Thesis title: Spazi domestici del Mediterraneo centro-occidentale tra IX e III secolo a.C.: specificità, persistenze e trasformazioni nei contesti abitativi del mondo indigeno, fenicio e punico
Dwelling in a domestic space has always been a shared human necessity and, at the same time, a culturally situated experience. This thesis explores the diverse forms of dwelling among Indigenous, Phoenician, and Greek communities of the central-western Mediterranean between the 9th and 3rd centuries BCE, considering both coastal and inland contexts in Sicily, Sardinia, the Iberian Peninsula, and North Africa.
The selected house contexts are analysed through the integration of architectural data, material culture, and the study of spatial relationships, applying space syntax and access analysis to investigate paths and internal modes of circulation. Attention is given to the everyday practices that animated domestic environments: craft activities, food preparation, convivial gatherings, rest, and household cults. Taken together, these data have made it possible to reconstruct social aspects of domestic life, interpreted in relation to architectural configurations.
The results indicate, for the earliest contexts (9th–early 6th centuries BCE), a plurality of construction solutions, with choices varying according to local traditions and networks of contact; from the 5th century BCE onward, a tendency toward the standardisation of house forms; and, in the Late Punic period, the adoption of architectural and decorative elements of broader Mediterranean taste, alongside regional continuities and specificities.
The research suggests that it is possible to speak of a shared Mediterranean way of dwelling, recognisable in the use of courtyards and open spaces, in similar distributions of integrated rooms, and in comparable practices and material repertoires. However, such convergences do not erase cultural specificities nor the adaptations shaped by territories, resources, and local contexts. The ancient Mediterranean house thus emerges as a space of shared practices and, at the same time, of differentiated choices, the outcome of relationships and interactions that traversed the basin over a long and varied timespan.