Classical Archaeology in Italy (original) (raw)

Classical Archaeology in the Digital Age – The AIAC Presidential Panel

2021

On behalf of the 'Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica (AIAC)' the 19 th International Congress for Classical Archaeology took place in Cologne and Bonn from 22 to 26 May 2018. It was jointly organized by the two Archaeological Institutes of the Universities of Cologne and Bonn, and the primary theme of the congress was 'Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World'. In fact, economic aspects permeate all areas of public and private life in ancient societies, whether in urban development, religion, art, housing, or in death. Research on ancient economies has long played a significant role in ancient history. Increasingly in the last decades, awareness has grown in archaeology that the material culture of ancient societies offers excellent opportunities for studying the structure, performance, and dynamics of ancient economic systems and economic processes. Therefore, the main objective of this congress was to understand economy as a central element of classical societies and to analyze its interaction with ecological, political, social, religious, and cultural factors. The theme of the congress was addressed to all disciplines that deal with the Greco-Roman civilization and their neighbouring cultures from the Aegean Bronze Age to the end of Late Antiquity. The participation of more than 1.200 scholars from more than 40 countries demonstrates the great response to the topic of the congress. Altogether, more than 900 papers in 128 panels were presented, as were more than 110 posters. The publication of the congress is in two stages: larger panels are initially presented as independent volumes, such as this publication. Finally, at the end of the editing process, all contributions will be published in a joint conference volume. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all participants and helpers of the congress who made it such a great success. Its realization would not have been possible without the generous support of many institutions, whom we would like to thank once again: the Universities of Bonn and Cologne, the Archaeological Society of Cologne, the Archaeology Foundation of Cologne, the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the Sal. Oppenheim Foundation, the German Research Foundation (DFG), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Romano-Germanic Museum Cologne and the LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn. Finally, our thanks go to all colleagues and panel organizers who were involved in the editing and printing process.

Archaeology of archaeology: recostructing history of a profession in Italy

This abstract has been read during European professional associations session during EAA 20th conference in Istanbul : we tried to reconstruct the history of the archaeological profession in Italy after the second WW, focusing on some of the breakthroughs we thought were diagnostic to understand the current situation of Archaeology in Italy; it's an history of divisions and misunderstanding between professionals, but also an history from which we have to learn, if we want to succeed in representing a cathegory.

Breaking the "great curse of archaeology". Editorial preface

The journal is open to international research submitted by individual scholars as well as by interdisciplinary teams, and especially wishes to promote work by junior researchers and new and innovative projects. Challenging research themes can be explored in dedicated issues, and theoretical approaches are welcomed. Book reviews and review articles further screen the pulse of the field.

On the Past and Contemporary Character of Classical Archaeology

chapter in book in English, 2011

The paper considers classical archaeology as one of the first and oldest branches of archaeology practised in Europe taking into account the fact that interest in the relics of ancient civilisations is deeply inscribed in the self-identification of various peoples of Europe, in the grounds of their cultural identity. A wider problem concerning the 'living antiquity’ observed in the history of Europe is mentioned as well, and the causes of such vitality which is the reason why we spoke and most often still speak of the Greco-Roman foundations of European civilisation, albeit some argue that such an approach to Antiquity has already declined. It is a known fact that the splendour of Greece shone also on the ancient Roman world but it seems that it happened not only by way of appropriation of cultural achievements. Despite the difficult Roman-Greek relationship and exploitative Roman attitude to the Greek cultural heritage, to some extent cultural exchange took place on the basis of reciprocity. What's more, it is ultimately through the mediation of the Romans that the Hellenic culture flourished on various areas of their huge empire and was thus passed to subsequent periods of history. You could say that already in antiquity the first synthesis of complex achievements of the ancient culture took place on a great scale. It would then influence the medieval and Renaissance Europe, and from modern times each epoch would create its own model of antiquity and make further interpretations and syntheses of its sophisticated achievements. We are therefore entitled to state that the classic legacy is a common past of the whole Europe (thus classical archaeology is all European countries’ own archaeology), regardless of the extent to which the prehistory also creates the past, and to what extent it is formed by archaeologies of the regions and peoples, who in vast majority lived outside the classical world. Therefore, classical archaeology held an exceptionally privileged position for a long time (which is not the case nowadays, when all disciplines are treated equally and research assume a pluralistic approach), because, to some extent, similar to classical studies, it not only dealt with exploring the ancient past, but was to read the values developed in the ancient world and communicate them to next generations. Moreover, these values were drawn from the concept of 'Hellenism', developed already in the eighteenth century, continued in nineteenth, which idealised this unique, classic Greek past which was believed to have been the almost exclusive roots of 'Europeanism'. However, there are two factors that seem to be the main reasons of the independent development of classical archaeology in relation to other branches of archaeology and of its specific character. On the one hand, it is a huge amount of ancient works of art, as well as iconographic representations, temples and other buildings, which preserved to modern times. This legacy - or rather its magnitude and aesthetic qualities – contributed to focusing on the study of art and architecture in classical archaeology, and at the same time lack of interest and underestimation of all other relics of ancient material culture. On the other hand, a huge number of ancient written sources, including primarily the numerous inscriptions, set classical archaeology in a privileged position in relation to archaeology of prehistoric societies. Written sources, always regarded as more important than material remains, only 'illustrating' the former, were almost uncritically considered for a long time a 'real' insight into the ancient world. In the next part of the paper the problem of a very complex relations of classical archaeology and art history, is thoroughly discussed by the author. To conclude the author underlie the fact that archaeology, as well as other disciplines, attempts to preserve a character of a sovereign discipline with a precise research field. It is directed towards specific phenomena of the past cultural and social life, examined primarily through available material remains. However, by opening up more and more for collaboration with other disciplines, it also gets rid of its limitations and total dependence on one controlling humanistic discipline, which is important for classical archaeology regarding its strong connections with classical philology and art history. Nevertheless, she would say that this should not mean distancing itself and giving up this huge and great tradition - on the contrary, it should be rethought and included again in today's research. The authority of science lies in its achievements, jointly produced by scholars, namely the tradition, which is also subject to continuous development and change. The authority of a well-understood tradition does not stand in opposition to the freedom of undertaking new research. In case of archaeology, as one of the disciplines studying the past, we must realise that all questions about the past are asked from the position of the present, therefore, these are questions not only about the past itself, but also about contemporary people, thinking about the past from a particular cultural perspective. The way of thinking about the past is thus in this case a form of communicating the researchers’ own choices of values and thus an informed and open to others form of participating in a culture in which they are positioned. Ewa Bugaj reiterates the opinion stated already at the beginning of the text that our era, like the previous ones, creates its own model of antiquity and makes its own interpretations of its numerous achievements. We should hope that classical archaeology will show an inspiring role of antiquity in our times, as it functions with full knowledge that preserved texts, ideas, representations, as well as material culture of ancient Greece and Rome, for a very long time remained key for the Western world in the process of adaptation of the past in order to authenticate the present. Modern scholars, however, must take into consideration both the recognized use and abuse of the past. Hence, today's classical archaeology significantly broadens its field of research trying to describe the 'social life', the roles and importance of ancient material culture in the contemporary socio-cultural context. In so doing, it takes into account the reflections on the concept of the social agency of things, the strength of their impact, not only knowledge of them, recorded in the social memory. It also considers the influence of ancient artefacts on the senses of the recipient, with all their properties, such as visibility and tangibility, which gives them the ability of ongoing production and materialisation of time and place, of embodying the past.

European Journal of Post Classical Archaeology, 13

Guest editor, 2023

Post-Classical Archaeologies (PCA) is an independent, international, peer-reviewed journal devoted to the communication of post-classical research. PCA publishes a variety of manuscript types, including original research, discussions and review articles. Topics of interest include all subjects that relate to the science and practice of archaeology, particularly multidisciplinary research which use specialist methodologies, such as zooarchaeology, paleobotany, archaeometallurgy, archaeometry, spatial analysis, as well as other experimental methodologies applied to the archaeology of post-classical Europe. Submission of a manuscript implies that the work has not been published before, that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere and that it has been approved by all co-authors. Authors must clear reproduction rights for any photos or illustration, credited to a third party that they wishe to use (including content found on the Internet). For more information about ethics (including plagiarism), copyright practices and guidelines please visit the website www.postclassical.it. PCA is published once a year in May. Manuscripts should be submitted to editor@postclassical.it in accordance to the guidelines for contributors in the webpage http://www.postclassical.it. Post-Classical Archaeologies' manuscript review process is rigorous and is intended to identify the strengths and weaknesses in each submitted manuscript, to determine which manuscripts are suitable for publication, and to work with the authors to improve their manuscript prior to publication. This journal has the option to publish in open access. For more information on our open access policy please visit the website www.postclassical.it. How to quote: please use "PCA" as abbreviation and "European Journal of Post-Classical Archaeologies" as full title. Cover image: Artistic representation of the animal burial found in Santa Maria delle Lacrime a Treviglio (BG), by Binoli Navodya Nimnadi Kankanige Don. "Post-Classical Archaeologies" is indexed in Scopus and classified as Q3 by the Scimago Journal Rank (2022). It was approved on 2015-05-13 according to ERIH PLUS criteria for inclusion and indexed in Carhus+2018. Classified A by ANVUR (Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del sistema Universitario e della Ricerca).