“In this dynamic and engaging work, the Etruscans find a powerful champion. Riva's commanding voi... more “In this dynamic and engaging work, the Etruscans find a powerful champion. Riva's commanding voice reveals the myriad ways these often overlooked peoples were essential partners in the urban renaissance of the Archaic Mediterranean. Through a rigorous examination of archaeological, historical, and linguistic evidence, this work illustrates not only the creative ways in which the Etruscan political landscape emerged from its Iron Age foundations, but also demonstrates the essential competition and mentorship those communities provided to their neighboring Roman contemporaries. ” – Anthony Tuck, Director, Poggio Civitate Excavations, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
The paper aims to contribute to questions of citizenship and the relation between citizenship, co... more The paper aims to contribute to questions of citizenship and the relation between citizenship, community and urbanism. By comparing and contrasting two firstmillennium-bce Mediterranean regions, southern Tyrrhenian Etruria and southeastern Iberia, where urban societies grew into distinctly different socio-political communities, we see comparable developments towards cohesion and participation. One specific development concerns religion as a privileged locus for the latter, thus demonstrating the heuristic potential of comparativism across the Greco-Roman and non-Greco-Roman world of the first-millennium-bce Mediterranean. This potential can only be realised, however, by developing a theoretical and interpretive framework that enables us to exploit different strands of evidence in regions where the documentary base is almost exclusively archaeological, and that can then be applied elsewhere.
The City in the History of Religion Archiv für Religionsgeschichte, 2023
Durch die Veröffentlichung der Originalarbeiten in diesem Jahrbuch gehen sämtliche Nutzungs recht... more Durch die Veröffentlichung der Originalarbeiten in diesem Jahrbuch gehen sämtliche Nutzungs rechte an den Beiträgen, einschließlich des Rechtes der Übersetzung, an den Verlag über. Das Werk einschließlich aller Beiträge ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist ohne Zustimmung des Verlages unzulässig und strafbar. Das gilt insbesondere für Vervielfältigungen, Übersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und die Einspeicherung und Verarbeitung in elektronischen Systemen.
Studies of cultural interaction between Phocean and Massaliote Greeks, Etruscans and indigenous s... more Studies of cultural interaction between Phocean and Massaliote Greeks, Etruscans and indigenous societies of the northern Tyrrhenian seaboard have been concerned either with the arduous task of linking material culture with specific ethnic carriers and consumers of that culture, or with understanding the ‘colonial’ relationships between Greek and Etruscan outsiders and indigenous communities. New studies that have both re-framed Greeks and non-Greeks’ economic and political relations and brought out the entanglement of imports and objects circulating in the northern Tyrrhenian and beyond induce us to reconsider cultural interaction in the region and the connectivity that such interaction engendered. This paper looks at the circulation and use of wine-drinking utensils from Etruria to southern France by emphasising the role of material culture in shaping people’s identities and in negotiating cultural boundaries. Such a perspective should help to circumvent the difficulties of disentangling the Greek, Etruscan or other labels of objects and contexts of use. Ultimately, identifying the ‘Greekness’ or ‘Etruscanness’ of material culture is less of a concern than understanding the material dimension of cultural encounters and its transformative power on people’s identities. The role of trading settlements — including emporia on the south Etruscan coast — in fuelling material connections is emphasised.
The aim of this article is to analyze ritualized practices of drinking and eating in Etruria duri... more The aim of this article is to analyze ritualized practices of drinking and eating in Etruria during the seventh century BC through the study of a selection of tomb groups. I will consider these activities as new practices of consumption that élite groups introduced in burial ritual during the Orientalising period and that underlie a specific use of the body and of alimentary technologies. Attention will be devoted towards specific classes of banqueting and drinking objects, including metal vessels which point to the consumption of solid food, namely meat, together with wine, and therefore to the practice of meat sacrifice, and the relationship of sacrifice with the incineration of the deceased's body in the context of inhumation rituals.
Book description: Urban life as we know it in the Mediterranean began in the early Iron Age: sett... more Book description: Urban life as we know it in the Mediterranean began in the early Iron Age: settlements of great size and internal diversity appear in the archaeological record. This collection of essays offers for the first time a systematic discussion of the beginnings of urbanization ...
“In this dynamic and engaging work, the Etruscans find a powerful champion. Riva's commanding voi... more “In this dynamic and engaging work, the Etruscans find a powerful champion. Riva's commanding voice reveals the myriad ways these often overlooked peoples were essential partners in the urban renaissance of the Archaic Mediterranean. Through a rigorous examination of archaeological, historical, and linguistic evidence, this work illustrates not only the creative ways in which the Etruscan political landscape emerged from its Iron Age foundations, but also demonstrates the essential competition and mentorship those communities provided to their neighboring Roman contemporaries. ” – Anthony Tuck, Director, Poggio Civitate Excavations, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
The paper aims to contribute to questions of citizenship and the relation between citizenship, co... more The paper aims to contribute to questions of citizenship and the relation between citizenship, community and urbanism. By comparing and contrasting two firstmillennium-bce Mediterranean regions, southern Tyrrhenian Etruria and southeastern Iberia, where urban societies grew into distinctly different socio-political communities, we see comparable developments towards cohesion and participation. One specific development concerns religion as a privileged locus for the latter, thus demonstrating the heuristic potential of comparativism across the Greco-Roman and non-Greco-Roman world of the first-millennium-bce Mediterranean. This potential can only be realised, however, by developing a theoretical and interpretive framework that enables us to exploit different strands of evidence in regions where the documentary base is almost exclusively archaeological, and that can then be applied elsewhere.
The City in the History of Religion Archiv für Religionsgeschichte, 2023
Durch die Veröffentlichung der Originalarbeiten in diesem Jahrbuch gehen sämtliche Nutzungs recht... more Durch die Veröffentlichung der Originalarbeiten in diesem Jahrbuch gehen sämtliche Nutzungs rechte an den Beiträgen, einschließlich des Rechtes der Übersetzung, an den Verlag über. Das Werk einschließlich aller Beiträge ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist ohne Zustimmung des Verlages unzulässig und strafbar. Das gilt insbesondere für Vervielfältigungen, Übersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und die Einspeicherung und Verarbeitung in elektronischen Systemen.
Studies of cultural interaction between Phocean and Massaliote Greeks, Etruscans and indigenous s... more Studies of cultural interaction between Phocean and Massaliote Greeks, Etruscans and indigenous societies of the northern Tyrrhenian seaboard have been concerned either with the arduous task of linking material culture with specific ethnic carriers and consumers of that culture, or with understanding the ‘colonial’ relationships between Greek and Etruscan outsiders and indigenous communities. New studies that have both re-framed Greeks and non-Greeks’ economic and political relations and brought out the entanglement of imports and objects circulating in the northern Tyrrhenian and beyond induce us to reconsider cultural interaction in the region and the connectivity that such interaction engendered. This paper looks at the circulation and use of wine-drinking utensils from Etruria to southern France by emphasising the role of material culture in shaping people’s identities and in negotiating cultural boundaries. Such a perspective should help to circumvent the difficulties of disentangling the Greek, Etruscan or other labels of objects and contexts of use. Ultimately, identifying the ‘Greekness’ or ‘Etruscanness’ of material culture is less of a concern than understanding the material dimension of cultural encounters and its transformative power on people’s identities. The role of trading settlements — including emporia on the south Etruscan coast — in fuelling material connections is emphasised.
The aim of this article is to analyze ritualized practices of drinking and eating in Etruria duri... more The aim of this article is to analyze ritualized practices of drinking and eating in Etruria during the seventh century BC through the study of a selection of tomb groups. I will consider these activities as new practices of consumption that élite groups introduced in burial ritual during the Orientalising period and that underlie a specific use of the body and of alimentary technologies. Attention will be devoted towards specific classes of banqueting and drinking objects, including metal vessels which point to the consumption of solid food, namely meat, together with wine, and therefore to the practice of meat sacrifice, and the relationship of sacrifice with the incineration of the deceased's body in the context of inhumation rituals.
Book description: Urban life as we know it in the Mediterranean began in the early Iron Age: sett... more Book description: Urban life as we know it in the Mediterranean began in the early Iron Age: settlements of great size and internal diversity appear in the archaeological record. This collection of essays offers for the first time a systematic discussion of the beginnings of urbanization ...
Book description: 123 papers from the Proceedings of the 6th Conference of Italian Archaeology he... more Book description: 123 papers from the Proceedings of the 6th Conference of Italian Archaeology held at the University of Groningen, Groningen Institute of Archaeology, The Netherlands, April 15-17, 2003. In two volumes. Volume 1: Opening Papers and Themes: Theory and Aims ...
The beginning of the Iron Age (12th to late 10th cent. BCE) ushered in a crucial period for the h... more The beginning of the Iron Age (12th to late 10th cent. BCE) ushered in a crucial period for the history of the ancient Mediterranean, which manifested in a series of transformative changes, among which was the beginnings of urbanism in the first half of the first millennium BCE (roughly the Iron Age). The development of urban states, spanning from the Aegean to Iberia and from northern Africa to the Alps, generated in turn complex economic system and exchange networks. Aspects of urban state formation are fundamental for archaeologists, historians, as well as sociologists and economists globally. In archaeology, since Gordon Childe questions have focused on theoretical and methodological perspectives for understanding what cities were and did cross-culturally, and their trajectories. Yet, despite the enormous potential of natural sciences for understanding the deep past, socio-political connected to urban growth and its large-scale networks have been little explored in relation to advancements in archaeological science. With this in mind, the session aims to bring together a broad range of expertise from archaeological science to theoretical perspectives in order to develop interdisciplinary conceptual and methodological approaches to the study of urbanism and its wider implications beyond current narratives. Key themes will be craft specialization, connectivity, mobility, diet, and landscape change in relation to urbanisation. We welcome studies that make use of materials sciences, remote sensing, bioarchaeology, genetics to explore urbanisation in the Mediterranean.
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Books by Corinna Riva
Papers by Corinna Riva
settlements — including emporia on the south Etruscan coast — in fuelling material connections is emphasised.
settlements — including emporia on the south Etruscan coast — in fuelling material connections is emphasised.