Papers by Vincenzo d'Ercole
Archaeopress Publishing Ltd eBooks, Sep 15, 2022
Childhood in the Past, 2020
During an archaeological survey carried out in the 1970s by the Gruppo Archeologico Romano (GAR) ... more During an archaeological survey carried out in the 1970s by the Gruppo Archeologico Romano (GAR) an important prehistoric settlement was discovered at the site of Torre Crognola, located in northern Latium along the Fiora river, about 3.5 km north of the Etruscan city of Vulci. The survey made it possible to collect in the ploughed fields a large amount of Late Copper Age artefacts, densely distributed over a large area, covering no less than 3 hectares (an extent that ranks in the highest range of contemporary settlements). The material culture of the site is largely attributable to the Bell Beaker culture (in a version that presents interesting comparisons with Sardinia) and the coeval cultural group of central Italy recognised as the Ortucchio facies. This latter cultural aspect can now be better studied and understood thanks to the detailed chrono-cultural sequence reconstructed through many excavations carried out in the area around Rome, recently completely published in the comprehensive work Roma prima del Mito. The abundance of Bell Beaker pottery and other artefacts of local type, its remarkable extent, and also the presence nearby of several caves and shelters with finds dated to the 4th-2nd millennia BC make the Torre Crognola site an archaeological complex of great potential for the study of the Copper Age, and in particular of the Bell Beaker phenomenon.
L'arte della guerra nel mondo villanoviano 425 * Università degli Studi Gabriele D'Annunzio di Ch... more L'arte della guerra nel mondo villanoviano 425 * Università degli Studi Gabriele D'Annunzio di Chieti-Pescara. Ringrazio l'amica Valeria Acconcia, anche lei archeologa d'Adriatico e di Tirreno, vera allieva di Gippi, per la gentile premura e insistenza a farmi partecipare a questa iniziativa. La pigrizia e la timidezza mi fanno sembrare, spesso, ancora più orso di quello che sono.
Gli Dei degli Italici : luoghi e forme di culto tra protostoria e storia nell'Italia medio-adriatica, 2017
Lo spazio funerario in area abruzzese dal Bronzo finale all'età arcaica, 2015
Frankfurter elektronische Rundschau zur Altertumskunde, 2020
The phenomenon of the funerary sculptures is certainly the most remarkable expression of the arch... more The phenomenon of the funerary sculptures is certainly the most remarkable expression of the archaic culture in the mid Adriatic context and it includes several funerary sculptures made of local limestone, dating between the 6 th and the 5 th centuries BC. 2. However, it must be clear that the use of monumental tombstones in form of simple baetyli, that is rough menhir used as semata (markers) of the most monumental tombs, is already attested in the cemetery of Scurcola Marsicana since the 7 th century BC 3. These funerary sculptures seem to be typical of the 'Mid-Adriatic' area, intending with this term the area of the modern regions known as Abruzzo, southern Marche and Molise, which were part of the 'paleo-Sabellian' cultural koine between the 6 th and the 5 th centuries BC. They were representing important local figures or chiefs, attesting a socially differentiated society of Archaic Abruzzo (Fig. 1); and they were not used only for a phenomenon of 'heroization', which is widely attested in Archaic Mediterranean contexts, especially in association with tumuli, but also for remarking role and status of the dead person. Another interesting and important element for these sculptures is the presence of inscriptions, which are among the most representative linguistic samples of this cultural context. 4 These sculptures can be organised into three different groups: the first two including stelai with sculptures in relief, i.e. tombstones bearing in relief part of the figure or the complete figure, and the third proper 'statues'. 5 The most ancient example of the first group comes from Guardiagrele (A in Fig. 1): it consists of an anthropomorphic stele with the face realized in a very low relief and wearing two orientalizing kardiophylakes, which are incised on the breast and on the back, joined with a belt with geometric
In this chapter we employ a multidisciplinary approach to the study of Iron Age Samnite ‘warrior ... more In this chapter we employ a multidisciplinary approach to the study of Iron Age Samnite ‘warrior burials’ from central Italy. Building upon previous studies, which suggested that high humeral asymmetry in mechanical strength can be used as a proxy for weapon training from adolescence, we analysed the degree and laterality of asymmetry in 216 male burials, as well as the typology and layout of weapons in 153 burials from the overall sample. The relationship between martial paraphernalia in graves and the participation of the deceased in martial activities, as inferred from biomechanical analysis, has provided valuable insights into the military practices of Iron Age communities and their social significance. The research has revealed that the weapons may have been placed in the graves of individuals that did not undertake intensive military training during their lives. This suggests that they may have been used to signal social affiliation in funerals rather than actual participation...
Picenum and the Ager Gallicus at the Dawn of the Roman Conquest, 2020
The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution author... more The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations.
Mélanges de l’École française de Rome. Antiquité, 2003
International Journal of Paleopathology, 2017
ABSTRACT Changes in skeletal CSG robusticity and sociopolitical changes in central Italy Samnites... more ABSTRACT Changes in skeletal CSG robusticity and sociopolitical changes in central Italy Samnites (800-200 BC). VITALE S. SPARACELLO1, ALFREDO COPPA2 and VINCENZO D'ERCOLE3. 1Anthropology, The University of New Mexico, 2Biologia Umana, Università Sapienza di Roma, 3Archaeology, Ministero Beni Culturali, Roma. The purpose of this research is contrasting the inferences on past physical activity inferred from grave goods composition with actual humeral, femoral, and tibial mechanical properties. CSG properties were estimated in Samnite individuals (n=315) from theă necropolisă ofă Bazzanoă (δ’Aquila,ă Abruzzo, Central Italy) belonging to the Orientalizing- Archaic period (O-A; 800-600 BC, n=122), the Vth century (V SEC; 500-400 BC, n=40), and the Hellenistic period (ELL; 400-100 BC; n=111). The three periods correspond to generalized shifts in grave goods composition: in the O-A, male burials contain weapons such as swords and spears; in the V SEC, grave goods are rare; in the ELL, weapons virtually disappear and grave goods recall the Greek symposium tradition. At a sociopolitical level, it is believed that those cultural changes accompanied a transition from a paramount chiefdom to a democratic republic. We expected to find a diachronic decline in male humeral bilateral asymmetry, considered a proxy for unimanual weapon use. Results show a diachronic decrease in humeral asymmetry in males, with the O-A and V SEC males significantly more lateralized than ELL males P<0.01). In absence of subsistence changes, we can associate the diachronic decrease in male bilateral asymmetry with a generalized decrease in the use of unimanual weaponry. Interestingly, there are no historical accounts of large scale warfare waged by Samnites until the Hellenistic period. In this case, high lateralization seems to be correlated more with the symbolic importance of the warrior figure rather than the actual occurrence of large scale warfare. Hibben Foundation - University if New Mexico.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2014
This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Condition... more This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving. Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.
Bollettino di Archeologia, 1992
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Papers by Vincenzo d'Ercole