia centro-meridonale e l'area egeo-balcanica durante l'Eneolitic

A Madeleine Cavalier / a cura di Maria Bernabò Brea, Massimo Cultraro, Michel Gras... [et al.]. - Naples : Centre Jean Bérard, 2018 (Collection du Centre Jean Bérard, 49)

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À Madeleine Cavalier

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