Articles by Nicoletta Scala

The ISCIMA-CNR has participated in the FIRB 2001 Project with research on “Trade dynamics in the ancient Mediterranean: the role of Etruria”. This title raises a number of diverse issues: continuity and discontinuity in trading circuits in the Mediterranean Basin; structure of production and movement of goods; study of the relationship between urban and rural areas involved in their production and consumption; role of the Etruscan ports in the dynamic of trade. In order to conduct a diachronic analysis on this subject, the Etruscan metropolis of Cerveteri has been proposed as a sample area. Since the 1980s, in fact, Cerveteri has been investigated by the CNR Institute through systematic surveys and excavations, resulting in a better understanding of the urban area and the surrounding territory. In particular, within the FIRB Project, the results of the research activity come from the analysis of settlement models, the production of ceramic typological lists, the application of innovative ICT methods to field archaeology, together with archaeoastronomical and spatial analysis techniques, the use of archaeometric research tools to analyse ceramic and metallic objects. The article also describes in detail an integrated approach to define the typology and study the spatial distribution of specific classes of ceramics (in particular the archaic pottery), which have been found during excavations in the central part of the urban plateau, in an area occupied by an open-air elliptical building.