Consuelo Manetta

I am specialised in the art and archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean and Black Sea-region between the 5thcentury BCE and the 4th century CE, with two main focuses: 1) Rome, its suburbium and Latium Vetus (esp. the Alban Hill region); 2) Thrace (esp. today’s Bulgaria, North Aegean area, and portions of today’s Turkey). My research agenda lies at the crossroads of art history, archaeology, and socio-cultural history. In recent years I have been particularly interested in Roman religion: its role in the creation of cultural identity, intercultural relation, political competition, and state ideology among the elite, and other social groups; how religious devotion and cults worked at a public, collective, and private level in Rome, in the suburbium, and in the Roman territories in and outside Italy; how the physical aspect of a sacred installation and the religious nature of the cults celebrated in it shaped the landscape, the topography, the character, and the daily life of a specific area or neighbourhood, and vice versa. The IN-Rome project provides me with the ideal conceptual and methodological framework to explore these issues. My areas of expertise also include Greek, Roman and Thracian funerary art and archaeology, ancient painting, and mosaics; Greek and Roman architecture; freestanding and architectural sculpture; ancient covering systems (esp. coffered and pseudo-coffered ceilings and domes), including their technique, production (patrons, craftsmanship, artisanal/economic mobility of skilled workers), and modern reception; Greek and Roman topography and urbanisation, with a special focus on population dynamic, and socio-political and cultural interactions among urban and extra-urban areas, as well as among local and foreign communities (Greece and communities in inland Thrace and the Black Sea region; Rome, its suburbium, and Latium Vetus; Rome and its provinces). I am also experienced in the management of classical antiquities collections, 18th–20th-century antiquities trafficking, and the dynamics related to the reuse of ancient marbles and the possible recontextualisation of spolia. I favour a contextual approach that draws on a wide range of archaeological, epigraphic, visual, and literary evidence as sources for wider historical enquiries. By this, I mean that the physical and historical reconstruction of an ancient context is essential to understanding why an object/a building/a decoration was produced in that particular form and style, and what it meant to the people that used, imitated or saw it, and why an idea or a cultural phenomenon was conceived and transmitted in that particular way. The modern reception of ancient culture and phenomena is equally important. By reception I mean, more specifically, how ancient material has been interpreted, perceived and used, and how earlier approaches continue to influence our thinking. This includes the study of modern, national archaeological practices, and the use of archaeology and antiquities to shape modern national identity and collective memory. From a methodological perspective, I strongly believe that archival sources (including historical cartography), and the critical use of antiquarian material may provide a key framework that integrates and expands the knowledge based on archaeological data. Within this framework, invaluable research sources include modern biographies (i.e. of archaeologists, ambassadors and collectors), travels memoirs, geography and military texts, and maps. My portfolio of archaeological fieldwork includes coordination and participation to excavations in Rome (Palatine) and in Italy, and participation to national and international research projects.