The possibility in understanding the function of figured vases often clashes with a limited availability of discovery data, since these finds have been sold in the antiquities market and have been published with attention to the content of the figurative scenes, instead of their contextualization in different geographical and cultural contexts. Today, the methodological update allows us to trace an increasingly reliable panorama of the main areas of diffusion of red-figure vases of South Italy and Sicily and to intuit the links between the places where the vases were produced and those in which they were usually bought. There are, however, some apparently "off course" presences, consisting of a few specimens found in distant and unusual places. Among these materials, the so-called fish-plates stand out. Some specimens produced in Sicily, Campania and Paestum, seem to have been appreciated in Etruscan Lazio, so much so as to give rise to a limited but significant imitation of the shape and of its most characteristic decoration. Such plates were modeled also in other ceramic classes, often uncoated or finished with different coatings. Starting around 400 BC, they were decorated with images of marine creatures painted in the red-figure technique, first in Athens and Sicily, then in other areas of the central Mediterranean Sea. The production of the Etruscan Lazio consists of few specimens, believed to be the work of a single workshop active in Caere in the last thirty years of the fourth century BC. The vases they painted show a close connection with their models, that is with the Sicilian and Campanian fish-plates already arrived in those territories. Like those, they depict marine creatures that became praised seafood in gastronomic literature between fifth and fourth centuries BC, when new pots also, suitable for the slow cooking recommended for fish recipes, became frequent. Fish-plates appear to have been serving dishes for these delicacies; the central cup may have served to contain the seasoning or to collect liquid residue. Sometimes, in fact, unpainted specimens have been found with fish remains inside. Rarely, the same content has been found in painted specimens, in Punic and Etruscan contexts. Evidence of fish offerings and fish-meals come from the analysis of organic residues in kitchen and table vases carried out in various Greek and especially Phoenician places, in a wide portion of the central and western Mediterranean Sea. Often, during rituals for in honor of some divinities (Demeter and Kore, Atargatis-Astarte-Aphrodite, Artemis and Hecate), the liquid residue of the offering was made to drain away through holes in the bottom of the vessels, in some cases also noticed about fish-plates. The figured fish-plates, rarely found in residential contexts and much more present, on the other hand, in tombs and sanctuaries, seem to perform mostly a ritual function. This function could have been simply alluded to by the form and the painted decoration. But it cannot be completely ruled out that their role in those rituals was actually carried out without verifying any traces of organic content and without a systematic collection of discovery data. Here, therefore, on this specific axis of circulation of objects, technical knowledge, ideas, traditions, we must concentrate the desire for a future in-depth analysis on “food and ritual”: in the Mediterranean Sea, particularly in the Tyrrhenian Sea, which connects, also in taste and rituals, Southern Italy, Sicily and Etruria.
Gusto e rito tra Magna Grecia ed Etruria
GADALETA, GIUSEPPINA
In corso di stampa
Abstract
The possibility in understanding the function of figured vases often clashes with a limited availability of discovery data, since these finds have been sold in the antiquities market and have been published with attention to the content of the figurative scenes, instead of their contextualization in different geographical and cultural contexts. Today, the methodological update allows us to trace an increasingly reliable panorama of the main areas of diffusion of red-figure vases of South Italy and Sicily and to intuit the links between the places where the vases were produced and those in which they were usually bought. There are, however, some apparently "off course" presences, consisting of a few specimens found in distant and unusual places. Among these materials, the so-called fish-plates stand out. Some specimens produced in Sicily, Campania and Paestum, seem to have been appreciated in Etruscan Lazio, so much so as to give rise to a limited but significant imitation of the shape and of its most characteristic decoration. Such plates were modeled also in other ceramic classes, often uncoated or finished with different coatings. Starting around 400 BC, they were decorated with images of marine creatures painted in the red-figure technique, first in Athens and Sicily, then in other areas of the central Mediterranean Sea. The production of the Etruscan Lazio consists of few specimens, believed to be the work of a single workshop active in Caere in the last thirty years of the fourth century BC. The vases they painted show a close connection with their models, that is with the Sicilian and Campanian fish-plates already arrived in those territories. Like those, they depict marine creatures that became praised seafood in gastronomic literature between fifth and fourth centuries BC, when new pots also, suitable for the slow cooking recommended for fish recipes, became frequent. Fish-plates appear to have been serving dishes for these delicacies; the central cup may have served to contain the seasoning or to collect liquid residue. Sometimes, in fact, unpainted specimens have been found with fish remains inside. Rarely, the same content has been found in painted specimens, in Punic and Etruscan contexts. Evidence of fish offerings and fish-meals come from the analysis of organic residues in kitchen and table vases carried out in various Greek and especially Phoenician places, in a wide portion of the central and western Mediterranean Sea. Often, during rituals for in honor of some divinities (Demeter and Kore, Atargatis-Astarte-Aphrodite, Artemis and Hecate), the liquid residue of the offering was made to drain away through holes in the bottom of the vessels, in some cases also noticed about fish-plates. The figured fish-plates, rarely found in residential contexts and much more present, on the other hand, in tombs and sanctuaries, seem to perform mostly a ritual function. This function could have been simply alluded to by the form and the painted decoration. But it cannot be completely ruled out that their role in those rituals was actually carried out without verifying any traces of organic content and without a systematic collection of discovery data. Here, therefore, on this specific axis of circulation of objects, technical knowledge, ideas, traditions, we must concentrate the desire for a future in-depth analysis on “food and ritual”: in the Mediterranean Sea, particularly in the Tyrrhenian Sea, which connects, also in taste and rituals, Southern Italy, Sicily and Etruria.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
