Welcome to the webpage of the Accordia Research Institute

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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. 

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We also run - or are associated with - a number of research and fieldwork projects based in Britain and in Italy.

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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​

 

Special Offer – 25% off all Accordia books for EAA members until December 31st 2023

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Who do you think you are? Ethnicity in the Iron Age Mediterranean. 2022. Edited by Fabio Saccoccio and Elisa Vecchi

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Neolithic Spaces (two volumes). 2020. Sue Hamilton and Ruth Whitehouse.

 

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Accordia Events  2023-2024

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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.

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Accordia Anniversary Lecture

Tuesday, December 5, 17.30​

Room G35, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1

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Maureen Carroll, University of York

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Funerary evidence for women’s dress and identities in Campania and Lucania in the 4th century B.C.

This paper focuses on funerary portraits in elite painted tombs in Campania and Lucania at a time when Rome was extending its control in the region in the fourth century B.C. In these images, men and women appear in roles that reflect indigenous social norms of the time, and the clothing they wear is a valuable tool for exploring the interconnected relationship between ethnicity, social status, and gender. Female clothing types are particularly distinctive and varied, and they reveal that self-perception in south-west Italy was based on belonging to individual, local communities rather than on membership in large, overarching ethnic groups constructed by Greek and Roman authors.

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Accordia Early Career Talks

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Tuesday, November 28, 17.30, via Zoom

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 Ádám Rung, ELTE, Budapest

The Hut of Romulus and the Heroon of Veii: was the siege of Veii a collision of two worlds or a collapse of one?

The capture of Veii, by the legendary Camillus, is often thought of as one of Rome’s first steps towards both the glory of its later conquests and the complications brought about by its increasing wealth. But even in the main ancient source of this narrative, the fifth book of Livy’s history, the sack of Veii is something of a counterpart to the later sack of Rome itself by the Gauls, and that is only one of the ways in which the guilt complicating its glory is hinted at. From an archaeological point of view, early cultural contacts between the two towns are well-established, enough to suggest a possible early sense of kinship, predating, and at odds with, the “othering” of all Etruscans (as “Eastern” “Lydians”) in most classical sources. It still sounds striking, however, that ancient Veii might even have had a counterpart of one of the later symbols of Roman modesty, mentioned by Livy’s Camillus explicitly in contrast with Etruscan wealth: the Hut of Romulus. In this paper, I am arguing that a comparison of the early hut-like heroon excavated in Veii and the iconic memorial to Rome’s founder, known from Roman literature, might be fruitful in understanding both.

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 Elena Scarsella, Cambridge University

Control and defence: the role of visibility in the settlement pattern of pre-Roman Abruzzi

During the Archaic period (mid 7th to mid 5th century BC), central Apennine was part of a larger network, connecting the Tyrrhenian and the Adriatic coasts of Italy. The mountains themselves were indeed the grand stage of a mosaic of interactions (not always peaceful) that eventually gave origin to the wide ethnic groups known from the classical literary tradition. In this complex framework, the mountainous landscape of the Apennines plays a major role not only in defining territorial compounds but also in dictating necessities of defence and control of economic resources. Indeed, the harshness and the difficulties of a mountainous environment ensure a general scarcity of resources and it also creates the basis for a strong competition over the few exploitable land and resources. Hence, pivotal assets such as grazing land, mining ores and trade routes became the focus of an intricate system of hillforts and outposts that covers, visually and strategically, the entire Apennine route network. 

In this talk, I will explore the settlement pattern of the pre-Roman Aterno Valley (Abruzzi) as a perfect example of capillary control of the landscape and its assets, through a widespread system of settlements based on intervisibility and interconnection. I will also consider them in the wider context of a defence system of borders within the area, on a medium scale and I will relate it to the formative process of the Vestini people.

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