Two Collaborative Projects for Coroplastic Research, V. The Work of the Academic Years 2018–2019 (2020) (original) (raw)

From 6 to 10 April 2021, the 12th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (ICAANE) took place remotely and was broadcast from the University of Bologna, Italy. Within the conference, Barbara Bolognani and Nadeshda Bladt Knudsen organized a workshop entitled “Standardising Creativity. Analytical Tools for the Study of Clay Figurines in the Mediterranean and Near East”. The workshop was part of the thematic session no. 3 “Hammering the material world. Characterization of material culture, processes and technologies” and was held under the auspices of the Association for Coroplastic Studies (ACoST), with the kind support and presence of the group’s founder and president, Jaimee Uhlenbrock. The workshop involved thirteen coroplastic specialists from eight different countries and thirteen affiliated institutions. The principal focus of the workshop was on Mediterranean and Near Eastern clay figurines. The aim was to give voice to wide-ranging and inclusive aspects of terracotta figurine studies that resonate with all researchers in this field, irrespective of geographic region or archaeological period.

An international team of 7 researchers has been meeting biannually to collaborate on two projects that are envisaged as aids for coroplastic research. The first is the Handbook for Coroplastic Research (HaCoSt), a tool designed for those new to the field of coroplastic studies. The second project has been nicknamed Winter On-Line. This concerns the creation of a searchable version of Franz Winter, Die Typen der figürlichen Terrakotten, 1903, in wiki format.

In the study of Greek figurative terracottas there are many pitfalls that have resulted from out-dated notions that continue to influence coroplastic scholarship. The young researcher, in particular, must be attentive to the sources of an argument and employ critical judgement in order to avoid misdirection when interpreting coroplastic material.

Version française de l'article publié Archaeological Reports 64 (2017-2018), p. 153-169. À travers 30 ans de bibliographie, état de la recherche sur la coroplathie grecque, qui s’est constituée en domaine de recherche autonome. Les principales nouveautés concernent d'abord l'examen des modalités de fabrication (généralisation de l'étude des séries, recherches sur la polychromie) et de diffusion (formation de koinès), qui font de la coroplathie un artisanat étonnamment moderne, ainsi que l’approche spatiale des ateliers et celle des artisans par l’épigraphie. Quant à la fonction des figurines dans les contextes votifs et funéraires, elle est désormais éclairée par l'approche anthropologique : naguère encore considérées comme de simples bibelots, les figurines de terre cuite deviennent aujourd'hui un élément incontournable de l'archéologie de la religion grecque.

The ubiquitous presence of masses of figurative terracottas in Greek sanctuaries of the Archaic and Classical periods has given rise to their almost universal use as iconographic tools for the identification of cult. A practice that has its roots in the archaeological literature of the late 18th and early 19th century, it has engendered certain research biases that have been difficult to overcome. A review of these biases and their origins could be useful in reorienting the researcher of coroplastic topics away from dangerous preconceptions.