ACCORDIA RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Welcome to the webpage of the Accordia Research Institute
Accordia is a research institute in the University of London. It operates in association with the Institute of Archaeology, UCL and with the Institute of Classical Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. It is dedicated to the promotion and co-ordination of research into all aspects of early Italy, from first settlement to the end of the pre-industrial period.
We organise lectures, research seminars, conferences and exhibitions on aspects of Italian archaeology and history, and publish a regular journal on the same theme; details of the 2023-2024 lecture series can be found here.
Accordia also has an extensive programme of research publications. We publish specialist volumes, seminars, conferences and excavation reports. Our policy is to encourage and support research into early Italy, especially by younger scholars, to get new work disseminated as rapidly as possible, and to improve access to recent and innovative research. We believe our books and our journal represent a valuable contribution to the development of the subject area. Accordia publishes its own Journal, the Accordia Research Papers.
We also run - or are associated with - a number of research and fieldwork projects based in Britain and in Italy.
Accordia operates on a voluntary, non-profit basis, supported by subscriptions and donations. Publications are self-financing. Everyone gives their services without payment.
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Recent Publications
Who do you think you are? Ethnicity in the Iron Age Mediterranean. 2022. Edited by Fabio Saccoccio and Elisa Vecchi
Neolithic Spaces (two volumes). 2020. Sue Hamilton and Ruth Whitehouse.
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Accordia Events 2023-2024
The full programme for this year's Accordia Lectures can be found here. This year we are continuing with in person lectures, held either at the Senate House or the Institute of Archaeology in Gordon Square. We are also pioneering a new seminar series for Early Career Researchers in conjunction with the University of Nottingham. These talks will be held over Zoom, more details of these can be found here.
Accordia Lecture
Tuesday, May 7, 17.30
Joint Lecture with the UCL Institute of Archaeology
Room 209, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1
A geoarchaeological approach to late prehistoric domestic contexts in northern Italy
Cristiano Nicosia, University of Padua
Accordia Early Career Talks
Tuesday, March 12, 17.30, via Zoom
Paper 1
Wine consumption in the Etruscan necropolis of Valle Trebba at Spina (end 6th – 3rd century BCE): pottery and funerary rituals
Carlotta Trevisanello, University of Bologna
The ritual of wine consumption is analysed over a broad chronological span from the end of the 6th to the 3rd century BCE, a period when this practice is prominent in the Etruscan world and beyond. The field of investigation is the Valle Trebba, the most northerly necropolis of the Etruscan port of Spina, built along a southern branch of the Po River. It is an extraordinary site for Etruscology and pre-Roman Mediterranean Archaeology due to the quantity, richness, and vast chronology covered by its 1215 tombs. The innovative aspect of this study is the analysis of a topic that has been widely dealt with in the tradition of Etruscan research, such as wine consumption and its ideology within a single context, unpublished in its entirety. This theme is also a tool for analysing trade patterns and dialogue between the different social and cultural elements of the community. In fact, the diachronic study of the ritual of the symposium and its projection in a funerary key allows us to observe how this practice was reprocessed in the port of Spina, which was an important Mediterranean crossroads of exchanges and contacts.
Paper 2
Approaching identity in La Tène Italy
Giulia Giannella, University College Cork
The aim of the presentation will be to present my PhD project which addresses specific issues related to the identity of groups perceived as peripheral in respect to what is usually considered the La Tène culture’s (460 – 1st century BC approx.) core (i.e., approximately current France). The spread of La Tène culture in Northern Italy is one of the two PhD project’s case studies. The project reflects on the La Tène material culture’s use and meaning and on the importance of interactions with ‘local’ groups in the creation of identity. Identity is a very complex concept which includes several layers of meaning. It is nowadays accepted that identity is multi-layered, fluid and negotiable. Dealing with it in the ancient world is very problematic but, as research has progressed, the need to investigate this category has become increasingly evident. The study of material culture and contexts informs us of interactions between different groups as well as of possible integration processes, which lead to the creation of ‘new’ identities. The aim of the project is to reflect on these processes considering also other aspects of identity such as gender, age and social status.
