Docter R.F., Gubel E., Martinez Hahnmüller V., Perugini A. (eds.), Amphorae in the Phoenician-Punic World: The State of the Art, Ancient Near Eastern Studies Supplement Series, 62, Dec 31, 2022
This paper examines archaeological data from the excavation on the island of Proratora, north-eas... more This paper examines archaeological data from the excavation on the island of Proratora, north-east Sardinia. The amphora evidence suggests that the site formed part of the maritime networks that stretched across the western Mediterranean. Indications point to continuing contact with vectors carrying Carthaginian goods throughout the second century BCE. The site may have been both a workshop continuing traditional Carthaginian economic practices and a place for the storage and distribution of material with connections to Olbia and elsewhere. Furthermore, the evidence is in line with other data from surveys from nearby areas on the mainland. The currently excavated site is quite small, but a survey of the surrounding zone suggests that this was originally more extensive, something which can be verified by further excavation.
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A common shortcoming of traditional investigations into identity and material culture is an underestimation of how far static material culture can signal the complex, shifting and multifaceted human identities. In the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC, the presence of foreign material culture in culture contact situations is often understood to signal the consumption of foreign material by local communities.
But food and drink consumption play a crucial role in the creation and maintenance of the participants’ identities: it is not solely a passive acceptance of foreign practices.
In short, foreign material consumption does not just mean wholesale acceptance but rather selective appropriation, which can shed light on the types of interactions that took place between local and foreign communities. Using theoretical models from sociology and anthropology, this article explores the relationship between alcohol consumption and the construction of identities, particularly how the presence of foreign wine-related material culture in indigenous sites related to changes in the local societies. The Iron Age in Sardinia was a period of noticeable change, and ritual consumption in the form of feasting and drinking was important for maintaining
and reaffirming the communal and social identities of the local communities. The evidence suggests that active interactions with foreigners in the Iron Age led to the regionalisation of the island communities resulting in changes to local ideologies
and social identities.
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This paper examines amphora lids found in later Punic contexts. Perhaps due to the difficulties in classifying them, these artefacts are often overlooked in the Punic ceramic repertoire, but are certainly an important part of the material evidence. Our samples focus on specific types with an inner rim and come from three excavations in west Sardinia. In this article, we note some ambiguities of production and consider whether these were covers made for amphorae or cooking vessels, or did they have a generic function? They seem to relate principally to the later Punic period after the fourth century BCE and were probably used to cover the torpedo shaped Punic amphorae from that period. We note their provenance within Sardinia and recognise further examples from Sicily, suggesting a western Mediterranean production.
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One class of material that has often been overlooked and mis-identified is the associated amphora lids which were probably used, not during transport, but during the storage period. A number of these have been identified from the Punic area at S’Urachi and research at other sites in Sardinia and elsewhere has produced further evidence. In this poster we present the evidence of these lids and their associated fabrics from these locations.
A common shortcoming of traditional investigations into identity and material culture is an underestimation of how far static material culture can signal the complex, shifting and multifaceted human identities. In the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC, the presence of foreign material culture in culture contact situations is often understood to signal the consumption of foreign material by local communities.
But food and drink consumption play a crucial role in the creation and maintenance of the participants’ identities: it is not solely a passive acceptance of foreign practices.
In short, foreign material consumption does not just mean wholesale acceptance but rather selective appropriation, which can shed light on the types of interactions that took place between local and foreign communities. Using theoretical models from sociology and anthropology, this article explores the relationship between alcohol consumption and the construction of identities, particularly how the presence of foreign wine-related material culture in indigenous sites related to changes in the local societies. The Iron Age in Sardinia was a period of noticeable change, and ritual consumption in the form of feasting and drinking was important for maintaining
and reaffirming the communal and social identities of the local communities. The evidence suggests that active interactions with foreigners in the Iron Age led to the regionalisation of the island communities resulting in changes to local ideologies
and social identities.
This paper examines amphora lids found in later Punic contexts. Perhaps due to the difficulties in classifying them, these artefacts are often overlooked in the Punic ceramic repertoire, but are certainly an important part of the material evidence. Our samples focus on specific types with an inner rim and come from three excavations in west Sardinia. In this article, we note some ambiguities of production and consider whether these were covers made for amphorae or cooking vessels, or did they have a generic function? They seem to relate principally to the later Punic period after the fourth century BCE and were probably used to cover the torpedo shaped Punic amphorae from that period. We note their provenance within Sardinia and recognise further examples from Sicily, suggesting a western Mediterranean production.
One class of material that has often been overlooked and mis-identified is the associated amphora lids which were probably used, not during transport, but during the storage period. A number of these have been identified from the Punic area at S’Urachi and research at other sites in Sardinia and elsewhere has produced further evidence. In this poster we present the evidence of these lids and their associated fabrics from these locations.
I would like to open a discussion on our coming session at the AIAC/ICCA Convention. In the present session you will find the abstracts of our contributors, which are also online on the AIAC-Homepage:
http://www.aiac2018.de/programme/sessions/
if you cannot visit us in Bonn on 24th mai, please feel free to write here your feedback about the proposals. We will try to take you comments and suggestions in account during our common panel discussion and to send you a feedback after the convention.
Best wishes
Raffaella Da Vela
on that of the more usual term of ‘colonisation’, often overlaid by preconceptions of
power and inequality. In fact, migration in the sense of movement of peoples is a key
concept in archaeology as the resulting change and/or continuity in host societies are
often the most important study areas. This paper focuses on the movement of people
during the first millennium in Sardinia, especially the formation of settlements in the
south west of the island by Phoenician settlers. I use the term ‘Phoenician’ as short-hand
for the heterogeneous group of traders and settlers coming from the Levant region.1
Was the development of settlements a result of colonisation or migration? Secondly it
examines the fauna and material culture of the Phoenician settlement at the indigenous
site of S’Urachi, what economic role did the Phoenicians play in the later life of the
nuraghe and how is this visible in the archaeological record?
Excavations carried out around the multi-towered settlement of nuraghe S’Urachi in west central Sardinia have brought to light strong archaeological evidence of continuity throughout the whole first millennium BC. In this paper, we focus on an important phase of building activity which took place in the Late Punic/Roman Republican period (2nd to 1st century BC), when the island had already been annexed to Rome, yet still retained strong Punic cultural features. This phase substantially transformed the appearance of the nuraghe.
The preparation and consumption of food in everyday circumstances is an often-overlooked aspect of communal eating and drinking. This article examines a series of cooking pots from the island site of Proratora in north Sardinia which provide the basis for a discussion of ancient Mediterranean consumption practices and raises interesting questions about the way such social practices are the basis of communal identity in a period and place usually understood as divided between the Roman and Carthaginian worlds.