University of Groningen Greek pottery on the Timpone della Motta and in the Sibaritide from c. 780 to 620 BC Kindberg Jacobsen, Jan IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2007 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Kindberg Jacobsen, J. (2007). Greek pottery on the Timpone della Motta and in the Sibaritide from c. 780 to 620 BC: reception, distribution and an evaluation of Greek pottery as a source material for the study of Greek influence before and after the founding of ancient Sybaris. [s.n.]. 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Download date: 03-10-2021 1 General introduction The current thesis is primarily based on the Greek pottery and a two groups of locally produced Greek inspired pottery (here called Oinotrian-Euboean and Oinotrian-“Colonial ware”) excavated in the sanctuary on the Timpone della Motta near Francavilla Marittima, Calabria. The excavations were conducted by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology (GIA) between 1991 and 2004 under the direction of my promoter and mentor, Prof. Dr. Marianne Kleibrink. I participated in the excavations from 1998 and from 2001 in the pottery publications1. In the traditional research perspective the Greek pottery from the Timpone della Motta has - together with other imports - been a dominant source material in the reconstruction of the Greek frequentation of the Sibaritide and contacts further along the Ionian coast, prior to the foundation of ancient Sybaris (720/710 BC) as well as the colonisation of the Sibaritide. Based on the limited range of early Greek imports, various explanations to the nature of the contacts between indigenous groups in the Sibaritide and the carriers of the Greek imports have been brought forward. The distribution of early Greek pottery in the Sibaritide is today explained by a number of competing arrival theories such as circulations of imports inside indigenous networks; direct contact between indigenous groups and “Euboean” sailors in the direction of Ischia; or contemporarily sailing “Greek Corinthian prospectors”, mainly operating out of the Salento area. In the study of subsequent periods Greek pottery dating to the last quarter of the 8th century BC and onwards, has been used as an empirical barometer in research regarding the foundation of ancient Sybaris and its relations to the indigenous Sibaritide. The present knowledge is however based on observations, which are limited in the following two aspects 1) The published, and thereby available material record is thin; 2) A detailed interpretation of the reception of the Greek pottery together with general concepts of geographical, chronological and typological distribution of Greek pottery in the Sibaritide has so far not been defined. The present thesis will attempt to do these two things in the manner described below. Approach of the Thesis Chapter 1 will focus on the influx and reception of Greek pottery in Campania and the Salento regions to establish a comparative framework, which will serve as an interpretive point of reference for the situation encountered in the Sibaritide. The chapter will also focus of the appearance and development of local Italo- 1 I wish to express my gratitude to the Ny Carlsberg Foundation and Carlsberg Foundation for providing full financial support to the publication studies of me and others and for financing the printing of volumes, as well as the major part of the excavations on the Timpone della Motta between 2002 and 2004. 2 Geometric pottery productions along the Tyrrhenian coast. Particular attention is put on this subject, since similar pottery from the Timpone della Motta will be introduced in chapter 4. Chapter 2 will shift focus to the Sibaritide to present the two current views on pre-Sybaris contacts and subsequent colonisation in the Sibaritide. This will be mainly be exemplified through the works of P.G. Guzzo and M. Kleibrink. These two examples, which are the predominant views, are examined in order to create an overview over the relationship between the various interpretations and the so-fare known Greek ceramic material from the Sibaritide. Chapter 3 will present new material from the Timpone della Motta and suggest a new approach to the study of pre-Sybaris connections. As a supplement to the already known early imports in the Sibaritide, the GIA excavations produced a handful of additional Greek pottery fragments datable to the period prior to the foundation of Sybaris. This, together with the known material, shows that some form of direct or indirect Greek influence was present in the region at least in a material sense. At the end of chapter 3, it will be suggested that other types of ceramic material has to be taken in to account in order to make a pin pointed reconstruction of pre-Sybaris connections. In Chapter 4, this will be attempted by first presenting a group of locally produced “Oinotrian-Euboean” pottery, which shows that well before the middle of the 8th century BC a wide range of Greek motifs and vessel shapes were already current on the Timpone della Motta and partly also in the Sibaritide. Based on this pottery it will be argued that Greek potters where working in Francavilla Marittima from the first half of the 8th century BC onwards. It will following be suggested that the “Oinotrian-Euboean” production reflects a circulation of “potters and people” between Campania and the Sibaritide and that a part of the pre-Sybaris Greek pottery is likely to be the result of this connection. In chapter 5, Attention will be placed on the indigenous reception of Greek and Oinotrian-Euboean vessels in graves in the Sibaritide and on the Timpone della Motta in the period between c. 780 BC to c. 720 BC. The ways of reception will be compared to those of similar material in a number of other Italian Iron Age indigenous contexts, among which are those in Campania and the Salento area. The chapter also seeks to evaluate whether Greek pottery could have arrived in the Sibaritide via Euboean sailors or Corinthian prospectors. In chapter 6, the distribution of Greek pottery after the foundation of Sybaris will be investigated. This will take off from a suggestion that the currently strict methodical and chronological division between pre- and 3 post- Sybaris imports should be replaced by a more flexible view that allows for the influx of Greek pottery to the indigenous sites through already existing native networks as well as through Sybaris itself. It is therefore the purpose of chapter 6 to create a picture of the quantitative and chronological distribution of Greek pottery in the Sibaritide by foremost focusing on the material from the Timpone della Motta. At the end of chapter 6, it will be argued that large scale influx of Greek pottery to the Timpone della Motta and other sites in the Sibaritide occurred a generation later than previously assumed. This new point of view will be based on a study of the relative quantities combined with a recording of type groups and a discussion on their date. At the end of the chapter a group of matt-painted pottery from Basilicata/Apulia will be presented, which although it is not Greek, still must be considered as an import also. In chapter 7, it will be illustrated that the appearance of the so-called “colonial ware” in Francavilla (here called Oinotrian-“Colonial ware”) was an advanced technical and stylistic continuation of the local productions of the 8th century BC (treated in chapter 4) and that it was the main source of Greek vessel shapes to the Timpone della Motta in the period between c. 700-680 BC. In chapter 8, focus will be placed on the indigenous reception of Greek and Oinotrian-Euboean vessels in the graves of the Sibaritide and on the Timpone della Motta in the period after the foundation of Sybaris to 620 BC. In chapter 9, I will evaluate the appropriateness of Greek pottery as a source material for the study of Greek influence or contact before and after the founding of Sybaris. This issue naturally dependent on the results of the current dissertation, because Greek pottery is regarded as the primary evidence for Greek involvement in the Sibaritide. The issue will be approached from a contextual point of view, in which the Greek pottery is analysed within the indigenous cultural spheres consisting of (changing) funeral and religious rites, as well as developments in settlement patterns. Chapter 9 will have a summarizing approach since it obviously will make use of the findings and conclusions from the previous chapters. Note on chronology The present thesis makes use of the chronology of Greek Geometric pottery as it has been defined by J.