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The cities and cemeteries of Etruria: in two volumes
... In addition to the handbooks and 'souvenirs', another feature of a visit to an archaeological site in Italy was the guidebook. In the case of Etruscan archaeology, we find some information in a volume that falls somewhere between a travel book and a specialized corpus published by explorer George Dennis (1848), The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, where we can read the following recommendation: ...
The early decades of the nineteenth century saw the changeover from the Grand Tour to tourism. In this conversion, antiquities retained their position of relevance as they continued to be a major interest for those first tourists traveling for leisure. The shift from the Grand Tour to tourism took place in the context of a series of political, social and technological changes marking the transition from the Ancient Regime to the modern world of nation-states. Ideologically, the most important rupture came with the emergence of nationalism and its quintessential concern for the nation. One of the key elements in the definition of a nation was – and still is – its history. The crucial role of history and its icons led to the creation of an institutional infrastructure that would become essential for the development of archaeological tourism. Professionals and the general public perceived ancient monuments as patriotic symbols of the national past and explicitly expressed this in paintings, literature, newspaper articles and many other media such as leisure. This chapter will explore the first years of tourist guidebooks as a new mass industry, the appearance of a touristic interest towards medieval sites, and the birth of the tourist travel agency. Tourist destinations especially highlighted in this period included not only Italy but also Egypt.
... Their project resulted with the books Analisi storico-topografico-antiquaria della carta de dintorni di Roma (Nibby 1837) and The Topography of Rome and Its Vicinity (Gell 1846). These volumes were closely followed by The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria (Dennis 1848), although the latter was considered to be an antiquarian travel guide. ...
A ‘site’ is one of the key concepts in archaeology, and is not
specific to central Italian archaeology. Archaeologists have tried to define what
constitutes a site and how it can be measured. One definition of a site is ‘as places
where significant traces of human activity are identified’ (Renfrew andamp; Bahn 1994:
42). Essentially, a ‘site’ has to be distinguished from a ‘non-site’ and the boundary
between the two has to be drawn (Carman 1999). These definitions made in the field are
archaeological decisions, not observations (Dunnell and Dancey 1983). Our practice is a
pragmatic act of constructing boundaries on the basis of the density of finds and/or
features. The definition of a specific site is subject to evaluation of the
archaeological criteria used to define it. However, it is clear that the concepts behind
those criteria have changed over time. In central Italian archaeology, the scholars have
moved from the topographical archaeology of the 19th century to the GIS-assisted
landscape studies of the 21st century and their definitions have evolved similarly.
Central Italy is relevant as an example since Italian studies have contributed
fundamentally to the developments in field archaeology.
... (Borza 1990: 72) has reaffirmed that in the Bronze Age 'the dwellers of Macedonia continued to live in scattered unwalled villages, content-as far as we know-to exploit on a local level the rich natural resources of their hills and plain'. 2. See also G. Dennis (1878), quoted in Schliemann (1880: 279): 'A people may modify, develop, perfect, but can never utterly cast aside its own arts and industry, because in such a case it would deny its own individuality'; and, with regard to 'strongly pronounced discrepancies' in styles of art: 'it is not enough to attribute such diversities to a difference of age, or stage of culture; we can only ascribe them to different races'. 3. Thessaly was in fact at the time spoken of in terms that would be later applied to Macedo-Imagining Macedonia in Prehistory, ca. ...
My subject is the peculiar reputation Macedonia acquired in the discipline of Aegean prehistory. The province, I observe, came to be regarded as not simply deficient by comparison with that discipline's core provinces (mainly in the south of Greece), but as their very antithesis, their 'Other'. This happened as soon as prehistoric research in Macedonia began, in the early decades of the 20th century. I turn, therefore, to the prehistorians' texts from that period, and try to document the tropes in which Macedonia's alterity was cast. I also trace the epistemic effects of those tropes, the research questions they engendered and the limits to knowledge they prescribed. I also try to historicize the development of Macedonia's alterity by placing it in the context of early 20th-century disciplinary premises and quests.
... Some of them are made of rock blocks of remarkable size (see Fig. 3 (a)), whose surface was originally coated with plaster painted with bright colours (Colonna Di Paolo and Colonna 1978;Di Grazia 1978). An entire chapter of the Cities and cemeteries of Etruria was dedicated by George Dennis (1848) to this necropolis, and the description complemented with paintings made by Samuel Ainsley, which can still be seen at the British Museum (Colonna Di Paolo and Colonna 1978). An idea of the original splendour of this archaeological site can be obtained from reconstructions made by James Guerney for a review on Etruscan civilization (Gore et al. 1988). ...
The geochemical and engineering geological properties of the tuffs used in the rock-cut cliff tombs of the Etruscan necropolis of Norchia were investigated to evaluate their susceptibility to different weathering agents and confirm their origin. For the first time, materials were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT–IR), thermogravimetric analyses (TGA, DGA and DTG), scanning electron microscopy (SEM–EDS) and energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED–XRF), and their different origins confirmed. Tests of material properties indicate that both tuffs are poorly durable, but one of them is less susceptible to weathering. Although tombs made with the more resistant material show limited surface weathering, they undergo severe structural damage because of stress release and plant root infiltration. This, combined with the microclimatic conditions established inside river canyons, can trigger rock falls, leading ultimately to the complete destruction of these tombs.
ABSTRACT. The publication contains a new translation of Sappho's "Hymn to Aphrodite"
(Sapph. Fr. 1) into Russian. The translation is based on the latest papyrological discoveries,
and a recent edition of songs and fragments of Sappho, published by Camillo Neri
and Frederico Cinti (2017). Translation is accompanied by a comprehensive scientific
commentary.
KEYWORDS: Poetry of Sappho; “Hymn to Aphrodite”; Sappho’s erotic poetry, the cult of
Afrodite in Ancient Greece.
It could be said with some precision, that in Antiquity the myth of the Argonauts and especially of Medea herself as a personage of this myth, has enjoyed popularity not only in Greece but also outside its territories. The first among the Italic tribes to be introduced to the personage of Medea no doubt were the Etruscans, who were the first to establish intensive contacts with the Greeks from Euboea founding a colony in Cumae, Italy. It is noteworthy that the first image of Medea in the World Art is seen on Etruscan ceramics. The paper gives detailed analyses of Etruscan olpe and other artefacts on which Medea early appears, providing a solid precondition for substantive conclusions. Some new versions of an interpretation expressed in relation to each of the artefacts on the basis of critical analysis of Etruscan archeological material, of classical texts and of previously undertaken modern research, are provided. Images of Medea in Etruscan art confirmed from the Orientalist era to the Hellenization period represent an original, local interpretation of Medea's image. Medea's magical art turned out to be familiar to the Etruscans, who were well known all throughout the Mediterranean for divination and being experts of magic. In contrast to the Greeks, they turned Medea into an object of cult worship, identifying her with the Etruscan sun god Cavatha.
Key words: Medea, Argonauts, Etruscan Art, Cavatha
The Etruscans, ancient people of pre-Roman Italy, have been the subject of lively discussions among both scholars and disseminators of popular pseudo-scientific theories from the late Humanistic age, an interest and popularity that reached a crescendo in the 18th to 20th centuries. This paper aims to explore the ideological features of the foundation of the highly specialized but often self-referential discipline, the so-called “Etruscology” that finally developed in the 20th century, with particular reference to the complicated connections between the very Italian territorial context of Etruscan civilization and the European dimension of its reception and popularization.
ETRVSCA Sans - The Primal 18th Century Sans.
This practice-based historical research identifies the architect John Soane’s inspiration and model for his serif-less letterforms deployed as titling on drawings and as proposed inscriptions throughout the last quarter of the eighteen century. This typography revived the primitive letterforms of Republican Rome and earlier pre-roman serif-less alphabets of the Etruscans and the Greeks.
Archival material, period books and antique print engravings were studied to provide the platform to revive a typeface that is fully representative of eighteenth-century serif-less letterforms used to represent both the neoclassical and the ‘antique'.
An increasing rationalist ideology for architecture focused upon the precedents of the Roman form from the 1740s. This ‘primitivism’ concentrates on the originality of Greek architecture as opposed to theories of an Etruscan origin that scholars have proffered since the late seventeenth century. This academic argument resulted in Giovanni Battista Piranesi visually ‘demonstrating’ that a Roman sensibility for serifs were added to the Etruscan letterform – in an attempt to re-exert his architectural ethos and maintain the dominance of Italian classicism since the Renaissance.
In 1756 Piranesi completed the final plates of Le Antichità Romane to counter the growing argument of a Greek origin. Plate 25 Fig.1, plate 41 Fig.2-3, and the initial N to the section: ‘Explanation to the Aqueducts’ – all present a near mono-line and geometrical letterform without serifs. A capital ‘Etruscan E’ is highlighted on (Fig.3) the Plan of Nero's Nymphaeum with the addition of component serifs indicating the true source of the Roman letter.
This politicised debate continued, through the 1760s and 70s, producing a number of important engravings depicting letterforms from antiquity. These provided the source material for the revival of a primal eighteenth-century serif-less (Sans-serif) letterform, presented within the production of type specimens, an informative historical timeline, and a new typeface font – ‘ETRVSCA Sans’. Presented in production, at the annual international conference on type design: ATypI18 Type Legacies, in Antwerp – these type specimens make a pivotal contribution to type design evolution and the origin of sans serif modernist typography. This research was submitted within a Portfolio to the REF21.
ARRO: https://arro.anglia.ac.uk/view/creators/Melton%3D3AJon%3D3A%3D3A.html
Figshare: https://aru.figshare.com/articles/software/ETRVSCA_Sans_-_Font_Typeface_and_Type_Specimens/9772232
Researcher’s Website: http://emfoundry.com
It could be said with some precision, that in Antiquity the myth of the Argonauts and especially of Medea herself as a personage of this myth, has enjoyed popularity not only in Greece but also outside its territories. The first among the Italic tribes to be introduced to the personage of Medea no doubt were the Etruscans, who were the first to establish intensive contacts with the Greeks from Euboea founding a colony in Cumae, Italy. It is noteworthy that the first image of Medea in the World Art is seen on Etruscan ceramics. The paper gives detailed analyses of Etruscan artefacts on which Medea appears, providing a solid precondition for substantive conclusions. Some new versions of an interpretation expressed in relation to each of the artefacts on the basis of critical analysis of Etruscan archeological material, of classical texts and of previously undertaken modern research, are provided. Images of Medea in Etruscan art confirmed from the Orientalist era to the Hellenization period represent an original, local interpretation of Medea's image. Medea's magical art turned out to be familiar to the Etruscans, who were well known all throughout the Mediterranean for divination and being experts of magic. In contrast to the Greeks, they turned Medea into an object of cult worship, identifying her with the Etruscan sun god Cavatha.
This book is the first comprehensive study of malaria in ancient Italy since the research of the distinguished Italian malariologist, Angelo Celli, in the early 20th century. It demonstrates the importance of disease patterns in understanding ancient human demography. It argues that malaria became prevalent in Roman times in central Italy as a result of environmental changes, such as deforestation and the spread of certain types of mosquitoes. Using contemporary sources and comparative material from other periods, it is suggested that malaria had a significant effect on mortality rates in certain regions of Roman Italy. All the important advances made in many relevant fields since Celli’s time are incorporated. These include geomorphological research on the development of the coastal environments of Italy that were notorious for malaria in the past; biomolecular research on the evolution of malaria; ancient biomolecules as a new source of evidence for palaeodisease; the differentiation of mosquito species that permits understanding of the phenomenon of anophelism without malaria; and recent medical research on the interactions between malaria and other diseases. In addition to its medical and demographic effects, the social and economic effects of malaria are also considered, for example on settlement patterns and agricultural systems. The varied human responses to and interpretations of malaria in antiquity, ranging from the attempts at rational understanding made by the Hippocratic authors and Galen to the demons described in the magical papyri, are also examined.
The dissertation examines the evolution of the National Archaeological Museums from the time of the unification of Italy in 1861 to its 50th anniversary in 1911. The four national archaeological museums of Naples, Turin, Florence and Rome form the subject of this research. They reflect in compressed form a conceptual change in the museums of antiquity: from a manorial collection to a collection based mainly on excavation finds. The work is divided into the following three aspects: (1) the administrative standardisation of museums, (2) the public perception and conveyance of ancient art in Italy, and (3) the presentation and conveyance of ancient art in the exhibition space. The work comes to the following conclusions: (1) In the search for a national identity, the interest of the young kingdom is primarily directed towards its own ancient cultural assets. For their protection and communication, special management and administrative structures are set up. National archaeological museums are given an explicit research mandate. (2) The history of reception of the Etruscans in the 19th century plays a special role, insofar as Etruscan Style elements have already been integrated into the stately representation under the Savoyen house. Additionally, contemporary newspaper reports and European travel literature (Baedeker, Murray and Hachette) demonstrate a continuous perception and awareness of Etruscan achievements. (3) The provenance of the exhibits becomes the decisive criterion for stock formation, determines their arrangement in the exhibition space and becomes the theme of the presentation. Finally, cultural policy development results retrospectively from the situation of the imperial capital. The emphasis on the prestige of the Etruscan continues as long as Turin and then Florence were the seat of government. With Rome as the capital, the positive image of the Etruscan is increasingly replaced by that of the Roman. Instead of overcoming the continual connotation of Rome in Europe as the ‘eternal city’ and symbol of the Roman empire, it is even stronger pronounced on the occasion of Italy’s 50th anniversary. The Roman becomes the instrument of nationalism and later of fascism.
Sketches of Etruscan Places is especially important among D. H. Lawrence’s later works not only because it is the work that completes the image of a restless, indefatigable traveler looking for a new gospel in old cultures and in faraway countries, but also because it offers stimulating and surprisingly modern reflections on the relationship between dominant and subordinate cultures.For centuries historians, archaeologists, linguists and scholars had tried to penetrate the mystery of the Etruscans in order to explain their origin, interpret their symbols and read their language. Lawrence attempted to give his own interpretation of that ancient mysterious world as he viewed the Etruscans as the symbol of a lost vitality. His interpretation of this lost civilization insists on the “manipulation of cultural heritage,” which anticipates ideas expressed by Ronald Barthes in Mythologies (1957). As a result, Lawrence undermines traditional views of Etruscan civilization as vassal to Greek and Roman civilization and defends its individuality. Finally, Lawrence anticipates post-colonial ideas by deconstructing the centrality of the Western historical and cultural system of values and reconstructing, although partially, the non-canonical multiplicity of ethnic separateness.
Despite renewed interest in the field of malaria in history, and especially in the ancient world, there is still a dearth of material dealing with the subject. One of the reasons behind this scarcity is the comparatively recent discovery of the causes of malaria and its transmission, compounded by the lack of ancient historians or classicists with medical training. Because of this, the early years in this field (from the turn of the twentieth century until the Second World War) produced some scholarship of doubtful accuracy (e.g. counting every instance of ‘plague’, ‘fever’, ‘epidemic’ as malaria, for which Jones and Celli were at fault). Some of the ancient writers on medical topics are also comparatively difficult to find, especially in complete English translations, such as Galen and Serenus; hence they are difficult to access for those with the requisite medical knowledge but lacking a background in Classics (or indeed, vice-versa, in terms of linking symptoms with diseases).
This thesis aims to address a number of issues which relate to the disease now commonly referred to as malaria within the Roman world (with an emphasis on the periods of the Republic and the Principate, dependent on primary sources), such as how people understood the disease, how they tried to avoid becoming infected with it, what its effects were upon daily life and the army, and how it was both diagnosed and treated. Although there exists a large corpus of modern medical literature treating the disease (with regard to recent times), and there are likewise historic–epidemiological and –ecological surveys (such as Sallares), much modern literature focusses upon ancient Roman medicine in a general sense. Modern medical literature fails to specifically address the issues with a historicising approach, taking into account at the same time both Latin texts and contemporary medical thought, as this thesis aims to do. This dissertation is not concerned with the various theories and debates surrounding the existence of certain malaria parasites in the period under question, nor so much with debates over the geographical distribution of the disease. This is partly due to the paucity of ancient source material linking the incidence of disease with specific geographical locations; ‘medical’ authors (e.g. Celsus, Pliny) often deal with disease detached from context, and ‘historical’ authors (e.g. Tacitus, Caesar) do not usually deal with problems from a medical viewpoint.
The ancient Tuscan town of Saturnia is both witness and custodian of a long sedimentation of history: a rich archaeological heritage is present in a very noticeable way even in its historical center and in the architectural remains and archaeological finds which have “decorated” the whole town in a spontaneous way; the Saturnia Museum project is dedicated to the musealisation of this important heritage of the town’s historical center.
Special section A celebration of 1848 - Volume 72 Issue 278 - Simon Stoddart
George Dennis’ The cities and cemeteries of Etruria , a massive two-volume work of over 1000 pages, was published towards the end of 1848, the British Museum’s copy (now the British Library’s) being received on 18 January 1849. It was quickly acclaimed as a literary and archaeological masterpiece (Rhodes 1973: 52–5; Pallottino 1955: 126, n. 1), which brought the then little-known Etruscans to life in the most vivid of ways. The fruit, in Dennis’ word, of extensive travelling in Etruria between 1842 and 1847, and of much work in the libraries of, in particular, Rome, it remains 150 years later an indispensable topographical source. Indeed, a 2nd, revised, edition appeared in 1878 (reprinted in 1883, but misleadingly entitled a 3rd edition), and a further version of the 1848 volume was published in J.M. Dent’s highly regarded ‘Everyman’ series in 1907.
Attic vases were imported to Etruria in large numbers during the Archaic period (650–450 B. C. E.). A large corpus of decorative imagery has been scrupulously recorded in great detail, presenting a contrast with the antiquarian excavation methods which unearthed them. This article considers a corpus of imported ceramic vessels excavated at Chiusi, Tarquinia and Vulci to explore the presence of different characters and themes in Greek mythology within Etruria, examining the popularity of particular mythological motifs and images. These are then compared with a subsidiary corpus of comparable date from the Athenian Agora. The results of the analysis are interpreted to suggest that Etruscan consumers were deliberately acquiring iconographic content that related to indigenous Italian mythologies, values and ideals. The analysis proposes that the reception of imported mythology reflects themes of consequence in Etruscan mythology, closely related to the context of the use of these vessels in both feasts and funerals.
This chapter focuses on archaeology of the Etruscans, which occasionally provides us with potential means of discerning human conditions through physical studies of skeletal materials, and through circumstantial evidence for health and nutrition in early Etruria. It considers the extant categories of potential evidence for Etruscan obesity and related health conditions by focusing on anthropological data from burials, funerary and votive portraiture, and epigraphic statements on the identity of affluent Etruscans. While certain Etruscan noblemen and women probably were corpulent, the phenomenon more likely represents an artifact of the materials and techniques of Etruscan sculptors and coroplasts. The later fourth and early third centuries BCE saw the creation by skilled artists of masterpieces in stone for funerary use, obviously the result of specially described commissions from noble families. Painted funerary portraiture of the late fourth century BCE does include some special examples of realistic details of figure or physiognomy.
Many different terms are used to describe ancient objects. This chapter first defines them as artifacts or antiquities from the pre-Roman period in central Italy roughly corresponding to the dates 900 to 300 BCE. It then considers the other pre-Roman Italic cultures of central Italy, such as the Villanovans and Faliscans. Countries protect cultural property through strategies that address both the demand for antiquities and the sources of antiquities. This layered approach to regulation is necessary in order to preserve cultural property and to support its proper international circulation. In Italy, strategies include on the ground policing, national legislation, directives from the European Union (EU), adherence to international conventions, bilateral agreements with other countries, and, increasingly, social persuasion. Integration of international approaches is necessary to combat the looting and illegal trading of antiquities more effectively.
This chapter uses the concept of the life cycle to construct a form of biography for bucchero as a class of ceramic in order to place it in its wider cultural and historical context. The earliest bucchero production sites appear to be Cerveteri and Veii, and it is at Cerveteri that the most elaborate and technologically advanced vessels first appear. Although the earliest bucchero was a rare product of high-quality workmanship, possibly made in workshops alongside precious metals and ivory, and attached to elite households, during the later decades of the seventh century the economic context of its production changes, as does its volume and quality. In the twenty-first century, bucchero is a well-studied class of Etruscan artifact. There are two potential approaches to establishing how bucchero was used: investigating the function of the vessels and investigating the contexts in which they were found.
This chapter discusses a small selection of Etruscan necropoleis and tombs, mainly those of Cerveteri, the volcanic inland area of southern Etruria, and the special group of the barrel-vaulted tombs from the Hellenistic period. Etruscan tombs are generally more massive and lasting in form than other building types, which were mostly constructed from more impermanent materials. Today, some Etruscan cemeteries and tombs are situated in archaeological parks, some are still located in the virgin wildness and nature of Etruria, and others are now used as stalls, storerooms and wine cellars. There is a rich typological variety of tombs at Cerveteri, especially from the beginning of the seventh to the beginning of the fifth century. Topographical arrangement and organization of the larger rock tomb necropoleis are not accidental but an expression of an intended rational use of space and of new urbanistic tendencies.
This study calls for globalizing recognitions and for writing less exclusionary histories. In introductory remarks, it relates two undermined cultures to current globalization and to “Western civilization” as a complex constructed from selected ancient Greek, Roman, and Judeo-Christian elements. Seven sections illustrate various contradictions in scholarship, in literary history, and in practice and attempt to reinsert Canaanite, Etruscan, and other suppressed civilizations into the Western and monotheistic self-valuation. The sections are titled “Etruscology,” “Recognition Politics and Paradigmatic Omissions,” “A Few Scholars,” “Recognition Textbooks,” “Canaan, Ugarit, and Biblical Scholarship,” “Demonologies,” and “Writing Writing.” The last section suggests that the original development and transmission of the alphabet could be used as another model for human commonality and for altering frameworks of interaction, knowledge, and recognition.
A late Iron Age cremation grave, dated to the second half of C1st BC, excavated from a site in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, contains an apparently unique set of glass gaming pieces. The pieces are visually striking because of their distinctive appearance: 24 opaque or semi-translucent coloured glass domes (six each in white, yellow, red and green), each adorned with a decorative spiral motif, seem to comprise a complete set of pieces for what may be an unknown four-player game. They were found in a rich burial containing five Dressel 1B wine amphorae, an Italian silver cup, and other grave goods.
Some account of the pieces is given by Donald Harden in Stead’s archaeological report (Stead, 1967), along with a scientific analysis by Tony Werner and Mavis Bimson, based on spectrographic and X-ray examination. Harden describes the game pieces as being “of the greatest interest and rarity”, noting “not only is there is no comparable set extant; there is not even a single gaming piece of the same form and decoration which can be cited as a parallel, whether contemporary or not” (Stead, 1967 p. 15). Harden goes on to suggest “the places where we could most reasonably expect to find parallels to these pieces are eastern and southern Gaul, the Alpine region and the upper Rhineland, and the Po valley, and it is likely that in time parallels to them in or more of those areas will turn up” (Stead, 1967 p. 16).
While Harden’s account of the glass pieces emphasises their unique significance for the double-spiral motif, and Werner and Bimson’s analysis suggests the yellow pieces show the earliest example of the use of lead and tin as an opacifying agent, the pieces are also thought to represent a unique example of a four player game, described by Stead as “similar to a game played in India on a board with cruciform marking. This game was […] patented with the name ‘ludo’” (Stead 1967, p. 19).
Footnotes in Stead suggest other examples of what could also be glass gaming pieces for a four player game – or at least incomplete sets of glass gaming pieces that can be organised into four groups by design or colour –have also been found in a number of Italian locations, including sites in the Po Valley.
This paper will seek to present several examples of Iron Age Italian gaming pieces, and to offer some comparison to the Welwyn Garden City pieces in order to draw attention to what may be examples of a hitherto overlooked four-player game.
The story of how one of the greatest civilizations to ever dominate the ancient world came to be is also arguably the most studied mystery of sorts amongst connoisseurs to the subject. Did as Virgil said, they come from Anatolia? We can rest assured that there was no she-wolf but a people don't come from nothing so short of reconstructed DNA, studies on an origin generally rely upon anthropological matters - art, deities, etc - all of which are represented in the civil orientations of any society. I've hereby painstakingly set-out to hypothesize that there was a myriad of migratory convergences - all of which (the Sea People to Myceanea as well Troy, Etruscans in discontinuity to the more distinct illyrian culture from that whose kings ran Rome as a rentier) are generally documented but hardly proven in the founding of a set of individual hamlets that united into Rome or the later unification of tribes under the then-newly founded Republic.
This article presents a group of photographs and other images, most of them little known, which together provide an idea of
the appearance of the museum of ancient sculpture that belonged to the Marchese Giovanni Pietro Campana (1808-80), who formed
one of the most important private collections of the nineteenth century in Rome. Some of the sculptures were displayed in
a gallery in the Campana villa in San Giovanni in Laterano, while others were in the Campana palazzo in Via del Babuino. The
new photographs allow us to reconstruct another building devoted to the ancient marbles, in which the Marchese made the sculpture
accessible to the public. Moreover, it appears that Campana was in the forefront of the use of photography to reproduce works
of art.
The enhancement of the south Etruria survey is one of the projects connected to the Tiber Valley project launched by the British School at Rome. The purpose of the enhancement project is to use new methods to analyse material collected by the British School at Rome during the south Etruria project between the 1950s and 1970s. The idea is to bring together researchers in Britain and Italy to process the material using modern research procedures. As an example of the potential of GIS in the enhancement, a study using Arc/Info to analyse the relationship of the Roman road network to the results of surveys carried out in the area of the southern Ager Faliscus is presented. It is a preliminary investigation into the effect of different research strategies. As a result of this work, the influence of ancient transport networks on the results of pre-1960s surveys is proven.
RICOGNIZIONE SUBACQUEA E SCAVI A GRAVISCA, PORTO DI TARQUINIA
Nell'estate del 1977 hanno avuto luogo la prima vasta ricognizione ed il primo scavo dei resti sommersi del porto di Gravisca, 65 km. a N–O di Roma; ambedue hanno fornito nuovi dati sulla pianta e la costruzione dell'antico molo. Questo porto è sempre stato collegato storicamente con la città etrusca di Tarquinia e con la Colonia Romana di Gravisca fondata nel 181 a.C., ma nonostante il nome di Gravisca fosse conosciuto perche citato in fonti antiche, praticamente niente si sapeva sul porto o sulla sua esatta ubicazione.
La Campagna 1977 ha confermato che il sito dell'antico porto coincide con quello dell'attuale Porto Clementino, ed ha rivelato parti di un molo simile a quelli dei vicini porti romani di Cosa e Pyrgi, e del porto etrusco di Populonia. L'esame di questo molo di pietra ammassata, e del la ceramica romana ad esso associata consentito di datarlo a non prima del primo secolo a.C. Una precedente utilizzazione etrusca del porto è stata azzardata, ma non è possibile provarla senza ulteriori scavi.
The ancient Ager Capenas occupied the elongated triangle of land north of Rome enclosed by the line of the Via Flaminia, M. Soracte and the lower Tiber valley. The study of the archaeology and topography of the area, like that of the Roman Campagna as a whole, has been subject to great fluctuation of interest and emphasis. It was begun, in effect, by the antiquarians of the last century such as Dennis, Nibby and Gell. Then in the early years of this century Ashby took up the subject with an enthusiasm and application that quickly made him the undisputed authority. Since then interest has varied and no general revision of Ashby's topographical scheme has been attempted.
Archaeology in the more general sense of the study of the ancient inhabitants of an area from the remains of their civilisation has made little progress in a remote corner of the Campagna like the Ager Capenas, partly because of its inaccessibility, and partly because there has been no excavation to speak of and because the material visible above ground is so very limited both in variety and quality. There is, however, another side to the coin. The density and history of ordinary, everyday settlement, derived from the close observation of sites on the ground, are aspects of classical topography that are only now beginning to be exploited; and it is in an area such as the Roman Campagna that the greatest opportunities exist not only because the density of ancient settlement was very great, but also because such a high percentage of the material has survived.
The classical topography of the southern and central Ager Capenas has been described in the preceding volume of the Papers (PBSR, xxx, 1962, pp. 116–207, hereafter referred to as Pt. I). In this, the second section of the report, the field survey is concluded with a description of the northern Ager Capenas. There follows a discussion of the development of settlement within the area as a whole and some of the more interesting archaeological features discovered during the survey. The final section deals with the characteristics of the Roman buildings in the area and incorporates a report on the excavation of a small Roman farm in the central Ager Capenas.
To the list of acknowledgements already made (ibid., p. 117) I would like to add the names of Miss G. D. Jones, Mr. G. Duncan, Mr. W. A. C. Knowles and Mr. D. W. R. Ridgway, who all helped in the preparation of the second part of this report.
Sovana, in the southern part of ancient Etruria (Tuscany, Central Italy) represents a centre of high historical and artistic values. Its Etruscan necropolis is particularly important, even compared to other centres of ancient Etruria, in view of the fact that all the major kinds of funerary architecture of the Tyrrhenian region are present: one of the best examples of Etruscan funerary work from the Hellenic period is represented by the "Tomba della Sirena", a tomb dating from the III century B.C. The Tomb is a large niche type monument shaped like an arch hewn from a single rock mass, and on its façade there is a carving of a double tailed mermaid, symbolizing the Sea Goddess and the Otherworld. A block of about 2 m 3 detached from the tomb façade in May 1999; the event determined a great emphasis on the problems of its restoring and its conservation. In order to examine the whole geological framework of the failure, a series of analyses, tests and studies have been carried out. First of all, the rock has been petrographically and geochemically characterised: based on the field and laboratory observations, the pyroclastic rock forming the "Tomba della Sirena" can be considered as belonging to the "Sovana Formation" in the Vulsinian complex (Roman Comagmatic Province). Afterwards, geomechanical investigations (inventory of the rock discontinuities, sampling and laboratory testing and back analysis) have been undertaken in order to understand the failure mechanisms and the preparatory and triggering factors. The pre-existing joint network and the intense weathering and loosening of the tuffs have been detected as the main causes of the failure. The multidisciplinary approach proved to be useful: in fact, besides giving a summary of the causes of the event, it helps to formulate convenient measures aimed to the restoration of the monument.
Elizabeth J. Shepherd, Populonia, un mosaico e l'iconografia del naufragio, p. 119-144.
Prendendo spunto dal riesame di un mosaico di età tardorepubblicana trovato a Populonia nel 1842, raffigurante un fondo marino popolato di pesci in cui è inserita una rara scena di naufragio, l'A. svolge alcune considerazioni sull'iconografia del naufragio nell'antichità, e propone che nel mosaico debba essere vista una scena affine agli ex-voto. L'A. riconsidera anche gli scarni dati noti sull'edificio di provenienza, situato sull'acropoli di Populonia, avanzando dubbi sull'interpretazione tradizionale con una villa marittima e proponendo invece di riconoscervi una parte della sistemazione monumentale urbana a terrazzamenti.
The commemorative forms of the Romans are marked by the ubiquity of two contrasting presentational modes: one essentially mimetic, rooted in the representational power of artistic forms, the other abstract and figurative, dependent on the presentation of cues for the summoning of absent yet necessary images. The mimetic mode was thoroughly conventional, and thus posed few problems of interpretation; the figurative knew no such orthodoxy and required a different and distinctive form of attention. At the tomb, epigraphic and sculptural forms, each in its characteristic manner, addressed an audience habituated by tradition to respond to both of these modes, to grasp their differences, and to rise to the challenge implicit in the very fact of their contrast. Copyright © 2005 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Thesis (M.A.)--University of Cincinnati, 1999. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-153). Includes abstract.
At some point in the fourth century B.C., anatomical votive terracottas began to be dedicated in sanctuaries in central Italy. Thousands of replicas of body parts have been found in votive deposits in these sanctuaries, left to deities as requests or thank offerings for healing. The spread of the anatomical votive terracotta phenomenon has been attributed to the colonisation of central Italy by the Romans. In addition, parallels have been drawn to the similar short-lived phenomenon at the Asklepieion at Corinth where models of body parts were also dedicated in the context of a healing cult. After a general introduction to the historical and physical context of the anatomical votive terracotta phenomenon, this thesis examines the link to Corinth and suggests how the practice was first transmitted to Italy. Votive evidence of early date and peculiar typology found in situ from the sanctuary at Gravisca on the south coast of Etruria suggests contact with Greeks who would have been familiar with the practice of dedicating anatomical votive terracottas at Corinth. From its point of introduction to central Italy in southern Etruria, the practice of dedicating anatomical votive terracottas spread to Rome along the communication arteries of the developing Roman road system. This thesis also examines why Asklepios, introduced to Rome in 293 B.C., had limited influence on healing cults in central Italy.. Title from electronic thesis title page (viewed Apr.26, 2007). Includes abstract. Keywords: Healing cults; Asklepios; Corinth; anatomical votives; ancient religion; Republican Rome; Thesis (M.A.)--University of Cincinnati, 1999. Includes bibliographical references. 3.85 MB Text (abstract in HTML; full text in PDF). Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing; mode of access: World Wide Web.
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