Between the Aphrodite-Temple and the Late Archaic House II

Abstract:

Point of departure: Since the early Iron Age the cult site at the Aphrodite Temple on Monte Iato was a central arena for formation of alliances as well as for redistributing resources and prestigious goods. Over the centuries this indigenous central place was subjected to altering figurations of the colonial situation in western Sicily. At a first step, contacts with Phoenicians constituted in the 7th century B.C. the creation of a cult site as central hub in a ritualised exchange system among indigenous leaders. At a second stage, as a result of close contacts with the Greeks around 550 B.C., the ceremonial center was overbuilt by a megaron-like structure, consecrated to Aphrodite. Additional smaller sacred buildings were later added, accompanied by the steadily increasing flow of colonial imports. Finally, this colonial process culminated in the Late Archaic House, whose banqueting rooms on the upper storey anticipates around 500 B.C. the classical andrones with their platforms for klinai and plastered walls. Given this high degree of Hellenisation, the increasing tendency to cling onto an imagined ‘pre-colonial’ era of the ancestors is all the more surprising. Around 460 B.C. – probably as a consequence of incisive shifts in power in the apoikiai of colonial partners – there was a general collapse and return to a Life according to the ‘old’ order which left behind very few archaeological traces well into the early 3rd century.

Innovative aspect: Using the concept of coloniality, the phases of dominance of colonial power matrices will be grasped as the empowerment of local power structures by indigenous people aspiring for power through colonial partners. Coloniality therefore has a dual function and is moreover contrasted with the locality. This not only refers to locality lived and experienced on a daily basis but rather to a sense of belonging that is relived through the ritualised re-enactment of an ancient world from ‘pre-colonial’ times.

Approach/Methodology: In the previous project (2010-2013) the phase of colonial peak around 500 B.C. and the local reactions to it were reflected along the lines of “thick description”. The proposed successor project (2014-2017) aims at researching the period prior to this. The objective therefore is to trace the different consumptionscapes of coloniality and locality in the older archaic strata using a finely tuned archaeometry. In a concluding individual project (2018-2022) the same shall be undertaken for post-archaic layers from the Classical to Roman periods.

Objective/Hypothesis: The proposed project and the planned long-term project aim to develop and test a new perspective that helps us to consider colonisation in terms of indigenous/local empowerment which, in conflict with the de-empowering return to local authenticity, is expressed archaeologically as a dialectic process between Aphrodite Temple and Late Archaic House.