Paestum and the Discovery of Archaic Greece
Zuchtriegel Gabriel
The paper revises the impact of the Paestum temples on 18th century archaeology and cultural theory. In particular, the author analyses the way in which Winckelmann dealt with what he believed to be the “oldest surviving architecture in the world outside Egypt”. Winckelmann recognized certain parallels between Archaic Greek and Egyptian art and architecture. However, he would not accept the idea of Greek culture depending on older Egyptian models. In order to solve this problem, he made use of primitivist theories that explain parallels between Egyptian and Greek art as the result of natural processes leading from primitive to more elaborate forms of art and architecture. This paradigm has shaped the field of archaeology ever since, as for example in the case of studies in early Greek colonisation that tend to apply primitivist models while minimizing intercultural contacts with the Phoenicians.
References:
Bernal, M. 1987: Black Athena. The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization. Vol. 1: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785–1985. New Brunswick (NY).
Bietak, M. (Hrsg.) 2001: Archaische griechische Tempel und Altägypten. Internationales Kolloquium am 28. November 1997 am Institut für Ägyptologie der Universität Wien. Wien.
Burgers, G.-J., Crielaard, J.P. (a cura di) 2011: Greci e indigeni a L’Amastuola. Amsterdam.
Chiosi, E., Mascoli, L., Vallet, G. 1986: La scoperta di Paestum. In: Raspi Serra 1986, 18–37.
Cioffi, R. 2001: Riscoperta dell’antico e ideologia massonica a Napoli. In: A. Gambardella (a cura di), Ferdinando Fuga. Napoli, 23–33.
Figueira, Th. 2008: Colonization in the Classical Period. In: G. R. Tsetskhladze (ed.), Greek Colonisation: An Account of Greek Colonies and Other Settlements Overseas. Vol. II. Leiden, 427–523.
Fulminante, F. 2014: The Urbanization of Rome and Latium From the Bronze Age to the Archaic Era. Cambridge.
Gilbhard, Th. 2012: Vicos Denkbild. Studien zur Dipintura der Scienza Nuova und der Lehre vom Ingenium. Berlin.
Greco, E., Lombardo, M., 2012: La colonizzazione greca: modelli interpretativi nel dibattito attuale. In: Alle origini della Magna Grecia. Mobilità, migrazioni, fondazioni. Atti del 50o Convegno internazionale di studi sulla Magna Grecia, Taranto, 2010. Taranto. 1, 37–60.
Jong, S. de 2014: Rediscovering Architecture. Paestum in eighteenth-century architectural experience and theory. New Haven–London.
Kyrieleis, H. 1996: Der große Kuros von Samos. Bonn.
Lang, F. 2007: House – community – settlement: the new concept of living in Archaic Greece. In: R. Westgate, N. Fisher, J. Whitley (eds), Building communities. House, Settlement and Society in the Aegean and Beyond (British School at Athens Studies, 15), London, 183–193.
Lavin, S. 1992: Quatremère de Quincy and the Invention of a Modern Language of Architecture. Cambridge (Mass.).
Longo, F. 2012: Le mura di Paestum. Antologia di documenti, dipinti, stampe grafiche e fotografiche dal Cinquecento agli anni Trenta del Novecento. Paestum.
Massara, G. 1986: L’immagine letteraria di Paestum. In: Raspi Serra 1986, 102–117.
Mertens, D. 1993: Der alte Heratempel in Paestum und die archaische Baukunst in Unteritalien. Mainz.
Mertens, D. 2006: Städte und Bauten der Westgriechen. München.
Miller, T. 1997: Die griechische Kolonisation im Spiegel literarischer Zeugnisse. Tübingen.
Osborne, R. 1998: Early Greek colonization? The nature of Greek settlement in the West. In: N. Fisher, H. van Wees (eds), Archaic Greece: New Approaches and New Perspectives. London, 251–269.
Raspi Serra, J. (ed.) 1986: La fortuna di Paestum e la memoria moderna del dorico 1750–1830 (Catalogo della mostra). Firenze.
Schwandner, E.-L. (Hrsg.) 1996: Säule und Gebälk. Zu Struktur und Wandlungsprozess griechisch-römischer Architektur. Bauforschungskolloquium in Berlin vom 14. –18. Juni 1994 veranstaltet vom Architekturreferat des DAI. Mainz.
Vlassopoulos, K. 2007: Unthinking the Greek Polis: Ancient Greek History beyond Eurocentrism. Cambridge.
Wilson Jones, M. 2014: Origins of Classical Architecture: Temples, Orders, and Gifts to the Gods in Ancient Greece. New Heaven–London.
Zuchtriegel, G. 2016: Colonisation and hybridity in Herakleia and its hinterland (southern Italy), 5th to 3rd centuries BC. Mélanges de l’Ecole française de Rome. Antiquité 128–1 (forthcoming).