322,870 research outputs found
L'Architettura templare
No full textSi esamina l'architettura religiosa di età romana imperiale a Sabratha partendo da un'analisi dei singoli edifici templari, con considerazioni di ordine tipologico e cronologico, valutando i riflessi sull'urbanistica della citta
«Un uomo di lettere». Ipotesi sul programma figurativo dei rilievi scultorei del pulpitum del Teatro di Sabratha
No full textAfter some considerations about the chronology of Theatre of Sabratha and on the internal organization of pulpitum reliefs, this paper puts forward the hypothesis of the attribution to Apuleius of the most part of the iconographic programme. In particular, Florida and Metamorphosis are suggested as direct sources of some scenes. The reconsideration of the pulpitum's first scene, starting from the left, previously interpreted as a sort of theatral academy, confrims this hypothesis. The scene represents a group of philosophers, strictly derived from the representation of the seven savants, as depicted on two well known mosaics. The iconography is adapted to the specific context, with the elimination of one philosopher. This doesn't depend on one of the several modifications of the sages list, due to ethic or philosophic reasons, but corresponds to a different list of six savants proposed by Apuleius himself
«Questa è la città di Augusto». Archi e processioni a Leptis Magna
No full textA recent study on the Trajan's arch at Leptis Magna mentions a second arch of Tiberius, along a street which runs parallel to the main cardo, where the more famous “twin” of this arch is located. The study also mentions a structure, an arch as well, posed at the same place where the tetrapyle of Trajan was erected. These three arches mark the three vertices of a quadrilateral of streets involving the main places of the public consent through the Imperial House. It is not a case that this predecessor of the Trajan's arch lies on the crossway among the main cardo and a way with goes to the street that separes the Theatre, the fourth vertex of the quadrilateral, from the porticus post scaenam. The explanation of the secluded position of the second arch of Tiberius, the only one that doen'st lies along one of the two main streets of Leptis, lies within the involvement of the Theatre into a processional path inside the “city of Augustus” whose entrances are marked by the two arches which were built by his successor
Su due sculture minori di Alessandria e Leptis Magna
No full textThis paper focuses on two marble sculptures representing Bellerophon with the Chimaera, now in the Alexandria and Lepcis Magna Museums, which received the attention of the late Professor Nicola Bonacasa several decades ago. Carved in Proconnesian marble and rendered with a very close iconography, they are part of a larger group of about ten trapezophora with the same subject. Pointing out more on differences among these exemplares than on their analogies, after some considerations on the long debate about the function and the meaning of these sculptures as well as on the geography of the myth of the Chimaera, a new interpretation of the myth is proposed, not as unique but co-existing with the others
Concordiae Agrigentinorum Sacrum Res Publica Lilybitanorum. Nessi reali e presunti tra Marsala e Agrigento, A proposito di Iside. Parte II. Lilibeo: il santuario e il suo arredo scultoreo nel paesaggio religioso del Capo Boeo
No full textSome archaeological investigations at Lilybaeum (Marsala) have brought to light a building in the northern part of the Capo Boeo, close to an insula occupied by a large domus. According to an inscription that mentions a deity
called myronima and thea megiste, two well know epicleses of Isis, this building has been interpreted as an Iseum. The text is engraved on the surface of a half column, whose function is now re-interpreted. Also some fragmentary sculptures, which were found during the same excavations, have been deemed to belong to an Isis-
Aphrodite and a Sarapis. A new reading of these statues suggests a very different interpretation. The male torso and a fragment of a bearded head are now read as an Aesculapius whilst the female torso is much more correctly interpreted as an image of Hygieia. Both statues belong to types largely widespread in the Roman North Africa and at Lambaesis in particular. Together with an excursus on the relation between the cults of Aesculapius and of the Alexandrian couple Isis-Sarapis, this paper reconsiders these sculptures as well as all the published data on this context and proposes to integrate the reading of the sanctuary in relation to the most relevant architectural items of that area. The urban development of Lilybaeum is also considered, while evaluating other cults attested
by inscriptions or artifacts, in order to reconstruct the religious landscape of the city in the Roman period, while proposing some hypotheses on the continuity and changes between the Punic and the Roman period and on the religious agency of the different subjects which could have had access to these sanctuaries and temple
Concordiae Agrigentinorum sacrum res publica Lilybitanorum. Nessi reali e presunti tra Agrigentum e Lilybaeum, a proposito di Iside. Parte I. Agrigentum
No full textThe discovery of a temple at Agrigento in the neinties of the last Century and the recent detection of a sacred building at Lilibeo should contribute, according with their discoverers, to fill the lack of evidences concerning the Isis cult between the East and West part of Sicily. In order to re-consider the data that should confirm these two interpretations, the aim of this contribution is to take in exam the first of these two cases, Agrigento, suggesting, with the necessary prudence, a different lecture. Rather than an alternative hypothesis this lecture would offer a contribution to the debate. Some considerations on the sacred building and its location next to the Forum as well as on the finds, especially the sculptural ones, are based on the previous works. This review seems to legitimate a different interpretation. This new proposal takes into account the topographical, religious and historical context concerning the temple as well as some other religious complexes from the provinciae, since they show significant analogies with the two cases study (including the debate on their dedication)
The City and its Port
No full textWithin the volume “Sabratha. A guide to the studies and investigations of the past 50 years”, Chapter on: “The city and the port”, in the sections on “Urban housing and industrial establishments” and “Mosaics and wall paintings of the houses” (A. Mandruzzato), a reconstruction of the appearance of the city during the Roman age and a description of the wall paintings and mosaic pavements of some houses, located in different areas of the city, are proposed
Colonial, post-colonial, neo-colonial Mediterranean: historical, archaeological and iconographical sources for a micro-history of an uncomfortable thought
No full textEven in its most neutral meanings, the term “colonial” leads to questioning the cultural and ideological purpose of its use. This also concerns its derivatives, post-colonial and neo-colonial, whose prefixes are not to be interpreted in a merely chronological sense. This paper investigates the remote origins of a mental attitude that has resulted both in a “colonial” reading of some phenomena and in a post-colonial new interpretation. The aim is to highlight the common cultural bases of these two very different conceptions (in theory opposite and non-superimposable). Also, the interpretations which are apparently far from imperialism are not totally immune from the danger of a form of racism, even unintentional or unconscious, that has its roots in antiquity. From ancient Greece to the present day, the assumption for a cultural and political (or cultural then political) supremacy consisted in bringing together the other self in a sort of indistinct category, canceling its specificity. Leaving apart the obvious semantic shift, from the most general “Barbarians” to the apparently most specific “Semites” or “Arabic” all are terms used improperly, if not intentionally twisted. The purpose is to affirm a presumed mankind's superiority. The path from “proto-racism” to the actual racism has been largely supported by images. The reclaiming of the past did neither concern just its symbolic value nor its significance as model for propaganda. Even those historical reconstructions with a scientific approach and not necessarily related to the ideology of colonial regimes suffer from a much older prejudice. I will try to highlight how the “colonizer” can become, this time not necessarily in an unconscious or involuntary manner, a “colonized”, without this implying a taking of possession of a territory
La città e il suo porto
No full textNell’ambito del volume “Sabratha. Una guida a studi e ricerche degli ultimi 50 anni”, nel capitolo dedicato a “La città e il suo porto”, le sezioni relative a “Cultura abitativa e impianti produttivi” e a “Mosaici e apparati pittorici dall’abitato”, curate da A. Mandruzzato, propongono una ricostruzione dell’aspetto dei quartieri urbani durante l’età romana, e una descrizione dell’apparato decorativo di alcune case, dislocate in aree diverse della città
Modi di abitare, tipi e varianti: alcune riflessioni sulla cultura abitativa ellenistico-romana in Sicilia
No full textAfter a brief survey on the previous studies on the Sicilian domestic architecture of the hellenistic and Roman periods, this paper questions the idea of a continuous development of the Greek house's central space, from the simple court to the peristyle, as well as the opposition between “centripetal”and “axial” (i.e. the Greek peristyle house and the Roman atrium house). This rigid distinction doesn't take in account the existence of an hybrid form of the court that doesn't fit well in these comfortable cathegories: the “tetrastylon”. Sicilian houses are reconsidered in order to establish if this and other single houses' features can be labelled as “Punic”, “Greek” or “Roman” or if this is possible just for their whole plan. These houses also reveal what the eventual presence of “Roman” elements into a “Greek” house can tell us about the house's owners in terms of cultural identity: if Greek citzens influenced by the Roman culture or Romans living in a Greek city according with their own way of life
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