Pietro Militello
Pietro Militello (1963) is full professor of Prehistory and Protohistory (formerly Aegean Archaeology) at the University of Catania, as well as coordinator of the Doctorate in Science for Heritage and Cultural Production at the same university. He is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Italian Archaeological School of Athens and of the Regional Council for Cultural and Environmental Heritage of the Region of Sicily.
Research topics
His research interests include:
A) Archaeology of Minoan Crete, with particular reference to scripts, iconography and craft activities;
B) Archaeology of Sicily and its relations with the Aegean during the 2nd millennium.
C) Fieldwork.
D) History of archaeology.
E) Archaeology as Cultural Heritage (management and conservation of archaeological monuments and communication).
Scientific Activity
His publications (ca. 160 articles and 6 monographs) have mainly concerned the edition of materials (frescoes and weaving tools from Haghia Triada and Festos), the edition of excavations, articles on Cretan and Sicilian archaeology from the 2nd millennium BC, and the history of archaeological research, seen also from a cultural historical perspective.
He directs or has directed excavation activities in Sicily (Calicantone, Calaforno, Pantalica, Monte San Paolillo) and in Greece (Archaeological Mission of Festòs).
He has directed several projects, both national and international, and has been a member of international research groups with a more purely scientific character and a focus on the enhancement of cultural heritage.
Current Projects
In Festòs, as director of the Italian archaeological mission, he is coordinating the excavation (and editing) of the areas to the west of the Palace and the North-West Quarter, and the publication of material from the old excavations in Festòs and Haghia Triada.
He collaborates with the TIMMA (Université Paris XII) and DAIDALOS (University of Ghent) projects to study the architecture of the two sites.
In Sicily she has two active research projects on the sites of Pantalica (SR), with topographical investigations on the plateau, and Calaforno (RG), with excavation activities in the area in front of the Hypogeum. He is also preparing the publication of the necropolis of Calicantone (RG).
He is the coordinator of Spoke 6, History, Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, of the Changes project, funded under the PNRR Extended Partnerships programme.
Academic activity
He has been a member of several commissions at the University of Catania, responsible for the photographic archive of the former Institute of Archaeology. He has also served on numerous evaluation commissions for positions as researcher, professor and full professor in Italy and abroad. He is listed in the Apella database in Greece.
Teaching Activities
Since 2001 he has taught Prehistory and Protohistory and Aegean Archaeology at the University of Catania; in 2016 he was substitute lecturer in Classical Archaeology for one semester at the University of Heidelberg, and since 2017 he has been lecturer in Aegean Archaeology at the Italian Archaeological School in Athens. He has delivered lectures and conferences in Italy and abroad for Master's, graduate and doctoral schools, and has participated as an examiner in Italian and foreign doctorates.
For his work he has received the following awards:
2013 - Margot Tytus Visiting Fellowship Research University of Cincinnaty
2008 Fellowship University of Copenhagen - Center for Textile Research
1993 Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel Scholarship - Marburg
Phone: 00393473735308
Address: Home address: Via Grotte Bianche 148, 95128 Catania, Italy
Office: Piazza Dante 32, 95124 Catania, Italy
Research topics
His research interests include:
A) Archaeology of Minoan Crete, with particular reference to scripts, iconography and craft activities;
B) Archaeology of Sicily and its relations with the Aegean during the 2nd millennium.
C) Fieldwork.
D) History of archaeology.
E) Archaeology as Cultural Heritage (management and conservation of archaeological monuments and communication).
Scientific Activity
His publications (ca. 160 articles and 6 monographs) have mainly concerned the edition of materials (frescoes and weaving tools from Haghia Triada and Festos), the edition of excavations, articles on Cretan and Sicilian archaeology from the 2nd millennium BC, and the history of archaeological research, seen also from a cultural historical perspective.
He directs or has directed excavation activities in Sicily (Calicantone, Calaforno, Pantalica, Monte San Paolillo) and in Greece (Archaeological Mission of Festòs).
He has directed several projects, both national and international, and has been a member of international research groups with a more purely scientific character and a focus on the enhancement of cultural heritage.
Current Projects
In Festòs, as director of the Italian archaeological mission, he is coordinating the excavation (and editing) of the areas to the west of the Palace and the North-West Quarter, and the publication of material from the old excavations in Festòs and Haghia Triada.
He collaborates with the TIMMA (Université Paris XII) and DAIDALOS (University of Ghent) projects to study the architecture of the two sites.
In Sicily she has two active research projects on the sites of Pantalica (SR), with topographical investigations on the plateau, and Calaforno (RG), with excavation activities in the area in front of the Hypogeum. He is also preparing the publication of the necropolis of Calicantone (RG).
He is the coordinator of Spoke 6, History, Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, of the Changes project, funded under the PNRR Extended Partnerships programme.
Academic activity
He has been a member of several commissions at the University of Catania, responsible for the photographic archive of the former Institute of Archaeology. He has also served on numerous evaluation commissions for positions as researcher, professor and full professor in Italy and abroad. He is listed in the Apella database in Greece.
Teaching Activities
Since 2001 he has taught Prehistory and Protohistory and Aegean Archaeology at the University of Catania; in 2016 he was substitute lecturer in Classical Archaeology for one semester at the University of Heidelberg, and since 2017 he has been lecturer in Aegean Archaeology at the Italian Archaeological School in Athens. He has delivered lectures and conferences in Italy and abroad for Master's, graduate and doctoral schools, and has participated as an examiner in Italian and foreign doctorates.
For his work he has received the following awards:
2013 - Margot Tytus Visiting Fellowship Research University of Cincinnaty
2008 Fellowship University of Copenhagen - Center for Textile Research
1993 Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel Scholarship - Marburg
Phone: 00393473735308
Address: Home address: Via Grotte Bianche 148, 95128 Catania, Italy
Office: Piazza Dante 32, 95124 Catania, Italy
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Books by Pietro Militello
In the first section, a description of the hypogaeum is given. Through an architectural, functional and energetics analysis of the inner part of the hypogaeum and the results of archaeological soundings, a complex history of use, reuse, abandonment and changes in function (funerary, religious, residential, industrial) is reconstructed, spanning almost three millennia of history. At the same time, the publication of other multichamber underground structures, until now unknown, removes the Hypogaeum from its isolation in Sicilian prehistory.
In the second section, the geology of the area is described, and the publication is presented of the material recovered during the excavations (prehistoric, protohistoric and medieval pottery, architectural elements, faunal and anthropological remains), together with the results of archaeometric analyses. Two final chapters are included, with preliminary reports of the activity of the archaeological service of Ragusa in the outdoor area of the structure (megalithic entrance) and in the wider territory.
Access to pictures is restricted to students only.
The volume is divided into three sections. The first one collects papers on various topics, written by professors of the course, dealing with the relation between nomadism and neolithization in Uzbekistan (A. Lasota-Moskalewska, K. Szymczak), the problem of space in Aegean art and Egyptian architecture (F. Blakolmer, G. Hölbl), the problem of cave occupation in the Sicilian Copper Age (O. Palio), the relationship between Greeks and indigenous people in Sicily in the archaic period (M. Frasca, M. Camera), aspects of artistic production in Syracuse and Sicily in the Greek and Roman periods (C. Portale), a reflection on the concept of Romanization (F. Buscemi), research on the cemeteries and topography of Syracuse and its territory (M. Sgarlata, F. Buscemi) and an iconographic analysis of an ostotheke from Çumra Turkey (A. Baldiran). The second section includes reports on excavations and activities carried out within the course, at ancient Kyme, Turkey (M. Frasca), Predio Maltese, Syracuse (M. Sgarlata et alii), Museo di Centuripe (R. Patané), and the results of a course on “Textile production in the Mediterranean” at the University of Warsaw (A. Ulanowska). The third section, finally, contains the results of some of the master theses written for the course, on Minoan archaeology (A. Catania, M. Figuera, A. Licciardello) and Sicilian funerary architecture (K. Zebrowska).
Phaistos and Ayia Triada by Pietro Militello
Phaistos between the Neolithic and the Late Roman Period (2021-2025). The activities included both excavation campaigns (2022-
2023) and study campaigns (2021-2023), of which the preliminary results are presented here. The excavation campaigns investigated
the area to the W and NW of the archaeological area, clarifying various aspects left open by previous excavations. The
soundings brought to light the continuation of the Neolithic wall already identified in 2002 (Sounding 3), a sequence of floor
levels dating back to between the EM III and the MM IIB period (Sounding 7), an enchytrismos burial of the MM III (Sounding
1 West), and a series of stratigraphic sequences dating between LM IIIC and the archaic period (Soundings 1, 3, 8). Noteworthy
is the discovery of a bronze panoply in Room OO (Sounding 5). For the most recent phases, a complex of Hellenistic rooms was
re-excavated whose position was not certain (Sounding 2, Rooms n1-3), and Hellenistic levels were brought to light in Soundings
4 and 7. Among the finds a fragment of vase with possible dedication to Hermes, datable to 450-425 BC. The research activities
concerned in particular the application of quantitative methods to LM IIIC-PG architectures (W.A.L(L) project), the survey
with georeferencing of kernoi and mason’s marks and the epigraphic analysis of Linear A texts. The latter, conducted with RTI
and HDR techniques, allowed the identification of a new sign in the epigraphic corpus of Phaistos and suggested the existence of
possible papyrus, leather or parchment supports on which some of the documents had been placed.
The researches, which included also 5 years excavations (2000-2004) are still in progress, but the first results show clearly that it is no more possible to read the development of Phaistos on the base of a dichotomy between a prepalatial and a protopalatial phases divided by the rise of the palace. Instead, the settlement and the palace had, during MM I-II, a more complex history than previous thought before they reach their final appearance in MM II.
The aim of our paper is twofold. After giving a brief summary of the results of current investigations (Speziale 1996, 2001; La Rosa ed. 2001; La Rosa 2002; La Rosa Carinci 2007-2008; Caloi 2007; Palio 2007) our paper will focus upon the major and better known phase of the “protopalatial” settlement, which can now be dated to a mature MM IIB period (the so called Fase Ib Levi). The distribution of architectural features and of different classes of finds (pottery, stone tools, textile related tools, stone vases, luxury objects, seals) within the settlement will be analysed in order to reconstruct patterns of use and consumption, and to distinguish, when possible, storage and working areas, public and domestic spaces. Already in a preliminary phase of study, it is possible to adfirm that architectural changes in the palace during MM II (Tomasello 2001), seem to be due to changes in the relations between palace and territory, following a progressive formalization of the leading role of the major building, partly under the influence of near eastern palatial models of lifestyle (controlling devices, iconographical motifs, luxury objects etc.). Conspicuous consumption probably during ritual actions seems also to be one of the main way of action inside the palace. At the same time, there seems to be no difference in the use and consumption of pottery and other goods between the palace and the surrounding “houses”, suggesting a strict connection between both and casting doubts about the roles traditionally attributed to them. This complex relationship can be perhaps explained as the result of a long history having its root in the communal origin of the palace (see e.g. observations made by M. Relaki). On the other hand, however, a pure evolutionary approach does not take into consideration the many elements pointing toward the existence, in MM II, of a true central authority (see e.g. tablets and sealings). Discontinuities must be admitted, in Foucaultian terms, and the data at our disposal seem to confirm that the one of the major gaps in the history of the settlement happened just during MM II with the probable emergence of one group at the expenses of the others. The detail of the process escape us, and possibly will be never recovered, but this belongs to the limits of the archaeological research.
Il ruolo chiave della festa nella costruzione della identità collettiva e di gruppo è indubbio, come è indubbia la connessione tra feste e consumo di cibo da una parte, feste e sacrificio dall’altra . Il rischio è però quello di pervenire ad un uso indifferenziato di questi concetti, inglobando nella medesima trattazione attività che facevano parte di sfere differenti. L'articolo affronta questo aspetto attraverso un esame comparato dei dati archeologici e testuali da Haghia Triada nel TM I.