EAA2021: Abstract
Abstract is part of session #16:
Title & Content
Title:
An economic history of exchanges from grave goods : some quantification issues in archaic Campania (8th-6th BC)
Content:
My research aims at studying economic exchanges from archaeological sources, especially from grave goods, in Campania between the 8th and the 6th centuries BC. I have developed a method of analysis combining the use of GIS with a cautious quantification, mostly in order to contextualize some of the phenomenons I observed regarding the consumption of allogenous goods (Greek, Etruscan and Phoenician vases, Egyptian and Phoenician ornaments and scarabs, etc.). In my paper for this session, I would offer a critical review on some methods of quantification, in two complementary perspectives: first, the quantification of funerary contexts, and secondly, some issues about allogenous ceramic’s quantification in archaic Campania.
A Social Network Analysis has recently been made on grave goods from a Greek site in Campania, Pithekoussai. Grave goods were isolated, counted, and assumptions were made about the links they allowed to observe between Pithekoussai and some other Mediterranean sites.
I propose in this paper to examine how such a quantitative and formal approach tends to neglect some fundamental properties of grave goods, and to propose other forms of quantification, more respectful of the complexity of the funerary context.
Another aspect of my communication would concern ceramics’ quantification, especially when the goal is to compare different types of context (graves, sanctuary, settlement) or even different sites. Depending on the vases fragmentation and on the classifications homogeneity, many issues arise when trying to quantify those sherds. I will use some empirical examples from my ongoing study of unpublished graves from Pontecagnano and Calatia.
A Social Network Analysis has recently been made on grave goods from a Greek site in Campania, Pithekoussai. Grave goods were isolated, counted, and assumptions were made about the links they allowed to observe between Pithekoussai and some other Mediterranean sites.
I propose in this paper to examine how such a quantitative and formal approach tends to neglect some fundamental properties of grave goods, and to propose other forms of quantification, more respectful of the complexity of the funerary context.
Another aspect of my communication would concern ceramics’ quantification, especially when the goal is to compare different types of context (graves, sanctuary, settlement) or even different sites. Depending on the vases fragmentation and on the classifications homogeneity, many issues arise when trying to quantify those sherds. I will use some empirical examples from my ongoing study of unpublished graves from Pontecagnano and Calatia.
Keywords:
GIS, funerary archaeology, archaeology of pre-roman Italy, ceramic
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authors
Main authors:
Ségolène Maudet1
Co-author:
Affiliations:
1 Université de Lorraine - Hiscant