Classical Archaeology: Living in the Town, Living in the Countryside. Typologies, Models and Transformations of Residential Architecture in Hellenistic and Roman Epirus


The seminar is aimed at PhD students in the Classical Archaeology curriculum of the 37th, 38th and 39th cycles and all interested students. https://phd.uniroma1.it/dottorati/cartellaDocumentiWeb/e8e60364-e193-4c3c-95c9-f5ba972322cf.pdf Presentation The on-field archaeological activities have much accelerated in various areas of Epirus in the last decades, and are producing an important progress of our knowledge of many aspects of the region, such as settlement distribution and land occupation, the definition of the urban landscapes, the organisation of defensive strategies, territory control and fortification, the funerary and religious spheres, etc. Lesser attention, considering the available publications, has been put on the analysis of the residential complexes, and this is not due to the lack of archaeological evidence, which is sometimes quite exceptional. Houses of different typologies, scale and prestige have been excavated and documented in recent years in large, fully urban centres such as Phoinike and Antigonea, and in minor sites such as Çuka e Ajtoit (Cestria). The rural landscape, as well, preserves evidences of small settlements equipped with monumental towers and other fortification elements. These have traditionally been interpreted as fortified farmhouses, underlining their economical function connected to agricultural and pastoral intensive exploitation of the chora. Among these stand out the structures preserved at Malathrea, a Hellenistic tetrapyrgos enlarged in Roman times and those of Mesopotamos near Ephyra in Thesprotia, erroneously interpreted for many years as the famous sanctuary of the Nekyomanteion. Exceptional architectural models, forged and diffused by the Macedonian dynasty are at the base of many of these residences that seem to integrate ‘palatial’ shapes and functions. The workshop aims at offering a discussion table to share new excavation and research results and fostering a fruitful dialog on models, functions, chronologies, transformations and interpretation. It aims at setting the ground for an integrated understanding of the phenomenon of residential architecture in Hellenistic and Roman Epirus.

15 January 2024 Aula Manlio Simonetti Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, (CU003, 3rd floor) Sapienza University of Roma

Programme

09:30-10:00
Welcome addresses:

Gaetano Lettieri, Director of Dept. SARAS, Sapienza University of Rome
Anila Bitri Lani, Ambassador of the Albanian Republic in Rome
Paolo Carafa, Deputy Rector for Archaeological Heritage, Sapienza University of Rome

10:00 - 10:20
Enrico Giorgi, Anna Gamberini. La casa dei due peristili a Phoinike. Un'esempio di una residenza di rappresentanza di età ellenistica e i suoi sviluppi in età romana

10:20 - 10:40
Michael Benfatti, Belisa Muka
La casa degli intonaci di Phoinike. Definizione e sviluppi di modelli architettonici e decorativi

10:40 - 11:00
Roberto Perna, Sabina Veseli, Samuele Rocchi
Urban topography and residential architecture in Antigonea: new considerations

11:00 - 11:30
Coffee break

11:30 - 11:50
Riccardo Carmenati, Ludovica Xavier de Silva
New data from the excavation at house 4 of Antigonea

11:50 - 12:10
Julian Bogdani, Albana Meta
New researches in the so-called Palace of Çuka e Ajtoit

12:10 - 12:30
Björn Forsén
Production and trade of Roman tegulae in Epirus

12:30 - 13:00
Discussion

13:00 - 15:00
Launch break

15:00 - 15:20
Gian Michele Gerogiannis
L’edilizia residenziale in Molossia in epoca ellenistica: stato della conoscenza e problemi aperti

15:20 -15:40
Francesco Maria Ferrara
Oikia, baris, basileion: l'architettura domestica in Macedonia alla luce delle testimonianze archeologiche e letterarie

15:40 - 16:00
Saimir Shpuza
Illyrian aristocratic practices. An example from the ongoing archaeological research at Bushat (Albania).

16:00 - 16:20
Giuseppe Lepore, Belisa Muka
Le cosiddette case sacre tra Epiro e Sicilia

16:20 - 16:40
Paolo Carafa
Rural and Urban Residential Architecture: Form Epirus to Latium

16:40 - 17:00
Discussion and conclusions

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