Biography

Chiara Blasetti Fantauzzi is the scientific coordinator of several archaeological research projects, including the excavation of the Venus sanctuary at Erice in Sicily and the survey in the territory of the Roman municipium Marruvium in central Italy. She received her PhD from the University of Tübingen in 2011 with a thesis on the origin and development of Carthaginian urban centers in Sardinia up to the Roman Republican period (Origine e sviluppo dei centri urbani punici della Sardegna fino all'età dellaromanizzazione, 2015, Tübinger Archäologische Forschungen 20, Verlag Marie Leidorf). 

From 2013 to 2019 she worked as Research Associate (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) at the University of Göttingen. She initiated and implemented an interdisciplinary field research project analysing Roman settlement dynamics in Late Republican and Early Imperial Central Italy, which was funded by the University of Göttingen. In 2018, she published her second book, which examines local and Greek imported Archaic pottery from the excavation of the city walls of Erice (Sicily); it also explores the cultural interactions between local populations, Phoenicians, and Greeks. Chiara has held research fellowships at the University of Tübingen and at the University of Göttingen, as well as research and teaching positions in Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin and Excellence Cluster 264 TOPOI). She is a member of numerous scientific networks and has co-edited two books and co-organized several conferences, workshops and archaeological exhibitions.

Project Abstract

Ancient sanctuaries offer a unique opportunity to study the perception of time and concepts of continuity and discontinuity over longer periods of time. Sanctuaries were not only places where communication with the gods took place but they were also places of social gatherings that were shaped by political, socio-economic, and cultural factors. Of particular interest is the question of how the past was perceived and dealt with when new groups took over, administered, and frequented existing sanctuaries. The spectrum ranges from complete destruction and abandonment (maximum discontinuity) to practices of appropriation and adaptation in various forms to complete preservation (maximum continuity).

My project in the EC-Chronoi aims to investigate the perception and appropriation of the past in the sanctuary of Venus in Eryx (Erice) in Sicily. This sanctuary operated on a supra-regional level from the 6th century BC to the 1st century AD and over this time the administrators and worshippers belonged to indigenous, Phoenician/Punic, Greek and Roman cultures. The project investigates whether different agents had different concepts of time and the past, whether they adapted, changed or destroyed the spatial configuration, the performed rituals and the votive practice.

Curriculum vitae

2019

Postdoctoral fellow (Habilitationsstipendium), Archaeological Institute, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

2013–2019

Research Associate (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin), Archaeological Institute, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

2012–2013

Lecturer, Institute of Classical Archaeology, Freie Universität Berlin

2012

Short term Researcher, Excellence Cluster 264 TOPOI, Freie Universität Berlin

2011

PhD in Classical Archaeology, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

2010

Short term Researcher, Excellence Cluster 264 TOPOI, Freie Universität Berlin

2008–2010

Doctoral fellow (Landesgraduiertenförderung), Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

2008

Visiting fellow at the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingenfunded by Banca d'Italia, Roma

Selected Publications

“Il santuario di Venere Ericina. Primi risultati delle indagini nelcastello normanno di Erice”, FOLD&R. The Journal of Fasti-Online 474, 2020, 1–20.

“Les changements du paysage sacré dans l’Italie centraleapennine à l’époque romaine”, in A. Dan – H.-J. Gehrke – S. De Vincenzo – C. Blasetti Fantauzzi, Les concepts en sciences de l’Antiquité: mode d’emploi. Chronique 2020 – Le sacré et sesespaces en Grèce, en Étrurie et dans l’Italie Romaine, Dialogues d'histoire ancienne 46, 2020, 347–387.

Tra Elimi e Greci. La ceramica di età arcaica dai contesti di fondazione della cinta muraria di Erice. Analysis Archaeologica. An International Journal of Western Mediterranean Archaeology. Monograph Series N° 3 (Roma 2018).

“Chronologiediskurse zu den punischen und römischen Stadtmauern Sardiniens”, in R. Frederiksen – S. Muth – P. Schneider – M. Schnelle (eds.), Focus on Fortifications. New Research on Fortifications in the Ancient Mediterranean and the Near East (Oxford 2016) 595–608.

Origine e sviluppo dei centri urbani punici della Sardegna finoall'età della romanizzazione. Tübinger Archäologische Forschungen 20 (Rahden/Westf. 2015).