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TMA 60 – De geschiedenis van de mediterrane archeologie in de Lage Landen
De geschiedenis van de Nederlandse en Belgische archeologie in het mediterrane gebied, het begin van een debat
This introduction offers a concise overview of the discussions in the past three decades on how, and for what reasons, to write the history of archaeology. It is argued that the current urgency of this field of research is reflected in post-colonial studies on the pitfalls of Eurocentrism as well as in heritage studies on the importance of inclusivity. The need for such a history is supported by the initiative of Platform Argos to initiate historiographical research on Mediterranean archaeology in the Low Countries. Thanks to this the contours of the archaeological domain in the Netherlands are becoming visible, while it also stresses the necessity of a more general discussion on methodological and theoretical approaches in the history of archaeology.
“Overblyfselen van kunst en beeldhouwwerk”– 19de-eeuwse archeologische expedities naar het Middellandse Zeegebied
The National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden was founded in 1818. Its first director, Professor Caspar Reuvens (1793-1835), established the study of Archaeology in Leiden and tried to create an international museum. This article focuses on two Dutch officers, who contributed to the growth of the new museum. Colonel B.E.A. Rottiers (1771- 1857) acquired a fine collection of Greek sculptures in Athens (1819), which he sold to the museum. Between 1824 and 1826 he cruised the Aegean Sea in search for antiquities. He undertook an excavation on the isle of Melos. Colonel J.E. Humbert (1771-1839) was the first scientific excavator of Carthage. In 1817 he unearthed the Punic remains of the ancient city. Later, he undertook two expeditions to the Mediterranean: to Tunisia (1822-1824), where he excavated again in Carthage, and to Italy (1826-1830), where he bought important Etruscan and Egyptian collections for the museum in Leiden.
De archeologische collectie van de Universiteit Utrecht
Mediterranean archaeology has been a focus of study at the University of Utrecht for over a century. Previously, archaeology had been a part of the department of Greek and Latin Language and Literature. After WWII, an independent Archaeological Institute was founded and housed at Domplein. During this period a substantial educational collection was created of some 1000 objects, most of which now resides in the University Museum of Utrecht, while parts are on loan at the universities of Amsterdam and Groningen. The collection includes a variety of cultic and funerary objects as well as various utensils. The majority consists of (Greek) pottery. After the dissolution of the Archaeological Institute in 1983 the expansion of the collection halted and it was largely forgotten. In 2015 a team of the department of Ancient History at Utrecht University resumed research into the collection and has taken up a twofold strategy: disclosing the collection to the general public and publishing a large part of it in Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum.
Een prehistoricus in een Klassieke Wereld: Hendrik Leopold (1877-1950) aan het Nederlands Historisch Instituut te Rome
Hendrik Leopold grew up in Gouda (The Netherlands), graduated in 1904 in Classics at Utrecht University and participated in 1906 in Vollgraff ’s excavations at Argos (Greece). The next decade he lived as a journalist in Rome. At the outbreak of World War I, Leopold turned back to The Netherlands, but in 1920 he became the first official archaeologist at the Dutch Historical Institute in Rome. This article sketches Leopold’s life and work with particular attention to his focus on Italian prehistoric studies and his relation to the discourse of Classical Archaeology at Dutch universities. Today, Leopold is mostly remembered for his popular newspaper columns and guided tours in Rome. It is argued, however, that the scientific impact of Leopold has been underestimated. He was an important participant observer of Italian prehistoric studies during the interbellum and his time ahead concerning the interdisciplinary and social nature of archaeology and its communication to the wider public.
Van klassieke naar mediterrane archeologie: de ‘protohistoric turn’ in Groningen
This paper discusses the remarkable evolution of the department of Classical archaeology at the University of Groningen, which in the 1970’s developed from a small, predominantly (art-)historical institute to a research group with a strong interest in pre-classical societies and an emphasis on primary fieldwork data. First, we present the Groningen archaeologists with an interest in the Mediterranean before the establishment of a permanent chair in Classical Archaeology in 1954 and show how they operated within an art-historical framework. We then highlight the researchers who shaped the process towards a more theoretically informed and practically based Mediterranean archaeology: from Annie Zadoks-Josephus Jitta (professor between 1954-1975), her successor Marianne Kleibrink (chair between 1975-2003), to the ‘Satricum-generation’ who learned the fieldwork ropes at this excavation in Central Italy between 1978-1989. We conclude with the enduring effect of the ‘protohistoric turn’ on the current research lines of Mediterranean archaeologists at the Groningen Institute of Archaeology.
Archeologie als culturele diplomatie? Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli in Nederland
This article analyses the Dutch intermezzo in the career of the famous Italian archaeologist Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli (1900-1975), who acted as extraordinary professor in Greek and Pre-Asian Archaeology at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen from 1930 to 1933. It shows how the establishment of this chair in classical archaeology would not have been possible without both the initiative of the italophile widow Johanna Goekoop-De Jongh and the involvement of the Italian state. This case study not only shows how the Dutch fascination for both ancient and modern Italy often coincided, but above all wants to shed new light on the relationship between fascism and archaeology. The complex position of the individual intellectual becomes particularly clear in this foreign context, where Bandinelli had to assume the role of cultural diplomat, whether willingly or not.
Emilie Haspels’ Griekse jaren
Prof. C.H. Emilie Haspels (1894-1980) was the first female professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Amsterdam and director of the Allard Pierson Museum. Thanks to her research on the sites and monuments in the Phrygian Highlands she is still regarded as a Dutch pioneer in Anatolian archaeology. This article, however, focusses on her formative years while working in Greece on her PhD research on Attic black-figured pottery. As a foreign member of the French School in Athens, Haspels participated in many excavations of the British, German and the French schools. The documents from her personal archive in the Allard Pierson Museum allow us to portray a picture of a young Dutch archaeologist working in Greece in the 1930’s and give us an interesting insight in how she established herself in Mediterranean archaeology and created an international network.
The archaeological expeditions of Jan Willem Salomonson in Tunisia and Algeria (1960-1972)
This paper is dedicated to the pioneering work of the Dutch archaeologist J.W. Salomonson, who systematically surveyed and excavated sites in Tunisia and Algeria from 1960 to 1972. Salomonson directed three Dutch-Tunisian excavation campaigns in the Punic and Roman settlement of Uzita (Tunisia). These excavations remain the only documented investigations of Uzita. They revealed a high number of amphorae providing important typochronological data as well as information on the production sites of Punic transport containers. Moreover, Salomonson prospected many Algerian and Tunisian sites, collecting African Red Slip Ware from various Late Roman production centres. Salomonson was the first to use surveys as a tool for discovering potteries of African Red Slip Ware. The history of Salomonson’s pottery collection and its re-examination is part of the PhD theses of three of the authors and will open new lines of inquiry into ancient African ceramics.
Nederlandse archeologie in het Middellandse Zeegebied en het Nabije Oosten: Ontwikkelingen in organisatie, beleid en financiering
In 1992, I published a research report on the organization and financing of Dutch archaeological projects in the Mediterranean and the Near East. The research, which was carried out in the spring of 1991, aimed to identify the institutions and individuals that were involved in the organization of such projects. Also, it hoped to show the financial structure behind these projects. For this edition of TMA, I have repeated this research. The main conclusion is that, actually, not very much has changed in 27 years. The number of projects is more or less the same, there is still an emphasis on Italy and Greece and the main institutions in 1991 are important also today. This coherent picture is somewhat surprising in view of the enormous changes that have occurred in the management and financing of archaeology outside academia. A plea is made for coordination and cooperation to embed our projects better within academic archaeology as a whole.
Een ‘vergeten’ opgraving uit 1956: de Grieks-Nederlandse expeditie op Kreta
Documentation of the unpublished Greek-Dutch excavation in 1956 at Troullos, the eastern quarter of Archanes on the isle of Crete, was recently rediscovered and assembled. The slides, photographs, plans and notes not only provide a vivid picture of the excavation that had fallen into oblivion. They also offer an interesting view of the methods and approaches of archaeology at the time, as well as of the ways of communication in the archaeological world and the circumstances in which campaigns were organised in the 1950s.
Tussen de Apennijnen en de Adriatische zee: Enkele beschouwingen omtrent twee decennia van Gents archeologisch veldwerk in de Marken
The paper presents the objectives, methodology and some of the results from a long term research project by a team of Ghent University in Central-Adriatic Italy. In particular the holistic and integrated approach of non-invasive survey has allowed to reveal the main traits of settlement dynamics in this Mediterranean valley between the later Bronze age and Early Medieval times. The contribution to the regional urbanisation process and connected rural exploitation in Roman times, from the third century BC onwards, has helped to put the archaeology of this somewhat understudied region on the map. Interesting observations concerning the Picene settlements in the valley are the starting point of new research lines looking closer into the Iron Age of this part of the Italian peninsula.
Satricum, veertig jaar archeologisch onderzoek
In 2017 ancient Satricum (Lazio, Italy) has been subject of 40 years of scientific archaeological research. Reflections on this long-time research generally are focussed on the archaeological discoveries and their interpretations. At the same time the long existence of the project offers possibilities for an historical overview of the organizational and bureaucratic practices related to archaeological research in the Mediterranean area. In this article a first step is taken towards an historical research of archaeological practices in the Mediterranean: what goes with it and in what way has it influenced the choices that were made and the knowledge that has been acquired.
30 jaar Vlaams archeologisch onderzoek op de Balearen
Since 1986 the radiocarbon dating laboratory of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (Brussels, Belgium) has been a partner of several museums and archaeological research units on the Balearic Islands. More than 1000 radiocarbon dates have been made on Balearic material. In 2002, an exhibition was set up in collaboration with the museum at Velzeke entitled Between Tourist and Talaiot. Besides the cooperation with local research groups, the laboratory has set up its own research projects; some of these on existing museum collections, some with new excavations. This includes studies on glass beads, paleodietary studies and pottery studies. Pioneering work was performed on the so-called lime burials.
Nederlands onderzoek in het antieke Klazomenai aan de westkust van Turkije
The ruins of the ancient city of Klazomenai are situated 35 kilometers from Izmir on the west coast of Turkey. Excavations have been carried out since 1979 by Turkish archaeologists from the Aegean University in Izmir. From 1986 until 1991 two Dutch archaeologists, Jos Beelen and René van Beek, were part of a rare collaboration project between a Dutch foundation and a Turkish university and they joined in the excavations of the ancient settlement. They worked on the so-called Karantina island in cooperation with Turkish archaeologists. On many places on the island habitation dating to the Roman period was found. The excavations on the Karantina island were coordinated by the Klazomenai Foundation that was not linked to a Dutch university. Thanks to good connections with Dutch and Turkish authorities, permission for independent archaeological research on the Karantina island was given for several years. The way in which the Dutch part of the excavations in Klazomenai came about was unique and arose out of enthusiasm and the need to make archaeological research in Turkey accessible to the Dutch. Personal contacts and networks are still important for research of archaeological heritage.
Reflecteren op 25 jaar archeologisch prospectieonderzoek in het studiegebied van Sagalassos (Zuidwest-Turkije)
The Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project has a long history of archaeological survey research that aims to contribute to the project’s mission of documenting the long-term human-environment interactions in its study region (SW Turkey). Over the years, different methodologies, ranging from reconnaissance surveys to intensive tract walking, have been implemented according to the different research questions and scales of examination of our project. In addition, the survey designs had to meet various landscape units of the research area within the Western Taurus Mountains and thus had to deal with different terrain conditions, rates of accessibility and visibility. In this paper we present how we approached the archaeological survey research at Sagalassos and how it developed through time. Via this retrospective view we want to shed light on the merits and shortcomings of our survey research, and what paths we want to set out for our future research.
Materiële cultuur of cultuur van het materiële? Terugblik en visie op materiaalstudie binnen het Sagalassos Project
Throughout the history of the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project, material studies have held a prominent position in archaeological studies regarding the development of the ancient city of Sagalassos and its surrounding hinterland. Pottery in particular, being the most frequently encountered material category has pre-eminently been the subject of much research. Ever since 2005, much of this work has been centred on and guided by the pottery template as a key methodological tool. Pottery templates are linked to stratigraphical units or loci, each consisting of an encompassing registration, description, and quantification of production-related, typological, provenance, functional, and chronological aspects of the associated ceramic assemblages. The platform continues to be incorporated in recent research avenues, fostering integration with a variety of existing and new metadata formats and epistemological developments within the Sagalassos Project.
recensies
Edition Antiker Landwirtschaftlicher Werke in Arabischer Sprache – Band 1: Prolegomena
Mediterranean Connections. Maritime Transport Containers and Seaborne Trade in the Bronze and Early Iron Ages
From Cooking Vessels to Cultural Practices in the Late Bronze Age Aegean
Communities in Transition. The Circum-Aegean Area During the 5th and 4th Millennia BC
The Economic Integration of Roman Italy. Rural Communities in a Globalising World
introducties op lopend onderzoek
Een Eldorado in het Middellandse Zeegebied: nieuwe trends in Byzantijnse en Osmaanse archeologie
Archaeology of archaeology at Troy
Stedelijke marktgebouwen en hun rol in het economisch leven in Hellenistisch en Romeins Klein-Azië
De ont-wikkeling van de verbeelding in prehistorisch Griekenland
The early roots of Latium’s economy: The symbiosis between urban and rural landscape
