Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FIRS (Frontiers Inside Roman Sicily: Culture, Economy and Society between Late Antiquity and the Early Byzantine Period)
Période du rapport: 2024-01-01 au 2025-03-31
The Late Antique and Early Byzantine periods are crucial ones for the understanding of Sicily's socio-economic and cultural evolution from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Recent research has shown that the island still played its centuries-old role then as a Mediterranean linchpin, and this realization has awakened scholars’ interest for a period that has been dogged by an adverse historical bias (one of perceived ‘decline and decadence’) for a long time. A raft of new data from archaeological excavations and field surveys have sketched the outlines of the nuanced complexities of Sicilian society and its vibrant economy at this period, and its integration into multiple Mediterranean trade routes. Despite some progress overall, delay in the publication of old excavations, the paucity of syntheses available, and the difficulty in finding, accessing and reusing existing datasets, are a hindrance to resolving some key problems about this important transitional phase in Sicilian history.
The FIRS project therefore focuses on five key sites in western Sicily, investigated during the second half of the 20th century but largely unpublished. These comprise the rural settlements of Campanaio and Castagna, the villa maritima at Durrueli and the port cities of Palermo and Lilybaeum (Marsala). By analysing the quantity of material culture from the excavations and exploring the distribution of artefacts at a micro-regional scale, the project aims to investigate the many and various causes that triggered changes in trading patterns, social behaviour, and cultural practices between the 5th and the 7th centuries AD. At the same time, it aims to develop a sound strategy for digitization, archiving, and management of archaeological data.
With the support of a multidisciplinary team’s expertise, we pursue three Research Objectives connected to specific issues that we intend to investigate:
1. Analysing the material culture, notably ceramic, from Sicilian late housing contexts to acquire new information about people’s attitudes, tastes, consumption habits, diet, and productive capacity.
2. Building a modern ontology that integrates both new and long-known data to ensure proper storage, firm verifiability, efficient exploitation, and rapid information sharing.
3. Exploring intra and infra-site artifacts distribution in order to shed new light on the causes triggering change or resilience in trade patterns, social behaviour, and cultural practices at different levels and degrees.
The FIRS project is a collaboration between the Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies at the University of British Columbia and the Centre Camille Jullian at Aix-Marseille University, both actively engaged in archaeological missions in Sicily. The expected results will impact the international scientific community through a fast co-edition of the contexts above, a new broad theoretical basis, and the first Sicilian digital Atlas of the Late Antique and Early Byzantine periods. These results will also have a positive impact on the general public and local economies by promoting awareness of important but often neglected aspects of Sicilian cultural heritage.
The FIRS project therefore focuses on five key sites in western Sicily, investigated during the second half of the 20th century but largely unpublished. These comprise the rural settlements of Campanaio and Castagna, the villa maritima at Durrueli and the port cities of Palermo and Lilybaeum (Marsala). By analysing the quantity of material culture from the excavations and exploring the distribution of artefacts at a micro-regional scale, the project aims to investigate the many and various causes that triggered changes in trading patterns, social behaviour, and cultural practices between the 5th and the 7th centuries AD. At the same time, it aims to develop a sound strategy for digitization, archiving, and management of archaeological data.
With the support of a multidisciplinary team’s expertise, we pursue three Research Objectives connected to specific issues that we intend to investigate:
1. Analysing the material culture, notably ceramic, from Sicilian late housing contexts to acquire new information about people’s attitudes, tastes, consumption habits, diet, and productive capacity.
2. Building a modern ontology that integrates both new and long-known data to ensure proper storage, firm verifiability, efficient exploitation, and rapid information sharing.
3. Exploring intra and infra-site artifacts distribution in order to shed new light on the causes triggering change or resilience in trade patterns, social behaviour, and cultural practices at different levels and degrees.
The FIRS project is a collaboration between the Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies at the University of British Columbia and the Centre Camille Jullian at Aix-Marseille University, both actively engaged in archaeological missions in Sicily. The expected results will impact the international scientific community through a fast co-edition of the contexts above, a new broad theoretical basis, and the first Sicilian digital Atlas of the Late Antique and Early Byzantine periods. These results will also have a positive impact on the general public and local economies by promoting awareness of important but often neglected aspects of Sicilian cultural heritage.
The work carried out so far has addressed Research Objectives 1 and 2, while also laying a solid foundation for the successful completion of Research Objective 3.
With regard to Research Objective 1, specific tasks included the collection of a substantial body of information relating to ceramic finds from the aforementioned sites, stored across Sicilian archaeological superintendencies, parks, and museum depots. This work involved the acquisition of new high-resolution photographs, drawings, artefact inventories, quantification spreadsheets, and general contexts observations. In addition, numerous ceramic samples were selected for petrographic analysis in thin section and geochemical characterisation using ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry), with the aim of investigating the provenance and distribution of specific classes of artefacts, particularly locally produced wares and amphorae. Simultaneously, all available paper documentation from the original excavations was gathered and digitised. This corpus includes fieldwork reports, notes, preliminary catalogues, photographs, plans and sections. Particular attention was devoted to the digitisation of information recorded on perishable paper tags, both inside and outside the boxes containing finds housed in archaeological depots.
As for Research Objective 2, the work focused on the development of an ontology in accordance with current standards, along with the mapping of tabular Excel data into Resource Description Framework (RDF)/Web Ontology Language (OWL) format using specific and reusable transformation rules. Furthermore, by querying the imported data using SPARQL, we have initiated the process of exploring and analysing the collected information. This phase of the work was conducted using Protégé, a free and open-source platform for ontology development.
With regard to Research Objective 1, specific tasks included the collection of a substantial body of information relating to ceramic finds from the aforementioned sites, stored across Sicilian archaeological superintendencies, parks, and museum depots. This work involved the acquisition of new high-resolution photographs, drawings, artefact inventories, quantification spreadsheets, and general contexts observations. In addition, numerous ceramic samples were selected for petrographic analysis in thin section and geochemical characterisation using ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry), with the aim of investigating the provenance and distribution of specific classes of artefacts, particularly locally produced wares and amphorae. Simultaneously, all available paper documentation from the original excavations was gathered and digitised. This corpus includes fieldwork reports, notes, preliminary catalogues, photographs, plans and sections. Particular attention was devoted to the digitisation of information recorded on perishable paper tags, both inside and outside the boxes containing finds housed in archaeological depots.
As for Research Objective 2, the work focused on the development of an ontology in accordance with current standards, along with the mapping of tabular Excel data into Resource Description Framework (RDF)/Web Ontology Language (OWL) format using specific and reusable transformation rules. Furthermore, by querying the imported data using SPARQL, we have initiated the process of exploring and analysing the collected information. This phase of the work was conducted using Protégé, a free and open-source platform for ontology development.
The analysis of previously unpublished ceramic finds has enabled the identification and documentation of previously unknown late occupation phases (6th–7th centuries) at key sites such as Marsala, Palermo, and Durrueli. These finds provide crucial new insights into the continuity of life in specific areas of these sites, illuminating both urban and rural landscapes as well as trade dynamics during this transitional period. Meanwhile, the rural settlement of Campanaio is offering valuable perspectives on everyday life in the Sicilian countryside during Late Antiquity. More specifically, while the presence of African imports confirms and expands existing knowledge of Late Antique trade networks, the appearance of eastern Mediterranean imports introduces new interpretative possibilities. These discoveries raise important questions regarding the nature of such imports in western Sicily—whether they arrived through direct trade with the eastern Mediterranean or via redistribution through intermediary hubs.
Moreover, archaeometric analyses, combined with typological studies, have yielded critical insights into a group of flat-bottomed Sicilian amphorae probably produced in southern Sicily. These investigations are contributing to a more precise definition of their typological characteristics, chronology, and potential production centres, and have initiated the mapping of their distribution at a sub-regional scale. These discoveries may also have broader implications for scholarly communities working in other parts of the Mediterranean, as it remains unclear whether this group of artefacts was exported overseas. In this regards, further research may reveal previously unknown trade patterns.
The structuring of the ontology schema and the mapping of tabular data into RDF/OWL format represented a major milestone. Ontologies prove to be highly flexible tools—though still underutilised in archaeology—capable of capturing domain-specific knowledge while promoting interoperability through the use of standardised vocabularies, especially when supported by appropriate regulatory and standardisation frameworks. This approach holds significant promise for archaeological research, where fragmented data collection and management practices often hinder compliance with the FAIR principles and limit the potential for meaningful comparative studies.
Moreover, archaeometric analyses, combined with typological studies, have yielded critical insights into a group of flat-bottomed Sicilian amphorae probably produced in southern Sicily. These investigations are contributing to a more precise definition of their typological characteristics, chronology, and potential production centres, and have initiated the mapping of their distribution at a sub-regional scale. These discoveries may also have broader implications for scholarly communities working in other parts of the Mediterranean, as it remains unclear whether this group of artefacts was exported overseas. In this regards, further research may reveal previously unknown trade patterns.
The structuring of the ontology schema and the mapping of tabular data into RDF/OWL format represented a major milestone. Ontologies prove to be highly flexible tools—though still underutilised in archaeology—capable of capturing domain-specific knowledge while promoting interoperability through the use of standardised vocabularies, especially when supported by appropriate regulatory and standardisation frameworks. This approach holds significant promise for archaeological research, where fragmented data collection and management practices often hinder compliance with the FAIR principles and limit the potential for meaningful comparative studies.