View of the Accordia Lectures 2014–2015

Amicone, S and Lown, O J 2015 Review of the Accordia Lectures 2014–2015. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, 25(2): 10, pp. 1–10, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/pia.486 REVIEW Review of the Accordia Lectures 2014–2015 Silvia Amicone* and Oliver J. Lown* Accordia is an independent research institute interesting, and covered a wide range of top- that operates in association with the UCL ics related to the archaeology and history Institute of Archaeology and with the Institute of Italy, from prehistoric settlements to the of Classical Studies, the School of Advanced reception of the Etruscan world. Study, and the University of London. It is dedi- cated to the promotion and co-ordination of Ruth Whitehouse research in all aspects of Italy, from the earli- Emeritus Professor est settlements to the recent past. of Prehistoric Archaeology Accordia organises lectures, research UCL Institute of Archaeology seminars, conferences and exhibitions on aspects of Italian archaeology and history, and publishes a journal, Accordia Research Lecture 1. 21 October 2014 Papers, as well as research publications ‘The columns are unfinished to this including specialist volumes, conference day!’ – New Excavations in the papers and excavation reports. A subscrip- Forum of Pompeii tion is charged for those who want the Christoph Rummel, German journal, but all Accordia events are free and Archaeological Institute open to the public (for more information see the Accordia website: http://www.ucl. Pompeii’s Forum was the subject of the ac.uk/accordia/index.htm). first Accordia Lecture of the 2014–2015 The annual lecture series, now in its 27th series, delivered by Christoph Rummel. In year, is a regular feature of the academic his lecture, Dr Rummel presented some of calendar. Seven lectures take place between the results of the Augsburg Pompeii Forum October and May, each held at either the UCL Project (2003–), the full publication of which Institute of Archaeology or the Institute of is currently in preparation. As Dr Rummel Classical Studies (Senate House). The lectur- demonstrated, the project has shed new light ers include both early career and established on Pompeii’s Forum in the late Republic and scholars, and their topics range widely across early Empire, revealing it to have had a more Italian archaeology, history and art history. complex architectural development than The lectures are aimed at both Italian special- was previously thought. ists and the general public. The Forum of Pompeii has been the focus This paper offers a review of the 2014–2015 of numerous investigations since at least the Accordia Lectures. The series was particularly early 19th century (see e.g. Dobbins and Foss 2007, esp. p. 28ff.), and scholars continue to debate its layout and sequence of development. It was within the context of this ongo- * UCL Institute of Archaeology, GB [email protected], ing debate that the Augsburg Pompeii Forum [email protected] Project was conceived. The project can be Art. 10, page 2 of 10 Amicone and Lown: Review of the Accordia Lectures 2014–2015 seen as in keeping with the traditional ori- in other parts of the Forum, such as the entation of Roman archaeology in Germany, Comitium (Dr Rummel focused primarily which, in studies of Roman cities, has tended on the investigations in the southern part), to focus on public space (see e.g. works by but time constraints did not allow for this. Paul Zanker on the Augustan period), in Particularly refreshing was the caution exer- contrast with, for example, British scholar- cised by Dr Rummel in his assessment of the ship, which has traditionally maintained project’s results. All too often archaeologists a stronger focus on domestic space (e.g. are guilty of constructing grand narratives on Wallace-Hadrill 1994). the back of small scraps of evidence. The exca- The initial aim of the Augsburg Pompeii vations conducted in the southern part of Forum Project was to conduct a photogram- the Forum were necessarily limited in scope, metric analysis of the Forum. Following and, as Dr Rummel insisted, the conclusions this, work was extended to include a more drawn from them can only be tentative. detailed analysis of the Forum’s honorific Despite the obstacles, the archaeologists suc- arches and its environs, and excavations in ceeded in providing important new insights the southern part of the Forum (2006–2009). into the development of Pompeii’s Forum. In The results of the latter were the main focus doing so, they also demonstrated how much of Dr Rummel’s lecture. Numerous obsta- there is still to be learnt about Pompeii, and cles associated with working in a popular it was somewhat to the disappointment of archaeological park meant that the exca- the audience on 21 October that there are no vations in the southern part of the Forum immediate plans for further excavations. could only be small-scale. Nevertheless, the In recent years Pompeii has been in the archaeologists made a number of important news for unfortunate reasons: collapsed discoveries. In particular, their excavations buildings and cultural mismanagement. It clarified the layout of the southern part was encouraging, then, to hear that archaeol- of the Forum in the late Republic, reveal- ogists are still conducting valuable research ing that the Forum’s south end at this time at this most famous of Italian sites. was delimited by a wall, which was linked to the Basilica. Immediately to the south of Oliver J. Lown the wall ran a road, which was lined with a series of domestic structures, possibly belonging to Pompeii’s Samnite phase. In Lecture 2. 4 November 2014 the 1st century BC the wall was replaced Art and Death in Neolithic Sardinia: by columns, and the road and the domestic the Decorated ‘Domus de Janas’ structures were built over by the predeces- Rock-Cut Tombs sors of the administrative buildings that are Guillaume Robin, University of Edinburgh illustrated in the well-known plans of the Forum (e.g. Mau 1898). Also in the southern The second Accordia Lecture was presented part of the Forum, the archaeologists discov- by Guillaume Robin, who spoke about the ered a ditch, which was full of lapilli from ‘Domus de Janas.’ Domus de Janas (Sardinian the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. This was for ‘House of the Fairies’ or ‘House of the taken as evidence that the colonnade at the Witches’) are a type of pre-historic chamber- south end of the Forum was, at the time of tomb found in Sardinia, which were used the city’s destruction, uncovered and pre- from the late Neolithic to the Bronze Age. sumably unfinished – hence, the title of the They are ipogeic structures, consisting of lecture. several rooms: a dromos, antechambers, a The lecture was clearly delivered and well central chamber, and usually a series of cel- illustrated. It would have been interesting lars in which burial remains are often found. to hear more about the discoveries made They were quarried out of rocks and probably Amicone and Lown: Review of the Accordia Lectures 2014–2015 Art. 10, page 3 of 10 resemble prehistoric Sardinian houses in In order to address his research questions, their layout. There are thousands of these Dr Robin carried out a comprehensive sur- monuments all over Sardinia, but only a few vey of the decoration. During his lecture, hundred are characterised by the presence of he guided us through the different kinds of decorative motives, engraved or painted on ornament, dividing the motives into ‘archi- different parts of the structure. Such motives tectural’ and ‘decorative,’ and pointing out may include architectural elements, bucra- their respective occurrence in different parts nia, zig-zag designs and schematic human of the Domus de Janas tombs. He highlighted figures. some interesting patterns, such as the par- The Domus de Janas tombs came to the ticular emphasis placed on the decoration of attention of academics in 1904, when the doorways, where zigzag motives and bucra- important necropolis of Anghelu Ruju was nia are often found. He concluded that these discovered and excavated by the archae- motives were not placed randomly, but were ologist Antonio Taramelli (1909). The struc- intentionally located in specific parts of the tures also caught the attention of the Greek tombs, suggesting that art played an impor- archaeologist, Christian Zervos. He and tant role in creating and structuring ritual Taramelli were both influenced by Arthur space. Dr Robin also suggested that the spe- Evans’ ideas concerning the importance in cial emphasis on doorways could be related early Greek religion of the so-called ‘bull- to the importance of the transition from a god.’ Consequently, the bucrania found in door to another space, and that this could the Domus de Janas were initially interpreted symbolise the passage from the world of the as depictions of a bull’s head, and were living to the world of the dead. thought to mark a possible connection with Dr Robin’s research also aims to under- the Minoan religion of Crete. stand the agency of the motives – in other Since then, these tombs have been the words, how their presence might have subject of ongoing investigation by Italian affected people. To address this, Dr Robin scholars, such as Giovanni Lilliu (1967) and adopted a comparative approach. Focusing Ercole Contu (1997), both of whom accepted specifically on the bucrania, he looked at the the theory that the bucrania were meant to role that such motives play in communities represent the bull-god. However, the first sys- in modern South East Asia, where bucrania tematic study of the decoration of the Domus are also present in monumental tombs.

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