Tomb reveals ancient trade network

[Genavese Cavera]

2008-07-24 13:01
Tomb reveals ancient trade network
Adriatic coast linked with Mideast, North Africa and Greece


 (ANSA) - Ancona, July 24 - The tomb of a woman who died around 2,600 years ago on the eastern Italian coast is helping archaeologists piece together the vast trade network that once linked this area with the Middle East, North Africa and Greece.

Experts working on a tomb near the port of Ancona say the site contains over 650 artefacts from the 7th century BC, including numerous items made in other parts of the world.

''This tomb is of extraordinary importance, as it contains the only known funerary finds in the area of Conero dating from this time,'' said the Archaeology Superintendent for the Marche region, Giuliano de Marinis. The pieces demonstrate that an extensive network of contact and trade once linked this section of the Adriatic coast not only to Sicily and southern and central Italy, but also much further afield. The tomb contains artefacts manufactured in sites as far away as modern-day Egypt, Rhodes, mainland Greece, the Palestinian Territories and Anatolia. ''This discovery fills in a big gap in our knowledge and helps define the role this area played in past centuries,'' continued De Marinis. ''For example, it shows that items from Greece and the eastern Mediterranean passed through here en route to other parts of the Italian peninsula''. Of particular value are five glazed pottery pendants, which were made in Egypt. Probably used as amulets, they are each six centimetres in length and are shaped like seashells. Also of special interest are a bowl and lid, intricately decorated with horses, and a cowry disc from the Indian Ocean. This latter was considered a fertility symbol and was reproduced in Ancient Egyptians tombs.

Among the other items contained in the tomb were pendants of ivory, glass paste and amber, scarabs, and belts of buckle and bone. The head of the archaeological project, Maurizio Landolfi, said: ''These items were possibly transported to the Marche along with consignments of amber, which was in great demand for decorating jewellery and homes''. Over the last two years, over 200 tombs have been uncovered in the area, particularly around the towns of Sirolo and Numana.

 
http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2008-07-24_124221679.html

[Bianca]

Ah, Genavese,

News from my Province, how wonderful!
Strange how the world seems to ignore us.  They seem to stop at Venice....

There is a great wealth of antiquity in the Marche, especially in the Piceno area.

"Quando Ascoli (Piceno) era Ascoli, Roma era pascoli".....

(When Ascoli (Piceno) was Ascoli, Rome was pasture"......

That's OK, our beautiful beaches don't get too overcrowded this way.  Although the Germans
are the first 'foreigners' to arrive every year, the end of May even.....

[Bianca]

                                 




                                             

[Bianca]

ANCONA - THE PORT

[Bianca]

SUNRISE AT SENIGALLIA - MARCHE

[Genavese Cavera]

You were born in a very beautiful province, Bianca.  Is it any wonder that many of the Europe tourists flock to these generous beaches?  Many of them live in land-locked territories. I pity many of the Americans here who have never seen the beauty of the Mediterranean.

[Bianca]

Oh, Genavese, I think I am being prejudiced, in all honesty......

I've been living in Florida for almost the last twenty years, on the Gulf of Mexico, and the beaches
are beautiful too.  But it's not the same.

It seems all my happiest childhood memories are bound up with the Adriatic, even if it was WW II.
I used to just roll out of bed at dawn and just just sit there, waiting for the airplanes to come by. 
They flew so low, I could clearly see the pilots.  I never told my parents, they were still asleep in
the house.  They would have had a heart attack - I have no idea to this day if they were the
Allies or the Germans.

When the war was over, I did it just the same because on certain mornings, at sunrise, when weather
conditions are right, one can see the Dalmatian coast.  They call it "Fata Morgana". I tried to have that experience every time I went back, but it never recurred.  I think modern times' pollution must have something to do with it.

And of course, nothing compares to the sight of the sun rising on the water.  I can close my eyes and
still see it.  Magic!!

And then the fleet of the fishermen would appear on the horizon and that's a sight to behold too.


Thanks for listening to me, Genavese.  It does my heart good.

b

[Genavese Cavera]

My friend, you sound a little sad and melancholy, if you don't mind me saying.  My mother gets like that much these days. She is an older woman, sad, and frequently spends more time looking back these days than looking ahead. I think we must all get in such a way when we get older.  But were the things that happened to us truly so good or do we simply idealize the things that once happened to us?  I think it must be the later choice.  Perhaps, one can be happy anywhere, but the things we must miss the most are not places that we once had been, but the people we had been in our earlier days.

If there is any consolation, I suppose, it is that every human being goes through the same joys and sorrows, and many of us wish that we could be in anyplace but the place in our lives we tend to be in right now.

[Bianca]

I can't speak for your mother, Genavese. 

With me it's recollections of my childhood, my youth and my PATRIA - the land of my birth.

I have lived in three countries, for a considerable time in each.  Nothing seems to me to replace
the beauty of my homeland, no matter how humble.......

It's a visceral thing......