Consuming the East in Sicily. Transport amphorae from Himera

This project focuses on provenance studies on eastern Greek amphorae, that is to say transport vessels designed for the commerce of agricultural surplus, which have been imported to Sicily during the Archaic and Classical period. These vessels were manufactured in a broad geographical area between Miletos, Samos, and Ephesos in southern Ionia, Chios, Klazomenai, and Lesbos in middle Ionia, and northern Greece (e.g., the area of Thasos/Mende). Wine was likely the most common content of these amphorae, although especially the earlier series are supposed to have also transported olive oil. Despite the wide distribution of eastern Greek amphorae in all of the Sicilian Greek colonies and in many of the indigenous settlements from the mid-7th to the late 5th century BCE and beyond, a systematic study on this class is still lacking. Specifically, there is no data available on the diachronic documentation of the main productions during the Archaic and Classical period. However, a closer definition of the global players of this maritime long-distance trade between the Aegean area and the Central Mediterranean is crucial for deeper knowledge of their economic interaction. This project plans to investigate approximately 540 eastern Greek amphorae found in the necropolises of Himera to create a chrono-typological serialisation of this important ceramic class. The Greek colony of Himera, located on Sicilys northwestern coast, was founded around the middle of the 7th century BCE and quickly became the most important regional and extra-regional commercial hubs for both the native inland communities and the Punic-Sicilian cities and Carthage itself. The generally very well-preserved vessels from Himera, which represent on of the largest ensembles of eastern Greek amphorae ever excavated in the Central Mediterranean, were reused in childrens burials as containers for the bodies of unborn individuals or children deceased during the first years of life. The amphorae from Himera, together with 110 fragments from other selected Sicilian sampling sites, will be subject to a detailed analysis of their ceramic pasts using standardised methods implemented for FACEM.1 This procedure aims to create macro-fabric groups. Minero-petrographic thin section and chemical NAA analyses will play a prominent role in the frame of archaeometric research on approximately 300 samples selected from the above macro-groups. This broad-based interdisciplinary study will permit the characterisation of well-defined amphorae productions. Comparing the results of earlier geochemical investigations will allow, in many cases, to relate the Sicilian groups to already established eastern Greek manufacturing centres or regions. Combining archaeological and archaeometric methods will create an extraordinary large data-collection, intended as a benchmark for further research on eastern Greek amphorae throughout the Mediterranean. Concerning the production areas in the East, the scientific outcome of this study will contribute to a more nuanced understanding of their long-distance trade over the time. For Sicily itself, it will provide detailed information on the provenance and dating of eastern Greek amphorae (mid-7th to 5th centuries BCE) that are found across the island. This research will offer relevant new insights into the islands commercial interaction during the Archaic-Classical period. Finally, petrography and NAA analyses combined with archaeological fabric studies, and the publication of the results in two open-access data repositories linked to each other will represent an important methodological novelty.