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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