Towards an Archaeology of Cult in a Greek Colony in the West: New Excavations in the Main Urban Sanctuary of Selinunte

The 2019 AAIA Visiting Professor, Professor Clemente Marconi, UNE Aspects of Antiquity Public Lecture: 15th August, 2019.

This lecture presents the finds from the New York University and University of Michigan 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 the Mesolithic period. Of particular significance are the finds in the area around Temple R, built for a goddess ca. 580 BCE. Sealed by a thick layer of fill dated 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. 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.

The urban sanctuary of Selinunte.

Professor, Clemente Marconi, is the James R. McCredie Professor in the History of Greek Art and Archaeology at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University and is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the Università degli Studi in Milan. Since 2006, Professor Marconi has directed the Institute of Fine Art–NYU’s excavations on the acropolis of Selinunte in Sicily. He has published extensively on a very wide range of themes relating to Greek and Roman art and architecture.