Papers by maria mastelloni
Dialoghi sull'archeologia, 2021
In the years 2013-2018, a careful survey of the still visible remains of defensive structures fro... more In the years 2013-2018, a careful survey of the still visible remains of defensive structures from the Greek era around the acropolis was carried out, along the points not covered by the Spanish walls and placed on the edge of the cliff’s height jump. We tried to make it clear which of
those structures defended it; so we could recognize other towers and bastions and attribute them to a defensive circuit in isodomic blocks of the 4th century B.C. Discovered defensive structures of the acropolis were compared with the facing in isodomic blocks pertaining to a bastion or a tower of the 4th century B.C. emerging from the modern curtain wall (16th century), already reported by P. Orsi. Another useful comparison was established with the stretch of wall built with emplekton, which faces the plain and stood to defend the urban layout set at the foot of the cliff and had already been intercepted for a 250 m length during various excavation campaigns held by L. Bernabò Brea between 1970 and 1985 along the via avv. Maggiore and within the state-owned area. It confirms the preference given by the builders of the Lipara defensive circuits to the isodomic blocks in Monte Rosa stone, that now we can suppose to have been built both on the plain and on the Acropolis.
Bollettino di Numismatica - Studi, n..4, 2024
Messina via dei Monasteri, Capo Rasocolmo, Medagliere Museo Nazionale Romano, Roman Republican Co... more Messina via dei Monasteri, Capo Rasocolmo, Medagliere Museo Nazionale Romano, Roman Republican Coinage, Pompey the Great, Roman Provincial Coinage, Cneus Pompeius, Sextus Pompeius Magnus, Imperator, Late Roman Republic, Roman Republican Numismatics, Roman Republican Coin Hoards, Historic Shipwrecks, Underwater Archaeology, Ptolemies, M. Antonius, Nauloco
EIDOLA, 2023
A calix-krater from the Fusco necropolis of Syracuse offers the image of a naked and seated femal... more A calix-krater from the Fusco necropolis of Syracuse offers the image of a naked and seated female figure, revealing an uncommon aspect of a ritual expressed through a stylistic formula inspired by the Attics dating back to the third quarter of the fifth century B.C. The vase seems attributable to a precursor of the methods of early Sicilian red-figure vascular pottery and may highlight its initial phase (430-420 B.C.). Keywords · Syracuse, Fusco Necropolis, Early Sicilian Pottery, Calix-Krater, gynè, Naked Woman.
Un cratere a calice proveniente dalla necropoli del Fusco di Siracusa propone l'immagine di una figura femminile nuda e seduta, rivelatrice di un aspetto non comune di una ritualità espressa con formule stilistiche ispirate alle attiche del terzo quarto del v sec. a.C. Il vaso sembra attribuibile ad un artefice precursore dei modi della ceramica protosiceliota e può illuminarne la fase iniziale.
Syracuse, Fusco, Early Sicilian Pottery, Calix-Krater, gynè, Naked Woman. protosiceliota, attica, ceramica a figure rosse
Le Masque scénique dans l’antiquité, coll. «À la croisée des arts», Deuxième époque , Paris , 2022
Le maschere di Lipari sono state rinvenute sia nelle tombe scavate che in piccole e piccolissime ... more Le maschere di Lipari sono state rinvenute sia nelle tombe scavate che in piccole e piccolissime tombe non identificate ma presenti in tanti punti della necropoli. Sono pertanto attribuite a piccole tombe, probabilmente maschili e infantili, che sembra documentassero un uso caratteristico dell'isola, che vede nella maschera-giocattolo il simbolo dell'appartenenza culturale del bambino alla comunità civica.
Virtual Archaeology Review
The new tools for 3D survey and modelling (as portable scanners and software packages), often in ... more The new tools for 3D survey and modelling (as portable scanners and software packages), often in combination with diagnostics, are nowadays able to provide indispensable elements for the study of archaeological artefacts; their applications to museum’s heritage can be also useful to integrate the traditional graphic documentation and contribute to enhancement and dissemination. This paper shows the benefit of using the aforementioned tools to study the peculiar clay mask No. 11114-E, discovered in 1973 in the Greek necropolis of Lipára, inside tomb No. 1558. The specimen, now exhibited in the Classical Section of the Aeolian Museum, is considered unique both in the Aeolian Islands and in the ancient Greek world, as it is the only one merging two half faces attributable to different characters. This feature, unknown at the time of discovery, has been highlighted in 2018, thanks to a restoration intervention by which a hard concretion layer covering a large portion of the mask surface...
Siracusa Antica. Nuove prospettive di ricerca, 2022
The forty years in which Dionysius (405-367 BC) governs Syra-cuse, with moderate power, represent... more The forty years in which Dionysius (405-367 BC) governs Syra-cuse, with moderate power, represents for the city a period of splendor as well as military, social and cultural of which we know little. After the destruction of the army and fleet of Athens, the need arises to counter the advance of the Carthagi-nians and the idea of a vast territorial power is conceived, with the absorption of large groups of citizens who transform Sy-racuse into one of the most populated cities in the West. The progressive annexations of the territories of Sicily and Calabria and the interests towards the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Adriatic allow Syracuse to rise to an international role and therefore oblige to conceive an economy that goes beyond the limits of the polis. Very little is known of the economic measures and strategies conceived and tested since the initial period. The only document with which we can reconstruct these aspects are coins: gold, silver and bronze, which seem to be attributable to theoretical or coined values. This is the first trimetallic sy-stem in the West and allows for spendability and accumulation. Gold attracts mercenaries and merchants and allows the mint to meet the growing need for military spending. Silver and bronze are progressively transformed from real value coins into fiduciary coins, perhaps leading to the interruption of gold minting. Heirs of an ancient tradition widespread throu-ghout the Mediterranean basin, coins and the new system that created them spread throughout the regions where Syracuse, more than with armies, with its merchants plays an important commercial and economic role, providing a model of a three-metal monetary system, which will be taken up by the Etruscans, the Macedonians, the Ptolemies, Ieron II and Rome
La Sicilia Preistorica. Dinamiche interne e relazioni esterne, 2021
The examination of the toponyms adopted for the “new” settlements has remained marginalized in th... more The examination of the toponyms adopted for the “new” settlements has remained marginalized in the context of the debate that in the last twenty years has led to a rift between classical archaeologists, divided between “deniers” and “overestimators” of the importance of the phenomenon migratory which, between the eighth and sixth centuries BC, influenced the life of Sicily and the West. A debate that did not involve the protohistoric sector very much. The study combined the reading of polionymes with the results of the latest archaeological, epi-graphic and numismatic analyzes, which have reconstructed ancient and recent data relating to the presence of natives in a new way. He also reconsidered the dictation of the historiographical sources in a more objective way. It was thus discovered that the names of Zancle, Naxos, Katana, Leontinoi, such as Līpára, Thapsos, Mégara, Ybla and Syraqosai attest to realities prior to the arrival of the Greeks, adopted by them and shared with the Natives. These new considerations oblige us to reflect, if not to cancel the concept of the limit between protohistoric and historical epochs
TRA IONIO E TIRRENO: ORIZZONTI D’ARCHEOLOGIA Omaggio a Elena Lattanzi, 2020
Two hydriai and a bronze handle of the Museum of Lipari are attributed to three different product... more Two hydriai and a bronze handle of the Museum of Lipari are attributed to three different productions: of Magna Graeca, perhaps of Locri, siceliot and Greek, perhaps of Athens, and a new chronology is proposed for their deposition in the tombs, where they are reused as cineraries. Recalling the role reserved for bronze hydrias in the rituals associated with athletic competitions, which they represent the prize of, it was hypothesized that the first is connected to the cult of Zeus Eleutherios, for which games are attested in Syracuse. Some types of coins and the production of this and other hydrias would suggest that the cult and games had also passed to Locri
Periodico Di Mineralogia, Aug 3, 2020
Dialoghi sull’Archeologia della Magna Grecia e del Mediterraneo, 2021
The religiosity of Lipari was rebuilt on the basis of the findings in the necropolis, for the fou... more The religiosity of Lipari was rebuilt on the basis of the findings in the necropolis, for the fourth century BC, of red-figure craters, of Sicilian, Campanian and local productions, of masks and polychrome ceramics. From their examination, the hypothesis of a prevailing Dionysism in the
cults of the polis was formulated. Recent research has invalidated this reconstruction, both in terms of figured ceramics and masks, and the two classes of materials were considered evidence of a shared knowledge of the mythological events at the basis of the social life of the polis, present
in the graves of infants and adolescents of male sex as future citizens The examination of polychrome ceramics has highlighted its links with materials that emerged from the excavations and has shown that it is present exclusively in female tombs. Recognition of inscriptions consecrating the altars to Aphrodite and the determination of different types of altars suggested that altars differ according to the diversity of rites, in daily life propitiators of marriage and childbirth and in the ceramic decoration, evocative or, if inserted in the tombs, consolers, but always connected with the cult of Aphrodite
Heritage Science, Mar 9, 2022
In this contribution a non-destructive approach has been used aiming at investigating the chemica... more In this contribution a non-destructive approach has been used aiming at investigating the chemical composition of 35 ceramic items belonging to the collections of the Regional Aeolian Museum "Luigi Bernabò Brea" in the Lipari Island (Sicily, Italy). Different vessel types have been selected for analysis, including aryballoi, kotylai, olpai, anforiskoi, oinochoai, and alabastra, belonging to the "Proto-Corinthian and Corinthian" ware classes. The items, dating back to the period comprised between the early eighth and the first half of the sixth century BC, come from two different archaeological sites in the province of Messina (Sicily), specifically the Istmo necropolis of Milazzo, in the northern Sicilian coast, and the acropolis and necropolis of Lipari, in the Aeolian islands. The chemical characterization of ceramics, carried out through portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (pXRF), aimed at gaining information on the production area of examined items whose autoptic analysis pointed to Corinthian imports. The possibility of carrying out experimental investigations on the most ancient materials from the archaic necropolis of Milazzo and on fragments from Lipari, albeit limited to pXRF investigations, allowed to enrich the knowledge on the Corinthian production exported to western areas as well as to discriminate, no longer based solely on autoptic observations and stylistic evaluations, between Corinthian productions and "local" imitations.
The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 2019
The renewed interest, in the context of international museological studies, for historical instal... more The renewed interest, in the context of international museological studies, for historical installations such as museographic devices (able to give shape to a space duly dialoguing with the user), is due today to their communicative immediacy. In recent years the availability of libraries and tools for the use of augmented reality (AR) content has undergone an important increase. AR innovation represents a new method for enhancing the presence visitors into the museum industry despite its use leads to an increase in costs and instrumental investments. In this regard, in a wider work of valorisation and dissemination of archaeological heritage, we are working on the development of an app for tourism purposes. The aim of this paper is the application of some techniques (3D modelling, spectroscopy, virtual reality) to study, record and make available information about archaeological artefacts preserved in the Regional Museum of Lipari (clay masks) and in the National Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria (the statue Kouros and the Amphoras). The three-dimensional models produced are well suited to applications of augmented reality for the promotion and dissemination of information on the archaeological /architectural/cultural heritage. Moreover, the integration of the information about characterization of materials are essential in order to identify both geographic area of provenience and manufacturing historic period. Some pigments or medium, and in general all materials, can be indeed connected to a determinate historic time or to a specific artist; to this particular purpose spectroscopic methods are valid approach for their non-destructive nature.
The new tools for 3D survey and modelling (as portable scanners and software packages), often in ... more The new tools for 3D survey and modelling (as portable scanners and software packages), often in combination with diagnostics, are nowadays able to provide indispensable elements for the study of archaeological artefacts; their applications to museum’s heritage can be also useful to integrate the traditional graphic documentation and contribute to enhancement and dissemination. This paper concerns the study of a peculiar find coming from the Greek necropolis of Lipara : the clay mask No. 11114-E, discovered in 1973 inside the tomb No. 1558 and now exhibited in the Classical Section of the Aeolian Museum. The specimen is considered unique both in the Aeolian Islands and in the ancient Greek world, as it is the only one merging two half faces attributable to different characters. This feature, unknown at the time of discovery, has been highlighted only in 2018, thanks to a restoration intervention by which a hard concretion covering a large portion of the surface of the mask has been ...
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
During the archeological excavations carried out from 1993 to 1995 at C.da Portinenti, at Lipari ... more During the archeological excavations carried out from 1993 to 1995 at C.da Portinenti, at Lipari Island, a pottery workshop dated to Roman age—including a kiln dump containing both Richborough 527 type amphora wastes and ceramic shreds—was discovered. The Richborough 527 amphorae had been used to transport local volcanic and hydrothermal products throughout the Roman Empire. Here, we present the results of a multidisciplinary archaeometric study carried out with the aim to shed light on the provenance of the raw materials used in the production of the Richborough 527 amphorae. To achieve this goal, amphora wastes and a sample of yellow clays stored in the archeological excavation area have been analyzed, and the data were compared to those available for clays coming from Lipari and from the Messina Province. The overall results indicate that (i) a volcanic sand from Portinenti Valley was used as temper in the ceramic mixture; (ii) the geochemical features and the fossils present in the ceramic paste are compatible with marine Pleistocene clayey deposits of the Messina Province and incompatible with the clays of Lipari island; (iii) the yellow clays found in the excavation area were not used to produce the Richborough 527; and (iv) the analyzed wastes are the results of a poorly controlled firing temperature during the ceramic artifact production.
This research is concerned with the investigation of Egyptian and Egyptianizing artifacts dating ... more This research is concerned with the investigation of Egyptian and Egyptianizing artifacts dating back to the period comprised between the 10th century BC and the first half of 6th century BC, which were found in some archaeological sites of eastern-central Sicily. The examined Aegyptiaca include thirt-four items consisting of scarabs, funerary statuettes, figurines and unguentaria, which are mostly preserved at the regional archeology museum "Paolo Orsi" in Syracuse and, only in part, at the regional Aeolian museum "Luigi Bernabò Brea" in the Lipari island. Some of the investigated objects are made of faience (a glazed non-clay ceramic material, coated with an alkali-based glaze), while some others are in steatite or other stones. Through the chemical investigation of the selected artifacts, the study aims to extend the compositional dataset available on Aegyptiaca, as well as to identify the colorants used for the preparation of the investigated glazes. For such...
ANEJOS DE ARCHIVO ESPAÑOL DE ARQUEOLOGÍA - ARQUEOLOGÍA DE LA CONSTRUCCIÓN IV, 2014
A specific study of calcareous sandstone quarries begun on a course, recently, in the
city of Sy... more A specific study of calcareous sandstone quarries begun on a course, recently, in the
city of Syracuse. This research – which forms part of a bigger project aimed at the retread, on one hand, the processes of creation of materials used in the buildings and, on the other hand, the incidence of these processes either in the economic and social organization of the polis and in the development of a peculiar syracusan science and technological expertise – concerns the matters of: I) drainage of the said quarries; II) existing connections between the quarries and cisterns, wells and canals dug into the rocks; III) dimensions of the stone blocks and where quarries were localized. Therefore, the research was played on the direction of listing the main extraction places and reenacting of the usual extractive process (both sub divo or in cave) in the areas of Ortigia (Temple of Apollo, coastal latomies, Temple of Athena, and the so said “Ipogei”), Neapolis (Greek Theatre, caves better known as “Dionysius Ear” and “ dei Cordari”, latomies “del Paradiso” and “di. S. Venera”), the Eurial Castle, with its’ 27 kilometers long walls, and, finally, the Temple of Zeus.
Atti della Accademia Peloritana dei Pericolanti : Classe di Scienze Fisiche, Matematiche e Naturali, 2017
Characterization of pigments in archaeological finds requires an experimental approach able to av... more Characterization of pigments in archaeological finds requires an experimental approach able to avoid the destruction or perturbation of the artwork. Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy technique may provide useful information in terms of chemical composition by using very small sample quantities and without samples manipulation. In this paper some pigments and an archeological find, discovered in Messina, have been analyzed with new SERS substrates prepared with Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) technique with two different instrumentations. In both cases we quenched the fluorescence phenomena and enhanced Raman peaks.
Virtual Archaeology Review, [S.l.], oct. 2020. ISSN 1989-9947. Available at: <https://polipapers.upv.es/index.php/var/article/view/13916>., 2021
The new tools for 3D survey and modelling (as portable scanners and software packages), often in ... more The new tools for 3D survey and modelling (as portable scanners and software packages), often in combination with diagnostics, are nowadays able to provide indispensable elements for the study of archaeological artefacts; their applications to museum's heritage can be also useful to integrate the traditional graphic documentation and contribute to enhancement and dissemination. This paper concerns the study of a peculiar find coming from the Greek necropolis of Lipára: the clay mask No. 11114-E, discovered in 1973 inside the tomb No. 1558 and now exhibited in the Classical Section of the Aeolian Museum. The specimen is considered unique both in the Aeolian Islands and in the ancient Greek world, as it is the only one merging two half faces attributable to different characters. This feature, unknown at the time of discovery, has been highlighted only in 2018, thanks to a restoration intervention by which a hard concretion covering a large portion of the surface of the mask has be...
X-Ray Spectrometry
One of the most impressive Sicilian pottery production is attributed to the so-called Lipari Pain... more One of the most impressive Sicilian pottery production is attributed to the so-called Lipari Painter and his followers, whose vessels—found in the archeological site of Lipari (Aeolian Island, Sicily)—are decorated with characteristic blue, red, and white figures. From the archeological point of view, these artworks keep open many questions concerning dating, production technique, and cultural background. In this context, new data on the manufacture procedures and on the raw materials used for the pigments may contribute to a deeper comprehension of this early Hellenistic vase tradition. The preciousness of the vessels, exhibited at the Archeological Museum of Lipari, imposed the use of in situ nondestructive methods to address new insights on the nature of the colored layers. Thus, analyses by Raman and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy have been performed with portable instruments on a selection of vessels certainly attributed to Lipari Painter and to some others of his followers. The results of this study testify the use of different pigments: kaolin and gypsum, probably supplied locally, for white layers; Egyptian blue for blue hues; red ochre for brown-reddish hues; and cinnabar for pink and red-purple nuances. The identification of both Egyptian blue and cinnabar opens an interesting discussion about dating and circulation of the raw materials.
Deliciae Fictiles V. Networks and Workshops
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Papers by maria mastelloni
those structures defended it; so we could recognize other towers and bastions and attribute them to a defensive circuit in isodomic blocks of the 4th century B.C. Discovered defensive structures of the acropolis were compared with the facing in isodomic blocks pertaining to a bastion or a tower of the 4th century B.C. emerging from the modern curtain wall (16th century), already reported by P. Orsi. Another useful comparison was established with the stretch of wall built with emplekton, which faces the plain and stood to defend the urban layout set at the foot of the cliff and had already been intercepted for a 250 m length during various excavation campaigns held by L. Bernabò Brea between 1970 and 1985 along the via avv. Maggiore and within the state-owned area. It confirms the preference given by the builders of the Lipara defensive circuits to the isodomic blocks in Monte Rosa stone, that now we can suppose to have been built both on the plain and on the Acropolis.
Un cratere a calice proveniente dalla necropoli del Fusco di Siracusa propone l'immagine di una figura femminile nuda e seduta, rivelatrice di un aspetto non comune di una ritualità espressa con formule stilistiche ispirate alle attiche del terzo quarto del v sec. a.C. Il vaso sembra attribuibile ad un artefice precursore dei modi della ceramica protosiceliota e può illuminarne la fase iniziale.
Syracuse, Fusco, Early Sicilian Pottery, Calix-Krater, gynè, Naked Woman. protosiceliota, attica, ceramica a figure rosse
cults of the polis was formulated. Recent research has invalidated this reconstruction, both in terms of figured ceramics and masks, and the two classes of materials were considered evidence of a shared knowledge of the mythological events at the basis of the social life of the polis, present
in the graves of infants and adolescents of male sex as future citizens The examination of polychrome ceramics has highlighted its links with materials that emerged from the excavations and has shown that it is present exclusively in female tombs. Recognition of inscriptions consecrating the altars to Aphrodite and the determination of different types of altars suggested that altars differ according to the diversity of rites, in daily life propitiators of marriage and childbirth and in the ceramic decoration, evocative or, if inserted in the tombs, consolers, but always connected with the cult of Aphrodite
city of Syracuse. This research – which forms part of a bigger project aimed at the retread, on one hand, the processes of creation of materials used in the buildings and, on the other hand, the incidence of these processes either in the economic and social organization of the polis and in the development of a peculiar syracusan science and technological expertise – concerns the matters of: I) drainage of the said quarries; II) existing connections between the quarries and cisterns, wells and canals dug into the rocks; III) dimensions of the stone blocks and where quarries were localized. Therefore, the research was played on the direction of listing the main extraction places and reenacting of the usual extractive process (both sub divo or in cave) in the areas of Ortigia (Temple of Apollo, coastal latomies, Temple of Athena, and the so said “Ipogei”), Neapolis (Greek Theatre, caves better known as “Dionysius Ear” and “ dei Cordari”, latomies “del Paradiso” and “di. S. Venera”), the Eurial Castle, with its’ 27 kilometers long walls, and, finally, the Temple of Zeus.
those structures defended it; so we could recognize other towers and bastions and attribute them to a defensive circuit in isodomic blocks of the 4th century B.C. Discovered defensive structures of the acropolis were compared with the facing in isodomic blocks pertaining to a bastion or a tower of the 4th century B.C. emerging from the modern curtain wall (16th century), already reported by P. Orsi. Another useful comparison was established with the stretch of wall built with emplekton, which faces the plain and stood to defend the urban layout set at the foot of the cliff and had already been intercepted for a 250 m length during various excavation campaigns held by L. Bernabò Brea between 1970 and 1985 along the via avv. Maggiore and within the state-owned area. It confirms the preference given by the builders of the Lipara defensive circuits to the isodomic blocks in Monte Rosa stone, that now we can suppose to have been built both on the plain and on the Acropolis.
Un cratere a calice proveniente dalla necropoli del Fusco di Siracusa propone l'immagine di una figura femminile nuda e seduta, rivelatrice di un aspetto non comune di una ritualità espressa con formule stilistiche ispirate alle attiche del terzo quarto del v sec. a.C. Il vaso sembra attribuibile ad un artefice precursore dei modi della ceramica protosiceliota e può illuminarne la fase iniziale.
Syracuse, Fusco, Early Sicilian Pottery, Calix-Krater, gynè, Naked Woman. protosiceliota, attica, ceramica a figure rosse
cults of the polis was formulated. Recent research has invalidated this reconstruction, both in terms of figured ceramics and masks, and the two classes of materials were considered evidence of a shared knowledge of the mythological events at the basis of the social life of the polis, present
in the graves of infants and adolescents of male sex as future citizens The examination of polychrome ceramics has highlighted its links with materials that emerged from the excavations and has shown that it is present exclusively in female tombs. Recognition of inscriptions consecrating the altars to Aphrodite and the determination of different types of altars suggested that altars differ according to the diversity of rites, in daily life propitiators of marriage and childbirth and in the ceramic decoration, evocative or, if inserted in the tombs, consolers, but always connected with the cult of Aphrodite
city of Syracuse. This research – which forms part of a bigger project aimed at the retread, on one hand, the processes of creation of materials used in the buildings and, on the other hand, the incidence of these processes either in the economic and social organization of the polis and in the development of a peculiar syracusan science and technological expertise – concerns the matters of: I) drainage of the said quarries; II) existing connections between the quarries and cisterns, wells and canals dug into the rocks; III) dimensions of the stone blocks and where quarries were localized. Therefore, the research was played on the direction of listing the main extraction places and reenacting of the usual extractive process (both sub divo or in cave) in the areas of Ortigia (Temple of Apollo, coastal latomies, Temple of Athena, and the so said “Ipogei”), Neapolis (Greek Theatre, caves better known as “Dionysius Ear” and “ dei Cordari”, latomies “del Paradiso” and “di. S. Venera”), the Eurial Castle, with its’ 27 kilometers long walls, and, finally, the Temple of Zeus.