Search results for "Phoenician"
showing 10 items of 29 documents
Insights into the economic organization of the Phoenician homeland : a multidisciplinary investigation of the later Iron Age II and Persian period Ph…
2018
This paper details the results of a large-scale multi-disciplinary analysis of Iron Age pottery from a settlement in the core of the Phoenician homeland. The research presented is centred upon a large corpus of Phoenician carinated-shoulder amphorae (CSA) from the later Iron Age II and Persian period contexts at the coastal site of Tell el-Burak. Traditional typological investigations are combined with a focused archaeometric approach including a new quantitative method for the morphometric analysis of amphorae, thin-section petrography, geochemistry and organic residue analyses, aimed at gaining a more detailed understanding of the organization of the Phoenician economy. Despite gradual, b…
Grapes and vines of the Phoenicians: morphometric analyses of pips from modern varieties and Iron Age archaeological sites in the Western Mediterrane…
2021
The present study aims to contribute to the investigation of the role of Phoenicians in the spreading and trade of the grapevine through the morphometric analysis of grape pips. Waterlogged and charred samples were selected from three Iron Age sites in the Western Mediterranean: Motya (Sicily, Italy), Nuraghe S’Urachi (Sardinia, Italy) and Huelva (Andalusia, Spain). While only Motya is a Phoenician foundation, all three were nevertheless associated with Phoenician expansion and cultural interaction. Ten cultivars from the “Vivaio Federico Paulsen” in Marsala (western Sicily) were chosen as modern reference material. The key challenge was the comparison of archaeological pips preserved throu…
Human Remains and Funerary Rites in the Phoenician Necropolis of Motya (Sicily)
2017
HLA Class I and Class II Polymorphism in Three Sicilian Populations
2007
Two human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I loci (HLA-A and HLA-B) and one class II locus (HLA-DR) were typed at the DNA level in the Sicilian population. Study participants were of Sicilian origin (183 for class I loci and 260 for class II loci) and live in three towns, chosen on the basis of geographic position and different historical events. These towns are Sciacca (southwest Sicily, located at sea level, conquered by Arabs in a.d. 814), Piana degli Albanesi (northwest Sicily, 720 m above sea level, has maintained religious, cultural, and linguistic peculiarities traced to Albanian settlement in 1488), and Troina (northeast Sicily, 1,120 m above sea level, known as the first settlement of…
Planning Punic cities: Geophysical prospection and the built environment at Motya, Sicily
2020
The urban plan of ancient Motya on the Isola di San Pantaleo on the west coast of Sicily and its relationship to developments in Phoenician and Punic societies have been investigated since the early 1960s. Data from geophysical surveys in the north-eastern quadrant of Motya show the regular organisation of urban insulae framed by two broad roads. These results, combined with data from previous nearby excavations, improve the modelling of Motya's layout, and contribute to the wider discussion of Phoenician/Punic and broader Mediterranean urban traditions between the sixth and fourth centuries BC.
Comercio protohistórico: el registro del Nordeste peninsular y la circulación de mineral de plomo en Ibiza y el Bajo Priorato (Tarragona)
2012
[ES] Los estudios que hemos venido realizando indican que el plomo de la cuenca minera del Bajo Priorato (Tarragona) circula en el ámbito fenicio-tartesio. Sin embargo, los análisis realizados sobre un conjunto de muestras minerales y metálicas de la isla de Ibiza ponen de manifiesto la explotación de la galena argentífera local, cuyo uso coexiste en el yacimiento de sa Caleta con el mineral de Cartagena; no se documenta, en cambio, plomo de procedencia prioratina. Si sumamos a ello los datos relativos a las evidencias que aportan los registros cerámicos ibicencos y catalanes de los ss. VII a VI a.n.e., se va trazando un panorama que pone en evidencia la existencia de una pluralidad de rede…
The Use of Facial Characteristics as Engendering Strategies in Phoenician-Punic Studies
2016
Facial characteristics such as discs on cheeks or exaggerated chins have been traditionally used to interpret Phoenician-Punic materials as representing either females or males. Beards and pointed chins, for instance, have been considered male attributes for terracotta masks, while disks have been interpreted as feminine makeup when present on figurines and ostrich eggshells. However, problems and even paradoxes of interpretation emerge when such characteristics appear on objects already (and perhaps arbitrarily) alternately gendered male or female. Thus, the cosmetic disks on “feminine” figurines become “warts” and “astral symbols” when appearing on “male” masks. Such conundrums show how s…
A presença fenícia em Lisboa: novos vestígios descobertos no alto da colina do Castelo de São Jorge
2018
Neste trabalho apresentam-se os primeiros contextos bem caracterizados da fase inicial da ocupação da Idade do Ferro na Colina do Castelo de São Jorge, em Lisboa (Portugal). Escavações arqueológicas realizadas nesta área urbana permitiram, pela primeira vez, detectar uma sequência clara da ocupação da fase Orientalizante da cidade, que se inicia durante o século VII e se prolonga até ao século V a.C. Os vestígios estratigráficos, arquitectónicos e o espólio recolhido, que integra sobretudo ânforas, produções cinzentas, de engobe vermelho, vasos de fabrico manual e cerâmica comum e pintada, são analisados com detalhe, revelando o profundo carácter orientalizante das populações que se instala…
Geoarchaeological study of the Phoenician cemetery of Tyre-Al Bass (Lebanon) and geomorphological evolution of a tombolo
2008
The geoarchaeological record of the Phoenician necropolis of Al Bass (Lebanon) provides information concerning the geomorphological evolution of a late Holocene tombolo. Physical and chemical analysis of sediments indicates that the cemetery (9th century B.C.) was located near a littoral lagoon, between the dunes of a cuspate spit pointing toward the island of Tyre. From the sea apex of this spit, the moles mentioned in historical chronicles were constructed. Once mainland and island were connected, at the northern coast (where the port of Sidon was located), a sediment trap was formed, which quickly filled with silt. Afterwards, an extensive field of sand dunes buried all the archaeologica…
New Proposal on the Symbology of the Protohistoric Tray of El Gandul (Alcalá de Guadaira, Seville)
2018
En el presente artículo se realiza una nueva propuesta acerca del universo simbólico reflejado en la bandeja de bronce de El Gandul (Alcalá de Guadaíra, Sevilla). En primer lugar se presenta la pieza prestando atención a sus características formales y cronológicas. En un segundo apartado se realiza un resumen historiográfico de las anteriores hipótesis publicadas sobre parte o la totalidad de la simbología de la fuente. Tras dicho repaso se procede a describir la nueva propuesta, basada en el reflejo del mitema que tiene por objeto el empleo de una planta con propiedades en ocasiones rejuvenecedoras, en otras inmortales, como medio para alcanzar una vida eterna y/o revigorizada. Dicho mitem…