Papers by Marianne Kleibrink
Caeculus 10, Sacred landscapes, connecting routes. Religious topographies in the Graeco-Roman world, ed. Christina G. Williamsons, 2024
The article defends the view that ancient South-Italian sites, through legend associated with Gre... more The article defends the view that ancient South-Italian sites, through legend associated with Greek heroes returning from the Trojan war (nostoi) and the Trojan goddess Athena, became centers of coming-of-age/nuptial cults for boys and girls, rendering the legends genuinely local and thus their impact historical. A liminal stage of adolescents, introduced by East-Mediterranean contact and apparent in eighth-century BC girl-burials in the necropolis of Macchiabate, Francavilla Marittima, was ritually brought to an end by a protective goddess, later Athena, who was venerated in various sanctuaries that became centers of guidance into marriage. Legends of Greek heroes and the associated ‘violation of Kassandra’ myth are the clearest indications of a proto-urban, social turn, the first associated with coming-of-age events for young men (not part of this study) and the second associated with those for girls. A review of early developments at Francavilla Marittima and other cult places in Southern Italy shows comparable nuptial cults, possibly originally
associated with the formalization of interethnic or intergroup marriage. Sanctuaries repeatedly arose where Trojan War legend accompanied coming-of-age ritual; it was a model with many variations spreading north to Daunia, Latin Lavinium and along the Tyrrhenian coast. The phenomenon shows a focus on gender relations, and a (masculine) regulation through the arrangement of marriages and control
of subsequent generations, as one might expect in a centralizing society.
Caeculus 10, Sacred landscapes, connecting routes. Religious topographies in the Graeco-Roman world, ed. Christina G. Williamsons, 2024
The article defends the view that ancient South-Italian sites, through legend associated with Gre... more The article defends the view that ancient South-Italian sites, through legend associated with Greek heroes returning from the Trojan war (nostoi) and the Trojan goddess Athena, became centers of coming-of-age/nuptial cults for boys and girls, rendering the legends genuinely local and thus their impact historical. A liminal stage of adolescents, introduced by East-Mediterranean contact and apparent in eighth-century BC girl-burials in the necropolis of Macchiabate, Francavilla Marittima, was ritually brought to an end by a protective goddess, later Athena, who was venerated in various sanctuaries that became centers of guidance into marriage. Legends of Greek heroes and the associated ‘violation of Kassandra’ myth are the clearest indications of a proto-urban, social turn, the first associated with coming-of-age events for young men (not part of this study) and the second associated with those for girls. A review of early developments at Francavilla Marittima and other cult places in Southern Italy shows comparable nuptial cults, possibly originally
associated with the formalization of interethnic or intergroup marriage. Sanctuaries repeatedly arose where Trojan War legend accompanied coming-of-age ritual; it was a model with many variations spreading north to Daunia, Latin Lavinium and along the Tyrrhenian coast. The phenomenon shows a focus on gender relations, and a (masculine) regulation through the arrangement of marriages and control
of subsequent generations, as one might expect in a centralizing society.
Atti e Memorie della Societa' Magna Grecia, quinta serie VII, 2022
Rather than being abandoned during the early years of Sybaris around 700 BC, as has been suggeste... more Rather than being abandoned during the early years of Sybaris around 700 BC, as has been suggested, the ancient sanctuary near Francavilla
Marittima at that time fulfilled an important religious and social function, particularly as a focus for coming-of-age/nuptial celebrations. Also contrary to the accepted paradigm that religion was an urban phenomenon, the 1991-2004 GIA excavation results presented
here show the local Italic residents (named Oinotroi and Chones by later authors) to have been the principal participants. This is apparent from the post-ritual assemblages they left behind, consisting of impasto cooking pots, matte-painted drinking sets, and fewer Euboean-style vessels of ritual and status-related significance. The decoration of three vessels, attributed to a (probably itinerant) ‘Francavilla painter’, are inspired by nuptial ceremony. So are handmade terracotta figurines of young women with raised arms, here referred to as ‘Kopenhagen Type’. These figurines are likely symbolic representations of girls leaving their maidenhood behind and celebrating the dedication of their former Parthenos (maiden)
identity to the goddess Athena upon achieving social personhood by marriage. This Greek-style ritual transition of Indigenous maidens upon marriage attests to a long ‘Middle Ground’ interaction between Italic people and settler groups – in particular Euboeans – from overseas.
Studi di Protostoria in memoria di Renato Peroni, 2023
The heavy loom weights found in the wooden apsidal building V.b of the Timpone della Motta (ca. 8... more The heavy loom weights found in the wooden apsidal building V.b of the Timpone della Motta (ca. 800-725BC) are incised with meander-swastika motifs and variations thereof. This article proposes the hypothesis that they were part of vertical looms with which these motifs were worked into double-faced textiles that symbolized solar and cosmic energies,
in which birds and horse motifs also played a part. Because these and other Oinotrian solar motifs are a legacy of the Late Bronze Age, they prove that this pre-urban textile production had indigenous roots. The presence, however, of Euboeanstyle pottery, foreign-type pinched weights, an altar, an early Athenaion and an Epeios myth, shows that a cultic use of the weaves may have become influenced by traders or settlers from abroad already before the foundation of Sybaris.
Römische Mtteilungen 129, 2023
Archaeological excavations have revealed that enterprising aristocracies were part and parcel of ... more Archaeological excavations have revealed that enterprising aristocracies were part and parcel of the early Iron Age Italic-Oinotrian population of the foothills behind the coastal plains on the Ionian Sea. This article discusses evidence from local architecture and material culture that the cult site at Timpone della Motta was promoted by such an indigenous aristocracy to attract a commercial and craft elite from overseas. Evidence suggests the presence of Greek practices by the first half of the 8 th century BC. It would be a mistake to underestimate the intellectual capacity of the Italic Oinotrians, who in the coastal areas were also referred to as Chones or Chonians. These Chonians used nostoi foundation legends to forge crucial ties with a seafaring elite from overseas, while earlier wood-working traditions enabled them to adopt Epeios as their founder and Athena [H]Eilenia as their patron goddess. Three monumental timber-frame temples testify to the success of these attempts to attract entrepreneurs and immigrants. With their huge quantities of pottery, these buildings are evidence of the sanctuary's supra-regional function.
Cuadernos de preistoria y arqueologia de la Universidad de Granada 32, 221-251, 2022
Aspects of being a girl in Francavilla Marittima-Lagaria (Calabria) in the eighth century BC. A r... more Aspects of being a girl in Francavilla Marittima-Lagaria (Calabria) in the eighth century BC. A reconstruction based on terracotta figurines and their archaeological contexts.
Aspectos de ser niña en Francavilla Marittima-Lagaria (Calabria) en el siglo VIII a.C.: una reconstrucción a partir de las figurillas de terracota y sus contextos arqueológicos MARIANNE KLEIBRINK *
ABSTRACT In this article, terracotta figurines from four burials of girls of an Italic-Chonian community at Macchiabate, together with terracotta figurines from ritual assemblages of the Athenaion at Timpone della Motta, are studied using concepts of archaeological "agency" and "personhood" theory. These approaches are different from the commonly used in Italian mortuary and sanctuary archaeology, which, by focusing on what may be called symbolic reading, regard grave-and votive-goods as attributes of the buried individuals and thus as straightforward presentations of status. The explanation current in agency and personhood theory, however, by focusing on active reading, prefers to see individuals and objects as producing social order and not merely reflecting it. Terracotta figurines, unearthed in the Macchiabate necropolis near the Calabrian village of Francavilla Marittima, and figurines excavated in the sanctuary on the Timpone della Motta near that same Francavilla Marittima, provide interesting cases of objects functioning as key actors in processes of personal and social change. The figurines from the eighth and the first quarter of the seventh centuries BC were made and used to act as intermediates between the natural and the supernatural worlds on behalf of girls and their parents in transitional situations. In the presented cases the figurines and the girls are, moreover, related to "Middle Ground" situations of social change in operation with indigenous Italic-Chonian inhabitants and new settlers from the Eastern Mediterranean (likely Euboia, Samos and the Cycladic islands) in the pre-urban coastal area of Ionian Calabria.
European Journal of …, 1998
The authors discuss results of long-term Dutch field projects in three regions in Italy and revie... more The authors discuss results of long-term Dutch field projects in three regions in Italy and review case studies taken from these study areas in the light of indigenous developments in early Italian centralization and urbanization. By looking at regional developments in the domains of economy, religious and funerary practice as well as that of social relationships, they arrive at the conclusion that material culture was actively used in indigenous contexts. There is a consequent need for re-definition of centralization and urbanization, which in the Italian context are often seen as non-indigenous achievements. Comparative regional research, as suggested by the authors' case studies on the Sibaritide, the Brindisino and the Pontine region, will reveal both general trends concerning the concepts discussed and regional idiosyncrasies depending on regional traditions, histories and the regional landscape. To this end, a new project was launched, known as the Regional Pathways to Complexity project, that is introduced to the reader at the end of this paper.
American Journal of Archaeology, 1980
Atti XIII giornata archeologica francavillese "" in ricordo di Tanino De Santis"" Francavilla Marittima 7-8 nov. 2014, G. Altieri (ed.), Rende 2020, 136-195 , 2020
Immediately after the first excavation campaign at Francavilla Marittima led by Paola Zancani Mon... more Immediately after the first excavation campaign at Francavilla Marittima led by Paola Zancani Montuoro in 1963, Tanino de Santis launched his opinion that Timpone della Motta was the site of Strabo’s Lagaria, founded by Epeios, maker of the Trojan horse.
The present article, in commemoration of Tanino, discusses many data – new and old - to support his hypothesis. In particular, the data from the Groningen University excavations 1991-2004 and from the campaigns of the University of Basel since 2009, increasingly confirm the image of an Italo-Oinotrian settlement with substantial Greek components flourishing in a period well before the creation of Sybaris. Characteristics of Lagaria are the early Athenaion and the important role of Epeios, both fitting well in a period before the colonization from Achaia, where the goddess Hera dominated and where - as in all Greek poleis - artisans like Epeios would certainly not have been worthy of worship because working with their hands.
Abstract: During excavations on the summit of the hill Timpone della Motta near the village of Fr... more Abstract: During excavations on the summit of the hill Timpone della Motta near the village of Francavilla Marittima (Calabria), many decorated and heavy loom weights of a unique type were found. These loom weights were uncovered with
fragments of cooking stands, bucket-shaped pithoi, and datable fragments of pottery imported from Euboea or inspired by
it. The objects are associated with the remains of a 28 m long, apsidal timber structure (Building V.b) with an altar, built by
Italic-Oenotrian elites in the 8th century BC. The loom weights were decorated with variations of meander-swastika motifs,
which were likely to have been inspired by woven fabrics. The motifs on the loom weights symbolised the sun and appear on
other objects used by Oenotrian women, including loom weights from Canale Ianchina. Thus, the Calabrian 8th-century BC
weaving was an indigenous activity, evidenced by its relation to the widespread European solar iconography of the Bronze Age.
However, contacts with Greeks from Euboea and elsewhere, may have changed or/and intensified the local textile production.
Atti XV Giornata Archeologica Francavillese, 19. nov. 2016, "Lagaria: tra mito e storia",a cura di Pino Altieri, 2020
"To have a world is always the result of an art" (Avere un mondo è sempre il risultato di un'arte... more "To have a world is always the result of an art" (Avere un mondo è sempre il risultato di un'arte) H. Blumenberg 1985 Premessa Oggi come oggi, studiosi di miti come Blumenberg e Ricoeur, 8 respingono completamente l'idea eurocentrica che il mito come sistema di pensiero precedesse il pensiero logico. Logos e mythos fanno parte dello stesso sistema, in cui la scienza fornisce informazioni sul mondo e su noi stessi ma senza la capacità di aggregare queste informazioni in un tutto per noi significativo e efficace. Il mito e l'arte riempiono questo vuoto, ma d'altra parte non possono arrivare mai a una verità assoluta. Mito e arte sono sempre fluidi e temporanei, come metafore che lasciamo lavorare per noi. Il presente contributo, attraverso la lettura di alcuni reperti archeologici da Francavilla Marittima/Lagaria, tenta proprio di dimostrare che diversi miti hanno avuto un ruolo importante nella cultura locale protostorica e arcaica. Questo può essere dedotto dalla citazione riportata supra, secondo la quale ovunque l'archeologo incontri un "Mondo" coerente, testimoniato dalla presenza di artefatti specifici e/o da una pianificazione spaziale specifica, c'è "Arte", un sistema serrato di miti, concetti, spiegazioni, tradizioni, costumi.
Blumenberg 1985; Ricoeur 1991.
Atti XIV Giornata Archeologica Francavillese, 14 nov. 2015, "omaggio a Silvana Luppino" a cura di Pino Altieri, 2020
"…che Athena l'ha dotata più delle altre donne con maestria di lavori belli e di un cuore compren... more "…che Athena l'ha dotata più delle altre donne con maestria di lavori belli e di un cuore comprensivo, e accorgimenti quali niun altra sappiamo che avesse ... " Odissea 2.116 Alla memoria di Silvana Luppino 1. Introduzione Colgo l'occasione per dedicare questa relazione alla memoria di Silvana Luppino, la studiosa con cui ho lavorato per più di venti anni, con momenti tesi, ma anche buoni: mi vengono in mente bei ricordi di Lei che gesticola, concentrata nelle discussioni sui ruoli nella colonizzazione greca di Francavilla Marittima-Lagaria e di Sybaris con i miei studenti dell'Università di Groningen. Mi ricordo anche quando alla fine dei lavori archeologici avevamo qualche partita di calcio con le squadre degli studenti scavatori di Trebisacce e Francavilla contro gli operai a Sibari (vinta sempre da questi ultimi, anche per l'entusiasmo dimostrato dalla dottoressa Luppino). Ricordi dei primi anni, quando Silvana (su suggerimento di Maria W. Stoop con la quale iniziava il mio lavoro su Timpone della Motta 1), m'invitava a riprendere gli scavi sulla collina di Timpone della Motta perché atti clandestini erano dappertutto visibili: buchi nuovi e profondi ma anche piccoli e superficiali-lasciati dai metaldetectors. Poco più tardi, quando ho scoperto gli oggetti trafugati negli anni '70 dello scorso secolo da Timpone della Motta nelle collezioni svizzere, nel Museo Ny Carlsberg e nel Museo Getty a * Sono molto grata alla dott.ssa Lucilla Barresi, alla dott. essa Marianna Fasanella Masci e alla dott.essa Francesca Mermati per avermi aiutato con l'italiano del testo, gli errori rimasti sono colpa mia. Senza la loro perpetua e amichevole interesse, discussione e correzione avevo smesso scrivere in Italiano molto tempo fa. 1 Sulle ricerche archeologiche a Francavilla Marittima: DE LACHENAL 2007, pp. 17-81; sulla identificazione di Lagaria
Mouseion 13, 235-292, 2016
The excavation campaigns at Francavilla Marittima (1991–2004) by Groningen University
revealed th... more The excavation campaigns at Francavilla Marittima (1991–2004) by Groningen University
revealed that a fifth building could be added to the four buildings/temples of
the Athenaion on the Timpone della Motta, known since the 1960s. Or, to be exact,
they revealed that a fifth complex could be added because the complicated stratigraphy
shows that in the southwest corner of the Timpone’s “acropolis” at least five successive
buildings have been constructed in the same place. This study examines the
bronze and terracotta figurines of hierogamy couples and/or their mortal substitutes
associated with the apsidal building Vb (which was in existence during the first three
quarters of the eighth century bc), ritual scenes on the painted lid of a monumental
vase, associated with building Vc (in 730/720–650 bc), together with the terracotta
plaques from the Vd phase (650–600 bc), which have all been interpreted as referring
to marriage rituals and attesting to the importance of this originally native Oenotrian
complex. The Levantine-Oenotrian roots of the hierogamy motif, which is repeated
at S. Biagio and Metapontum, in combination with the fact that the first cult buildings
at those sites were emblazoned with “Francavilla Marittima” motives shows not
only that wedding rituals must have been an important element in the urbanization
process but also that they contained old native Oenotrian elements.
![Research paper thumbnail of Architetttura e rituale nell'Athenaion di LAGARIA-Timpone della Motta (Francavilla Marittima), Atti e Memorie della Societa Magna Grecia s, V, vol. II 2017 [2018], 171-253](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/58075807/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Atti e Memorie della Societa Magna Grecia s. V, vol. II 2017 [2018], 171-253, 2017
Abstract. This article on the ritual practices at the Athenaion near Francavilla Marittima (which... more Abstract. This article on the ritual practices at the Athenaion near Francavilla Marittima (which probably is ancient Lagaria) requires a sound introduction to address issues of reinterpretation regarding timeframe and contextual reading due to the extensive illegal excavations going on at this particular site. The tombaroli activities make clear that this ancient sanctuary provided its robbers and its excavators with an unusual high amount of ancient pots and pottery fragments per square meter. All these pots are surely 'representing people', in the sense that they are testimony of ritual, of repetitive actions. The first ceremony included the carrying of water up the hill in jars (hydriskai), juvenile dancing with kernoi on the heads and further ceremonies associated with the coming of age and matrimony. Another main ritual must have involved various different small pots, aryballoi and alabastra with perfumed oil and creams, in addition to cups and bowls to drink from as well as the ritual water jars. In the period 650-600 BC groups of such objects (assemblages) were dedicated in the sanctuary on a thin stratum of yellow soil. In combination with other artefacts deposited around the shrines, these assemblages were probably used in coming of age and/or matrimony ritual.
Il presente contributo è incentrato su due pratiche rituali attestate nell'Athenaion presso l'odierna Francavilla Marittima, da interpretare con tutta probabilità come l'antica Lagaria. Numerosi sono i problemi interpretative relativi al sito, essendo la lettura dei ritrovamenti resa più complessa dagli ampi scavi illegali condotti nel corso del tempo: essi erano particolarmente intensi proprio per l'insolita quantità di ceramica che il sito restituiva. Tali vasi sono testimonianza di rituali e azioni ripetitive effettuate dai fedeli. Gli atti rituali includevano il trasporto di acqua sulla collina, danze giovanili e cerimonie associate ai passaggi di età e/o al matrimonio. Due sembrano essere le cerimonie principali legate al sito templare. Nella prima devono essere stati utilizzati piccoli vasi per acqua (hydriskai), montati anche su anelli fittili (kernoi). Il secondo rituale prevedeva invece l'utilizzo e la dedica di contenitori per unguenti profumati e bevute rituali. In particolare nel periodo tra 650 e 600 a.C. diversi insiemi di tali oggetti-che vengono qui definiti assemblaggi-sono stati dedicati nel santuario su un sottile strato di terra gialla. In combinazione con altri manufatti depositati attorno ai templi, questi assemblaggi simboleggiano probabilmente proprio il momento del passaggio d'età e/o del matrimonio.
To understand what kind of role engraved gems played in private and political interaction and thu... more To understand what kind of role engraved gems played in private and political interaction and thus in history, we have to unravel the use of their images in self-representation. Engraved gems are different from other ancient objects in that their images may be considered as directly related to the self. Kassandra, the subject of this article, is deliberately chosen, because – in respect to her tragic fate - who could possibly be interested in being associated with this Trojan heroine? Yet there are relatively many seal-stones with Kassandra; in which she is shown in various iconographies, which show her transformation from Trojan war-victim to Rome’s prophetess of its golden future.
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Papers by Marianne Kleibrink
associated with the formalization of interethnic or intergroup marriage. Sanctuaries repeatedly arose where Trojan War legend accompanied coming-of-age ritual; it was a model with many variations spreading north to Daunia, Latin Lavinium and along the Tyrrhenian coast. The phenomenon shows a focus on gender relations, and a (masculine) regulation through the arrangement of marriages and control
of subsequent generations, as one might expect in a centralizing society.
associated with the formalization of interethnic or intergroup marriage. Sanctuaries repeatedly arose where Trojan War legend accompanied coming-of-age ritual; it was a model with many variations spreading north to Daunia, Latin Lavinium and along the Tyrrhenian coast. The phenomenon shows a focus on gender relations, and a (masculine) regulation through the arrangement of marriages and control
of subsequent generations, as one might expect in a centralizing society.
Marittima at that time fulfilled an important religious and social function, particularly as a focus for coming-of-age/nuptial celebrations. Also contrary to the accepted paradigm that religion was an urban phenomenon, the 1991-2004 GIA excavation results presented
here show the local Italic residents (named Oinotroi and Chones by later authors) to have been the principal participants. This is apparent from the post-ritual assemblages they left behind, consisting of impasto cooking pots, matte-painted drinking sets, and fewer Euboean-style vessels of ritual and status-related significance. The decoration of three vessels, attributed to a (probably itinerant) ‘Francavilla painter’, are inspired by nuptial ceremony. So are handmade terracotta figurines of young women with raised arms, here referred to as ‘Kopenhagen Type’. These figurines are likely symbolic representations of girls leaving their maidenhood behind and celebrating the dedication of their former Parthenos (maiden)
identity to the goddess Athena upon achieving social personhood by marriage. This Greek-style ritual transition of Indigenous maidens upon marriage attests to a long ‘Middle Ground’ interaction between Italic people and settler groups – in particular Euboeans – from overseas.
in which birds and horse motifs also played a part. Because these and other Oinotrian solar motifs are a legacy of the Late Bronze Age, they prove that this pre-urban textile production had indigenous roots. The presence, however, of Euboeanstyle pottery, foreign-type pinched weights, an altar, an early Athenaion and an Epeios myth, shows that a cultic use of the weaves may have become influenced by traders or settlers from abroad already before the foundation of Sybaris.
Aspectos de ser niña en Francavilla Marittima-Lagaria (Calabria) en el siglo VIII a.C.: una reconstrucción a partir de las figurillas de terracota y sus contextos arqueológicos MARIANNE KLEIBRINK *
ABSTRACT In this article, terracotta figurines from four burials of girls of an Italic-Chonian community at Macchiabate, together with terracotta figurines from ritual assemblages of the Athenaion at Timpone della Motta, are studied using concepts of archaeological "agency" and "personhood" theory. These approaches are different from the commonly used in Italian mortuary and sanctuary archaeology, which, by focusing on what may be called symbolic reading, regard grave-and votive-goods as attributes of the buried individuals and thus as straightforward presentations of status. The explanation current in agency and personhood theory, however, by focusing on active reading, prefers to see individuals and objects as producing social order and not merely reflecting it. Terracotta figurines, unearthed in the Macchiabate necropolis near the Calabrian village of Francavilla Marittima, and figurines excavated in the sanctuary on the Timpone della Motta near that same Francavilla Marittima, provide interesting cases of objects functioning as key actors in processes of personal and social change. The figurines from the eighth and the first quarter of the seventh centuries BC were made and used to act as intermediates between the natural and the supernatural worlds on behalf of girls and their parents in transitional situations. In the presented cases the figurines and the girls are, moreover, related to "Middle Ground" situations of social change in operation with indigenous Italic-Chonian inhabitants and new settlers from the Eastern Mediterranean (likely Euboia, Samos and the Cycladic islands) in the pre-urban coastal area of Ionian Calabria.
The present article, in commemoration of Tanino, discusses many data – new and old - to support his hypothesis. In particular, the data from the Groningen University excavations 1991-2004 and from the campaigns of the University of Basel since 2009, increasingly confirm the image of an Italo-Oinotrian settlement with substantial Greek components flourishing in a period well before the creation of Sybaris. Characteristics of Lagaria are the early Athenaion and the important role of Epeios, both fitting well in a period before the colonization from Achaia, where the goddess Hera dominated and where - as in all Greek poleis - artisans like Epeios would certainly not have been worthy of worship because working with their hands.
fragments of cooking stands, bucket-shaped pithoi, and datable fragments of pottery imported from Euboea or inspired by
it. The objects are associated with the remains of a 28 m long, apsidal timber structure (Building V.b) with an altar, built by
Italic-Oenotrian elites in the 8th century BC. The loom weights were decorated with variations of meander-swastika motifs,
which were likely to have been inspired by woven fabrics. The motifs on the loom weights symbolised the sun and appear on
other objects used by Oenotrian women, including loom weights from Canale Ianchina. Thus, the Calabrian 8th-century BC
weaving was an indigenous activity, evidenced by its relation to the widespread European solar iconography of the Bronze Age.
However, contacts with Greeks from Euboea and elsewhere, may have changed or/and intensified the local textile production.
Blumenberg 1985; Ricoeur 1991.
revealed that a fifth building could be added to the four buildings/temples of
the Athenaion on the Timpone della Motta, known since the 1960s. Or, to be exact,
they revealed that a fifth complex could be added because the complicated stratigraphy
shows that in the southwest corner of the Timpone’s “acropolis” at least five successive
buildings have been constructed in the same place. This study examines the
bronze and terracotta figurines of hierogamy couples and/or their mortal substitutes
associated with the apsidal building Vb (which was in existence during the first three
quarters of the eighth century bc), ritual scenes on the painted lid of a monumental
vase, associated with building Vc (in 730/720–650 bc), together with the terracotta
plaques from the Vd phase (650–600 bc), which have all been interpreted as referring
to marriage rituals and attesting to the importance of this originally native Oenotrian
complex. The Levantine-Oenotrian roots of the hierogamy motif, which is repeated
at S. Biagio and Metapontum, in combination with the fact that the first cult buildings
at those sites were emblazoned with “Francavilla Marittima” motives shows not
only that wedding rituals must have been an important element in the urbanization
process but also that they contained old native Oenotrian elements.
Il presente contributo è incentrato su due pratiche rituali attestate nell'Athenaion presso l'odierna Francavilla Marittima, da interpretare con tutta probabilità come l'antica Lagaria. Numerosi sono i problemi interpretative relativi al sito, essendo la lettura dei ritrovamenti resa più complessa dagli ampi scavi illegali condotti nel corso del tempo: essi erano particolarmente intensi proprio per l'insolita quantità di ceramica che il sito restituiva. Tali vasi sono testimonianza di rituali e azioni ripetitive effettuate dai fedeli. Gli atti rituali includevano il trasporto di acqua sulla collina, danze giovanili e cerimonie associate ai passaggi di età e/o al matrimonio. Due sembrano essere le cerimonie principali legate al sito templare. Nella prima devono essere stati utilizzati piccoli vasi per acqua (hydriskai), montati anche su anelli fittili (kernoi). Il secondo rituale prevedeva invece l'utilizzo e la dedica di contenitori per unguenti profumati e bevute rituali. In particolare nel periodo tra 650 e 600 a.C. diversi insiemi di tali oggetti-che vengono qui definiti assemblaggi-sono stati dedicati nel santuario su un sottile strato di terra gialla. In combinazione con altri manufatti depositati attorno ai templi, questi assemblaggi simboleggiano probabilmente proprio il momento del passaggio d'età e/o del matrimonio.
associated with the formalization of interethnic or intergroup marriage. Sanctuaries repeatedly arose where Trojan War legend accompanied coming-of-age ritual; it was a model with many variations spreading north to Daunia, Latin Lavinium and along the Tyrrhenian coast. The phenomenon shows a focus on gender relations, and a (masculine) regulation through the arrangement of marriages and control
of subsequent generations, as one might expect in a centralizing society.
associated with the formalization of interethnic or intergroup marriage. Sanctuaries repeatedly arose where Trojan War legend accompanied coming-of-age ritual; it was a model with many variations spreading north to Daunia, Latin Lavinium and along the Tyrrhenian coast. The phenomenon shows a focus on gender relations, and a (masculine) regulation through the arrangement of marriages and control
of subsequent generations, as one might expect in a centralizing society.
Marittima at that time fulfilled an important religious and social function, particularly as a focus for coming-of-age/nuptial celebrations. Also contrary to the accepted paradigm that religion was an urban phenomenon, the 1991-2004 GIA excavation results presented
here show the local Italic residents (named Oinotroi and Chones by later authors) to have been the principal participants. This is apparent from the post-ritual assemblages they left behind, consisting of impasto cooking pots, matte-painted drinking sets, and fewer Euboean-style vessels of ritual and status-related significance. The decoration of three vessels, attributed to a (probably itinerant) ‘Francavilla painter’, are inspired by nuptial ceremony. So are handmade terracotta figurines of young women with raised arms, here referred to as ‘Kopenhagen Type’. These figurines are likely symbolic representations of girls leaving their maidenhood behind and celebrating the dedication of their former Parthenos (maiden)
identity to the goddess Athena upon achieving social personhood by marriage. This Greek-style ritual transition of Indigenous maidens upon marriage attests to a long ‘Middle Ground’ interaction between Italic people and settler groups – in particular Euboeans – from overseas.
in which birds and horse motifs also played a part. Because these and other Oinotrian solar motifs are a legacy of the Late Bronze Age, they prove that this pre-urban textile production had indigenous roots. The presence, however, of Euboeanstyle pottery, foreign-type pinched weights, an altar, an early Athenaion and an Epeios myth, shows that a cultic use of the weaves may have become influenced by traders or settlers from abroad already before the foundation of Sybaris.
Aspectos de ser niña en Francavilla Marittima-Lagaria (Calabria) en el siglo VIII a.C.: una reconstrucción a partir de las figurillas de terracota y sus contextos arqueológicos MARIANNE KLEIBRINK *
ABSTRACT In this article, terracotta figurines from four burials of girls of an Italic-Chonian community at Macchiabate, together with terracotta figurines from ritual assemblages of the Athenaion at Timpone della Motta, are studied using concepts of archaeological "agency" and "personhood" theory. These approaches are different from the commonly used in Italian mortuary and sanctuary archaeology, which, by focusing on what may be called symbolic reading, regard grave-and votive-goods as attributes of the buried individuals and thus as straightforward presentations of status. The explanation current in agency and personhood theory, however, by focusing on active reading, prefers to see individuals and objects as producing social order and not merely reflecting it. Terracotta figurines, unearthed in the Macchiabate necropolis near the Calabrian village of Francavilla Marittima, and figurines excavated in the sanctuary on the Timpone della Motta near that same Francavilla Marittima, provide interesting cases of objects functioning as key actors in processes of personal and social change. The figurines from the eighth and the first quarter of the seventh centuries BC were made and used to act as intermediates between the natural and the supernatural worlds on behalf of girls and their parents in transitional situations. In the presented cases the figurines and the girls are, moreover, related to "Middle Ground" situations of social change in operation with indigenous Italic-Chonian inhabitants and new settlers from the Eastern Mediterranean (likely Euboia, Samos and the Cycladic islands) in the pre-urban coastal area of Ionian Calabria.
The present article, in commemoration of Tanino, discusses many data – new and old - to support his hypothesis. In particular, the data from the Groningen University excavations 1991-2004 and from the campaigns of the University of Basel since 2009, increasingly confirm the image of an Italo-Oinotrian settlement with substantial Greek components flourishing in a period well before the creation of Sybaris. Characteristics of Lagaria are the early Athenaion and the important role of Epeios, both fitting well in a period before the colonization from Achaia, where the goddess Hera dominated and where - as in all Greek poleis - artisans like Epeios would certainly not have been worthy of worship because working with their hands.
fragments of cooking stands, bucket-shaped pithoi, and datable fragments of pottery imported from Euboea or inspired by
it. The objects are associated with the remains of a 28 m long, apsidal timber structure (Building V.b) with an altar, built by
Italic-Oenotrian elites in the 8th century BC. The loom weights were decorated with variations of meander-swastika motifs,
which were likely to have been inspired by woven fabrics. The motifs on the loom weights symbolised the sun and appear on
other objects used by Oenotrian women, including loom weights from Canale Ianchina. Thus, the Calabrian 8th-century BC
weaving was an indigenous activity, evidenced by its relation to the widespread European solar iconography of the Bronze Age.
However, contacts with Greeks from Euboea and elsewhere, may have changed or/and intensified the local textile production.
Blumenberg 1985; Ricoeur 1991.
revealed that a fifth building could be added to the four buildings/temples of
the Athenaion on the Timpone della Motta, known since the 1960s. Or, to be exact,
they revealed that a fifth complex could be added because the complicated stratigraphy
shows that in the southwest corner of the Timpone’s “acropolis” at least five successive
buildings have been constructed in the same place. This study examines the
bronze and terracotta figurines of hierogamy couples and/or their mortal substitutes
associated with the apsidal building Vb (which was in existence during the first three
quarters of the eighth century bc), ritual scenes on the painted lid of a monumental
vase, associated with building Vc (in 730/720–650 bc), together with the terracotta
plaques from the Vd phase (650–600 bc), which have all been interpreted as referring
to marriage rituals and attesting to the importance of this originally native Oenotrian
complex. The Levantine-Oenotrian roots of the hierogamy motif, which is repeated
at S. Biagio and Metapontum, in combination with the fact that the first cult buildings
at those sites were emblazoned with “Francavilla Marittima” motives shows not
only that wedding rituals must have been an important element in the urbanization
process but also that they contained old native Oenotrian elements.
Il presente contributo è incentrato su due pratiche rituali attestate nell'Athenaion presso l'odierna Francavilla Marittima, da interpretare con tutta probabilità come l'antica Lagaria. Numerosi sono i problemi interpretative relativi al sito, essendo la lettura dei ritrovamenti resa più complessa dagli ampi scavi illegali condotti nel corso del tempo: essi erano particolarmente intensi proprio per l'insolita quantità di ceramica che il sito restituiva. Tali vasi sono testimonianza di rituali e azioni ripetitive effettuate dai fedeli. Gli atti rituali includevano il trasporto di acqua sulla collina, danze giovanili e cerimonie associate ai passaggi di età e/o al matrimonio. Due sembrano essere le cerimonie principali legate al sito templare. Nella prima devono essere stati utilizzati piccoli vasi per acqua (hydriskai), montati anche su anelli fittili (kernoi). Il secondo rituale prevedeva invece l'utilizzo e la dedica di contenitori per unguenti profumati e bevute rituali. In particolare nel periodo tra 650 e 600 a.C. diversi insiemi di tali oggetti-che vengono qui definiti assemblaggi-sono stati dedicati nel santuario su un sottile strato di terra gialla. In combinazione con altri manufatti depositati attorno ai templi, questi assemblaggi simboleggiano probabilmente proprio il momento del passaggio d'età e/o del matrimonio.