Oscar Belvedere | Università degli Studi di Palermo (original) (raw)

Papers by Oscar Belvedere

Illustration 4ème de couverture : Gravures rupestres du val de Fontanalba, Alpes-Maritimes (clich... more Illustration 4ème de couverture : Gravures rupestres du val de Fontanalba, Alpes-Maritimes (cliché Michel Olive, DRAC SRA de Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur).

Journal of Ancient Topography, 2023

The purpose of this paper is to review Giovanni Uggeri’s research in ancient topography from a me... more The purpose of this paper is to review Giovanni Uggeri’s research in ancient topography from a methodological point of view, with particular attention to his work in Sicily, a research interest he pursued throughout his life. Our aim is to re-examine the scholar’s various research topics (territory, roads, ports, ancient itineraries and maritime sources, history of research), trying to highlight and evaluate the scientific results and, above all, to get to the core of his own methodological approach and the evolution of that system over time. Research methodology was always one of his fields of interest, as is demonstrated by the two conferences Uggeri dedicated to methodology in ancient topography.
Four areas of Uggeri’s research are considered: his work on the territory of Camarina which he undertook from his youth using innovative approaches; second, his studies of ancient road systems for which he developed a comprehensive methodology, adopted by all scholars after him; third, his research on itineraries and cartographic sources; and fourth, his lifelong interest in Mediterranean navigation and maritime routes. Uggeri’s approach is that of the topographer who studies peripli and pilot books in their geographical and topographical contexts from the point of view of the traveler, in contrast to scholars of ancient navigation who consider them the result of the sailor’s vision of the coast, and therefore as eminently descriptive works. Lastly, we mention his studies on Byzantine Sicily, especially those on the new defensive system of castra where, using toponymy as his starting point and with close attention to the archaeological data, he attempts to outline the new territorial organization from the second half of the seventh century onwards and from the fall of Carthage to AD 827.
The consideration of these various topics pays due attention both to recent methodological approaches and advances in research, and to the innovative and remarkable contributions owed to Uggeri.
KEYWORDS: Giovanni Uggeri, methodology of ancient topography, ancient topography, ancient Sicily, Camarina, ancient road network.

ANRW, 1988

Siracusa. La nuova sistemazione monumentale della Neapolis Un intervento edilizio di notevole imp... more Siracusa. La nuova sistemazione monumentale della Neapolis Un intervento edilizio di notevole importanza dobbiamo supporre a Catania, se i resti-a livello inferiore-delle grotte di S. Pantaleo, dell'inizio dell'età imperiale, come dimostra l'opera reticolata in essi impiegata, sono da riferire a una prima sistemazione del foro, con una serie di botteghe o uffici su un lato 20. Di gran lunga più importanti, comunque, ci appaiono gli interventi edilizi di questo periodo a Siracusa, che portarono a una nuova sistemazione monumentale e urbanistica della Neapolis, della zona della città cioè destinata alle attrezzature per spettacoli, il cui fulcro fu costituito dall'anfiteatro. Da un punto di vista urbanistico (fig. 1), il monumento fu collocato all'interno di un complesso costituito da due vasti piazzali a diverso livello, quello inferiore, il c.d. 'ippocampo', progettato al fine evidente di valorizzare l'aspetto monumentale dell'edificio, posto sulla terrazza più alta 21 , che venne esaltato anche mediante la sistemazione a ninfeo del muro di sostegno della terrazza e dalle gradinate che permettevano di raggiungere il piazzale superiore. Il complesso è, inoltre, inserito con abilità nel precedente tessuto urbano, ellenistico, della zona; esso si trova su una delle più importanti plateiai, che, proveniente dall'Acradina, attraversa in senso Est-Ovest la città 22 e il c.d. 'ippocampo' è perfettamente adattato al tessuto viario, essendo compreso tra due stenopoi 23. L'anfiteatro non segue l'orientamento del piano urbanistico precedente, poiché il suo asse maggiore è dettato dalla conformazione del terreno, cioè della cava, le cui pareti furono sfruttate per sostenere il meniano inferiore; del resto ciò che importava all'architetto non era tanto il formale rispetto di un piano urbano, che si doveva manomettere comunque, interrompendo la continuità dell'asse viario Est-Ovest, quanto lo sfruttamento della situazione urbanistica esistente, per rispondere a una delle preoccupazioni fondamentali dei costruttori di edifici da spettacolo romani, quella del rapido accesso e deflusso della folla degli spettatori 24. E' questa anche la seconda importante funzione dell' 'ippocampo'; offrire uno sfogo alla folla che andava ad assistere o ritornava dallo spettacolo, costituendo una sorta di polmone, che ne regolava il movimento. A questo scopo ci si servì anche della preesistente viabilità della zona: dal lato sud-ovest, l'anfiteatro poteva essere raggiunto tramite le due strade che costeggiavano 1' 'ippocampo'; dal lato opposto (quello nord-est), un'altra strada Nord-Sud 25 serviva l'ingresso principale a Settentrione del monumento 26. Si realizzò in tal modo un inserimento meditato e non

Mare Internum, 2022

For a history of Sicilian modular town planning • Taking a cue from a recent work by Lorenzo Camp... more For a history of Sicilian modular town planning • Taking a cue from a recent work by Lorenzo Campagna, in support of the dating following the First Punic War of the urban plans of some cities which, according to the ancient sources, were founded during the fourth century BC (Tyndaris, Tauromenion, Soluntum), this article reviews the archaeological data available from these cities and other new foundations (Adranon, Halaisa). It concludes that an urban planning phase prior to the Hellenistic age can be identified in all of them. It is a town planning based on principles of orthogonality and modularity: proportional relationships between the module and the other elements of the plan are at the basis of its development. These principles should have been developed in Syracuse under the Deinomenids, while pursuing the policy of forced displacement and synoikismoi implemented by Gelon and Ieron. They can indeed be found in the planning of Acradina and Neapolis in Syracuse, which can be traced back to the Deinomenids, even if, after their fall, the urbanization was put into effect from the second half of the iv century BC.

Comparing Greek Colonies, 2022

The landscape archaeology project in the territory of the Greek colony of Himera started in 1981 ... more The landscape archaeology project in the territory of the Greek colony of Himera started in 1981 and continued in subsequent stages up to the 2000s (fig. 1). In recent years the survey has been extended to the mountainous area of the Madonie, where since 2007 the excavation of the rock shelter of Vallone Inferno has been underway. The results have been published in three earlier volumes in addition to a fourth which has just been published.1 The archaeological survey involved all three valleys that cross the hinterland of the city, those of the northern Imera, Torto and S. Leonardo rivers and the watershed area between the northern Imera, the southern Imera and the Platani rivers. For the first time in Sicily, we used the well-known intensive and systematic methodology with total land cover in most of the areas investigated, while other areas were investigated through targeted surveys and selected site inspections.2 All archaeological evidence was located using a mobile GPS and all data were computerized in a GIS. The usual maps were produced: the archaeological map, the map of slope gradient, the map of slope orientation, ground visibility maps, chronological and phase maps, predictive maps and maps of distribution of finds in the territory. LCP or SP analyses allowed us to understand the relationships and to detect areas of interaction between the colony and the neighbouring native sites, while intervisibility analyses (fig. 2a) were fundamental to reconstructing various landscapes as landscapes of power, economic landscapes or symbolic and cognitive landscapes such as the sacred landscape or landscapes of memory.3 Nevertheless, we want to emphasize that our maps are not proposed as a means of protecting cultural heritage, but as a means for an in-depth analysis of the landscape. This assumption applies not only to topographic and geomorphological maps, but also to predictive maps, since logistic regression model allowed us to identify factors associated with the presence of settlements (fig. 3) and therefore helps us understand the intimate relationship that exists between the choice of a place and the surrounding landscape.4

Journal of Greek Archaeology, 2023

After a re-examination of the 5th century BC housing culture at Himera in comparison with the hou... more After a re-examination of the 5th century BC housing culture at Himera in comparison with the housing culture of the same period in Athens, four Athenian red-figured and black glazed pottery assemblages are examined by comparing them with similar contexts from housing districts in Himera, in order to reconstruct as far as possible, the dinner services for convivial meals that involved the consumption of wine, both in formal meetings, both in everyday contexts. Finally, the stratigraphic context of five red-figured craters found in Himera is taken into consideration, re-examining the associations with other ceramic finds with the aim of reconstructing their contexts of use and the functions of the rooms where they were found.

Science and cultural …, 2007

Kokalos, 2022

Abstract · Himera in the second half of the v century BC. Aspects of material culture: houses, ta... more Abstract · Himera in the second half of the v century BC. Aspects of material culture:
houses, table wares, convivial meals · After a re-examination of the 5th century BC housing
culture at Himera in comparison with the housing culture of the same period in Athens, four
Athenian red-figured and black glazed pottery assemblages are examined by comparing them
with similar contexts from housing districts in Himera, in order to reconstruct as far as possible,
the dinner services for convivial meals that involved the consumption of wine, both in formal
meetings, both in everyday contexts. Finally, the stratigraphic context of five red-figured craters
found in Himera is taken into consideration, re-examining the associations with other ceramic
finds with the aim of reconstructing their contexts of use and the functions of the rooms where
they were found.
Keywords · Himera, 5th Century BC, Context, Material Culture.
Riassunto · Dopo un riesame della cultura abitativa imerese del v sec. a.C. a confronto con
quella documentata ad Atene, si prendono in considerazione quattro contesti ceramici ateniesi
confrontandoli con similari contesti di Himera, allo scopo di ricostruire nella misura possibile i
servizi da tavola destinati ad attività conviviali che prevedessero il consumo di vino, sia in occasione
di riunioni formali, sia in contesti quotidiani. Infine, si riesamina il contesto di rinvenimento di
cinque crateri a figure rosse ritrovati a Himera nell’abitato, riconsiderando le associazioni con altri
reperti ceramici al fine di ricostruire i modi di uso e le funzioni dei vani in cui sono stati ritrovati.
Parole chiave · Himera, v sec. a.C., contesti, cultura materiale.

ARCHEOLOGIA AEREA, 2011

lavoro non sarebbe stato possibile senza il costante appoggio e incoraggiamento della dott.ssa Ro... more lavoro non sarebbe stato possibile senza il costante appoggio e incoraggiamento della dott.ssa Rosalia Camerata Scovazzo e dell'arch. Pietro Meli, rispettivamente Presidente e Direttore del Parco, che hanno finanziato il progetto. Agrigento. New Analysis about Town Planning by Aerial Photo Reading. Methodological Issues and Preliminary Results

Atlante Tematico di Topografia Antica, 2023

Taking a cue from the text of Diodorus, who mentions the proasteia of Himera, where Hermocrates c... more Taking a cue from the text of Diodorus, who mentions the proasteia of Himera, where Hermocrates camped after the destruction
of the city in 409 BC, we examine the “port district” across the river, analysing the settlement characteristics and the functions
of the buildings, as delineated by the excavators a few years ago. We come to the conclusion that the “neighbourhood” can be
interpreted as a proasteion ateichiston, a real projection of the town outside the walls, with more complex values than a simple
commercial district. The comparison with the proasteia of Syracuse allows us to outline the complexity of the reasons that justify
the projection of the cities beyond the walls and also the polyvalence of the term, which probably served to indicate other forms of
projection in the territory, such as the presence of ceramic workshops, dispersed farmhouses or peripheral sanctuaries.

Since the work of Brochier, Villa & Giacomarra (Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 1992) the ... more Since the work of Brochier, Villa & Giacomarra (Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 1992) the use of caves and rock shelters, for pastoral purpose, in this area of Sicily since antiquity, has been attested, but the attention of the mentioned study focused mainly on recent and subrecent deposits and the lack of an archaeological record within the sites presented, reduces the impact of it, with respect to our investigation, despite an accurate sedimentological analysis. Today we want to present and discuss the results of an interdisciplinary investigation of a site that, up to date, is the first pastoral settlement of the area covering the entire history of pastoralism development, from Neolithic to modern age (with some gap, of course) in one of the main Mediterranean islands: Sicily. Our research documents the born and the development of pastoralism from different point of view: chronological, technical and cultural. We are documenting the interest for a mountain range, dating back to Neolithic until present. The site shows a stratigraphy that embraces the whole Holocene. The deposit was covered by a subactual level of use, with a modern pastoral pen and goes back to Neolithic, crossing medieval, late roman, middle and early Bronze age levels. Up to date, actually, Vallone Inferno rock shelter and the Neolithic "tricromica" painted pottery found here represent the first stage of a constant and uninterrupted mountain exploitation (mainly for pastoral purpose, we suggest) opening this extreme range to human peopling from all over the region, until modern age. Even if the rock shelter is sited in a mountainous context, the place is opened directly on one of the main fluvial valley of the Island-the Himera river valley, connecting, with the Soutern Himera river, the Northern coast of Sicily to the inner and Southern part of the region. This geographical feature and the altitude reached by these mountains, the only real mountains (except Mt. Etna) of the Island, are the more probable explications for the presence in the site of cultural element coming from all over Sicily, especially during recent prehistory (final Copper age-early Bronze age), when the pastoral activity probably involved both horizontal (North-South and East-West) and vertical (from valley to the top of the mountains) shifts of livestock. Our speech aims to show a detailed report of an interdisciplinary analysis, mainly of levels of Bronze age, as knew by the ongoing excavation, with particular attention to the dynamics of formation of the archaeological deposit and to the technical choices linked to the pastoral activity we can interpret by data of anthropic and natural derivation, originating by different chrono-cultural stages we are able to distinguish. Vallone Inferno rockshelter is a rare place where herding activity and its socio-cultural features can be seen in their evolution from the first stage of Holocene until contemporary days, that's a unique chance! Our attention will be focused on seasonality of the site (suggested from analysis of carpological remains), cultural provenance of herding groups (with some implication for regional culture and economy development), technical choices resulting by intra-site spatial analysis at a diachronic level of investigation, especially of pens and areas or levels of burnt manure.

Studi e Materiali. Nuova serie , 2018

Ormai da molti anni è in atto una proficua collaborazione tra il Dipartimento Culture e Società d... more Ormai da molti anni è in atto una proficua collaborazione tra il Dipartimento Culture e Società di Palermo e l’Archäologisches Institut di Göttingen, sia nel campo della ricerca, sia in quello della didattica, con l’attivazione di un doppio titolo congiunto tra i corsi magistrali di archeologia delle due università. Dopo il colloquio organizzato nel 2015 a Villa Vigoni, presso il Centro italo-tedesco per l’Eccellenza europea, i cui atti sono stati editi nel 2017, in questo volume sono pubblicati gli interventi al seminario tenuto a Göttingen nel novembre del 2017, espressamente organizzato per offrire agli studenti del doppio titolo la possibilità di presentare i loro lavori di tesi e di prendere parte attivamente a una riunione scientifica su un tema attinente ai loro interessi. La Sicilia romana, infatti, è stata oggetto di studio intenso negli ultimi venti anni, con risultati di indubbio valore.
Il titolo del seminario con i suoi termini binari, città e territorio, monumentalizzazione ed economia, crisi e sviluppo vuole riflettere la complessità della situazione dell’isola in età romana. Non una dicotomia tra i vari aspetti presi in esame, ma una loro dialettica, tra il consolidarsi di una situazione poleografica diversa, e nuovi assetti territoriali. La cui conseguenza sono il costituirsi di un nuovo paesaggio, profondamente diverso dal precedente, e di un nuovo assetto economico. Crisi e sviluppo, pertanto, non più visti in alternativa, come momenti e periodi che si alternano e succedono l’uno dopo l’altro nel tempo, ma come fattori operanti contemporaneamente in una realtà complessa sia dal punto di vista sociale ed economico, sia da quello urbano e territoriale.
Il volume è scaricabile in open access dal sito dell'editore UniPa Press

Comptes Rendus Palevol, 2013

Human palaeontology and prehistory New data on Sicilian prehistoric and historic evolution in a m... more Human palaeontology and prehistory New data on Sicilian prehistoric and historic evolution in a mountain context, Vallone Inferno (Scillato, Italy) Nouvelles données sur l'évolution préhistorique et historique dans un contexte montagneux, le Vallone Inferno (Scillato, Italie

The aim of this report is to present the results of rescue excavations, executed in order to cont... more The aim of this report is to present the results of rescue excavations, executed in order to contrast illegal excavation at the necropolis at Baucina, in northwestern Sicily, where Punic, Greek and indigenous traditions coexisted. Their relationship is the focus of our ongoing investigation. We collected an archeological dataset which demonstrates that the interaction between three different ethnicities resulted in an impressive variety of rituals. The future excavation of the town could throw further light on this interaction, which took place in a period in which Greek and Punic peoples designed their spheres of influence of the territories within the Mediterranean area, and the role of the social system within the geopolitical framework.

Page 1. STUDI E MATERIALI ISTITUTO DI ARCHEOLOGIA UNIVERSITÀ DI PALERMO OSCAR BELVEDERE L&amp... more Page 1. STUDI E MATERIALI ISTITUTO DI ARCHEOLOGIA UNIVERSITÀ DI PALERMO OSCAR BELVEDERE L&#x27;ACQUEDOTTO CORNELIO DI TERMINI IMERESE «L&#x27;ERMA» di BRETSCHNEIDER - ROMA Page 2. % Page 3. ...

randini have introduced in Italy the methods of archaeological excavation and survey developed ar... more randini have introduced in Italy the methods of archaeological excavation and survey developed around the middle of the XX century by Anglo-Saxon scholars, inspired to the basic principles of the new archeology and in the field of landscape archeology to a deterministic approach. In both cases, a lively debate supported this required methodological innovation, in part due to a physiological resistance to innovation; in part to an aggressive manner, the partisans of innovation brought forward their reasons. Regarding the aspect that interests us here, the surface archaeology and survey, represented in Italy mainly by the Roman and Bolognese schools of ancient topography, the judgment of the innovators is strongly negative: The methodology is rudimentary. The archaeological maps are a fine dust of pointless dots. Paradoxically, a similar expression, broken pots and meaningless dots, has been used to criticize the methodological drift of processual landscape archeology.1 Ancient topogr...

Journal of Ancient Topography, 2023

ANRW, 1988

Mare Internum, 2022

Comparing Greek Colonies, 2022

Journal of Greek Archaeology, 2023

Science and cultural …, 2007

Kokalos, 2022

ARCHEOLOGIA AEREA, 2011

Atlante Tematico di Topografia Antica, 2023

Studi e Materiali. Nuova serie , 2018

Comptes Rendus Palevol, 2013

Comptes Rendus Palevol

Vallone Inferno rock-shelter is an archaeological site located in the Madonie mountain range in S... more Vallone Inferno rock-shelter is an archaeological site located in the Madonie mountain range in Sicily. Archaeological excavation and research have provided a long prehistoric and historic sequence from the Neolithic to the medieval period, this being the most complete work in this area at present. In this paper we present the preliminary data provided by a multidisciplinary study based on pottery, lithic, human, faunal and plant remains. Stratigraphic studies have identified four complexes, of which complex 3 has provided almost all the archaeological remains. 14C AMS dates, obtained from four samples, place the human activities between 2601 cal BC and 644 cal AD. These dates are coherent with the cultural attribution of the ceramic and lithic remains. Macrofaunal and plant remains show a persistent use of the shelter for pastoral activities. Environmental data, obtained from microvertebrate and archaeobotanical remains, show the aridification and opening of the landscape from the base to the top of the sequence as a consequence of the human impact.

J.Bergemann Hrsg.,Kultur und Natur in der antiken Mittelmeerwelt, Kolloquium Villa Vigoni, Göttinger Studien zur Mediterranen Archäologie 9, Verlag Marie Leidorf 2020, 2020

Altertums-und Naturwissenschaften sind im April 2018 zu einem deutsch-italienischen Kolloquium in... more Altertums-und Naturwissenschaften sind im April 2018 zu einem deutsch-italienischen Kolloquium in der Villa Vigoni zusammengekommen über frühe menschliche Öko-dynamik im antiken Mittelmeerraum. Es wurde gefragt, welche Konsequenzen Umwelt-veränderungen für die antiken Kulturen hatten, oder ob sie auf anthropogene Ursachen zurückzuführen sind. Die Archäologie kooperiert mit Geologie, Hydrologie, Paläoökolo-gie, Geographie, Physik und Chemie, die ein umfangreiches Methodenspektrum, zur Ver-fügung stellen, historische Umwelt zu rekonstruieren sowie zurückliegende Interaktionen zwischen Mensch und Umwelt. Studiosi di discipline relative alle scienze classiche e a quelle naturali si sono riuniti a Villa Vigoni nell'aprile 2018 per un colloquio italo-tedesco sull'ecodinamica umana nel Me-diterraneo antico. L'obiettivo di tale incontro erano le conseguenze dei cambiamenti am-bientali sulle culture antiche o se tali cambiamenti fossero dovuti a cause antropogeniche. L'archeologia collabora con la geologia, l'idrologia, la paleoecologia, la geografia, la fisica e la chimica, che insieme forniscono un ampio spettro di metodi per ricostruire contesti ambientali, storici e interazioni passate tra l'uomo e il suo ambiente.

Archaeology and Historical Demography. Methods and Case Studies between Mediterranean and Central Europe, 2023

The volume publishes the contributions of two seminars, one held in Goettingen in June 2022 and t... more The volume publishes the contributions of two seminars, one held in Goettingen in June 2022 and the other in Palermo in October 2022. Methodological aspects and case studies are taken into consideration from Central Europe to Gaul, Italy, Sicily, Greece and Asia Minor. Each of them addresses the problem of the contribution that excavation and archaeological survey data can give to ancient demography.
The seminars were funded by the Deutschen akademischen Austauschdienst.

Studi e Materiali. Nuova Serie , 2021

Anyone following the debate on “Romanization” in recent years will have noted that North European... more Anyone following the debate on “Romanization” in recent years will have noted that North European (especially Anglo-Saxon and Dutch) contributors to the debate have adopted a different perspective from those of Central and Southern Europe. The first group turned their attention away from the city and the urban elites to the countryside, and to the material culture of the peasant and native social groups, developing a position that was defined as "anti-colonial". Other archaeologists (Italians and French, but also Germans), instead, have continued to lay emphasis mainly on the role of local elites in the "Romanization" process, investigating the usefulness of interpretative categories such as "self-romanisation", in an attempt to overcome both the "colonial" and the "anti-colonial" viewpoints. To avoid this dichotomy, some scholars have proposed to explore cultural transformations in the sense of a dialectic between local and global, using the theory of globalization and focusing on aspects of connectivity and interdependence within the Roman Empire. A word analysis in the archaeological bibliography “Dyabola” shows that the term “globalization” has recently been used in classical studies mainly in the English and French language areas, less in German and Italian, while the term “Romanization” continues to be used far more frequently, especially in Italy and even in the English-speaking world.
The aim of the seminar was, therefore, to bring a group of north European archaeologists together with those who study "Romanization" and cultural contact in the Mediterranean area. What was expected from the exchange of opinion, is to clarify the possibility of interpreting the "Roman" world as a "globalized world" and how these interpretative categories could be applied. The debate has shown, on the one hand, that we cannot neither framed the problem in a purely theoretical nor purely material-based manner, and on the other hand, that the conditions in different provinces and the distant regions of the Roman Empire were divergent. It is more and more evident that the terms “Romanization” and “globalization” should be examined against the background of individual studies with regard to their efficiency and nuances.
The book can be downloaded in open access from the publisher UniPa Press website..