The Parochial City at Hellenistic Monte Iato and the World beyond Peristyle House 1

Abstract: 

Wider research context / theoretical framework: Around 200 BC, Monte Iato was a Hellenistic polis, characterised by an agora, stoai, bouleuterion, theatre, and peristyle houses. At the same time, this hilltop settlement was also shaped by raditional features:

Peristyle houses were built over the ruins of the scattered old nuclei of the archaic village and the Hellenistic roads still followed the old paths. Furthermore, one of the most significant sacred buildings, the Aphrodite Temple, retained its rustic archaic appearance until Roman times, although Peristyle House 1, situated in its immediate vicinity, represented a monumental manifesto of the then most modern architecture. At Monte Iato, traditional social structures interacted with the modern traits of a Hellenistic koine, giving the Hellenistic polis a distinct local look in comparison with the Hippodamian cities of Hellenistic Sicily.

Hypotheses/research questions /objectives: How and why did this distinct, parochial appearance of Hellenistic Monte Iato come about? What was the local agenda, intertwined with the dynamics of the global power play that triggered and drove this historical process towards a parochial city? Preliminary research of the Hellenistic strata west of Peristyle House 1 points to archaising features that framed the city’s transformation into a Hellenistic polis in order to defuse the danger of de-localisation and to anchor the modern cityscape in the traditional and local social fabric. These parochial dimensions ‘beyond the world of Peristyle House 1’ are at the centre of the project.

Level of originality / innovation: In contrast to previous research, the focus is not on the Hellenistic cityscape of ancient Iaitas, but on four study themes that characterise the transformation of the indigenous hilltop settlement into a parochial city:

1) From compounds to big houses – from households heads to clan leaders;

2) The re-building of the Aphrodite temple as a re-inauguration of the old communal cult;

3) Peristyle House 1 and the resurrection of the old political centre;

4) Consumptionscapes and regimes of value between traditionality and modernity.

Approach/methods: Each of these study themes will be researched in its own self-contained domain and deals with a number of particular objectives and methodological problems that call for specific expert knowledge. The result is a pluri-disciplinary and multi-dimensional research design that attempts to combine artefactual and biofactual proxy data, sociology of architecture, consumption theories in material culture studies, and theorems of globalisation/localisation research.