Panel 5.21 – Trade and cultural contact in the Iron Age and Archaic Mediterranean


Organiser/Chair:

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Paper abstracts

1. Andrea Celestino Montanaro (CNR - Italian National Research Council)

Cultural processes and circulation of prestige goods in pre-Roman Apulia. The influences of Orientalizing and the relations with Greeks and Etruscans
The latest studies about the customs of Italic aristocracies in Apulia have added relevant data concerning to the class of personal adornments and symbolic objects, fundamental elements underpinning the Orientalizing period and the phenomenon of the birth of aristocracies between the 8th and 7th cent. BC.
Even more indicative is the bond that unites these aristocracies to those of the Tyrrhenian area, active since the 9th cent. BC. Testimonies of such relationships are the ornaments found in extraordinary burials, some of which they add, to the preciousness of the material, the sophistication of the workmanship and the rare and exotic character (amber, ivory and faïence).
Consider the sumptuous parures of Daunian princesses or the funerary assemblages of prince-warriors (Canosa, Cupola, Altamura, Noicattaro, Lavello, Banzi), which are marked not only by several personal adornments (characterized by countless amber beads, ivory and bronze beads, scarabs and faïence figurines of Egyptian deities), but also by the presence of metal prestige goods (bronze and silver), true symbolic objects, many of which imported by Southern Etruria (diadems, sceptres, distaffs) or from the East (ribbed bowl), that emphasize the royal status of the deceased with a definite reminder of the aristocracies sung by Homer in his poems. The interest and the reference to the Homeric poems are even higher at the presence of the unusual ritual of horses burial matched to the tombs of Daunian princesses.

"Cultural Processes and Circulation of Prestige Goods in Pre-Roman Apulia. The Influences of the Orientalizing Period and the Relations with Greeks and Etruscans" (Fulltext)

 

2. Francesco Napolitano (MIUR)

Traffici etruschi nel Golfo di Napoli tra l'ultimo trentennio del VII e la metà del VI
Come appurato, negli anni tra 630/620 e 550/540, il Golfo di Napoli, sotto il profilo geo-politico, appare a chi provenga o proceda lungo la rotta da e verso l'Etruria, le coste liguri e celtico-iberiche, come una delle due frange meridionali del Tuscorum ius; l'estrema punta settentrionale della Megale Hellas; l'Opikia; esso, in questo lasso temporale, diviene, per i naúkleroi e i naútai, un susseguirsi di approdi sicuri e attrezzati. L'area dunque, si consolida, piú che mai, come una vera e propria cerniera tra Mediterraneo occidentale e orientale.
La concomitanza di codesti fattori favorisce e determina l'arrivo di differenti mercanzie allotrie in questa fascia costiera; e nel contempo, il loro inserimento o rigetto, da parte del singolo individuo, nel quotidiano, sulla base delle preferenze per le caratteristiche del prodotto, rispetto ad altri locali, o sulla base di valori ideologico-culturali che lo accompagnano. Poche sono le merci frutto di casualità di transito.
Il lavoro proposto, dunque, ricontestualizzando merci legate al mondo etrusco attestate nel Golfo, in rapporto alle classi sociali di destinazione, all'ambito di utilizzo, alle "riproposizioni locali", ai luoghi di origine e ai percorsi seguiti, evidenzia, tra Orientalizzante recente e Arcaico medio, indizi di un commercio e uno scambio mossi, in quest'area, soprattutto da philía, xenía, eusébeia verso gli dei e predilezione per un gusto etruschizzante.

 

3. Enrico Giovanelli (University of Milan)

Aegyptiaca in Central Tyrrhenian Italy: sea routes, traders and ideas
Even though Aegyptiaca have been sometimes underestimated in the past, nowadays they are considered one of the hallmarks of the relationship between the Etruscan and Italic people and the rest of the Mediterranean at the beginning of the Italian Iron Age. Starting from the most recent studies, this brief synthesis aims to provide an updated synopsis on several aspects linked to these items. In particular it will focus firstly on defining the main areas of production (Egypt, Levant and the Aegean), then on tracing the possible sea-routes and the people involved in the circulation process. The second part of the communication will outline the situation of Etruria, Latium and Campania, where Aegyptian and Aegyptianizing objects are mainly concentrated between the 8th and the 7th century BC, also considering the reception (and the possible re-elaboration) of foreign cultural and religious values and the common and different trends among the indigenous communities.

"Aegyptiaca in Central Tyrrhenian Italy: Sea Routes, Traders and Ideas" (Fulltext)

 

4. Lorenzo Zamboni (Università di Pavia)

Trading in the multicultural emporia of the Po Valley. Crossroads of weight systems and goods
During the second half of the 6th BC, the Po Valley knows the spread of a new urban and commercial phenomenon, with the foundation of many emporia and trace hubs, such as Spina, Marzabotto, S. Polo and Forcello.
Despite a vibrant economy and a complex cultural framework, it seems that coinage was never adopted within this centres. Transactions probably took place through an evolved kind of barter, with a complex system of weighing. Bronze lumps (aes rude) and, in some cases, stamped bronze (aes signatum), were also used, as well as rectangular portions of thin ingots. Their proto-currency use is suggested by their standard weight values, as found in other contemporary trading cities in Northern Italy.
The weights adopted in the sales activities could be of bronze, lead, or more commonly stone. Many stone weights display numeral inscriptions, interpreted as weight units.
Recent excavations and studies confirm that a multiple system of weighting standards was in use. especially a light libra of 287 grams, and a heavy one of 358 grams. The latter is widespread in Spina, in Padanian and inland Etruria.
This preliminary study will address:
- why the coinage system was refused in northern Italy until the Hellenistic period
- what kind of alternative systems were employed, and if their origins are local (i.e. traditional) or imported
- the role of Spina and the other commercial centres in long term relationships between the Mediterranean civilisations and the Alpine cultures.

"Trading in the Multicultural Emporia of the Po Valley. Weighing Systems and Proto-Currencies" (Fulltext)

 

5. Paolo Rondini (University of Pavia) / Raffaella Poggiani Keller

Alpine Trades
In the bigger picture of the trades between the Mediterranean world and the transalpine cultural groups, a key role is the one played by northern Italy. In the complex but lively and vivid network of the late VIth cent. BC, it is possible to find the quick and widespread need to connect two different concepts of economy: one based and modulated by the use of coin, and one still firmly pre-monetary, regulated by the use of stone or bronze standards, as weights, ingots.
The Italian Alps are exactly in the middle of this network and they work, and their cultures show, in this very period, an impressive growth both in territorial dissemination of settlements, and in a better exploitation of their natural resources. One of the reasons of this is that through the alpine mountain passes there was a daily traffic of people and goods, which today is difficult to fully understand. Another cause is the natural richness both in metal and natural goods, as well demonstrated by the opening of important mines as the one in Campolungo (BS) and of high mountain villages of miners, as in the case of Dos del Curù, Valle Camonica (BS).
The goals of this speech are to describe the central alpine region in the second half of the VIth cent. BC, as well as to assess the capability of these alpine peoples to deal with these complex long-range trades. As a case of study we’ll consider the unpublished settlement of Parre, Val Seriana (BG), one of the most important preroman centres of northern Italy.

 

6. Martina Čelhar and Igor Borzić (University of Zadar) / Gregory Zaro (University of Maine)

Pottery as an indicator of trade dynamics and cultural contacts in the eastern Adriatic during the Iron Age and Roman periods: The case of Nadin-Gradina
Located in the central part of Ravni Kotari (Northern Dalmatia, Croatia), Nadin-Gradina (Nedinum) occupies a vast area of 32.6 ha, while the main stone rampart encloses an area of about 8 ha, making it one of the largest hillfort complexes in ancient Liburnia. Nadin-Gradina was an economic, cultural and administrative center of one of the largest Liburnian territories. By the early first millennium A.D., Nadin-Gradina was transformed into a formal Roman municipium, but it appears to have declined during Late Antiquity. In the later part of the Medieval era, the site regained prominence and was ultimately influenced by Venetian and Ottoman expansion.
The Nadin-Gradina Archaeological Project (NGAP), a multi-year effort currently supported by the Croatian Science Foundation, has recovered abundant pottery from cemetery and settlement areas within the site. Current findings suggest a distinct tendency among Liburnian communities to have imported fine pottery during the Iron Age, and particularly the Late Iron Age, with most artifacts originating from the Adriatic region. This also correlates with an increase in pottery used for transport and storage, confirming Nadin-Gradina’s active participation in broader economic and social events during this period. With the onset of Roman influence, the situation changed with the introduction of goods from the wider Mediterranean region in accordance with more “global” trends.

"Pottery as an Indicator of Trade Dynamics and Cultural Contacts in the Eastern Adriatic" (Fulltext)

 

7. Veit Vaelske (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Experiencing Copper in the Phoenician Cities during Iron Age I/II
Traditionally, the Phoenicians are implicated in metal trade and production especially in regard to copper and copper alloys. This picture, though comprehensive in a global perspective, needs further specification and gets especially blurry when it comes to the Phoenician homeland. What do we know exactly about the provenance and the processing of copper and bronzes in the coastal cities of Phoenicia? The answer to this question so far has to be negative. The project "Early Iron Age Copper Trails in the Mediterranean", started
at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in cooperation with Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum and the Direction générale des antiquités du Liban, focuses on cataloguing and analyzing provenanced and stratified copper/bronze-findings from the Lebanese coast. The intention is to evaluate common assumptions and to establish a factual basis concerning the industrial and economic complex of the Phoenician cities within their commercial setting in the Mediterranean.

 

8. Francisco B. Gomes (Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon)

Trade and Consumption of Mediterranean Perfumes in the Iron Age Iberian Peninsula: An Overview
The local communities of the Iberian Peninsula consistently consumed a diversified range of Mediterranean imports throughout the Iron Age. These goods played a significant role in their political economy: in fact, they were adopted, adapted and repurposed in the context of local social practices which underpinned evolving discourses of identity, power and status that in turn supported the political hierarchies that developed during this period.
Among these imported goods perfumes seem to have played a significant but often understated role, attested by the presence in the archaeological record of a succession of containers, such as Phoenician ‘oil bottles’, Corinthian and Naucratite aryballoi, glass vessels, Attic lekythoi as well as other Greek vessels, and finally Hellenistic unguentaries.
Despite the persistent absence of any content analysis, all these classes of containers can be interpreted as correlates of a dynamic perfume trade, which involved a series of Mediterranean production centres and acquired different physiognomies in each particular historical and cultural context.
Through an overview of their chronological and geographic distribution, the present contribution aims to establish a framework of reference to analyse the rhythms, the trends and the diachronic evolution of the trade of Mediterranean perfumes in the Iberian Far West, while laying the basis for an analysis of local consumption patterns, with all their social, political and cultural implications.

"Trade and Consumption of Mediterranean Perfumes in the Iron Age Iberian Peninsula: An Overview" (Fulltext)

 

9. Moritz Kiderlen (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) / Michael Bode (Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum) / Giorgios Mastrotheodoros / Liana Filippaki (N.C.S.R. "Demokritos") / Andreas Hauptmann (Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum) / Yannis Bassiakos and Anno Hein (N.C.S.R. "Demokritos") / Noémi S. Müller (Fitch Laboratory, The British School at Athens) / Hans Mommsen (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn)

Greek copper markets: Modelling the imports from Wadi Arabah, Cyprus, Rio Tinto and elsewhere to Greek central places ca. 1100 -700 BC
Our study group consists of about 300 bronze tripod cauldrons of the Geometric type. These objects had a reconstructed weight between ca. 6 kg and 100 kg each and clearly were prestige goods. Consequently, this study group is a good indicator for the copper trade directed to the Greek elites.
Most tripod types had legs and handles cast in the lost-wax-technique. If the extant bronze fragments preserve residues of the casting cores or casting moulds, the chemical fingerprint of the clay pastes can be used to distinguish and localize the production sites. Our results of such chemical analyses show that most tripod cauldrons were produced (cast) at central places like Olympia. This is corroborated by finds of workshop debris at some central sanctuaries (Olympia and Akovitika) and at central settlements (Lefkandi).
In this paper we present a list of production-sites of tripod cauldrons and we will try to model for each of these sites which sorts of copper were consumed at which period of time. Our questions are: How did the market shares of small local copper sources develop at each site, and how the marked shares of far away industrial scale producers like Wadi Arabah, Cyprus, Rio Tinto or SE Turkey, and what about recycling? Are there well defined trade routes or even trade zones? What do the results tell about logistics and social organization of trade and about political background?

 

10. Chiara Tarditi (Università Cattolica, Brescia)

Use and function of Greek bronze vessels in indigenous societies
In Greek craftsmanship, bronze vessels take a special position, for the value of the metal, which makes them immediately meaningful and precious: their use restricted to more rich people makes these pieces a clear expression of richness and power. In the Greek world, bronze vessels were early used during aristocratic convivial banquets and symposium, establishing a close relation between objects and their function, and were frequently dedicated as votive offerings in sanctuaries. The spread of these social practices among the indigenous societies, with which Greeks came in contact, is well attested since the Archaic period by imports of Greek bronze vessels: generally coming from funerary contexts of different indigenous areas, from Southern Italy to the Black Sea, they continue to represent wealth, power, and identification with the Greek aristocratic culture and society.

"Use and Function of Greek Bronze Vessels in Indigenous Societies" (Fulltext)