Between the Aphrodite Temple and the Late Archaic House

< In about 500 BC, a large, two-storey house was constructed on Monte Iato. This building is notably oriented along a sacral axis, which formed the foundation of the so-called Aphrodite Temple, constructed around 550 BC. The upper level of this late archaic building housed magnificently decorated banqueting rooms that were accessible from ground level on the much higher hillside in the North, through an open place in front of the house. Despite this obvious integration of the upper level into the cult and festival activities of the sanctuary around the Aphrodite Temple, the rooms at ground level are still to be considered part of the area used for representative living. Therefore, this was the residence of a powerful family or `club house` of a local elite circle. This familial or elite group held `trusteeship` of the upper-level banqueting rooms as well as the sacrifice and festival policy at the Aphrodite Temple. Although the sanctuary on Monte Iato was in the middle of the indigenous hinterland, both its most significant architectural monuments - the Aphrodite Temple and the late archaic house - are exciting examples of Greek building work. This can only be explained as a result of successful networking with the Greeks. The archaeological project "Between the Aphrodite Temple and the late Archaic House" reflects a causal link of religion, power formation and colonial contact. A detailed archaeological study of this causal interdependence will be based on Robert N. Bellah`s typology of religion and society. This perspective from the sociology of religion also defines the choice of archaeological method as well as those zones where archaeological fieldwork is necessary, in order to gain more accurate explanations. By analysis of activity areas and by palaeobotanical and palaeozoological investigations, the aim is to reconstruct as precisely as possible what was where and how consumed. On the basis of such an analysis of consumption patterns on pottery, sacrificial meat and alcoholic beverages will be uncovered a social topography of the cult community in the sanctuary around the Aphrodite Temple. This study promises to yield new insights into the cult and festival policy of the local elite dwelling on the lower storey of this late archaic house. The formation of an alliance with Greek partners played a central role here. Ultimately, the claim to rule was established on this basis and was implicit to the installation of a genuine cult within the sanctuary at the Aphrodite Temple as an earthly emanation of a cosmic order.

Since the early 1st millennium BC the cult site at the Aphrodite Temple on Monte Iato was a central arena for the formation of alliances as well as for the redistribution of resources and prestigious goods in the mountainous Western Sicily. Over the centuries this indigenous cult place was subjected to altering figurations of Greek, Phoenician and Etrusco-Italic influences. These colonial processes culminated around 500 BC in the erection of the Late Archaic House. With its impressive banquet rooms, two-story construction, tiled roof and generous dimensions, this house embodies a kind of high-tech architecture which was otherwise only found in the metropoleis and central sanctuaries of that era. A Greek workshop built the Late Archaic house in between two palaces dating from the third century B.C. After its discovery the house was often addressed as residence of a Greek aristocrat, which was located amidst the indigenous settlement of Monte Iato. Only in 2011 the discovery of a ramp connecting the house with the slightly older temple of Aphrodite proofed that the Late Archaic house was actually embedded in cult and feasting activities. Its banquet halls on the second level as well as the representative living and large storage space on the ground floor indicate functions comparable to a pre-modern congress hall. Here the elites from far and wide met for social dinners following certain festival calendars. These summits were not only used to consume delicacies but also to exchange information, expertise, commodities and ideas. At the same time they posed an opportunity to arrange marriage alliances as well as partnerships based on hospitality. The discovery of this functional aspect made the study of the Late Archaic house a methodological intersection between the researches of architecture and sanctuaries. To satisfy the complex conflicting priorities of local establishment of power, religion and trans-regional colonial policy with field-archaeological methods became a major task. This resulted in some form of forensic archaeology which aimed at filtering out different consumption patterns within and outside the Late Archaic house. On the inside of the Late Archaic house colonial and cultural acquisitions from the Greek and Phoenician coastal cities were used to establish local power structures. In contrast to this, on the outside on the festival ground immediately in front of the banquet rooms no colonial objects have been used. On the festival ground a ritual deposition has been uncovered in which only sacred equipment and ceremonial tableware were used as indicators of an old pre-colonial world. In this confined space contrary concepts of identity and consumption can be observed which archaeologically manifest the Janus-faced character of local empowerment in Western Sicily. On the one hand, adherence to the traditional world of the ancestors through ritual re-enactment was supposed to demonstrate an unabated loyalty to the own site towards the local population which, at the same time, functioned as personal fealty. On the other hand, a cultural alignment with colonial partners was necessary in order to be accepted as equal ally.