RI-PRODURRE GLI DEI A VEIO: IL CASO DELL’APOLLO LIRÌCINE. VER SO UNO STUDIO DELLA PRODUZIONE E DEL REGIME DELLE OFFERTENELLE AREE SACRE DI VEIO

Abstract

Maria Cristina Biella – Mattia Bischeri – Laura Maria Michetti – Carla Tulini

The city of Veii presents a particularly developed and complex sacred topography, which remains only partly understood. In 2014, Giovanni Colonna published a first comprehensive picture of the site: eleven sacred areas dot the plateau and the suburban area.
This contribution aims to investigate the dynamics by which the production activities related to the sphere of the sacred were organised.
The decision has been made to focus on the later, moulded productions, for which Veii is undoubtedly an important case study due to the quantity of objects that have been retrieved. In particular, specific products occur in high quantities and were distributed contemporaneously in various sacred areas in the city. It is therefore necessary to reflect on the organisation of the various ateliers and on the mechanisms by which their products were distributed to the different sacred areas.
In order to clarify some of these production dynamics, Mattia Bischeri and Carla Tulini have considered the case of the lyricine Apollo, adopting a morphometric approach.
This analysis would seem to open up a new perspective. Several “sizes” of the same objects were identified, with a calibrated percentage reduction of clay from one size to another. While this aspect may be a valid criterion for the distinction of the “generation” transition in the artisanal practice, it could also validate the idea of the existence of a standardised “sampler”, intentionally articulated by sizes within the same type. In other words, larger and more carefully retouched votive offerings may have had a higher intrinsic value, determined by the amount of raw material used and above all by the added value of the labour, thus responding not only to different religious practices, but perhaps also to variable “market” demands.