​

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 2024-2025 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.

​

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

News and Recent Publications​​​​

​​​​​

• Ruth Whitehouse published Writing Matters: Italy in the First Millennium BCE with Bloomsbury in 2024.
   ​

• A new book edited by Fabio Saccoccio and Elisa Vecchi, entitled, Who do you think you are? Ethnicity in the Iron Age Mediterranean was released in 2022.

​

​

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​​​​​​

​​

​

​

​

​

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

​

Accordia Events  2025-2026

​

The full programme for this year's Accordia Lectures can be found here. As in previous years, lectures are held either at the Senate House or the Institute of Archaeology in Gordon Square. We are also very pleased that the third series of the Early Career talks will continue with two papers in each session, details can be found here.

​​

​​

Accordia Lecture

Tuesday, January 20, 17.30​

​​

Joint Lecture with the Institute of Classical Studies

Room 264, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1

​​​​

Vulci and the Bonapartes: an Eldorado for 19th-century Etruscan archaeology and collecting

Christian Mazet, British Museum

 

From the 1830s onwards, the Etruscan city of Vulci became one of the most spectacular archaeological fields in Europe. Large-scale excavations of its necropoleis uncovered thousands of Greek vases, as well as Etruscan bronzes, jewels and sculptures, earning the site the reputation of the “Pompeii of Etruria” and fuelling the international antiquities market. At the heart of this phenomenon were Alexandrine and Lucien Bonaparte, who conducted major excavation campaigns between 1828 and 1846 on their estates at Canino. Combining archaeological practice with commercial strategies, they played a decisive role in the massive dispersion of Vulci’s funerary assemblages across Rome, Paris, London and all Europe. By bringing past and present into dialogue, the reassessment of the Bonaparte excavations through archival sources and recent archaeological discoveries highlights the potential of approaching archaeology through the histories of excavation and collecting, seeking to recover the identities, provenances and meanings of Vulci’s forgotten necropoleis while directly addressing the complex issue of the decontextualisation of artefacts in museum contexts.

​

​​​

​

​​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

​

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                       

 

 

 

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

​

Early Career Lectures

Tuesday, November 18, 17.30​

Online, via Zoom

 ​

The Deposition of Architectural Terracottas from Archaic Central Italy (c.580–480 BC):

interrogating religious value by re-evaluating stratigraphy

Allia Benner, University of Oxford

​

and

​

Territory in Practice: the potential of craft production studies in ancient Etruria

Anna Soifer, University of Puget Sound 

​

 

​

​

​