in C. Lang-Auinger, E. Trinkl (eds.), Griechische Vasen als Kommunikationsmedium, CVA Österrreich Beiheft 3, Akten des Symposions (Wien, October 2-3), Wien 2021
Starting from a new unattributed vase from the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Wien (skyphos ANSA IV ... more Starting from a new unattributed vase from the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Wien (skyphos ANSA IV 81), it is possible to better understand the peculiarities of one of the most important early Sicilian workshops in the last decades of the fifth century B.C.: that of the Himera Painter.
This case-study is particularly relevant in order to broaden the understanding of the relationship between production, context and market from renewed perspectives, especially considering the rarity of red figure vases from the inhabited and domestic areas of Magna Graecia and Sicily.
The objects found within a single house from the plateau of Himera allow us to put forward some suggestive hypotheses in relation to the final use-destination of this area: in fact, within these rooms it is possible to record an anomalous concentration of red figure pottery made by a single workshop. Besides that, we can appreciate the presence of numerous fragments of terracotta female statuettes and arulae, and large numbers of loom-weights, arrowheads and knucklebones.
The selection of some particular and unusual iconographic themes, with their semantic and symbolic dimension, would seem to refer – to different degrees – to the nuptial world and to the passages of status of both the female and male component.
The combination of the information coming from the reappraisal of the archaeological context and from the iconographic analysis of the scenes depicted on the red figure Sicilian vases allow us to suggest the existence of a special commission for someone that could have used these objects for some very peculiar ritual activities within one of the most interesting examples of neighborhood sanctuary in an ancient Greek city, probably related to a phratry.
The images on the vases of the workshop of the Himera Painter represent a very peculiar case-study concerning an accurate selection in order to perform some important ritual activity related to the nuptial sphere, one of the most important steps for male and female in the ancient Greek society. These new archaeological clues can confirm the use and destination of these artefacts not only for burial customs but also for the everyday life, with a crucial role – especially for the iconography, as we can see in Himera – for the local market, tradition and production.
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Alcune pratiche religiose in Magna Grecia e in Sicilia, pertinenti a realtà associative di natura civica, sembrano avere caratteristiche piuttosto peculiari. All’interno di questi fenomeni che appartengono – come i culti poliadici ufficiali – al complesso e variegato “mosaico” di esperienze religiose delle colonie greche occidentali, è possibile includere anche le cosiddette ‘case sacre’. Queste ‘ierai oikiai’ avevano probabilmente lo scopo di ospitare gli incontri di alcune ristrette comunità appartenenti a phratriai locali o ad altre associazioni civiche assimilabili. Alla luce di queste premesse, il contributo propone i risultati di un’indagine preliminare relativa a tutti i contesti arche- ologici all’interno delle colonie d’Occidente che meritano di essere riconsiderati da una rinnovata prospettiva ermeneutica. Una riva- lutazione di alcuni edifici attraverso l’analisi spaziale, contestuale e funzionale permette infatti di apprezzare la frequenza costante di alcuni elementi comuni presenti all’interno delle ‘case sacre’. Considerazioni di carattere archeologico, insieme a informazioni di natura storico-epigrafica e socio-antropologica, contribuiscono a dimostrare come oggi sia necessario e urgente ripensare il concetto di “spazio sacro” appartenente alla comunità greca antica, spesso erroneamente concepito entro i limiti canonizzati del santuario delimitato e costruito. Inoltre, allo stesso tempo, il caso delle ‘case sacre’ impone una riflessione approfondita sulla categoria di ‘ritualità domestica’, ridotta il più delle volte a pratiche religiose condotte a livello intimo e privato.
Combining new perspectives and paradigms of research deriving from ‘lived ancient religion’ with the recent iconographic re-contextualization of red-figure pottery coming from a particular area of the plateau of Himera (a Greek colony located in Sicily), we are able to recognize evidence of some very peculiar religious experiences related to the Western Greek world of the 5th century BCE. Indeed, in the ‘sacred house’ of Himera, it is possible to appreciate a figurative and narrative strategy very close to that usually employed for the public sanctuary, with artefacts, furniture and, above all, in-depth attention paid to the scenery surrounding the worshippers. This case-study demonstrates that it is necessary to rethink the concept of ‘sacred space’ belonging to the community, which has often been conceived more narrowly within the limits of a circumscribed and architectually elaborated physical sanctuary.
The first calyx krater features a very peculiar scene with a Thracian musician. The value of this iconography is strictly related to the ritual activities performed within the ‘sacred house’ where the krater was found. This case-study shows us the important symbolic role of music and its relation to some important passages of status. The second calyx krater (from the Nostell Priory collection, but currently preserved in a private collection) features a rare scene with Marsyas and his pupil Olympos. This iconography allows us to retrace the specific choices and the visual strategies set up by the Himera Painter. The rarity of this iconographic theme, with its peculiar combinations of unique iconic signs (especially the aulos), supports the hypothesis that the local market of Himera was influenced by its own cultural substratum, that included the lyric musician Stesichorus of Himera.
The Himera Painter’s calyx kraters allow us to glimpse a close connection between local material culture, local musical tradition and social identity, within the context of a Western Greek colony at the end of the 5th c. BCE. The results of these case-studies suggest the importance of defining the relationship between the symbolic musical space – evoked by some figurative ‘media’, as in the case of the red-figured vases production – and the local cultural (and real) space related to the archaeological context itself.
This case-study is particularly relevant in order to broaden the understanding of the relationship between production, context and market from renewed perspectives, especially considering the rarity of red figure vases from the inhabited and domestic areas of Magna Graecia and Sicily.
The objects found within a single house from the plateau of Himera allow us to put forward some suggestive hypotheses in relation to the final use-destination of this area: in fact, within these rooms it is possible to record an anomalous concentration of red figure pottery made by a single workshop. Besides that, we can appreciate the presence of numerous fragments of terracotta female statuettes and arulae, and large numbers of loom-weights, arrowheads and knucklebones.
The selection of some particular and unusual iconographic themes, with their semantic and symbolic dimension, would seem to refer – to different degrees – to the nuptial world and to the passages of status of both the female and male component.
The combination of the information coming from the reappraisal of the archaeological context and from the iconographic analysis of the scenes depicted on the red figure Sicilian vases allow us to suggest the existence of a special commission for someone that could have used these objects for some very peculiar ritual activities within one of the most interesting examples of neighborhood sanctuary in an ancient Greek city, probably related to a phratry.
The images on the vases of the workshop of the Himera Painter represent a very peculiar case-study concerning an accurate selection in order to perform some important ritual activity related to the nuptial sphere, one of the most important steps for male and female in the ancient Greek society. These new archaeological clues can confirm the use and destination of these artefacts not only for burial customs but also for the everyday life, with a crucial role – especially for the iconography, as we can see in Himera – for the local market, tradition and production.
Alcune pratiche religiose in Magna Grecia e in Sicilia, pertinenti a realtà associative di natura civica, sembrano avere caratteristiche piuttosto peculiari. All’interno di questi fenomeni che appartengono – come i culti poliadici ufficiali – al complesso e variegato “mosaico” di esperienze religiose delle colonie greche occidentali, è possibile includere anche le cosiddette ‘case sacre’. Queste ‘ierai oikiai’ avevano probabilmente lo scopo di ospitare gli incontri di alcune ristrette comunità appartenenti a phratriai locali o ad altre associazioni civiche assimilabili. Alla luce di queste premesse, il contributo propone i risultati di un’indagine preliminare relativa a tutti i contesti arche- ologici all’interno delle colonie d’Occidente che meritano di essere riconsiderati da una rinnovata prospettiva ermeneutica. Una riva- lutazione di alcuni edifici attraverso l’analisi spaziale, contestuale e funzionale permette infatti di apprezzare la frequenza costante di alcuni elementi comuni presenti all’interno delle ‘case sacre’. Considerazioni di carattere archeologico, insieme a informazioni di natura storico-epigrafica e socio-antropologica, contribuiscono a dimostrare come oggi sia necessario e urgente ripensare il concetto di “spazio sacro” appartenente alla comunità greca antica, spesso erroneamente concepito entro i limiti canonizzati del santuario delimitato e costruito. Inoltre, allo stesso tempo, il caso delle ‘case sacre’ impone una riflessione approfondita sulla categoria di ‘ritualità domestica’, ridotta il più delle volte a pratiche religiose condotte a livello intimo e privato.
Combining new perspectives and paradigms of research deriving from ‘lived ancient religion’ with the recent iconographic re-contextualization of red-figure pottery coming from a particular area of the plateau of Himera (a Greek colony located in Sicily), we are able to recognize evidence of some very peculiar religious experiences related to the Western Greek world of the 5th century BCE. Indeed, in the ‘sacred house’ of Himera, it is possible to appreciate a figurative and narrative strategy very close to that usually employed for the public sanctuary, with artefacts, furniture and, above all, in-depth attention paid to the scenery surrounding the worshippers. This case-study demonstrates that it is necessary to rethink the concept of ‘sacred space’ belonging to the community, which has often been conceived more narrowly within the limits of a circumscribed and architectually elaborated physical sanctuary.
The first calyx krater features a very peculiar scene with a Thracian musician. The value of this iconography is strictly related to the ritual activities performed within the ‘sacred house’ where the krater was found. This case-study shows us the important symbolic role of music and its relation to some important passages of status. The second calyx krater (from the Nostell Priory collection, but currently preserved in a private collection) features a rare scene with Marsyas and his pupil Olympos. This iconography allows us to retrace the specific choices and the visual strategies set up by the Himera Painter. The rarity of this iconographic theme, with its peculiar combinations of unique iconic signs (especially the aulos), supports the hypothesis that the local market of Himera was influenced by its own cultural substratum, that included the lyric musician Stesichorus of Himera.
The Himera Painter’s calyx kraters allow us to glimpse a close connection between local material culture, local musical tradition and social identity, within the context of a Western Greek colony at the end of the 5th c. BCE. The results of these case-studies suggest the importance of defining the relationship between the symbolic musical space – evoked by some figurative ‘media’, as in the case of the red-figured vases production – and the local cultural (and real) space related to the archaeological context itself.
This case-study is particularly relevant in order to broaden the understanding of the relationship between production, context and market from renewed perspectives, especially considering the rarity of red figure vases from the inhabited and domestic areas of Magna Graecia and Sicily.
The objects found within a single house from the plateau of Himera allow us to put forward some suggestive hypotheses in relation to the final use-destination of this area: in fact, within these rooms it is possible to record an anomalous concentration of red figure pottery made by a single workshop. Besides that, we can appreciate the presence of numerous fragments of terracotta female statuettes and arulae, and large numbers of loom-weights, arrowheads and knucklebones.
The selection of some particular and unusual iconographic themes, with their semantic and symbolic dimension, would seem to refer – to different degrees – to the nuptial world and to the passages of status of both the female and male component.
The combination of the information coming from the reappraisal of the archaeological context and from the iconographic analysis of the scenes depicted on the red figure Sicilian vases allow us to suggest the existence of a special commission for someone that could have used these objects for some very peculiar ritual activities within one of the most interesting examples of neighborhood sanctuary in an ancient Greek city, probably related to a phratry.
The images on the vases of the workshop of the Himera Painter represent a very peculiar case-study concerning an accurate selection in order to perform some important ritual activity related to the nuptial sphere, one of the most important steps for male and female in the ancient Greek society. These new archaeological clues can confirm the use and destination of these artefacts not only for burial customs but also for the everyday life, with a crucial role – especially for the iconography, as we can see in Himera – for the local market, tradition and production.
The acronym stands for “The ‘Archaeology of Gesture’: Apprenticeship, Tools, Hands, Organization, Collaborations, Learning Experience and Social Network Analysis”. The name-reference is to Agathocles, firstly tyrant of Syracuse and later self-proclaimed “basileus” of Sicily (betwenn 316 and 289/288 BCE). According to the ancient literature sources (Diod. Sic. XIX, 2, 2-3), he was the son of Carcinus of Reghion, a potter with a workshop at Thermai Himeraiai, the new center located in the NW coast of Sicily, founded by ancient Libyans and exiles coming from the previous Greek colony of Himera, destroyed by the Carthaginians in 409 BCE.
The project therefore refers to Agathocles as the son of a craftsman, and the acronym aims to evoke the curiosity and the typical mood of children, that learn by observing the intangible actions closely related to manual skills and gestures provided by those people who are used to transmit their knowledge through the wise use of their hands. The gestures taken into account in this research-project are those of the ancient South Italian painters. The research intends to start right from this unusual perspective, typical of an “apprentice”.
Starting October 2021, the project will focus on the study of the productive technology, the formative models and the organization networks of the ancient red-figure pottery workshops of Magna Graecia and Sicily. One of the main goals of the research is to reconstruct – thanks to a highly interdisciplinary approach – the ancient savoir-faire of the South Italian painters during the fifth and the fourth centuries BCE, thanks to an in-depth analysis of the “sequence of gestures” related to the craftsmen working within the ancient workshops of red-figure pottery.
This research aims to combine traditional studies together with some innovative diagnostic techniques:
1) archaeometric analysis in order to focus on some technological features related to the black-glaze, firing temperature, firing defects, different use of miltos, chemical compositions of the overpainted colours… applying various archaeometric techniques among which a digital optical microscope (portable) and a scanning electron microscope in Lab;
2) innovative photographic techniques as the computational imaging – including the application of “reflectance transformation imaging” – to capture the sketches made before the glaze-treatment, invisible to the naked eye, and then to bring out the real “sequence of gestures” that led to the creation of the scenes depicted on such vases, as demonstrated by the recent research conducted by D. Elia;
3) dactyloscopic investigations both on clay and glazed-surface, in search of fingerprints belonging respectively to potters and painters and evaluate the possibility of better define the internal organization of some workshops (women’s attendance, involvment of pre-adults within the châine operatoire, and therefore dynamics of apprenticeship);
4) sessions of experimental archaeology – thanks to the support of the “Laboratory for Traditional Technology” at the School of Anthropology, University of Arizona – trying to reproduce some technical procedures related to the tools used by the painters for this kind of activity.
5) An important part of the research will also focus on the potential offered by Digital Humanities: an innovative approach for this field of study aimed at revising the A.D. Trendall’s and A. Cambitoglou’s catalogues (updating them with the data resulting from the most recent studies, at least with regard to the early South Italian and Sicilian productions) through the so-called “Social Network Analysis”, following the ongoing studies carried by E. Hasaki and D. Harris Cline on the lists of Attic vases provided by J.D. Beazley.
A.G.A.T.H.O.C.L.E.S. will be held between Italy – University of Turin, Department of Historical Studies (under the supervision of Prof. Diego Elia) – and the United States, in Tucson at the University of Arizona, School of Anthropology (under the supervision of Prof. Eleni Hasaki), and it will also involve the Department of Chemistry of the University of Bari (Italy) [9], especially for the archaeometric approach.
Studying a figured production very homogeneous in style (and coming from a remarkably small area) such as the one by the workshop of the Himera Painter allowed me to start the redefinition of the features and chronology of one of the earliest Sicilian ateliers; moreover, new information became available, especially for a better understanding of the dynamics and the processes that led to the birth and development of the first workshops of red-figure pottery in Sicily, an age-old question that has been the subject of significant scientific debate in recent decades.
The complexity of the phenomena that ruled “the beginnings” of these activities in Sicily at the end of the fifth century BC is well demonstrated by the varied and heterogeneous stylistic language that characterizes the output by Sicilian workshops. Starting from the work of A. D. Trendall, many studies have been devoted to style and iconography, which identified in the Attic tradition the main model from which the first Sicilian productions – especially the workshop of the Chequer Painter – took their inspiration. However, in the light of recent research and thanks to the results deriving from the study of the Himera Painter, some clarifications about the role of mediation played by early South Italian traditions – a crucial role in my opinion – would be salutary.
The workshop of the Himera Painter turned out to be closely connected with the early Apulian tradition. These features invite one to reconsider in a systematic way all the early South Italian productions, in order to be able to integrate the data emerged from my study with new and even more precise comparisons.
On the other hand, it is also particularly interesting to focus on one of the main Sicilian workshops contemporary to the Himera Painter: the Group of the Chequer Painter. This atelier, due to stylistic and formal features, is in my view one of the more "distant" from the himerian one, contrary to the opinion of A. D. Trendall. I think the comparison between these workshops would highlight, in a paradigmatic way, the richness and complexity of early Sicilian productions. Therefore, enriching and completing the stylistic and formal analysis of this production, but also managing to develop a proposal about the internal organization of the Chequer Painter workshop thanks to the documentation of the Trendall Archive, would be a further and decisive step towards the "reappraisal" of the early Sicilian traditions, so much pursued by Trendall himself.
offer a space for comparing different Visual Archaeology techniques in terms of developing various scientific intersections with other approaches (such as experimental archaeology, archaeometry, etc.), its cost effectiveness, efficiency, light conditions, level of detail, magnifications and fieldwork, and discussing limitations and further potentiality;
- explore the possibility of applying these techniques to provide a renewed perspective in relation to the ancient artefacts and their crafting features and their function in order to define the best areas distinguished by conservation status, degradation, presence of crafting traces, pigments, clay coatings, and patinas-on which indoor and outdoor microscale analyses can then be carried out.
The International meeting is part of the A.G.A.T.H.O.C.L.E.S. project – supported by a Marie Sklodowska - Curie IF - Global (EU Commission Grant) and performed at the Department of Historical Studies (University of Turin, Italy), the School of Anthropology and the Department of Religious Studies and Classics (University of Arizona, Tucson – USA).
The selection of some particular and unusual iconographic themes, with their semantic and symbolic dimension, would seem to refer to the nuptial world and to the passages of status of both the female and male component.
The combination of the information coming from the reappraisal of the archaeological context and from the iconographic analysis of the scenes depicted on the red-figure Sicilian vases allow us to suggest the existence of a special commission for someone that could have used these objects for some very peculiar ritual activities within one of the most interesting examples of sacred house in an ancient Greek city, probably related to a phratry.
The widespread iconographies on red-figure vases and on the other objects found inside this building confirm a use of these artefacts as sacra suppellex and ornamenta, involving the participation of a small community (local phratry). This archaeological case-study can constitute a fruitful opportunity to re-thinking on some information coming from ancient literary sources. The phratry is the intermediary between the family and the civic community; the ritual meetings organized by the phrateres were needed to legitimize the most important “changes” and the admission into the phratry itself; an important reference to the “sense of community” is also depicted on the B-side of the vases because the intention is to allude to the city and to legitimate citizenship. And this is another important aspect that needs an in-depth discussion.
This case-study is particularly relevant in order to broaden the understanding of the relationship between production, context and market from renewed perspectives, especially considering the rarity of red figure vases from the inhabited and domestic areas of Magna Graecia and Sicily.
The objects found within a single house from the plateau of Himera allow us to put forward some suggestive hypotheses in relation to the final use-destination of this area: in fact, within these rooms it is possible to record an anomalous concentration of red figure pottery made by a single workshop. Besides that, we can appreciate the presence of numerous fragments of terracotta female statuettes and arulae, and large numbers of loom-weights, arrowheads and astragaloi/knucklebones.
The selection of some particular and unusual iconographic themes, with their semantic and symbolic dimension, would seem to refer – to different degrees – to the nuptial world and to the passages of status of the female component.
The combination of the information coming from the reappraisal of the archaeological context and from the iconographic analysis of the scenes depicted on the red figure Sicilian vases allow us to suggest the existence of a specific and personal request ad hoc or, more simply, an accurate selection by a commission that could have used these objects for some very peculiar ritual activities within one of the most interesting examples of neighborhood sanctuary in an ancient Greek city.
The images on the vases of the workshop of the Himera Painter represent a very peculiar case-study concerning an accurate selection (or commission ad hoc) in order to perform some important ritual activity related to the nuptial sphere, one of the most important steps for male and female in the ancient Greek society. These new archaeological elements can confirm the use and destination of these artefacts not only for burial customs but also for the everyday life, with a crucial role – especially for the iconography – for the local market, tradition and production.
A paradigmatic case is that of a scene on a calyx krater realized by the workshop of the Himera Painter (420-409 BC), where the craftsman represented an unusual ritual pursuit performed at the rhythm of music. A systematic analysis of the figurative repertoire of western workshops shows that this iconographic "composition" – which recalls Attic tradition but is stripped of any iconic sign that suggests a violent interpretation of the scene – is also attested on numerous vases made in Magna Graecia.
Thus, a common figurative vocabulary, able to rework a traditional iconographic theme in a new and original way, probably existed in the West.
From the violent abduction, which characterizes the Attic products in the first half of the Fifth Century BC, we reach the works by the Himera Painter workshop and the other contemporary craftsmen who chose to represent a “simulated”, erotic and ritual pursuit on their vases: a revisited iconography that was born and grew right inside the early workshops of Magna Graecia and Sicily during the second half of the Fifth Century BC.