Greek Colonisation

Objectives: We are testing competing scenarios regarding the population history of the ancient Greek colonization of southern Italy using dental phenotypic evidence. Materials and Methods: We collected dental metric and nonmetric trait data for 481 human skeletons from six archaeological sites along the Gulf of Taranto, dating to pre-colonial (900-700 BC) and post-colonial periods (700-200 BC). We are evaluating scenarios through an individual-level biodistance analysis using a three-pronged approach: (a) by analyzing levels of mobility in pre-and post-colonial periods under a model of isolation-by-distance; (b) by quantifying differences in group means and variances in pre-and post-colonial periods utilizing permutational multivariate analysis of variance and Betadisper analyses; and (c) by identifying ancestries of post-colonial individuals using naïve Bayes classification. Results: Southern Italy during pre-colonial times was characterized by low levels of mobility and marked differences in group means and variances. During post-colonial times, mobility increased and there were no differences in group means and variances. About 18% of the people in post-colonial times were of Greek ancestry and lived equally distributed across Greek colonies and indigenous villages. Nevertheless, the overall biological composition and variability of southern Italy remained relatively unchanged across pre-and post-colonial periods. Discussion: Our results support a scenario in which only few Greek colonists migrated to southern Italy and lived in smaller numbers alongside indigenous people in Greek colonies as well as in indigenous villages. Our results contradict a scenario in which large numbers of Greek invaders founded biologically isolated and substantially homogeneous colonial enclaves within conquered territories.

This paper was presented at the Spartakos a lu Monthly Pontic Conference organised by Dr. Thibaut Castelli and  on 19/05/2021.

Abstract: Identifying migrant groups to the Pontus in the Archaic period is a difficult task. While the establishment of new settlements demonstrates the movement of people; reconstructing the drivers, trajectories, and agency of migrants themselves requires more nuanced theoretical and methodological approaches. Nevertheless, the appearance of local craft production in migrant settlements strongly implies the presence of immigrants. The skills and techniques possessed by these migrant craftspeople require acquisition that must necessarily have occurred in an emigrant context. In other words, the aptitude required for ceramic and metallurgical production is unlikely to have developed ex novo, and without evidence for prior production, the earliest facilities indicate the arrival of migrant craftspeople. This paper will explore the migration of craftspeople to the Greek settlements in the Black Sea and its approaches. Using approaches developed in migration studies it will analyse the agency, drivers, and trajectories of craftsperson migration through an exploration of the temporal development of craft production in the region, the specialised knowledge and capital utilised by migrant craftspeople and the wider socio-economic contexts in which they migrated.

The Sinop Regional Archaeological Project (SRAP) conducted our first season of excavation at the Sinop kale during July and August 2015. Sinop (ancient Sinope) was one of the earliest Ionian Greek colonies in the Black Sea and the earliest colony on its Anatolian coast. The Sinop kale site is set directly overlooking the sea where a narrow sandy isthmus connects the mainland to a prominent basalt headland. The 2015 excavations produced evidence of Bronze Age and Iron Age occupation in connection with a dug-out structure, an Archaic stone-built house associated with Ionian ceramics, stratigraphic evidence for the contextualization of the ancient curtain wall, late Hellenistic destruction and a Byzantine curtain wall running parallel several meters of the west of the ancient wall.

Since the early works of K. Hablitz on the rural developments surrounding Chersonesos, the Black Sea remains a reference area
for the organization of territories in the ancient Greek colonies. These observations are, however, focused on the northern shores,
leaving other Pontic coasts almost unexplored, with the exception of Istros. Excavations around this city have resulted in the innovative studies of P. Alexandrescu on the relationship between the Milesian colony and its immediate hinterland, raising the question of the internal structure of its chôra. In order to provide a first overview on this topic, the Aix-Marseille University, in cooperation with the National Archaeological Institute of Sofia and the Romanian Academy, launched in 2010 a new research program based on a comparative study of the territories of two Greek settlements: Orgame in Romania and Apollonia Pontica in Bulgaria. Based on a multidisciplinary approach, this programme – now headed by the Louvre Museum and successively granted by the French national research agency and the French Foreign office – has shed light on the variety of situations prevailing on the Western Pontic coast, from the mouth of the Danube to the Thracian coast. Around Apollonia, five years of archaeological excavations and surveys highlighted the several steps followed in the formation of its territory, as well as the internal organization of the city’s closest areas, gradually revealing the origins of its early prosperity.

Sur les routes maritimes qui conduisent les navigateurs jusqu’aux confins de la Scythie, Apollonia du Pont occupe une position incontournable. Fondée en 610-608 av. J.-C. par des colons venus de Milet, la cité doit sa fortune aux gisements de cuivre qui ponctuent la chaîne voisine du Medni Rid. Patrie du philosophe Anaximandre, la cité est connue dans le monde antique pour la fameuse statue d’Apollon le Médecin, divinité protectrice de la ville. Réalisée au Vème s. av. J.-C. par le célèbre sculpteur Calamis, elle orne le sanctuaire du dieu disposé sur l’île de St Cyriaque où marchands et commerçants s’arrêtent pour obtenir protection et bienveillance avant un voyage toujours incertain. Bientôt, par la conquête d’un vaste territoire et le dynamisme de ses ateliers, Apollonia étend son influence loin à l’intérieur de la Thrace où rayonne à partir de l’époque classique le Royaume odryse.
Si son patrimoine a longtemps nourri de nombreux fantasmes, c’est à Alexandre Degrand que revient l’honneur d’ouvrir les premières fouilles scientifiques à Sozopol. Elève de Charles-François-Noël Champoiseau, découvreur de la Victoire de Samothrace, ses travaux marquent le début d‘une formidable aventure que vont porter les archéologues bulgares parmi les plus brillants de leur génération. Depuis 2002, la cité est de nouveau au cœur de la coopération menée par la France et la Bulgarie grâce à la Mission archéologique franco-bulgare à Apollonia du Pont.
Pour célébrer cette histoire commune, le Ministère bulgare de la culture et le Musée du Louvre ont décidé de réunir pour la première fois les œuvres provenant d’Apollonia. Au rythme des explorations et des principales figures qui animé la recherche, cette exposition permet de découvrir les contours de la cité antique depuis le sanctuaire d’Apollon jusqu’à l’espace urbain, dont elle présente la richesse et le raffinement, avant de traverser les vastes nécropoles et les nombreux tumuli aristocratiques qui ponctuent un territoire où désormais œuvrent les archéologues.

An unknown mosaic floor, dated to the fourth century AD, was discovered during illicit excavations in Apamea of Syria in 2011. The figurative panels were detached from the mortar and sold to antique collectors by international dealers. Nowadays the Interpol is looking for the mosaic based on photographs taken during illegal excavations.
The mosaic shows three scenes identified by the authors as (1) the Hellenistic foundation of the Macedonian military settlement (katoikia) of Pella; (2) its (re)foundation including the city status of Apamea (polis); and (3) the image of good, happy, rich and lucky life in Apamea and its region (Ghab). The mosaic is a new historical source that complements well-known historical and literary sources. The iconographic analysis suggests a new dating to the early years of the Hellenistic military camp of Pella. According to the new interpretation of the mosaic proposed by the authors, the foundation of Pella took place in 320 BC, at the initiative of Antipater and Cassander's inspiration. In view of this interpretation, the authors disagree with the earlier hypothesis attributing the foundation date of Pella to Alexander the Great or to Antigonos I Monophtalmos. Apamea, founded by Seleucos I Nicator, benefited the generosity of his wife Apama; the couple’s role is manifested on the mosaic. The city is represented with its surrounding wall, its public buildings, its hippodrome/circus, and probably the temple of Zeus Belos. Several portraits of diadochs (Antipater, Cassander), Apama, and Archippos appear for the first time in the Hellenistic and Roman art, and those of Seleucos and Antiochos had never been represented on mosaics; they appear here in a particular context. The images of the mosaic are arranged as epidictic praise of Apamea, influenced by the praises of cities pronounced by rhetoricians of the period and known from manuals of rhetoric. We believe that certain scenes in the mosaic were probably influenced by a literary source, whose author might be Euphorion of Chalcis of the third century BC or maybe by an unknown Hellenistic painting to illustrate a written text describing the foundation of Hellenistic cities. The mosaic has an eclectic character and the Hellenistic model is evident in the scene of the foundation of Pella.
Contents:
Introduction
1. La mosaïque : description et interprétation
1.1. La zone supérieure : la fondation de Pella
1.2. La zone centrale: la fondation d’Apamée
1.3. La zone inférieure : la vie heureuse et fortunée à Apamée et dans sa région
2. La fondation de Pella : les sources littéraires
3. Quand Pella a t-elle été fondée ?
3.1. La date de la fondation de Pella : les hypothèses actuelles
3.2.  La date de la fondation de Pella : une nouvelle proposition
3.3. Qui était-il Archippos ?
4. La mosaïque comme une nouvelle source historique et iconographique sur la fondation de Pella
5. La fondation d’Apamée : les sources littéraires
6. La mosaïque comme une nouvelle source sur la fondation d’Apamée
7. Les éloges des villes chez les rhéteurs et l’éloge d’Apamée

L’Ecole française de Rome met en ligne pour la première fois la documentation d’une grande opération d’archéologie préventive, conduite en  diverses phases entre 1947 et 1982  avec la Surintendance de Syracuse et le Musée archéologique Paolo Orsi de Syracuse sur la nécropole méridionale de Mégara Hyblaea.
Les notices des tombes seront  mises en ligne  entre mars et  juillet 2018
Le volume Megara Hyblaea 6.1, qui sera publié sous la direction d’Henri Duday et Michel Gras, reprendra certaines notices avec des textes synthétiques. Le volume Megara Hyblaea  6.2 par Reine-Marie Bérard est déjà disponible. 

http://www.efrome.it/publications/ressources-en-ligne/coll-efr/megara-hyblaea-6-la-necropole-meridionale-de-la-cite-archaique-1.html