Phoenician–Punic amphorae in northern coastal Etruria: New evidence from Pisa (Italy)

This study outlines the circulation of Phoenician–Punic amphorae in northern coastal Etruria, with a particular focus on Pisa (Italy), where their presence has been attested since the mid-eighth century BCE. A set of specimens from Piazza del Duomo was analysed by minero-petrographic and geochemical techniques. The results were compared with literature data from Mediterranean production areas. The research allowed a better definition of the role of Etruscan Pisa in the frame of commercial and cultural routes in the Mediterranean, specifically in the Tyrrhenian area, also providing the opportunity to review the attestations of Phoenician–Punic amphora on a regional scale.     

Narrative Identity and Trauma: Sebald’s Memory Landscape

Narrative identity is said to consist of a few key reference points—places, events, peoples, ceremonies, rites, ideas, and values—that translate into sites of memory that are representative of a person’s or a community’s past. In this essay I explore the role of traumatic memories in the formation of collective identity, the national or transnational sites of memory that are officialized by the state. I argue that collective traumas need to be counterbalanced by personal memories that can diminish their pain and thus enable people to regain their lost sense of being at home. To demonstrate this claim I discuss the twentieth-century traumas that have affected European identity by and through the life stories of W. G. Sebald’s characters in The Emigrants (1992) and Austerlitz (2001), which combines the collective and the personal narrative identity. I conclude that the performative aspect of the past needs to be translated into personal forms of commemoration that surpass the official memory archive, which task requires a comprehensive and sensitive understanding of those traumas at both the individual and collective levels.     

Analysis of Neolithic human remains discovered in southern Italy

The authors describe the discovery of the remains of two unidentified skeletonised individuals in a small town located in southern Italy. The bodies were discovered while workers were preparing to lay an oil pipeline. The two individuals were found at a depth of 2 meters, and in very close proximity to one other. The recovery process of the skeletonised remains and their related findings, carried out by a team of forensic anthropologists and archaeologists, is described here.Archaeological examination determined that the remains date back to the 4th millennium B.C. Forensic anthropological and odontological examinations were performed to determine the biological profile of the skeletal remains by estimation of age and height, as well as the determination of sex. Age determination was performed by the Kerley and Ubelaker (1978, Revision in the microscopic method of estimating age at death in human cortical bone. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., 49, 545–546) histological method using a 1 mm thick piece of bone tissue taken from the diaphyses of femur in both individuals. Dental age was estimated by examining root transparency. In order to determine the height of the individuals, various research methods based on the dimensional values of particular skeletal structures were applied. DNA analysis showed genotype differences of all the systems as compared to the haplotypes of present day subjects. This provided confirmation that the skeletal remains were from individuals of an ancient population (4th millennium B.C.). In addition, radiocarbon dating provided useful information as to the approximate period of death of the individuals. Interpretation was further enhanced by analysis of various bone fragments from each of the skeletons by high resolution mass spectrometry. 3D computerized imaging was used to analyse the patterns of skull fractures present, which resulted in supporting the hypothesis that the fractures were caused by stoning.     

Conquering the city: The representation of Milan in Massimo Bontempelli's La vita operosa

The article focuses on the representation of Milan in Massimo Bontempelli's 1920 short novel La vita operosa . In this novel the protagonist-narrator, a writer and journalist returning to Milan after the end of the war, is confronted with a city which has lost all its points of reference and has turned into a place dominated by the ethics of speed and profit. In this context, the protagonist's adventures in Milan assume the features of an ironic and self-ironic journey of discovery for the letterato who finds himself having to redefine his identity and role in a society whose taste and values have profoundly changed.