Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Arts and Humanities Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Sicily Before The Greeks. The Interaction With Aegean And The Levant In The Pre-Colonial Era, Davide Tanasi Jan 2020

Sicily Before The Greeks. The Interaction With Aegean And The Levant In The Pre-Colonial Era, Davide Tanasi

History Faculty Publications

The relationship between Sicily and the eastern Mediterranean – namely Aegean, Cyprus and the Levant – represents one of the most intriguing facets of the prehistory of the island. The frequent and periodical contact with foreign cultures were a trigger for a gradual process of socio-political evolution of the indigenous community. Such relationship, already in inception during the Neolithic and the Copper Age, grew into a cultural phenomenon ruled by complex dynamics and multiple variables that ranged from the Mid-3rd to the end of the 2nd millennium BCE. In over 1,500 years, a very large quantity of Aegean and Levantine …


The Emergence Of Copper-Based Metallurgy In The Maltese Archipelago: An Archaeometric Perspective, D. Tanasi, R. H. Tykot, S. Hassam, A. Vianello Jan 2019

The Emergence Of Copper-Based Metallurgy In The Maltese Archipelago: An Archaeometric Perspective, D. Tanasi, R. H. Tykot, S. Hassam, A. Vianello

History Faculty Publications

The amount of prehistoric metal items discovered in the Maltese archipelago during the BronzeAge very limited in number. The majority of the artifacts are traditionally considered Aegean imports from nearby Sicily. Nineteen objects, currently on display in the National Archaeological Museum of Valletta, and dated between the 17th and 12th century BCE, represent the main evidence of metalwork in Malta during the Bronze Age. Daggers, axes, vessels, rings, pins and an ingot were found in Early and Middle/Late Bronze Age sites and were traditionally interpreted as made from bronze solely on the account of a direct visual exam. The aim …


Virtual Karam Collection: 3d Digital Imaging And 3d Printing For Public Outreach In Archaeology, David Tanasi, Stephan Hassam, Kaitlyn Kingsland Jan 2018

Virtual Karam Collection: 3d Digital Imaging And 3d Printing For Public Outreach In Archaeology, David Tanasi, Stephan Hassam, Kaitlyn Kingsland

History Faculty Publications

Archaeological museums are often perceived as repositories of relics, entrusted to preserve ancient material culture in perpetuity but at the same time committed to making it accessible. The fear of deterioration often denies access or imposes limits on the interactions between visitors and artefacts. This contribution will present the results of the Virtual Karam Collection, a digitization project of archaeological heritage consisting of a collection of artifacts that has limited access and is not properly shared and communicated with the public: The Farid Karam Lebanese Antiquities Collection of the University of South Florida’s Libraries. 149 objects were 3D scanned and …


3d Digital Technologies For Architectural Analysis. The Case Of The ‘Pagan Shrine’ In The Catacombs Of Santa Lucia (Siracusa, Sicily), Ilenia Gradante, Davide Tanasi Jan 2017

3d Digital Technologies For Architectural Analysis. The Case Of The ‘Pagan Shrine’ In The Catacombs Of Santa Lucia (Siracusa, Sicily), Ilenia Gradante, Davide Tanasi

History Faculty Publications

The Catacombs of Santa Lucia are one of the oldest and most important monuments in the Christian communities of Siracusa and Sicily in the late Roman period. The name of the complex derives from a tradition, according to which Saint Lucy was buried here, after her martyrdom in the early 4th century AD, under the reign of Diocletian. A large underground cemetery extends beneath the homonymous square. The cemetery gradually expanded from the 3rd to the 5th century AD, as it incorporated pre-existing constructions once used for funerary, religious and industrial purposes, by transforming them into monumental burial chambers. One …


3d Digital Technologies To Record Excavation Data: The Case Of The Catacombs Of St. Lucy (Siracusa, Sicily), Davide Tanasi, Ilenia Gradante, Mariarita Sgarlata Jan 2016

3d Digital Technologies To Record Excavation Data: The Case Of The Catacombs Of St. Lucy (Siracusa, Sicily), Davide Tanasi, Ilenia Gradante, Mariarita Sgarlata

History Faculty Publications

Between 2013 and 2015, Arcadia University in partnership with the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology and the University of Catania undertook new excavation campaigns in the Catacombs of St. Lucy at Siracusa. The research focuses on some very problematic parts of Region C of the complex, including Oratory C, the so-called Pagan Shrine and Crypt VI. These areas document most effectively the long life of this Christian hypogeum, which incorporated previous structures and artefacts related to the Greek period and continued to be used until the Middle Ages. During the excavation an array of 3D digital techniques (3D scanning, 3d …


Rediscovering The Maltese Temple Of Borġ In-Nadur: An Archaeoastronomical Perspective, David Tanasi, Andrea Orlando Jan 2016

Rediscovering The Maltese Temple Of Borġ In-Nadur: An Archaeoastronomical Perspective, David Tanasi, Andrea Orlando

History Faculty Publications

The Maltese island have megalithic temples of extraordinary interest for archaeoastronomy. In literature we find different works that involve most of its archaeological sites. The temple of Borġ in-Nadur, set on the top of a hill by the Marsaxlokk Bay in southern Malta, is less well known than the rest of the others, even though it started off as a major attraction for grand tourists and travellers in the Early Modern and Colonial periods. It was explored in the second half of the 1920s by a team of British archaeologists, led by Margaret Murray, who gradually uncovered the ruins of …