Which are the deepest roots of that mix of cultures that we use to call ‘Mediterranean Civilization’? Which are comminglings and exchanges which produced its most complete fruit, i.e. the city, a place for landscape-modelling communities? And which elements did contribute to build up that baulk of customs, ideas, and innovations which compelled to confrontation and hybridizations different peoples for millennia? What did it made, from pottery to metallurgy, from gastronomy to architecture, from art to religion, of a sea a cradle of civilization? Archaeology may help in disentangling such questions, seeking unexpected answers , by tinkering what ancient Mediterranean peoples left buried in the ground. A privileged point of view of our course is the ancient Phoenician city of Motya, located exactly at the centre of the “sea in the middle”. Throughout the live experience of excavation, with images taken on the field, this course will let you touch the many tesserae of the great mosaic of the Mediterranean Civilization. The field diary of the archaeologist, and the handpick will be the two tools, which will lead us across the sea to discover what such early cities actually were, and how their contribute is still a major part of our shared memory.
7.2: Finds and colour of the daily life
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Из курса от партнера Sapienza University of Rome
At the Origins of the Mediterranean Civilization: Archaeology of the City from the Levant to the West - 3rd-1st millennium BC
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Sapienza University of Rome
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A changing society
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Lorenzo NigroProf.
Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia
[MUSIC]
Pottery is the basic brick of archeology.
It's the most spread items that we find in excavation, and
it's also the tool that we usually use to understand chronology,
function of buildings.
Many are the issues which are the goal of our archaeological investigation.
Of course, pottery in Motya has many skills and many features of interest.
For example, we can investigate the fabric, the clay that they used.
We can even investigate the typology, and the style of decoration.
There are many example in a variety of styles.
You see here or better on this small dish,
the typical Phoenician revetment, which is called red slip,
and which was a marker of present all around the Mediterranean.
We have several shapes typical of Phoenicians, like the jar.
This kind of jar, a triple mouth jar and
amushroom rimmed jar, which is this, which an expand rim.
But what is more relevant is that in a place like Motya,
you can have together all this stuff from different
productions, from different wears.
And you can even study the function of vessels.
If they were for preparing food like a dish, or if they were for
serving food on the table, or if they were for transporting food or
other stuff like amphorae.
Amphorae are very important.
Amphorae gives us the information about
trade and exchange, all around the Mediterranean.
There is another extraordinary opportunity which is given by Motya.
And this is the presence of special productions like pottery.
The city was a very rich place.
The merchants in the city were rich, and
they liked to buy special vessels from Greece because this was a status symbol.
They can show that they were so rich and much richer than the other.
Even of the other Greeks of Scilly, the ones living in Syracuse or in
or or many other cities of eastern Sicily.
So, the people in Motya,
they use to buy pottery directly from Greece, directly from Athens,
to show they were strong, also from the economic point of view.
Of course, we have another extra information from this.
Because usually, these kinds of precious vessels are found in tombs.
But in the case of Motya, we have many of them found in the city,
in the excavations all around the city, in several different contexts.
This is an extra information,
in the sense that we can see where and when they were used.
For example, in a temple as offerings, or
in a palace in the service of a merchant or a king.
>> In Motya, has brought a new multidisciplinary
approach to ancient remains.
Opening widening our horizons including
biology, botanics, and of course, zoo archeology.
That means pharaoh remains.
We are now meeting Diana, she's a Spanish specialist.
She's studying, what is this Diana?
>> This is a.
>> Yeah, of the deer.
So from this study, we can be aware that in an island,
there were animals of small size.
And this is true for many for example.
But the variety of data that we can get from these studies,
from this approach is incredible.
We have bioinformatics and DNA help us to
track back all the history of these animals.
To have a complete picture in panorama of Central Mediterranean and
their link within [INAUDIBLE].
So we have just by chance some beautiful finds like this horse hoof,
which was found in area D.
Or the horn of a deer, which has been intentionally
capped just to transform it into the handle of a dagger or
another tool that was useful.
The study of animal remains can give information also on the diet and
of the community behavior in respect to animals.
That means they used some kind of animals for certain things,
for example, for religious offerings.
And others for producing food or for carrying the float, for example.
So there are many different kinds of vehicles that are under study.
Pottery is one of the main tool for the archaeology to reconstruct history.
Is this possible?
I don't know exactly if it is possible.
We have this case study that is the earliest layer in Motya, which gives us
good advice on how one can use pottery to understand an ancient society.
In this case, we are in an island.
We are in a very small settlement.
The people inhabiting Motya in the first generation
are possibly between 50 people and 100 people.
So the case study is very critical, very useful to understand something.
And we see that we have a very simple series of shapes.
We start from the open shapes with sharp blades and bowls.
You see different kinds, but
we always are requiring surface treatment, which is called red leaf.
It means that they are coated with a reddish layer,
very thin layer of clay including iron oxides,
which gives after of course, cooking it in the oven.
This deep red color to the vases.
And here you see the different color.
And of course, this kind of specialized production was important from the Levan.
Was important from Tyre or Sidon or
another city like Byblos or to the north Arvid of Phoenicia.
And it was regarded as some luxury items to be used in the table service.
And of course, the most noble shape was the bowl,
because the bowl was used to toast, it was used in the banquet.
And you see the type which is on top left which is called summarian
like bowl was the most common bowl used to toast in a banquet.
Also the bowl is very nice and
the people of the communities in the west, that is the colonists,
the Phoenician colonists, introduced a new kind of decoration
possibly imitating the tradition of Cyprus, which was this.
The addition of black bands.
So, just over the red slip, they put the black bands all over the shapes.
So again, you see the very shells we found.
And then, we have also of course or beakers and hemispherical bowls.
And you see also these shapes have been reformed in the west.
So they become more popular in the west than they were to the east
to the home land.
Then we move to closed shapes.
And the most popular shape is the neck which is very easy to
be recognized because of this cylindrical neck with a central ridge.
And again, red lip and black band decoration,
which is very common in this period and very nice.
It is also, in some ways putting another very famous
production of the time, which was called.
And which was spread over the southern by the Philistines and
the other dominating people in the east.
And you see here and an example.
Then of course, we have plainware, undecorated ware,
which was used very simply for food preparation.
And, in some cases, for offering food on the table, and
then the transport down for it.
Unfortunately, in the archeological record, very rarely we have completely
the shape of these vessels which are around 80 centimeters high or more.
We have a great quantity of rims and
the rims were embolded rims very simply.
Usually either an almost a horizontal shoulder, that means that it's
a [INAUDIBLE] jar, or an inclined shoulder that means that is an [INAUDIBLE] jar.
So very simple shapes, but transport for it were of course,
very common in the life of the community of seamen, and see here.
Then of course, the other part of the inventory was made of what is called ware.
Ware is a rough pottery made without the various treatments that they used to
do to clay to produce this simple vessel, which were just used in the kitchen.
By producing food and by treating food.
And you could even put in vessel over the fire for a short time,
because they could resist because of the roughness and the thickness of the bodies.
In some case, we have some example of a hybridization.
That means, using according like the worlds leap in a vessel,
which are actually ease and ware vessel.
These test, these experiments testify to the will of mixing up the two traditions.
And these possibly reflects the starting of a local production
of re-elaboration of pottery.
Finally, we have the imports, which are very nice in the earliest settlement,
because they are basically arriving from Cyprus.
From the Levant and, of course, at the end from Sardinia.
So these are the main origins of imports in the earliest community.
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