Ida Oggiano | Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) (original) (raw)

Books by Ida Oggiano

Il volume, che raccoglie gli atti delle giornate di studio Scrittura e scritture. Invenzione, inn... more Il volume, che raccoglie gli atti delle giornate di studio Scrittura e scritture. Invenzione, innovazione e applicazione (Roma 18-19 novembre 2021), affronta la questione della scrittura (nascita, evoluzione, impiego, funzioni) in differenti contesti culturali mediterranei, per poi concentrarsi sulla scrittura alfabetica fenicia, fornendo non solo uno sguardo di sintesi, ma proponendo nuovi punti di vista e nuove prospettive di approccio (neuroscienze, linguistica, rapporto con l’iconografia).

The volume, available in open access, examines terracotta figurines depicting women and children,... more The volume, available in open access, examines terracotta figurines depicting women and children, discovered in Cyprus, the Levant, the Greek world, Sardinia, and the Iberian Peninsula, and dating from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period. It explores their iconography, typology, archaeological contexts, and potential meanings to reassess the roles of these two social groups in ancient Mediterranean societies. This research contributes to a broader understanding of the material and immaterial dimensions of women’s and children’s lives, challenging their traditional marginalization in historical narratives.

Rivista di Studi Fenici, 2023

INDICE / TABLE OF CONTENT PAPERS MARCO ROSSI, New Insights on Phoenician Anthropoid Sarcophag... more INDICE / TABLE OF CONTENT

PAPERS

MARCO ROSSI, New Insights on Phoenician Anthropoid Sarcophagi

MAXIMILIAN RÖNNBERG, MERYEM BÜYÜKYAKA, JENS KAMLAH, HÉLÈNE SADER, AARON SCHMITT, Preliminary Report on the Greek and Cypriot Imported Pottery of the Iron Age Phases at Tell el-Burak, Lebanon. A first Survey of Imported Pottery Reaching the Central Levant, ca. 750-325 BCE.

JASON HERRMANN, PAOLA SCONZO, LEONARDA FAZIO with a contribution of P. TOTI, Refining Motya’s Urban History with Landscape-Scale Investigations

MONICA BOUSO, An Inscribed Punic Amphora Stamp Unearthed at the Site of Mas Castellar de Pontós (Girona, Spain)

ENRIQUE GIL ORDUÑA, Phoenician Neck-ridge Jugs of the Iron Age: a Reassessment of their Sequential Stages and Chronology

LOST IN TRANSALATION

ANDREA ERCOLANI, Phoinikes: The Hisotry of an Ethnonym

SCHEDE E RECENSIONI / BOOK REVIEWS

M.a CRUZ MARÍN CEBALLOS – M.a BELÉN DEAMOS – A.M.a JIMÉNEZ FLORES (edd.), La cueva santuario de es Culleram (Ibiza), Sevilla 2022 («SPAL Monografías Arqueología», 47), Editorial Universidad de Sevilla, 397 pp. (GIUSEPPE GARBATI)

Rivista di Studi Fenici, 2022

The Rivista di Studi Fenici is fifty years old: half a century of history, that of the discipline... more The Rivista di Studi Fenici is fifty years old: half a century of history, that of the discipline related to Phoenician and Punic studies, straddling two centuries, the 20th and 21st, that have experienced sudden cultural
changes and developments with all that this entails in the transformation of methodological perspectives and the quantity and quality of information available to scholars of Mediterranean history.
Fifty years following the furrow traced by Sabatino Moscati and the pioneering initiative to found a discipline and a scientific journal dedicated to it. In the new course of the Rivista, as I wrote in the editorial of the first issue I directed, the discipline is now moving into new regions, new chronological areas, and undertaking the study of new themes with new or renewed methodological approaches.
To celebrate RStFen 50, we have decided to publish Sabatino Moscati’s Introduction to the first issue of the Rivista, written in 1973, in memory of the distinguished scholar who founded and believed in the intercultural values of this Mediterranean discipline, a scholar whose centenary is being celebrated right now by bringing together Italian experts at the Accademia dei Lincei, in Rome, in November 2022. Given the policy of maximum accessibility that the Rivista promotes, Moscat’s text is reprinted both in the original Italian version (and in the original format of the 1973 Review) and with an English translation.

INDICE / TABLE OF CONTENTS SEBASTIANO SOLDI, A Shade of Red. Red Slip Ware at Zincirli and Its ... more INDICE / TABLE OF CONTENTS

SEBASTIANO SOLDI, A Shade of Red. Red Slip Ware at Zincirli and Its Connections with Northern Syria and Southern Anatolia in the Iron Age

LUIGI TURRI, The Rediscovery of Amioun, Ancient Ammiya. Geography and Politics in Northern Lebanon during the Second Millennium

MAY HAIDER, MARCO IAMONI, The Rediscovery of Amioun, Ancient Ammiya. The Archaeology of a Regional Capital in the Inner Plain of Koura (Lebanon)

ADRIANO ORSINGHER, AURORA RIVERA-HERNÁNDEZ, Play and Ritual at Carthage. Some Remarks on a Terracotta Doll

LIVIA TIRABASSI, The Earthen Architecture of Phoenician and Punic Settlement. A Focus on Sardinia

GABRIELLA SCIORTINO, Material Engagement in Archaic Sicily: On Phoenician Pottery Findings from Ritual Contexts of Greek Settlements

LOST IN TRANSLATION

IDA OGGIANO, Lost in translation. The Compromise of Translating Non-English Writings

MASSIMO BOTTO, The Earliest Phoenician Presence in Southern Italy

SCHEDE E RECENSIONI/BOOK REVIEWS

É. GUILLON, Les arrière-pays des cités phéniciennes à l’époque hellénistique (IVe-Ier S. Av.n.è.). Approches historique et spatiale d’une aire géoculturelle, Roma 2020 («Collezione di Studi Fenici» 50), CNR Edizioni, 251 pp. (CARLOS GÓMEZ BELLARD)

Tra le coste del Levante e le terre del tramonto. Studi in ricordo di Paolo Bernardini, 2021

Sono passati quasi tre anni da quando Paolo ci ha lasciati. Era l'inizio dell'estate del 2018. Sa... more Sono passati quasi tre anni da quando Paolo ci ha lasciati. Era l'inizio dell'estate del 2018. Sapevamo della sua malattia e della tenacia e determinazione con le quali l'aveva affrontata. Sapevamo della lotta che stava conducendo e del "percorso a ostacoli" che stava attraversando, ma la notizia della sua scomparsa ci ha colti ugualmente impreparati, incapaci di credere che non lo avremmo più avuto al fianco nelle nostre vite. Perché Paolo oltre ad essere il collega preparato con il quale era piacevole e stimolante discutere su ogni aspetto della disciplina, era anche l'Amico sincero, sempre pronto ad ascoltare e a incoraggiare. Il vuoto che ci ha lasciato è incolmabile, ma leggere e rileggere i suoi scritti ci ha aiutato in questi anni a rendere il distacco meno doloroso, a continuare a dialogare con lui in una forma nuova, inaspettatamente ricca di emozioni e significati, appagante. È difficile descrivere l'emozione che ci ha colti nel leggere insieme per la prima volta le pagine inedite di Paolo, che la moglie Sandra ci ha donato affinché le componessimo in un libro. La sua scrittura così nitida ed efficace ci ha riportati indietro nel tempo a quelle discussioni infinite e stimolanti, che ci lasciavano spesso esausti, ma consapevoli di aver arricchito il nostro bagaglio culturale e umano. Non è nostra intenzione ricordare in queste righe il complesso e multiforme percorso scientifico di Paolo, già oggetto di riflessioni da parte di alcuni di noi, ma evocare la forza e l'attualità del suo pensiero. Nella serrata dialettica fra passato e presente, che è la cifra costante dell'opera di Paolo, un aspetto ci piace evidenziare, frutto delle continue riflessioni sulle dinamiche dell'irradiazione fenicia in Occidente: la visione del Mediterraneo come punto d'incontro fra uomini di culture e lingue diverse animati dal desiderio di conoscersi e confrontarsi. Con Paolo condividiamo la certezza che la strada segnata dai naviganti del passato sia l'unica percorribile, perché su quella strada si è innestato "un potente e inarrestabile processo di conoscenza e di crescita"; allo stesso tempo condividiamo le sue apprensioni perché quel percorso si è oggi drammaticamente incrinato. Dare voce al suo pensiero per un mondo condiviso e non lacerato dagli egoismi individuali crediamo sia il modo migliore per ricordarlo. Siamo grati ai molti amici e colleghi che hanno aderito con trasporto a questa iniziativa, consapevoli che le pagine seguenti non possono dare conto di tutte le relazioni professionali e personali intrattenute da Paolo nel corso della sua lunga e intensa carriera; in particolare il nostro riconoscente pensiero va a Mario Torelli per il toccante ricordo che ha voluto dedicare al "suo allievo" Paolo e che apre questo volume. Siamo comunque sicuri che a questi scritti tanti altri se ne aggiungeranno, perché con Paolo vorremo dialogare ancora intensamente e a lungo.

Rivista di Studi Fenici, 2019

e s t r a t t o e s t r a t t o Rivista annuale fondata da Sabatino Moscati * Direttore responsab... more e s t r a t t o e s t r a t t o Rivista annuale fondata da Sabatino Moscati * Direttore responsabile / Editor-in-chief Ida Oggiano * Comitato scientifico / Advisory Board

M. G. Amadasi Guzzo – H. Sader – P. Xella – J. Á. Zamora (avec la contribution de I. Oggiano), Inscriptions phéniciennes inédites ou peu connues dans la collection de la Direction Générale des Antiquités du Liban. BAAL, Hors-Série XV (volume édité par P. Xella et J. Á. Zamora), Beyrouth 2018, 2018

Dans ce volume sont publiées les inscriptions phéniciennes inédites appartenant à la collection d... more Dans ce volume sont publiées les inscriptions phéniciennes inédites appartenant à la collection de la Direction Générale des Antiquités du Liban (DGA), retrouvées et identifiées au cours des travaux d’une mission épigraphique internationale, composée de chercheurs libanais, italiens et espagnols.

RIVISTA DI STUDI FENICI: NEW PUBLICATION STRATEGY One of the most important innovations that h... more RIVISTA DI STUDI FENICI: NEW PUBLICATION STRATEGY

One of the most important innovations that have characterized the Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo Antico has been the launch of a new "publications strategy", which has involved the Rivista di Studi Fenici. Primary aspect of such a new strategy is, undoubtedly, the will to implement a pricing policy which has to be compatible with the main purposes of a scientific publication promoted by a public institution of research, namely the dissemination of the information. Prices, therefore, must be accessible and, above all, consistent with the principles which he use of scientific data is founded on. With this aim, the Rivista di Studi Fenici (directed by Ida Oggiano) have been entrusted to a new publisher, Edizioni Quasar, thanks to which it has been possible to undertake this renovation path. We accepted to face the challenge of being a Rivista that can maintain its position on the market thanks to its readers and supporters, as it should rightly be. We count, then, in your help in spreading the RSF in all countries, universities, research centers and libraries; we want the whole scientific community, both Italian and international, to be part in this renewal project. Therefore, we count on the support of you all, fully convinced that you could understand and appreciate the reasons of these choices.
The Rivista di Studi Fenici, directed by Ida Oggiano, is an annual peer review publication and intends to publish articles submitted in English, although contributions in Italian, French, German and Spanish will be accepted, albeit to a limited extent.

For order and subscriptions
Edizioni Quasar di Severino Tognon s.r.l.
Via Ajaccio 41-43 – 00198 Roma
Tel. +39 0685358444, Fax + 39 0685833591
promozione@edizioniquasar.it
www.edizioniquasar.it

EDITORIAL Ida Oggiano This issue of the Rivista di Studi Fenici happily coincides with a number o... more EDITORIAL
Ida Oggiano
This issue of the Rivista di Studi Fenici happily coincides with a number of significant developments in the magazine’s long history: new management, a new scientific and editorial committee, a new design and, not least, a monograph dedicated to one of the greatest exponents of the discipline in which the Rivista is the most important scientific organ.
The launch of this volume of the Rivista, then, forms part of a renewal that is located within a solid tradition of study – that devoted to the Phoenician and Punic civilizations – founded by Sabatino Moscati. Indeed, this new deal intends to follow the path marked out in the course of the 43 years of the Rivista, but at a different pace, dictated by the natural evolution of a discipline characterized by constant change. New themes, new regions, new chronological scopes and, above all, new kinds of methodological approach give ever greater topicality and interest to the study of the history of the Mediterranean of the first millennium BCE from the Phoenician perspective. Today this increasingly means highlighting the indistinct rather than the clearly defined: seafarers, founders of “colonies”, heirs and propagators of the Syro-Palestinian traditions, early assimilators of the traditions of others and, therefore, representatives of an identity in a continuous state of renewal.
It is in this spirit that the members of the scientific committee have been chosen, scholars from diverse backgrounds and from various countries which, since ancient times or more recently, have played a role in the history and the study of the Phoenician and Punic world. The aim is to make the Rivista di Studi Fenici a meeting place for the multiple new realities that today nourish and strengthen the discipline. It is a discipline whose raison d’être is still valid precisely because it has been able to reinvent itself beyond the confines of academic categories by concentrating on the study of the Mediterranean context which, thanks to the movement of the Levantine populations, has expanded both geographically and chronologically. Following the early days of the discipline, when the focus was on finding the “Phoenician” elements that had hitherto been ignored in studies, often deliberately, a mature phase in the research has been reached which aims to investigate the interaction between the diverse peoples of the Mediterranean rather than the outcome of that phenomenon, i.e. the birth of cultural characteristics thought to be specific to each particular group. The plasticity of the identity of the phonikes, often viewed negatively, can now be regarded as a quality of extraordinary topicality that sees the fil rouge of their history (formed from an amalgam of language and cults, objects and images) become interwoven with the histories of other peoples, changing colour and at times unravelling, across locations and time.
With this issue, we hope that the Rivista di Studi Fenici can become a reference point for high-level contributions on the history of the Phoenicians, the Punics, and all those who came into contact with them and contributed to enriching their shifting identity. The pages of the Rivista will thus be an ideal space which, as a result of dialogue between scholars of diverse backgrounds and nationalities, will be a locus for academic debate that is free of the political and cultural boundaries that so dramatically mark these sad times in which we live.

I due ampi saggi di Tatiana Pedrazzi e Ida Oggiano che compongono il presente volume affrontano i... more I due ampi saggi di Tatiana Pedrazzi e Ida Oggiano che compongono il presente volume affrontano il tema delle relazioni tra impero persiano e mondo fenicio in un'ottica originale, che permette di superare la diffusa antinomia Oriente-Occidente per proporre una visione al tempo stesso simmetrica e complementare di tali relazioni. I due contributi pongono il mondo delle città fenicie d'Oriente al centro di una rete assai ampia di rapporti politici, religiosi e culturali, nei quali esse si ritrovano oggetto di un modo di "gestione" dei territori non dissimile da quello applicato in altre aree dell'impero. Gli stessi vincoli che legano i sovrani persiani, i governatori da essi designati e le dinastie locali riprendono uno schema ben consolidato e documentato in varie regioni. L'interesse persiano per la produzione agricola rappresenta un ulteriore tassello di un quadro che questo volume definisce con grande evidenza e precisione. Un tema che lega saldamente le due parti dell'opera è quello della vita religiosa, in cui da un lato si mette in luce l'ampio spazio concesso ai culti locali nelle zone dell'impero e dall'altro si individua proprio nei santuari fenici dedicati alle divinità gua¬ritrici un luogo privilegiato di incontro tra esperienze e tradizioni appartenenti a culture differenti. L'allargamento della prospettiva al mondo mediterraneo, nel lavoro di Ida Oggiano, fornisce un costante riferimento sia alla situazione complessiva dell'impero achemenide, sia a quella delle città fenicie in esso inserite, con riferimenti all'attività economica, all'organizzazione urbanistica e di nuovo alla vita religiosa. Il richiamo, nel titolo del volume, alla funzione di "ponte" tra la Persia e il Mediterraneo centro-occidentale svolta dalla Fenicia trova una chiara legittimazione. Evitando di ricomporre un'artificiosa unità tra le tre entità a confronto, ma dando rilievo ai molti "fili rossi" che le uniscono, le autrici raggiungono l'obiettivo di delineare un quadro prezioso per la conoscenza delle vicende storiche e culturali dell'area mediterranea tra il VI e il IV secolo a.C.

Palestine, religion and archaeology. Words evocative of places, tales, images, peoples, holy book... more Palestine, religion and archaeology. Words evocative of places, tales, images, peoples, holy books (the Bible and Coran), gods (only one or many?), figures (historical or mythical?) and monuments (real or invented?). But in this text they are something different.
Ancient Palestine, whose geographical, political and cultural boundaries are difficult to define, is here considered as a large area covering all the southern Levant, from Cis-Jordan to the Philistine coast, from the Negev to southern Phoenicia and Syria. It not only deals with the kingdoms of Israel and Judah but also with the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Arameans and Phoenicians.
Religion is considered not as a "category of the spirit" but as a
particular dimension of human culture, therefore correlated to the social, political and economical life. This perspective offers a new reading not only of the texts but also of the "mute" evidence of architecture, objects and images.
Finally archaeology is regarded as a historical discipline which allows us to interpret remains of ancient cultural practices without being influenced by texts, in particular by the Bible, the "Book", which for a long time has been the only source used in reconstructing the history and culture of those lands.
The book, thanks to a rigorous approach, gives a new and original picture of Palestinian "religion," from the end of the II millennium to the Persian period.

Summary

Preface

1. Iron I (1200-1000): the change in the continuity of tradition

1.1 The functional continuity of the urban temple
1.1.1 Urban Late Bronze temples and new architectonical formula
1.1.2 Beyond Jordan
1.2 The coast and hinterland: the new urban and social reality of philistine centres.
1.2.1 The philistine sacred space in both temples and productive area
1.2.2 Meetings, exchanges and memories of the past at the origin of the philistine rituals
1.3 The contest of the village and the cult rooms
1.4 The extra urban sanctuary as a aggregation centre for the communities of the highlands
1.5 Objects of cult and tools for cult: the cult stands
1.6 Gods, men and animals: the images of glyptic and coroplastica

2 Iron IIAIIB (IX – first half of VIII scent. BCE): the golden age of the northern kingdom and the gradual development of Juda.

2.1 The Samaria court and its symbol system
2.2 The city of Dan: the “sacred” path from the gate to the cult terrace
2.3 The cult place at the Gate: ancient tradition and renewed aramaic influences.
2.4 The crisis of urban temples and the cult room in domestic contexts
2.5 Divine images as symbols of social prestige
2.6 The pillar figurines: which divinity?
2.7 Ashdod and the coastal tradition
2.8 The extra urban cults: rural, boundary and frontier sanctuaries
2.9 The tribal kingdoms of Transgiordan

3. Iron IIC (end of VIII – first quarter of Vi cent. BCE). The Assyrian conquest: deculturation and Pax assyriaca.

3.1 Samaria and the E207 votive deposit
3.2 The religious policy of conquerors and the diffusion of astral simbology
3.3 Inside and outside the Jerusalem walls
3.4 Was there an iconic representation of the national God of Judah?
3.5 The ammonite statuary and the divinisation of dead kings
3.6 The religiosity of border areas
3.6.2.1 Sanctuaries inside fortresses and the sacrality of the gateway
3.6.2.2 Outside the walls, beyond the borders
3.6.2.1 An example of an extra –moenia temple: ‘En Haseva
3.6.2.2 the tribal sanctuary of Horvat Qitmit
3.6.3 The commercial sanctuary and the space of divinisation: Deir ‘Alla

4. Iron III (600/587-450 BCE) and Persian period (450 – 333 BCE): Palestine still meeting place of cultures

4.1 From the Assyrian withdrawal ritiro to the destruction of Jerusalem
4.2. The achemenide koiné and the new perception of the Judean “diversity”
4.3 The temple in the periphery of the empire: form Jerusalem to the Phoenician coast
4.3.1 the rebuild of the temple of Jerusalem: the Persian and the Judean prospective
4.3.2 The temples of the Phoenicia: salviphic cults and votes for children
4.3.2 Gods and goddesses of the coastal cities
4.3.3 The dogs cemetery of Askelon
4.3.4 What remains of the temple? The favissae
4.4 Mothers and children, gods and heroes. The images speak of the divinities and to the divinities
4.5 The burning of incense in temples and in houses: the diffusion of cuboid altars
4.6 The Judea: “absence” that speaks of change

5. The Temple of Jerusalem: an still open question

5.1 The biblical font and the archaeological documentation
5.2 The material culture as text: purpose for a archaeological put in phase of the description of the temple
5.3 Did the First Temple ever exist?

6. Conclusions

6.1 Where cults were practiced
6.1.1 Definition of the sacred space
6.1.2 The localisation of the sacred space
6.1.2.1 Urban and extra urban sacred space
6.1.3 Architecture
6.1.3.1 The typology of temples: the problem of the classification of religious architecture
6.1.3.2 Architectural forms and literary witnesses: what was a bama?
6.1.3.3 Rooms and outbuilding of the cult buildings: the productive installation

6.2 How cults were practiced
6.2.1 Offerings: offered to the deity or used in rituals
6.2.1.1 Offered objects: figurines, jewels, precious vases and common pottery
6.2.1.2 Used in rituals: altars, cult stands, models and masks
6.2.2 Prayer, music and dance

6.2.3 Sacrificing, cooking and banquetting: food in relationship with the divinity
6.2.3.1 To sacrificing and to cooking
6.2.3.1 Alimentary tabu
6.2.3.2 Cultic banquettes
6.2.3 The cult in domestic context e the sphere of the “women religion”
6.2.4 To honour and dishonour the past: the ritual burying of stele and cultstands
6.2.5 Incense burned on roofs: horned altars and the Syrian origin of a ritual.

6.3. Who was venerated and how was represented
6.3.1 Cult images
6.3.2 Anthropomorphism and de facto aniconism
6.3.3 Mythical episodes

6.4 Conclusions

Papers by Ida Oggiano

ENTRE MÁLAGA Y TIRO UNA TRAVESÍA MEDITERRÁNEA EN MEMORIA DE LA PROFESORA MARÍA EUGENIA AUBET SEMMLER, 2024

La regione compresa tra i grandi centri di Tiro e Sidone, segnata dalla presenza del !ume Litani ... more La regione compresa tra i grandi centri di Tiro e Sidone, segnata dalla presenza del !ume Litani e
della sua foce, ha sempre avuto un ruolo importante dal punto di vista economico e politico. Dal 2013 il
Kharayeb Archaeological Project (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche e Università Libanese) ha avuto come
obiettivo lo studio di questa area e del suo complesso sistema insediativo ed economico, con grandi centri e
piccoli insedimanti rurali. Grazie alla scoperta di alcuni nuovi insediamenti delle fasi preclassiche, as esempio
Tell Qasmye e Jemjm, le relazioni tra il grandi centri di Tiro e Sidone e la campagna a nord della città di Tiro,
sono oggi più chiari e aprono nuove prospettive sulle conoscenze del paesaggio agrario delle città levantine tra
Bronzo Medio ed Età ellenistica.

IL MEDITERRANEO ANTICO E GLI STUDI FENICIO-PUNICI A CENTO ANNI DALLA NASCITA DI SABATINO MOSCATI, 2024

Sabatino Moscati fu linguista, storico e archeologo e, pur non avendo una formazione da archeolog... more Sabatino Moscati fu linguista, storico e archeologo e, pur non avendo
una formazione da archeologo da campo, diede vita, con una straordinaria
lungimiranza progettuale, a molte tra le missioni archeologiche che ancora
oggi sono punti di riferimento per la conoscenza della storia del Mediterraneo
del primo millennio a.C. Tra i suoi studi, relativi a tematiche delle più
diverse, ho scelto di “rileggere Moscati” storico dell’arte. Dalla rilettura dei
suoi testi è emersa la figura di un uomo di grandissima cultura che, facendo
proprio lo spirito del tempo in cui visse, esaminò l’arte fenicia utilizzando
tutti gli strumenti teorici alla base degli studi sull’arte antica e di quella che
lui definì la “critica ammodernata” (Moscati 1990). La sua sterminata produzione,
l’aspetto didattico e divulgativo di molti suoi studi hanno talora messo
in secondo piano l’enorme bagaglio di conoscenze, anche teoriche, che si celano
dietro lo stile semplice e chiaro della sua scrittura. Rileggendo Moscati
ho avuto la possibilità di respirare il dibattito teorico dell’Accademia degli
anni Sessanta e Settanta del secolo scorso, da quello che si sviluppò intorno
alla rivista Dialoghi di archeologia a quello delle teorie della critica d’arte,
così da poter riconoscere, in filigrana, le letture e le conoscenze, derivate anche,
certamente, da conversazioni private, che nutrirono i suoi scritti.
Poiché nel titolo faccio riferimento al concetto di “cultura di immagine”

AN C I EN T EG Y P T AN D T H E S U R RO UN D ING WO R L D : CON TA C T, T R A D E AN D INFLUENCE S t u d i e s p r e s e n t e d t o Ma r i l i n a Be t r ò, 2024

The site of Kharayeb (Lebanon) provides a unique insight into how a craft workshop worked and how... more The site of Kharayeb (Lebanon) provides a unique insight into how a craft workshop worked and how Egyptian iconographic patterns and divine attributes were reinterpreted by craftspeople in Persian period Phoenicia.

BAAL. Bulletin d'archéologie et d'architecture libanaises, 2020

It is widely accepted that the formation and development of cities and the countryside are parts ... more It is widely accepted that the formation and development of cities and the countryside are parts of the same synchronic process, which should be studied on a regional level and over long periods. The development of urban settlements and that of the countryside are intrinsically linked. Since the 1970s, many scholars dealing with the Near East have ceased to focus exclusively on urban centres and monumental architecture, orienting their investigations towards complex economic systems, including the examination of the inland areas and the small rural settlements. However, despite this reorientation of research, the situation of the Phoenician coastal cities’ hinterland is not well known.
Starting from this assumption, the Italo-Lebanese “Kharayeb project” (Italian National Council of Research and the Lebanese University) aims to investigate the mutual relationships between the urban landscape of the great centre of Tyre and the countryside north of the city, considering the landscape as an expression of the communities that contributed to its formation.
The discovery of two sites, Tell Qasmiye at the mouth of the Litani river and Jemjim at the entrance of Kharayeb, open new and important perspective for the knowledge of the tyrian region.

Rivista di Studi Fenici, 2023

INDICE / TABLE OF CONTENT PAPERS MARCO ROSSI, New Insights on Phoenician Anthropoid Sarcophag... more INDICE / TABLE OF CONTENT

PAPERS

MARCO ROSSI, New Insights on Phoenician Anthropoid Sarcophagi

JASON HERRMANN, PAOLA SCONZO, LEONARDA FAZIO with a contribution of P. TOTI, Refining Motya’s Urban History with Landscape-Scale Investigations

MONICA BOUSO, An Inscribed Punic Amphora Stamp Unearthed at the Site of Mas Castellar de Pontós (Girona, Spain)

ENRIQUE GIL ORDUÑA, Phoenician Neck-ridge Jugs of the Iron Age: a Reassessment of their Sequential Stages and Chronology

LOST IN TRANSALATION

ANDREA ERCOLANI, Phoinikes: The Hisotry of an Ethnonym

SCHEDE E RECENSIONI / BOOK REVIEWS

Rivista di Studi Fenici, 2022

INDICE / TABLE OF CONTENTS SEBASTIANO SOLDI, A Shade of Red. Red Slip Ware at Zincirli and Its ... more INDICE / TABLE OF CONTENTS

SEBASTIANO SOLDI, A Shade of Red. Red Slip Ware at Zincirli and Its Connections with Northern Syria and Southern Anatolia in the Iron Age

LUIGI TURRI, The Rediscovery of Amioun, Ancient Ammiya. Geography and Politics in Northern Lebanon during the Second Millennium

MAY HAIDER, MARCO IAMONI, The Rediscovery of Amioun, Ancient Ammiya. The Archaeology of a Regional Capital in the Inner Plain of Koura (Lebanon)

ADRIANO ORSINGHER, AURORA RIVERA-HERNÁNDEZ, Play and Ritual at Carthage. Some Remarks on a Terracotta Doll

LIVIA TIRABASSI, The Earthen Architecture of Phoenician and Punic Settlement. A Focus on Sardinia

GABRIELLA SCIORTINO, Material Engagement in Archaic Sicily: On Phoenician Pottery Findings from Ritual Contexts of Greek Settlements

LOST IN TRANSLATION

IDA OGGIANO, Lost in translation. The Compromise of Translating Non-English Writings

MASSIMO BOTTO, The Earliest Phoenician Presence in Southern Italy

SCHEDE E RECENSIONI/BOOK REVIEWS

Tra le coste del Levante e le terre del tramonto. Studi in ricordo di Paolo Bernardini, 2021

Rivista di Studi Fenici, 2019

RIVISTA DI STUDI FENICI: NEW PUBLICATION STRATEGY One of the most important innovations that h... more RIVISTA DI STUDI FENICI: NEW PUBLICATION STRATEGY

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Summary

Preface

1. Iron I (1200-1000): the change in the continuity of tradition

2 Iron IIAIIB (IX – first half of VIII scent. BCE): the golden age of the northern kingdom and the gradual development of Juda.

3. Iron IIC (end of VIII – first quarter of Vi cent. BCE). The Assyrian conquest: deculturation and Pax assyriaca.

4. Iron III (600/587-450 BCE) and Persian period (450 – 333 BCE): Palestine still meeting place of cultures

5. The Temple of Jerusalem: an still open question

6. Conclusions

6.3. Who was venerated and how was represented
6.3.1 Cult images
6.3.2 Anthropomorphism and de facto aniconism
6.3.3 Mythical episodes

6.4 Conclusions

ENTRE MÁLAGA Y TIRO UNA TRAVESÍA MEDITERRÁNEA EN MEMORIA DE LA PROFESORA MARÍA EUGENIA AUBET SEMMLER, 2024

IL MEDITERRANEO ANTICO E GLI STUDI FENICIO-PUNICI A CENTO ANNI DALLA NASCITA DI SABATINO MOSCATI, 2024

AN C I EN T EG Y P T AN D T H E S U R RO UN D ING WO R L D : CON TA C T, T R A D E AN D INFLUENCE S t u d i e s p r e s e n t e d t o Ma r i l i n a Be t r ò, 2024

BAAL. Bulletin d'archéologie et d'architecture libanaises, 2020

Naming and Mapping the Gods in the Ancient Mediterranean Spaces, Mobilities, Imaginaries, 2022

In this paper, I will analyse the archaeological information about Phoenician "sacred space" and ... more In this paper, I will analyse the archaeological information about Phoenician "sacred space" and in particular the concept of liminality and the way it was expressed in the archaeological documentation (e.g. the presence of a temenos, a door and images etc.) from a Phoenician context.

Quaderni IRCrES. Temi e problemi di sostenibilità sociale, economica, ambientale", 2022

Archaeology and history play a very important role in understanding the development of the contem... more Archaeology and history play a very important role in understanding the development of the contemporary Mediterranean economy. To give an example of ancient Mediterranean Blue economy, this article focuses on the Mediterranean people par excellence in antiquity: the Phoenicians. In fact, the themes of the 2021 Conference (fishery, development of ports, green shipping), along with certain basic concepts of contemporary economy (e.g. networking, globalisation, glocalization, goods and brain circulation, etc.) and sociology (migration, socioeconomic gaps, etc.), perfectly fit with the Phoenicians who spread from the Levantine coast as far as the Atlantic coast of modern Portugal.

Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 2022

The rituals performed in the Phoenician cult places have traditionally been reconstructed primari... more The rituals performed in the Phoenician cult places have traditionally been reconstructed primarily on the basis of architectural remains and sculptural finds. However, even if the exact role ceramics or other objects played in the rituals is unknown, it was certainly not secondary. New work carried out at the cult place of Kharayeb by an Italian-Lebanese mission has produced unusually detailed documentation of such finds, and provides a richer context for the consideration the little data about pottery already published by M. Chéhab and I. Kaoukabani. In particular attention has focused on the use of small and miniaturized pottery (from figurines to miniature vessels) in rituals at the site. With reference to recent research on these issues and comparison with similar practices in the Near East, Greek, and western Phoenician worlds this article proposes new hypotheses on the meaning of ritual practices involving small objects.

Rivista di Studi Fenici, 2021

This issue of Rivista di Stui Fenici inaugurates a new section called “lost in translation” where... more This issue of Rivista di Stui Fenici inaugurates a new section called “lost in translation” where the English translation of some articles whose diffusion is considered important for the studies of the Mediterranean history of the first millennium BC will be published. The title refers to the many important books and articles written in Italian, Spanish, French, German and other languages that almost seem lost when one scrolls through the bibliography of the many studies devoted to the Phoenicians and written in English today. However, these books and articles often constitute the basis of the Phoenician studies that were born and have grown continuously from the seventies to the present day

Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2019

“The phantom Phoenicians are back” would perhaps be an apt alternative title for J. Crawley Quinn... more “The phantom Phoenicians are back” would perhaps be an apt alternative title for J. Crawley Quinn’s In search of the Phoenicians, reflecting the book’s brilliant and ironic spirit. Thanks to the success it has enjoyed internationally, the British scholar’s book has given a significant boost, especially in the English-speaking world, to the revival of interest in the Phoenicians — the “invisible people” — and has brought the long-standing question of Phoenician identity to the attention of non-specialists as well as specialists in Classical antiquity.

C. Bonnet, T. Galoppin (edd.) Divine Names on the Spot Towards a Dynamic Approach of Divine Denominations in Greek and Semitic Contexts, 2021

Revue Phenicienne, 2020

One hundred years ago, the 24-year-old Charles Corm whose love for Lebanon molded every aspect of... more One hundred years ago, the 24-year-old Charles Corm whose love for Lebanon molded every aspect of his character, decided to provide a platform for all those who wanted to express and share their views on the nascent state. He called this platform "La Revue Phénicienne" and the year was 1919. The date was of paramount importance, 1919 was the year when "Le Grand Liban" was declared. Corm saw with this declaration a new and bright dawn for a free Lebanon, just liberated from 400 years of Ottoman domination. A Lebanon that met the ideals and aspirations of Corm and an entire class of his contemporaries who shared his humanist vision.

… documents & research, 2010

ABSTRACT Cette recherche a pour buf d&#39;identifier l&#39;emplacement d&... more ABSTRACT Cette recherche a pour buf d&#39;identifier l&#39;emplacement d&#39;une inscription de Bodashtart, roi de Sidon, mentionnée par l&#39;Ermir Maurice Chéhab mais jamais publiée. Cette inscription parle d&#39;aménagements faits sur la rivière Awali pour amener l&#39;eau au temple d&#39;Eshmoun. Afin de mener à bien cette recherche, la documentation photographique de la DGA ainsi que les sources écrites et orales furent exploitées. Par ailleurs, une prospection sur le terrain permit de confronter les informations ainsi recueillies avec l&#39;état actuel de la région. Ces divers axes de recherche conduisirent à l&#39;identification quasi-certaine du lieu où se trouvait l&#39;inscription. Cette dernière ne fut pas retrouvée; elle fut probablement détruite par la centrale électrique construite à proximité ou par les aménagements modernes sur la rive droite du fleuve.

Depuis quelque temps, la coroplathie figuree est l’objet d’etudes consacrees a la reconstruction,... more Depuis quelque temps, la coroplathie figuree est l’objet d’etudes consacrees a la reconstruction, sur la base de la culture materielle, de l’histoire d’une region specifique. Les informations de nature differente (de l’etude des argiles et des techniques de production a celle de l’iconographie) font des figurines un outil tres interessant pour la reconstruction du paysage economique, social et culturel de la region ou elles ont ete produites et/ou importees et dans laquelle elles revetent une...

Abstract Come è ben noto, le fonti letterarie (classica fra tutte PAUS. X, 17, 5) attribuiscono a... more Abstract Come è ben noto, le fonti letterarie (classica fra tutte PAUS. X, 17, 5) attribuiscono a Iolao la fondazione di Olbia nei tempi del mito, e fin dal XIX secolo questa notizia è stata l'argomento fondamentale-nell'assenza di documentazione materiale-a favore di un' ...

مجلة الآثاريين العرب, 2021

This article focuses on the temple located in the locality of Kharayeb, which dates back to the ... more This article focuses on the temple located in the locality of Kharayeb, which dates back to the Phoenician and Hellenistic eras. The archaeological excavations undertaken in the second half of the twentieth century revealed some of the temple’s features and numerous terracotta figurines that were studied by the joint Italian-Lebanese archaeological mission (2013-2020) in addition to the archaeological surveys in the vicinity of the temple and in the town of Adloun, which resulted in the discoveries of various sites and archaeological features. The latest archaeological researches shed the light on the rituals practiced in the temple and in its architecture and artistic influences, thus resulting on the reconstructing of its several phases.

Peoples of the Middle Sea. “Lavoro Sacro II. Contesti di produzione nei luoghi di culto del Medit... more Peoples of the Middle Sea. “Lavoro Sacro II. Contesti di produzione nei luoghi di culto del Mediterraneo nel I Millennio a.C.”
Seminario scientifico 9-10 Dicembre 2021
Museo del Vicino Oriente, Egitto e Mediterraneo | Sapienza Università di Roma

La diversità delle formule di lavoro e di produzione legate al sacro sarà il tema del seminario scientifico organizzato da Ana Navarro, Lorenzo Nigro, Ida Oggiano, Carmen Rueda ed Edoardo Ferrer all'interno del progetto PRIN "People of the Middle Sea. Innovation and integration in Ancient Mediterranean (1600-500 BC)".

Durante l’incontro verranno presentati interessanti contributi relativi alle produzioni quotidiane, al commercio, alle attività metallurgiche, al ruolo simbolico delle attività produttive presso diverse comunità mediterranee.

Saranno presenti anche i ricercatori Giuseppe Garbati, Tatiana Pedrazzi e Marianna Castiglione del Phoenician and Punic Research Group.

Sarà possibile seguire il seminario anche in streaming sulla pagina facebook del #MVOEM!

Analytical techniques to characterize pottery from Phoenicia and the Iberian Peninsula: X-ray flu... more Analytical techniques to characterize pottery from Phoenicia and the Iberian Peninsula:
X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and Ion Beam Analysis

The study of pottery, the most abundant artefact in archaeological excavations, is no longer limited to the morphological and functional aspects, but has expanded to include examination of the production techniques, from the time when the clay is fared that in which is worked by the potter The many questions that the archaeologist is called to address have come to include checking the provenance of the artefacts and locating the production centres, or at least outlining the likely geographical areas of origin.
Modern archaeometric techniques are sometimes able to respond to these problems, and may also help to highlight differentiating factors of the artefacts at a technological level; they may provide insights into the degree of specialization achieved by the workers in the ceramics factories, highlighting the use of new techniques in coatings and compositions that are related to the opening of new commercial contacts. The use of technology in the examination of clays has, therefore, become crucial in the study of a particular ceramic, the Phoenician, which spread to many regions of the Mediterranean with the first phases of displacement of oriental population nuclei, was soon produced in the settlements of western Phoenicians, and was sometimes imitated in indigenous contexts.
During this seminar day, comparison is made between two projects that use different analytical techniques to characterize the Phoenician and “Phoenicianizing” pottery of two regions, Phoenicia and the Iberian Peninsula, at the eastern and western limits of the Mediterranean region.
The first project, entitled Establishment of a Phoenician pottery database on the chemical composition of terracottas using ion beam analysis techniques (IBA) and application to the study of artisanal production (pottery and coroplastic) from the Kharayeb archeological site in southern Lebanon, was carried out between 2015 and 2016, and is directed by Ida Oggiano from the Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo Antico (CNR, Rome) and Mohamad Roumié of the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission (CNRS-L, Beirut).
The second project, entitled The beginnings of the Early Iron Age in south-western Iberia: chronology and material culture, was carried out between 2014 and 2016, and is directed by Michał Krueger from the Institute of Prehistory, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, with financial help from the Polish National Science Centre (grant number DEC-2013/09/B/HS3/00630). The chronology component of the project (AMS dating, seriation of grave assemblages, Bayesian analysis) has been conducted at Queen’s University Belfast, while the pottery provenance study has been undertaken at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.

The work deals with the problem of the role of cults in defining and preserving ethnic and cultur... more The work deals with the problem of the role of cults in defining and preserving ethnic and cultural identity. In particular it is focused on the question of the continuity and change of local religious traditions in Persian and Hellenistic rural inner southern Phoenicia. During these periods peoples of the hilly country of the inland of Tyre lived the experience of the comparison with the vivid and multicultural coastal society, characterized by the presence of strong Egyptian and Greek influence, well recognizable in different aspects of the artistic production and material culture.
The idea of a immediate passage from a local culture, with well defined oriental characters, to another in which indigenous traditions would be dissolved and external influences would be passively assimilated, according to a processes of acculturation and deculturation, is now to be reconsidered.
Using what Jean-Loup Amselle calls the “discontinuiste” perspective or “logiques métisse”, that is to analyse human activities focusing on the identification of what is indistinct instead of what is well defined and classified, we will present the documentation of the rural sanctuary of Kharayeb, founded around the V century and remained in use until the I cent. B.C.
In particular the iconographical documentation of the two different phases will be compared. In the Persian period the character of iconographical documentation could be defined “hybrid”, derived from the millenarian tradition of contact among coastal region, Syria and the Mediterranean area and in particular from the renewed contact with Egypt and Cyprus.
During the Hellenistic period, votive material, imported or locally product, is strongly influenced by the Greek style and standardization substitutes the variety of the previous period. The analysis of the mechanism of adoption of foreign iconography in rural context and the contextual disappearance of local coroplastic tradition will provide interesting hints for the reconstruction of rituals performed by families, in particular by women, in the rural hinterland of Tyre

The Mediterranean Dimension of Levantine Coast in the first millennium B.C.: Ancient Sea Routes,... more The Mediterranean Dimension of Levantine Coast in the first millennium B.C.:
Ancient Sea Routes, New Explorations and “Colonial” Foundations
Ida Oggiano

The study presents the context of the coastal Levant in the period between the end of the second millennium and the eighth cent. B.C. During those centuries we can collocate the assumptions and conditions of the so called “Phoenician colonial phenomenon”.
The Levantine coast, along the course of its history, has always been considered the Mediterranean “face” of the Oriental world, from a Mesopotamian perspective, or the “gate” of the Orient, from a Mediterranean, or better still, a Greek perspective. This “gate” was the access to lands that were perceived as fascinating but, at the same time, as dangerously “other”.
The documentation will be presented following at the same time a diachronic articulation and a regional perspective and according to a postcolonial approach to the “local” documentation.

End of the second millennium (twelfth – eleventh cent. B.C.)
Continuity and change are the tow aspects characterizing this period, depending on the single regional situation: some cities disappeared (Ugarit, Alalakh, Emar, Khattusha), other, like Hama, Carkemish and Malatya maintained an important position due to the stability of the local dynasties, reflected in the architectural and decorative activities of the Siro-Hittite cities.
In the Northern Orontes Valley the existing of settlement continuity during the transition from Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age is well documented and, at the same time, an important change is the shifting of the primary settlement from Tell Atchana (Alalakh) to Tell Taynat. Textual (i.e. two Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions from the Aleppo Citadel, inscribed on the reliefs of the great Temple of the Storm God) and archaeological evidences point to the existence of a regional kingdom (defined by the toponym “Land of Palistin”) ruled by a king named Taita, whose power centered in Tell Taynat. D. Hawkins, who dated the inscriptions of Aleppo to ca. 1100 B.C, proposed that the toponym “Land of Palistin” shared an etymology with the “Peleset” mentioned in the Medinet Habu reliefs and presumed a common ethnic association between the two entities.
In recent years, the so-called “Philistine paradigm”, and, in general, the “Sea Peoples paradigm”, has been at the centre of many studies and debates based on two perspectives: on the one hand, attempts have been made to identify them “ethnically” and culturally; on the other, to define their chronological limits especially in respect of its initial phase. Since the debate about chronology is to be discussed in a specific section of the congress, attention will be focused on aspects concerning the origin and the size of these populations inhabiting these costal area.
The Phoenician coast, on the other hand, wasn’t touched by devastation and destructions, and the consequences of the crisis, inevitable if we consider the effect of the collapse of the palatial system, seem to have been soon transformed in opportunity by peoples navigating the branch of sea between Cyprus and he Levant.
Thanks to the emergence of a more flexible economic system, free from the complex palatial system, ancient sea routes, never forgotten, were navigated by merchants of Levantine origin and contacts with central western Mediterranean are well documented. A well known ancient route must have been, i.e. that connecting Cyprus and Sardinia.

The very controversial tenth century
This part of the paper will consider only some aspects of the historical consequence of this very controversial century.
In Luvian and Syro-Hittite kingdoms the extraordinary artistic activity of decorations of gates, temples and public monuments continued.
In the central and southern coastal regions the political and administrative organization was based on the so-called city-state system, with some differences between the Phoenician and Philistine areas.
The presence of the Levantine in western Mediterranean is still documented even more sporadically, or rather testified by documents that are difficult for us to collocate chronologically.

Ninth – eighth century
During the ninth century a series of changes in the political, administrative and social life of the Levantine region are well reflected in the material culture, even if with important regional variations. The kingdoms of Arameans, Israel and Judah were reorganized and the city once again took on a primary role after a hierarchical model of settlement had been established with capital cities (Arameans capitals, i.e. Damascus and Hamat; Samaria and Jerusalem), regional centres, villages, farms and fortresses positioned to control the caravan roads.
The ancient system of “city-state” with its territory survived in the coastal Philistine and Phoenician cities. Each city had its own territory to administrate but also its pantheon etc. Apart from Tyre, little documentation exists of the other important ports along the coast even if new excavations are yielding important data.
The Aramean, Phoenician and Israelite courts reached the peak of their magnificence, competing in the building of palaces and temples and sharing a common elitist language expressed in the use of precious artifacts and in some rituals as, i.e., the consumption of wine.
Levantine ivories and metal objects, used in a palatial context, were exported to Cyprus and Greece where they were used in different contexts.
Phoenician cities, with their rich ports, were the core of the coastal region. Their floruit, which can be traced back to the economical recovery of the twelfth – eleventh century, only can be said consolidated in the ninth century.
The extension of the economical and cultural influence along the coast reached the northern regions of inland Syria, as testified by the Brej stele. Cilician coast was the way through which cultural Phoenician influence penetrated in the southern Anatolia (Phoenician pottery at Tartus, the stele of Kilamuwa of Zincirli - Sam’al).
As in the rest of the Levant, the ninth century was the most prosperous period also for the kingdom of Damascus whose king, Hazael, conquered the northern part of the reign of Israel and satisfied his maritime trade ambitions through the strong relationship with the coastal Phoenician kingdoms.
An important role was that of the kingdom of Israel, even if continuously instigated by Damascus. Probably not directly involved in maritime activities, this part of the region was fundamental for the economy of the coastal cities. In particular, the Jezreel valley and Galilee were the lands where agricultural products came from, including those for exportation to the western Mediterranean (documentation of the site of S. Imbenia in Sardinia).
The important documentation of S. Imbenia is only one of an ever increasing range of data that give evidence of the Levantine new explorations, along ancient sea routes well known from the end of the second millennium or already used by the Mediterranean people. Levantine ships, sailing along the route passing from Cyprus and southern Crete (Kommos) reached, already at the end of the ninth cent., areas rich in metal such as north-west Sardinia and Huelva, along the Atlantic coast of Spain.
The intensification of contacts with these distant regions, due principally to the presence of metals, was progressively accelerated by the growth of the Levantine economy and by the changes in the political panorama and the emergence of Assyrian power, that played a role in the political and economic life of the Near East.
The Assyrians, at least until the time of Esarhaddon, acted in twofold way towards the powerful coastal cities. On the one hand they limited their power controlling directly northern access to the mining areas of Amanus and Taurus; on the other hand they improved their commercial activities overseas that were impossible to be organized and controlled without the help of the coastal kingdoms.
Tyr was the “colonial city” (M.E. Aubet) and was a society “al massimo delle sue capacità espansive” (Bondì) that, with its commercial enterprise, created, between the eighth and seventh centuries, a network of settlements different in size and function, along the central and western Mediterranean coast.
In the first movement toward west the meeting with Greeks in the northern Levantine coast was important. Sites like Al Mina, Ras el-Bassit, Tell Sukas were the important coastal harbors giving access to the inner Syria ruled by Arameans and Siro-hittite kingdoms.
The recent research, still in progress, on the Phoenician and Syrian pottery from Al Mina and the evaluation of the Greek presence in the mouth of the Orontes according to a contextual approach, led to the final consideration that Al Mina can be understood only in its territorial context. The harbour, in fact, was founded during the eighth century, on behalf of local rulers of the regional state of the ‘Amuq plain (Unqi or Pattina), on the important commercial route connecting the north Syrian and Aramean kingdoms of the Syrian hinterland, eastern Mediterranean and Tyr.
The importance of Tyr in this area is documented at the trading place of Myriandros, in Cilicia, along the bay of Iskenderun and at Karatepe, in the northeastern corner of the Cilician plain, were the local ruler Azitawada around the 720 B.C. wrote a bilingual inscription, Luwian hieroglyphic and Phoenician.
The area at the mouth of Orontes was therefore of crucial importance and were probably there that first a commercial “Phoenician-Euboians connection” would originated. Even taking into account the redemensioning of the role of Euboeans, the importance of their involvement in commercial activities of this period along the Levantine coast and in the central Mediterranean (i.e Pithekussa but also Sardinia, Carthage etc. etc.) can’t be ignored.

During the V century a rural shrine was founded in the site of Kharayeb, north-east of Tyre. It r... more During the V century a rural shrine was founded in the site of Kharayeb, north-east of Tyre. It remains in use until the I cent. B.C. The sanctuary seems to be isolated, in a poor region in the hilly country. The building is composed of a courtyard flanked by rectangular chambers, surrounded by an external paved area, that has yielded different kinds of materials, and a favissa contained lots of different types of figurines.
The use of the shrine by peasants, strongly rooted in local tradition, is apparently in contrast with the adoption of images shaped in Greek style and with the contextual disappearance of local coroplastic tradition.
Through the study of the votive figurines from Kharayeb, limits and potential of iconographic comparativism will be analyzed in the reconstruction of rituals performed by families, in particular by women, in the rural hinterland of Tyre. Analysing the phenomenon, the perspective adopted will focus on the active role of local people in the maintenance of Phoenician culture and in the reconceptualisation of images from the Greek world.

FOLD&R Fasti On Line Documents & Research, 175, 2010

Pani Loriga* si trova in vista dell'attuale abitato di Santadi ( , su un modesto rilievo a forma ... more Pani Loriga* si trova in vista dell'attuale abitato di Santadi ( , su un modesto rilievo a forma di "U" delimitato a Est dal corso del Riu Mannu. Il sito dista una ventina di chilometri in linea d'aria dalla costa ed è in rapporto visivo con la colonia di Sulci sull'isola di Sant'Antioco, ad occidente dell'ampio e sicuro Golfo di Palmas. I collegamenti con quest'ultimo dovevano essere facilitati dal corso del Rio Palmas, nell'antichità navigabile almeno sino all'altezza del moderno insediamento di Tratalias, dove le indagini archeologiche hanno evidenziato, a ridosso dell'omonimo nuraghe, strutture a pianta quadrangolare realizzate in una tecnica edilizia del tutto identica a quella utilizzata per le abitazioni di Sulci. Le ricognizioni di superficie, inoltre, hanno portato al recupero di ceramiche fenicie che si inquadrano fra la fine dell'VIII e il VII sec. a.C. 1 . Il dato è di estrema rilevanza perché attesta un precoce interesse per questo settore dell'isola da parte della componente fenicia, attratta dalle ricchezze di un territorio ospitale rinomato per le risorse boschive e la fertilità dei terreni e per questo frequentato sin da epoche molto antiche. La stessa collina di Pani Loriga, infatti, venne utilizzata come luogo di sepoltura dal III millennio, essendo interessata da una necropoli a domus de janas 2 .

Le giornate di studio sono promosse da Ida Oggiano e Andrea Ercolani dell’unità CNR del PRIN “Peo... more Le giornate di studio sono promosse da Ida Oggiano e Andrea Ercolani dell’unità CNR del PRIN “Peoples of the Middle Sea. Innovation and Integration in Ancient Mediterranean (1600-500 BC)” coordinato dalla Università La Sapienza di Roma. Uno degli obiettivi delle giornate è quello di discutere di quella grande “innovazione e invenzione” che fu la scrittura alfabetica nel percorso di interazione e integrazione delle popolazioni del Mediterraneo antico. Il tema verrà affrontato da diversi punti di vista: teorico (il rapporto tra segno e supporto, segno e immagine, segno e suono, l’'invenzione' della scrittura, il ruolo della scrittura nella società che la espresse etc.), comparativo (il rapporto tra le principali tipologie di scritture in area mediterranea e vicino orientale), storico-storiografico (la discussa questione dell’invenzione dell’alfabeto da parte dei Fenici e il ruolo di questi ultimi nella integrazione dei diversi sistemi scrittori del Mediterraneo).

Presentazione del Volume: 17 novembre 2016, ore 9.30 C.N.R. Piazzale Aldo Moro, 7 ROMA Aula Marco... more Presentazione del Volume:
17 novembre 2016, ore 9.30
C.N.R. Piazzale Aldo Moro, 7 ROMA
Aula Marconi

INTERVENGONO:
Alessandro Naso (Direttore dell'Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo Antico)
Ida Oggiano (Direttore della Rivista di Studi Fenici, ISMA)
Maria Eugenia Aubet (Universitad Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona)
Paolo Bernardini (Università degli Studi di Sassari)
Giorgio Bejor (Università degli Studi di Milano)

Journal of Roman Archaeology 32, pp. 584-591, 2019

“The phantom Phoenicians are back” would perhaps be an apt alternative title for J. Crawley Qui... more “The phantom Phoenicians are back” would perhaps be an apt alternative title for J. Crawley Quinn’s In search of the Phoenicians, reflecting the book’s brilliant and ironic spirit. Thanks to the success it has enjoyed internationally, the British scholar’s book has given a significant boost, especially in the English-speaking world, to the revival of interest in the Phoenicians — the “invisible people” — and has brought the long-standing question of Phoenician identity to the attention of non-specialists as well as specialists in Classical antiquity. The book’s leading thesis is to demonstrate, through the analysis of ancient documentation ranging from Near Eastern texts written in Ugaritic, Neo-Assyrian and Hebrew to those of ancient authors who wrote in Greek and Latin, that the Phoenicians never regarded themselves as a group. As the author frankly acknowledges (xxiv), “the suggestion that the Phoenicians were not a self-conscious collective, or even a clearly delineated historical civilization, is not new”. The never-ending debate about the identity of the peoples is not new either, nor is it limited to the Phoenicians. It must be understood — in the interests of methodological rigour — to apply also, and not exclusively, to all the other peoples of antiquity (even the Egyptians and Greeks), who never defined themselves in the way we define them, according to our current perspectives as interpreters of the past. The revival of these issues could be connected to the use of anthropological theories in various Phoenician and Punic studies and, at a more general level, to the contemporary problems of Mediterranean migrations that have made ‘obsession about identity’ such a sensitive topic.
The book, composed of 9 chapters, is divided into three parts each of 3 chapters, with a brief introduction and conclusion. This arrangement reflects the origin of the book in three Balmuth Lectures delivered at Tufts University (Medford, MA) in 2012. In a narrative that has almost the
structure of a hypertext, the titles play an important rôle, often referring, in appealing journalistic style, to burning issues in the political (“There are no camels in Lebanon” and “Lebanon first”) or academic spheres.
The introduction is beautifully and passionately written. Beginning almost like a novel, it takes us to a schoolroom in Ireland in 1833 which is the setting of Brian Friel’s 1980 play “Translations”. In this context, the description of “noble” Carthage is connected to Ireland, while Rome is associated with the British occupation of the island. Irish Phoenicianism is the narrative escamotage with which Quinn illustrates the guiding principle of her work, which is above all (xiv-xv) to avoid the dangers of stamping ethnic labels on people who may themselves have felt ambivalent about or simply uninterested in them, people whose own collective identities came, went, and in some cases never rose above the level of their own towns or even families.
Quinn introduces us to the theme of identity in a rigorous manner, providing some astute statements (xviii: “identities are variable across both time and space”) and some illuminating examples from recent African history that attest to the sheer breadth of the reading that forms
the basis of her book.

Women and children are ubiquitous presences in antiquity, but sometimes neglected by the ‘officia... more Women and children are ubiquitous presences in antiquity, but sometimes neglected by the ‘official history’ and in the dynamics of social reconstruction related to the ancient communities. However, their role was far from secondary, as clearly revealed by images visible on objects of art and handicraft.
Therefore, the Webinar, organised in the framework of the PRIN 2017’s research theme "People of the Middle Sea. Innovation and integration in ancient Mediterranean (1600-500 BC)", will focus on some case studies of terracotta figurines from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic Period, in order to significantly contribute to this topic.
Different aspects related to the female world and childhood suggested by the terracottas will be examined, offering food for thoughts and new data for trans-Mediterranean and intercultural comparisons.
Figurines found in different contexts, from Greece to West (Magna Graecia and other areas of Italy, Sardinia, and Iberian Peninsula) and East (Cyprus, Levant, Babylonia), sometimes opportunely compared with written sources and other kind of archaeological objects, will suggest material and immaterial issues, such as the innovations in terms of technology and iconography, as well as the social and cultural interaction and integration in the ancient communities that produced, designed, and used them.