Colonial Traditions
From TracingNetworksWiki
"Colonial traditions: ceramic production in Punic Sardinia, Ibiza and Sicily" is a sub project of Tracing Networks Programme
This sub-project focuses on the production of ceramic coarse wares for domestic and productive purposes in the western Mediterranean Punic world, specifically the island regions of southern Sardinia, western Sicily and Ibiza during the classical period (5th to 2nd c. BCE). Large-scale fabric and technological studies have been carried out at within the Riu Mannu and Terralba rural settlement projects (Sardinia); additional comparative analyses will be done in indigenous contexts in Sardinia and in Punic contexts in Sicily and Ibiza. It links closely to the projects of Whitbread, Foxhall, Haselgrove and Harding. Throughout the Punic world (as elsewhere in the western Mediterranean), this period saw a massive expansion of rural settlement, accompanied by large-scale use of mostly locally produced domestic pottery (kitchen and cooking wares) and (transport) amphorae. These productions are characterised by a strong adherence to Phoenician-Punic ceramic shapes and appearance, and because they differ markedly from indigenous pottery, they are widely regarded as colonial productions implying the take-over of the indigenous interior regions of these islands. The aim of this sub-project is to investigate how strong these presumed colonial connections are in terms of the ceramic traditions beyond shape and appearance, focusing in particular on fabrics and manufacturing techniques. Can indigenous artisan traditions be traced in these productions?
