On spatial structuration: the poetics of social rhythms in Western Greek apoikiai

Abstract

Organize space in order to settle in a new landscape is to give material reality to the existence of a group. The relationship between landscape and a human group necessarily involves weave together things, places, bodies and gestures. We believe that in this sense, all this weaving occurs according to a rhythm, that we can well call poetics: word derived from the Greek poïen, 'make', 'produce'. Material culture -in our case, urbanism- can thus be approached at the light of "poetics". It is our interest, as an archaeologist, to look backwards into this process, trying to elucidate through material remains how things came about in the past. The Greek apoikiai in Southern Italy and Sicily from the eighth century BCE, onwards offer us extensive evidence to this purpose. In the limits of a Master's research, we are interested in comparing the rhythm of Thourioi city plan, as described by Diodorus and as far as the measurements of blocks and streets go with the rhythm of other human creations: such as oral poetry and eventually pottery iconography and so forth. Understanding the land surveyor craft of allotment within a social modus operandi in which the group produces and reproduces its material framework, we assume the material things as an essential interface of being-in-the-world. An internship in Italy shall be of great importance in order to constitute a mass of documentation as to ground our research. Consulting bibliographical material as well as visiting archaeological sites in Southern Italy and Sicily, will allow us to deepen our knowledge and to approach ancient Greek urbanism with more propriety. (AU)