Capo Graziano culture

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The Aeolian Islands

The Capo Graziano culture (also Capo Graziano culture ) is an archaeological culture that was widespread on the Aeolian Islands . According to the prevailing opinion, it occurred at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age , i.e. around 2200 BC. And existed until approx. 1430 BC. It was named after Capo Graziano , a cape in the southeast of the island of Filicudi , where one of the most important settlements of this culture was discovered.

chronology

The beginning of the Capo Graziano culture is mostly around 2200 BC. Assumed - according to evaluations of 14 C data published in 2013 , it may have started a little earlier - with the beginning of the Early Bronze Age on the Aeolian Islands. It ended around 1430 BC. BC or a little earlier.

The Capo Graziano culture can be divided into two main sections:

  • Capo Graziano I: approx. 2200–1800 BC Chr.
  • Capo Graziano II: approx. 1800-1430 BC Chr.

The two phases are distinguished - apart from changes in the ceramics - primarily by the fact that the settlements are very well protected during Capo Graziano II, while in the early phase they were in unprotected places.

While Capo Graziano I belongs to the Early Bronze Age in any case, Capo Grazoano II is described by some authors as Middle Bronze Age (first two phases of the Middle Bronze Age, MBZ I and II). Other researchers meanwhile define the entire Capo Graziano culture as Early Bronze Age and only allow the Middle Bronze Age to begin with the appearance of the following Milazzese culture .

Historical development

After the Aeolian Islands had become an important center of extensive trade contacts with obsidian in the Neolithic because of their obsidian deposits, the advent of metals during the Copper Age, when obsidian was less and less in demand as a material, set on an economic, demographic and cultural recession the Aeolian Islands. In the Bronze Age, however, there was a revival, probably based on the strategic position of the islands, as they controlled the Strait of Messina . Some settlements became intermediate stations for long-distance trade. Many finds, including those of Eastern Mediterranean origin, testify to the latter, namely above all Mycenaean ceramics and older fragments of clay vessels from the Middle Helladic . On the other hand, goods - especially ceramics - of the Capo Graziano culture can be found not only on the Aeolian Islands (including Stromboli ), but also in some regions of Sicily (especially near Milazzo and in the area around Palermo ), but also in Calabria and Campania (e.g. on Vivara Island in the Gulf of Naples ). Except on Vulcano , new settlements arose on all the main islands, consisting of round to oval huts.

The Capo Graziano culture followed around 1430 BC. The Milazzese culture , which is closely related to the Thapsos culture of Sicily. Since some settlements of the Capo Graziano culture continued to exist during the Milazzese culture and were not destroyed during the transition phase, the Capo Graziano culture does not seem to have come to a violent end. Some characteristics of the culture were also preserved in the Millazese culture.

Settlements

With the exception of Vulcano , new settlements emerged on all of the main Aeolian islands. In the first phase of the Capo Graziano culture, these were located in strategically favorable but little protected places. They consisted of round to oval huts with stone plinths that were slightly sunk into the ground. With the beginning of the second phase - the Capo Graziano settlement on Filicudi probably still in the first phase - the old settlements were abandoned and new settlements were built in naturally well-protected places. The old settlement on Lipari was in the plain of Cotrada Diana (on the soil of today's city of Lipari) and was moved at the beginning of Capo Graziano II to the so-called Acropolis of Lipari. Older settlements on Filicudi gave way to the port, on the flat isthmus ( Filo Braccio ), the naturally very well protected settlement on a terrace of Capo Graziano at a height of about 100 meters.

Research into the Filo Braccio settlement on Filicudi, which was inhabited during the first phase of the Capo Graziano culture, uncovered food remains, mostly in the form of bone fragments. Analyzes showed that they were leftovers from goats, pigs, cattle, fish and shellfish . Archaeobotanical investigations were able to detect grapevines ( Vitis vinifera ) , among other things .

Ceramics

The early ceramics of the Capo Graziano culture shows parallels to the ceramics of the Early Helladic III of Greece in terms of vessel shapes and manufacturing techniques . The specimens are gray, sometimes tending to dark brown, and some are decorated with simple linear incisions. In the second phase, the ceramic is encrusted and decorated with very different incisions.

According to archaeometric and petrological clay analyzes, the production facilities for Capo Graziano ceramics were located on Filicudi and Lipari. Ceramics in the style of Capo Graziano were also produced to a lesser extent on the Sicilian peninsula of Milazzo and in the region of the foothills of Tropea in Calabria . The latter made up about 20% of the examined ceramics found on Stromboli. The pottery that was produced at Milazzo was found in small quantities in Filicudi, while the island itself exported large quantities of undecorated consumer goods to Milazzo and decorated ceramics to Stromboli, which also received ceramics from Lipari. In the final stages of the Capo Graziano culture and during the following Milazzese culture, Lipari also imported clay for ceramic production.

Some vessels of the Capo Graziano - but especially of the following Milazzese culture - have individual, written-like characters that have been scratched before the firing, which act like characters (also known as Lipari script ). However, it is very doubtful whether this is a real writing system. Luigi Bernabò Brea saw him them pottery marks. Attempts were made to derive them from similar markings on early Helladic or late Neolithic Greek vessels, from the Cretan Linear A script or from Asian Minor ( Hittite ) hieroglyphs.

Burials

So far, only one has been necropolis with about 30 burials on Lipari found that cremations attested. The urns or jugs were on the side and covered with stone slabs at the opening. Some graves still had one or two small vessels (bowls, cups) as grave goods. The funeral rites have parallels in the Tarxien necropolis on Malta .

External relations

The Italian archaeologist Luigi Bernabò Brea, who spent decades studying the prehistory of the Aeolian Islands and who led several excavations, expressed the opinion in various publications that the Capo Graziano culture emerged from the immigration of groups from Greece. They settled on the Aeolian Islands in the late Early Helladic period (towards the end of the 3rd millennium), with which Bernabò Brea tried to explain stronger parallels in ceramics, but also in the cultic area, as well as the differences to the approximately simultaneous cultures of Sicily. However, this theory is controversial in research, because despite all the differences there are certainly parallels to Sicily, so that other researchers assume that immigration is limited or only strong influences from trade contacts.

From the early phase of Capo Graziano II, Mycenaean pottery has been proven on the Aeolian Islands . The earliest pieces date from the Late Helladic I (approx. 16th century BC). The contact with the Aegean region did not break off afterwards, because Mycenaean ceramics of different time stages can be proven up to the end of the Capo Graziano culture. Due to the lack of 14 C dates from this period, the Mycenaean imports provide important clues for dating finds from the Capo Graziano culture.

literature

  • Gianmarco Alberti: A Bayesian 14C chronology of Early and Middle Bronze Age in Sicily. Toward to Independent Absolute dating. In: Journal of Archaeological Science 40 (2013) pp. 2502-2514.
  • Pamela Fragnoli, Sara Tiziana Levi, Daniele Brunelli: Investigations into the inter- and extrainsular circulation of Bronze Age ceramics in the Aeolian Archipelago (Messina, Sicily, Italy) with the help of petrography and geochemistry. In: Britta Ramminger, Ole Stilborg (Hrsg.): Scientific analyzes of prehistoric and early historical ceramics II. Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt, Bonn 2012, pp. 159–178. - online version at Acedemia.edu
  • Robert Ross Holloway: The Archeology of Ancient Sicily Routledge, London New York (1991), 2nd edition 2002.
  • Reinhard Jung: ΧΡΟΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ COMPARATA. Comparative chronology of southern Greece and southern Italy from approx. 1700/1600 to 1000 BCE Vienna 2006, pp. 59–81.
  • Robert Leighton: Sicily Before History. An Archaeological Survey from the Palaeolithic to the Iron Age. Cornell University Press, Ithaca - New York 1999, pp. 132ff. - ISBN 0801485851 , 9780801485855.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gianmarco Alberti: A Bayesian 14 C chronology of Early and Middle Bronze Age in Sicily. Toward an independent absolute dating. In: Journal of Archaeological Science 40 (2013) pp. 2502-2514.
  2. ^ Times according to Anna Maria Betti Sestieri : The Bronze Age in Sicily. In: Anthony Harding, Harry Fokkens (Eds.): The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, p. 655. Other authors, such as Pamela Fragnoli et al .: Investigations on the inter- and extrrainsular circulation of Bronze Age ceramics in the Aeolian Archipelago (Messina, Sicily, Italy) with the help of petrography and geochemistry. In: Britta Ramminger, Ole Stilborg (Hrsg.): Scientific analyzes of prehistoric and early historical ceramics II. Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt, Bonn 2012, pp. 159–178, set the beginning of the second phase of the Capo Graziano culture partly around 1700 BC. Chr. The different times for the transition from phase I to phase II are mainly related to the uncertain and very controversial absolute chronology of this time for the Aegean region , in particular to the different dates of the so-called Minoan eruption . These also concern the earliest fragments of imported ceramics that were found in the layers of Capo Graziano II and that come from the first phase of the Late Helladic I. Since a naturally well-fortified settlement was built on Filicudi at the time of the pottery typical of the first phase of Capo Graziano I, while fortified settlements characterize the second phase by definition (see below in the text), the "high chronology" is given here .
  3. ↑ So Reinhard Jung (see literature), Pamela Fragnoli et al. (See literature).
  4. ↑ So Gianmarco Alberti (see literature), Anna Maria Betti Sestieri Bronze Age in Sicily. In: Anthony Harding, Harry Fokkens (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age. University Press, Oxford 2013, pp. 655ff.
  5. ↑ Reinhard Jung: ΧΡΟΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ COMPARATA. Comparative chronology of southern Greece and southern Italy from approx. 1700/1600 to 1000 BCE Vienna 2006, pp. 75–77, which derives this from the older excavation publications and stratigraphic information.
  6. ↑ The information in this paragraph based on Maria Clara Martinelli et al .: Nuove ricerche nell'insediamento sull'istmo di Filo Braccio a Filicudi. Nota preliminare sugli scavi 2009. In ORIGINI 32, Nuova Serie IV, 2010, pp. 285ff., Especially pp. 297f., 303.
  7. ↑ in detail on this Pamela Fragnoli, Sara Tiziana Levi, Daniele Brunelli: Investigations on the inter- and extrainsular circulation of Bronze Age ceramics in the Aeolian Archipelago (Messina, Sicily, Italy) with the help of petrography and geochemistry. In: Britta Ramminger, Ole Stilborg (Hrsg.): Scientific analyzes of prehistoric and early historical ceramics II. Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt, Bonn 2012, pp. 159–178 (with further references to the earlier research by John L. Williams, on which the study is based).
  8. ↑ s. to Hans-Günther Buchholz : Late Bronze Age relations of the Aegean Sea to the west. In: Hans-Günther Buchholz (Ed.): Aegean Bronze Age. Darmstadt 1987, pp. 247-249.
  9. ↑ On this discussion, see, among others, Robert Leighton: Sicily Before History. An Archaeological Survey from the Palaeolithic to the Iron Age. Cornell University Press, Ithaca - New York 1999, p. 138 (with further references).
  10. ↑ For details on Mycenaean ceramics at various sites on the Aeolian Islands: Reinhard Jung: ΧΡΟΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ COMPARATA. Comparative chronology of southern Greece and southern Italy from approx. 1700/1600 to 1000 BCE Vienna 2006, pp. 59–81.