Selinunte

In der griechischen Archaik entwickelte sich die Vorstellung, dass Tote mithilfe von Bildnissen (Puppen, Figuren etc.) manipuliert werden können, sei es, um sie sich dienstbar zu machen oder sie zu bannen. Ausgehend von der erstmals in den 1990er Jahren publizierten lex sacra von Selinunt auf Sizilien, einer langen griechischsprachigen Inschrift mit Opferanweisungen, diskutiert und analysiert Krešimir Matijević alle weiteren relevanten literarischen, epigrafischen und archäologischen Quellen, die Aufschluss darüber geben, wie die Griechen ihre Toten instrumentalisierten. Es wird nachgewiesen, dass der wahrscheinliche Ursprungsort dieses Ritus in Mesopotamien liegt, wo Figuren benutzt wurden, um auf tote, aber auch lebende Menschen sowie auf Dämonen einzuwirken. Wie bei Voodoo-Ritualen konnten im Zweistromland Puppen auch zu Zwecken der Heilung von Krankheiten eingesetzt werden.
Matijević zeigt, dass die von Teilen der Forschung vertretene Ansicht, die Griechen hätten diesen Brauch bereits in der Bronzezeit, also im 2. Jahrtausend v.Chr. gekannt, nach Auswertung der Quellen nicht haltbar ist. Auch die frühen Epen Homers und Hesiods zeigen noch keine Spur dieser Vorstellung, hier ist der Tote immer noch grundsätzlich machtlos. Erst in nachhomerischer Zeit erlangen die Toten mehr Einfluss über die Welt der Lebenden, etwa zeitgleich mit dem Transfer entsprechender Riten vom östlichen Mittelmeerraum nach Griechenland, in denen verstorbene und lebende Menschen mittels Bildnissen manipuliert werden sollten.

In questo studio preliminare viene descritta la possibilità di un orientamento astronomico delle strutture templari esaminate, in particolare i templi dedicati ad Hera dalle popolazioni della Magna Grecia e Sicilia Greca.
A ciascun tempio è stata collegata una stella, Spica, la cui levata eliaca è legata all’azimut sull’orizzonte del tempio all’epoca di fondazione.
I dati concernenti i templi e le rispettive levate della stella Spica sono stati confrontati con l’evento astronomico dell’equinozio d’autunno e l‘evento agricolo della raccolta della melagrana, frutto sacro ad Hera e raffigurato nelle statuette ritrovate in quei luoghi di culto.
È stata quindi riscontrata una corrispondenza tra i templi dedicati ad Hera, la levata eliaca della stella Spica visibile da tali edifici all’equinozio d’autunno dell’epoca di fondazione e l’evento agricolo della raccolta dei frutti del melograno.
La stella Spica, poco prima che sorga il Sole all’equinozio d’autunno - periodo dell’anno di raccolta dei frutti del melograno - compare sull’asse dei templi dedicati a Hera, in modo da conferire un importante significato simbolico alla fondazione degli stessi nei territori della colonizzazione greca in Italia meridionale.

In the spring of 409, according to Greco-Roman sources, a force under Hannibal Mago of Carthage sacked Selinunte.  The destruction layer uncovered by NYU-IFA excavations, exceptional for its concentration of arrowheads, corroborates previous archaeological evidence that gives credence to the accuracy of the literary accounts.  These same sources go on to describe the reoccupation of Selinous by some of its previous Greek inhabitants, and its changing allegiance across the many conflicts of Hellenistic Sicily.  Despite no indication of a further depopulation, Selinunte’s archaeological record has been interpreted as demonstrating the existence of a Punic colony on the site either immediately following the conquest (Tusa) or in the later fourth century (Mertens & La. Geniére) – relying upon a simplistic paradigm of periodization, in which the homogenous Greek colony became a homogenous Punic colony following its conquest.  While a preponderance of evidence does suggests that the site was the settlement identified in numismatics and epigraphy as Rosh Melqart, and had a large Phoenician population, evidence presented in this paper argues strongly against Jacques des Courtils summation that, “Sélinonte s’inscrit totalement dans le contexte de la civilisation phénico-punique.”

While demographic changes certainly did occur, as evidenced by a proliferation of Sicilian-Punic material culture, it is harmful to understand Selinunte in such a binary narrative.  Instead, a reevaluation of masonry styles, architectural forms, and standing stones oft-identified as aniconic baetyls, corroborates the objections already raised by Christian Russenberger and others that many “indicators” of Punic culture are in fact misinterpretations of the archaeological record.  The most significant new sacred construction in the Hellenistic period is the thoroughly Greek Temple B, dismissed in recent scholarship as anomalous. The discoveries by the IFA-NYU excavations at Temple B and R within the main urban sanctuary, as well as the reevaluation of excavations and architectural study on contrada Gaggera and upon the akropolis all point to Temple B being far from an anomaly, and part of a greater phenomenon of urban and ritual continuity before and after 409.  While objects are not people, and hence Greek material culture should not be seen as definitive proof of Greek inhabitants, there is no longer valid evidence for the total dominance of Punic culture in Selinunte.  This heterogeneous city then, while still useful for understanding Punic trends on the island, can also stand an example of intensive cultural coexistence, and as a further warning against unqualified descriptions of “Greek” and “Punic” cities.

This paper considers an incense burner in the form of a female head from a house of the Punic phase on Selinous’ acropolis. After an overview of the history of studies and the main questions related to these objects, the paper considers the context where this terracotta was retrieved, which is so far the only kontext of an incense burner shaped like a female head known from Selinous. The study then analyses the technical and stylistic aspects of the incense burner, proposes a date based on the context, suggests some hypotheses about the related deity and makes an important contribution with regard to the function of these objects. Chemical analyses carried out on this terracotta-the first to be performed on an incense burner of this shape-show that it was used for burning fragrant substances. Finally, on the basis of the various issues addressed in the contribution, the incense burner and its context are regarded as a consequence of phenomena of interaction and hybridisation taking place in Punic Sicily and other Mediterranean areas controlled by Carthage.

SOMMARIO DEL VOLUME

A. Di Vita, Selinunte fra il 650 e il 409: un modello urbanistico coloniale (con appendice di A. Di Vita e M.A. Rizzo)

A. Di Vita, Le fortificazioni di Selinunte classica

A. Rallo, Nuovi aspetti dell'urbanistica selinuntina (con appendice di V. Di Grazia)

A. Corso, L'Heraion di Paro

G. Dontas, Proposte per un'erma di stratega del Museo di Napoli

L. Guerrini, Statua di Nemesi da Gortina

S. Lagona, Statua panneggiata dalla stoa di Artemis Astias a Jasos

M.A. Rizzo, Capitelli corinzio-italici da Creta

A. Dello Prete, Le importazioni di ceramica fine a Gortina e a Creta tra il IV e il VII sec. d.C.

Atti della Scuola 1981-1984 (A. Di Vita)

Περιλήψεις

A reflection on the knowledge of Attic ceramics attested in the Selinunte sanctuaries: despite its fundamental value for the identification of trade flows and ideological values ​​reflected in the selection of iconographic forms and themes, the study of Attic figurative production is still today a substantially marginal trend in the wide flowering of studies on Selinunte. The overall view of the "complex" of figurative Attic ceramics present in Selinunte, aims to give a first interpretation that privileges the contextual data, even within the objective limits deriving from the possibility of disposing - relative to the statistical aspect - of the only published materials and of those preserved in the antiquarium of the Malophoros.

The excavations directed by professor Vincenzo Tusa at Selinus, on the south-western edge of the so called Acropolis, brought to light, in 1967, a small sacred area of the Punic phase. Among the findings, dating between the second half of the 4th century BC and the first half of the 3rd century BC, a marble lamp, a Corinthian pyxis and a terracotta can be dated to the Archaic period. Beyond the analysis of the three findings and their dating on the basis of the parallels, a focus on the numerous marble lamps retrieved at Selinus is performed, revealing that the Greek colony is, with Miletus, the place with the highest number of marble lamps in all the Mediterranean. This aspect stress the richness of Selinus already in the few decades since its foundation and the connections between the settlement, the Ionic area and the Cyclades. Finally the article discusses the possible reasons for the presence of archaic holy objects in the Hellenistic sacred area.

Metal objects very often play an important role in the evaluation of identities of ancient communities, e.g. in Archaic Sicily, which was formed by the interaction between Greek colonists and the indigenous people. Based on the huge complex of metal objects discovered in the agora of the Greek colony of Selinunte, we can prove the influx of numerous, mostly fragmented foreign objects to Sicily between the last third of the 7th and the second half of the 6th century B.C. Obviously these objects reached Sicily at least partially already as scrap metal. While foreign objects are almost lacking in earlier complexes of the 8th and early 7th centuries B.C., their number decreases again in the late 6th and 5th centuries B.C., maybe caused by the beginning of coinage in the Greek colonies and / or an altered supply to Sicily with raw metal. Hence, the metal objects from Selinunte cannot be considered as “identity markers”, but should be rather regarded under the economic aspect of “resource management”.

A central component of Greek sacrifice was the act of purification through water. The louterion, or perirrhanterion, a basin standing on a cylindrical shaft and base, was the most typical container for these lustral waters. Produced also for domestic settings, contextual readings, with a consideration of their associated assemblages, are critical for interpretation. While material and formal differences make generalizations difficult, the style of louterion developed in Corinth proved particularly popular in the colonies of Magna Graecia and Sicily, and in the sixth and fifth centuries a diverse series of basins with relief decoration were produced and traded between Himera, Gela, Akragas, and Selinous in western Sicily. And yet, trade of these objects exceeded Greek sites and speaks to a far more adaptable and polyvalent ritual object.

Created with rolling stamps, the reliefs portray Centauromachies, hunters, charioteers, and other mythological scenes—and the quality of this thoroughly Greek iconography has led to a great deal of scholarly attention. Largely restricted in the past to typological analysis, the entire corpus was assumed to be either solely for use in Greek sanctuaries, or for domestic settings. Beyond the fact that a review of original field journals reveals that their findspots varied to a greater degree, these louteria are also found in both indigenous and Phoenicio-Punic sites, such as Mozia and Gibil Gabib. Especially in these new cultural contexts, while the iconography and forms remain homogenous, contexts can vary quite a deal, found not only in sanctuaries but also in ritual and profane domestic contexts and, surprisingly, in burial contexts.

As has been done with imported sympotic pottery in recent years, a contextual reading of louteria in their new settings allows one to chart the chain of transformations by which a Greek ritual object can become an indigenous ritual object for an indigenous audience—avoiding the hermeneutic dangers inherent to colonial and post-colonial approaches. Indeed, louteria seemed to be just as adaptable when traded among the Greek colonies—the polyvalent nature of the objects reflected in the generalized iconographies of victory, order, and other concepts found in the relief decoration. These concepts, when agreeable to local schema, explain the importation of stamped louteria to sites such as Mozia, where one finds reliefs depicting Nikai crowning charioteers—in this instance especially compelling considering other adaptations of agonic motifs into the Phoenician vocabulary.

The Rome Department of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) carried out widespread excavations in the agora of Selinunte under the direction of D. Mertens between 1995 and 2007, whereby a large number of small finds was found. The regions of origin of the metal objects from Selinunte spread over a very large area, which stretches from Southern and Central France in the West to the Caucasus and Cyprus in the East whereas pieces from the Greek motherland play a minor role. Next to indigenous objects from Sicily, also characteristic pieces from France, Etruria, the Adriatic regions, and Asia Minor are documented. This proves the widespread networking of Selinunte in the western Mediterranean, which is only partially represented by other find categories. The vast majority of metal finds dates between the late 7th and the second half of the 6th century BC. Most bronze objects are strongly fragmented and traces of deliberate damage are commonly observed. Together with the many foreign pieces this hints that we don`t deal with “regular” settlement remains. Instead, it is evidently a case of hoarded artefacts like those found in sanctuaries in Southern and Eastern Sicily, for example in the sanctuary of Demeter in Bitalemi near Gela. In the agora of Selinunte the bronzes seem to have been used as a store of value and a medium of exchange, but also as raw material for metalworking, whereas only sparse evidence for sacred contexts can be found.

The Punic city on the acropolis of Selinous, built at the end of the 4th century B.C. in the remains of the Megarian colony, played an important role in the economic system of the Carthaginian eparchy in Western Sicily. As a harbour city it kept close relations with the indigenous settlements of the interior. These provided the agrarian products that were undoubtedly the main focus of the Carthaginians economical interests in the region. This article contributes to the debate about the impact of the Carthaginian rule and its economical interests on the political and cultural developments in the indigenous communities of Western Sicily during the early Hellenistic period. As a starting point serves the settlement on Monte Iato, situated near the source of the Belice river, a fundamental link for the exchange between the Selinuntian coastline and its hinterland.
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La città punica sull’acropoli di Selinunte, nata nell’ultimo terzo del IV sec. a.C. dalle rovine della colonia megarese, svolgeva un importante ruolo all’interno del sistema economico dell’eparchia dei Cartaginesi nella Sicilia
occidentale. Come città portuaria, manteneva strette relazioni con gli insediamenti indigeni dell’entroterra, i cui prodotti agricoli e pastorali senza dubbio stavano al centro degli interessi economici dei dominatori Cartaginesi. Il contributo si occupa degli effetti prodotti dagli interessi economici dei Punici sulla vita politica e culturale negli insediamenti dell’entroterra della Sicilia occidentale durante la prima età ellenistica. Come punto di partenza si presenta l’antico insediamento di Monte Iato, situato nei pressi delle sorgenti del Belice destro, fondamentale collegamento fra l’entroterra e la costiera selinuntina.

In 409 B.C.E., a regional conflict between the Greek city of Selinus and the Elymian city of Segesta would take on international significance, with the Carthaginians under Hannibal Mago besieging Selinus and razing it in a matter of days. As famously related by Diodorus Siculus, this event was significant not only for the brutality of the sack but also for the conflict it initiated over the next three years which saw the destruction of Greek cities across the island, forever changing the geopolitical landscape of the Western Mediterranean. During excavations within Temple R on the Acropolis of Selinunte by New YorkUniversity’s Institute of Fine Arts, clear evidence of this sack has been found, ranging from extensive signs of burning to well over 75 arrowheads found in a clear destruction layer. Beyond speaking to the brutality of the conquest, a careful investigation of the typological nuances of these arrowheads and their comparanda across the Mediterranean reveals several significant conclusions about Punic archery and Western Mediterranean warfare generally.

While the heterogeneity of arrowhead types found at Marathon and Thermopylae make ethnic or national distinctions difficult in such cases, in the case of Selinus types found almost exclusively in Ibiza, Iberia, and Carthage, as are types popular in Italic contexts from which the Carthaginians drew mercenaries. While not an argument for arrowheads as ethnic identifiers, the material from Selinus does suggest a far greater degree of regionalism in military technology than previously allowed in scholarship. The arrowheads of Selinus favor the growing understanding in the classical scholarship of the importance of archery in military conflict, a reaction to the earlier view of such warfare as a prelude to more decisive hand-to-hand combat. This view may be challenged based upon not only a numerical analysis but also an extensive study of the wear patterns upon the arrowheads of Selinus. Such studies clearly point to these arrowheads being used in the sack itself, rather than being discards or votive in nature, fundamentally challenging certain conceptions of classical warfare.

From a class of objects too often ignored in field reports and publications, one can thus not only evaluate the veracity of Diodorus Siculus’ account but also learnt far more about the actors involved in one of the most important battles of the Pre-Roman Western Mediterranean.