Ellen and Charles S. La Follette Lecture

Dr. Clemente Marconi: “Towards an Archaeology of Cult in a Greek Colony in the West: New Excavations in the Main Urban Sanctuary of Selinunte”

In-person lecture
Tuesday, October 8 at 5:00 pm EST
Amherst College, Paino Lecture Hall (Beneski 107)

A short reception will follow the lecture

Abstract:
This presentation focuses on some of the most significant finds from the Institute of Fine Arts–NYU excavations in the main urban sanctuary of Selinunte. Although investigations in this area date back to the early nineteenth century, our new excavations are bringing to light a wealth of new data, including a complete stratigraphic sequence from the late fourth century BCE all the way down to Prehistory. Of particular significance are the finds in Temple R, built for a goddess ca. 570 BCE. Sealed by a thick layer of fill in ca. 300 BCE, the temple is entirely preserved in its original phases, including the previous use of the area for an open-air cult around the time of Greek settlement, the phase of construction with a rich foundation deposit, partial burning and looting on the occasion of the Carthaginian conquest of Selinus in 409 BCE, and a restoration by the Selinuntine exiles returning home a few years later. Our finds make it possible to fully reconstruct, for the first time, the biography of a temple in Selinunte. More important, the fully preserved, rich assemblage of faunal remains and artifacts allows us to reconstruct a significant part of the ritual activities in this area of the sanctuary.

Biography:
Clemente Marconi earned his B.A. at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (1990) and his Ph.D. at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (1997). Since 2006, he is the James R. McCredie Professor in the History of Greek Art and Archaeology and University Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts–NYU, and since 2017 he is also Full Professor of Classical Archaeology in the Dipartimento di Beni Culturali e Ambientali of the Università degli Studi di Milano. He is the director of the archaeological mission on the acropolis of Selinunte of the Institute of Fine Arts–NYU and the Università degli Studi di Milano. Among his books, he is the author of Temple Decoration and Cultural Identity in the Archaic Greek World (Cambridge and New York, 2007); co-author of “Sicile Ancienne:” Hittorff and the Architecture of Classical Sicily (Cologne, 2017); editor of The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Art and Architecture (Oxford and New York, 2014); and co-editor of Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome (Los Angeles, 2013). A Corresponding Member of the German Archaeological Institute, he is the director of The Journal of Ancient Architecture, and in the editorial board of the journals Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, Sicilia Antiqua, and Prospettiva. [From Oxford Bibliographies]