How we work
Our research is guided by a bottom-up perspective centred on local agency. Rather than viewing Monte Iato as a passive periphery of ancient powers, we investigate it as a living settlement shaped by the decisions, strategies and everyday practices of its inhabitants.
Monte Iato’s inland position made it a long-term borderland — a space in which political orders, cultural traditions, and economic systems intersected. Our research investigates how large-scale processes — hegemonic expansion, economic integration, and religious transformation — were experienced, negotiated, and reshaped at the local level. This perspective connects micro-level archaeological evidence with macro-historical dynamics.
Architecture as Social Evidence
Architecture plays a central role in our research. We examine buildings and architectural complexes such as:
– the Temple of Aphrodite and its surrounding precinct
– the Late Archaic House and its annex
– the Hellenistic and Roman transformation of the Late Archaic House and the cultic precinct surrounding the Temple of Aphrodite
– Peristyle House I and its multifunctional phases throughout its life history
– medieval domestic structures
These are not treated as isolated monumental complexes, but as social spaces in which power, ritual, identity, and everyday life were negotiated. By analysing how buildings were constructed, used, transformed, and eventually abandoned, we trace long-term social dynamics across different historical periods.
Our approach combines archaeology with natural scientific analyses, including:
– stratigraphic excavation focusing on construction, deposition, and discard processes
– archaeometric and materials-based analyses of production, use, and transformation processes
– bioarchaeological analyses of dietary practices, resource use, and structured deposition
– landscape and spatial analysis of resource use and mobility
– quantitative and visual modelling of assemblage patterns
This integrative approach enables us to reconstruct subsistence strategies, mobility patterns, consumption practices, ecological adaptation, and political transformation across multiple scales. Rather than organising our research strictly according to historical periods, we work through cross-cutting analytical categories that allow us to trace both continuity and rupture over centuries.
The Innsbruck Monte Iato Project is conducted in close cooperation with the Parco Archeologico di Himera, Solunto e Monte Iato, the University of Zurich, and numerous national and international research partners. We are committed to open, transparent, and sustainable research practices. Architectural documentation, scientific analyses, environmental data, and bioarchaeological results are prepared for long-term open-access publication.Our aim is to create durable research infrastructures that remain accessible beyond individual project cycles.
Why It Matters
Monte Iato demonstrates that small communities were never passive recipients of historical processes. They shaped political systems, adapted external influences, and developed long-term resilience strategies. By studying Monte Iato, we contribute to broader debates about connectivity, power, identity, and adaptation from a long-term perspective. Understanding how past societies responded to change helps us to reflect more deeply on resilience and transformation today.