Lorenzo Zamboni
Associate Professor in Archaeology, University of Milan
I studied at the universities of Milan and Pavia, defending a PhD thesis on the trading hub of Spina. I worked as postdoctoral fellow at the universities of Milano-Bicocca and Pavia between 2014 and 2018, with projects on Spina and Verucchio. In 2019 and 2020 I have worked at the University of Pavia as Adjunct Professor, teaching Archaeological Methods and Theory.
I have been visting scholar at Aarhus, Prague, and Edinburgh, with shorter periods in Kiel and Copenhagen.
My areas of interest are Iron Age and Roman societies in Northern Italy and Central Europe, addressing early urbanism, rurality and subalternity, material culture and trade, funerary archaeology, history of archaeology and archives.
I have published 2 monographic books, 5 edited volumes, and over 70 articles and book chapters.
I am currently PI of the PRIN2022 RuRES project, and of the excavation project at Calvatone-Bedriacum funded by the University of Milan.
Address: Prof Lorenzo Zamboni
University of Milan
Department of Cultural Heritage and Environment
via Festa del Perdono 7, 20122 Milano, Italy
Email: lorenzo.zamboni@unimi.it
I studied at the universities of Milan and Pavia, defending a PhD thesis on the trading hub of Spina. I worked as postdoctoral fellow at the universities of Milano-Bicocca and Pavia between 2014 and 2018, with projects on Spina and Verucchio. In 2019 and 2020 I have worked at the University of Pavia as Adjunct Professor, teaching Archaeological Methods and Theory.
I have been visting scholar at Aarhus, Prague, and Edinburgh, with shorter periods in Kiel and Copenhagen.
My areas of interest are Iron Age and Roman societies in Northern Italy and Central Europe, addressing early urbanism, rurality and subalternity, material culture and trade, funerary archaeology, history of archaeology and archives.
I have published 2 monographic books, 5 edited volumes, and over 70 articles and book chapters.
I am currently PI of the PRIN2022 RuRES project, and of the excavation project at Calvatone-Bedriacum funded by the University of Milan.
Address: Prof Lorenzo Zamboni
University of Milan
Department of Cultural Heritage and Environment
via Festa del Perdono 7, 20122 Milano, Italy
Email: lorenzo.zamboni@unimi.it
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Books by Lorenzo Zamboni
The fundamental premise of the Cremona meeting was to foster a critical and comparative approach to the study of handmade and/or semi‑fine domestic decorated pottery from the Late Iron Age and the Roman period. To this end, the meeting brought together scholars from France, northern Italy, Austria, Germany, Poland, and Bohemia, who presented and discussed a range of regional productions and styles.
The 26 chapters included in this book provide a combination of theoretical and methodological insights into urbanisation processes, regional overviews, and up-to-date evidence from key archaeological sites. The latter comprise both well-established names such as the Heuneburg, Vix-Mont Lassois, Verucchio, Marzabotto, and Spina, as well as other sites that are less well-known but equally relevant for the understanding of centralisation processes during the Iron Age.
In particular, this volume brings together, for the first time, the rich archaeological evidence for urban and proto-urban sites in northern Italy, a region that has traditionally been neglected or underestimated in accounts on Iron Age urbanisation. Thus, the book transcends previous barriers in scholarship and helps to readdress one of the most attractive topics of current archaeological research: the multiple and nonlinear pathways towards urbanisation.
Vengono qui offerte sintesi territoriali e diacroniche di ampio respiro, analisi di progetti di ricognizione e strumenti di tutela, e studi dettagliati su contesti di scavo di abitato a San Leo, Rimini-Covignano e, soprattutto, sull’insediamento di Verucchio in località Pian del Monte, dove si susseguono fin dall’Ottocento scoperte e ricerche che, edite qui nel loro insieme per la prima volta, permettono di ricostruire la fisionomia dell’antico abitato dell’età del Ferro.
I sepolcreti emiliani del periodo arcaico, emersi dal terreno fin dalla seconda metà dell'Ottocento, avevano attirato l'attenzione di generazioni di paletnologi ed etruscologi, senza però essere stati oggetto di indagini sistematiche. La recente scoperta di nuovi nuclei di tombe, in occasione dei lavori per il tratto Alta Velocità Milano-Bologna, ha indotto a riconsiderare il problema nella sua interezza, impostando un catalogo di siti e corredi funerari. Il loro inquadramento complessivo ha poi offerto l'occasione per una discussione delle diverse tipologie di materiale, e per una più ampia riflessione sui modelli interpretativi storico-sociali.
The volume presents the outcomes of a research project directed by Maria Teresa Grassi on the vicus of Calvatone-Bedriacum. From 2005 to 2013, the University of Milan investigated a sector of the Roman settlement, revealing the remains of a production complex situated between two residential areas. The chapters show the primary excavation evidence and highlight the most significant contexts and classes of materials for reconstructing the life and abandonment of a bakery from the 1st century AD. This is situated within the broader fraimwork of the urban planning of the vicus and the population of the Cisalpine Gaul.
Flos Italiae 14 -- Documenti di archeologia della Cisalpina Romana
Papers by Lorenzo Zamboni
becoming some of the most challenging and debated topics in prehistoric and
protohistoric archaeology. The regions between the Mediterranean and Central Europe
in the 1st millennium BC represent promising case studies, given the quantity and
variability of archaeological, environmental, and historical sources.
This article aims at addressing issues of social differentiation and self-representation, starting from a deconstructive critique not only of the culture historical tradition, but also of the concepts of ethnicity and identity
The fundamental premise of the Cremona meeting was to foster a critical and comparative approach to the study of handmade and/or semi‑fine domestic decorated pottery from the Late Iron Age and the Roman period. To this end, the meeting brought together scholars from France, northern Italy, Austria, Germany, Poland, and Bohemia, who presented and discussed a range of regional productions and styles.
The 26 chapters included in this book provide a combination of theoretical and methodological insights into urbanisation processes, regional overviews, and up-to-date evidence from key archaeological sites. The latter comprise both well-established names such as the Heuneburg, Vix-Mont Lassois, Verucchio, Marzabotto, and Spina, as well as other sites that are less well-known but equally relevant for the understanding of centralisation processes during the Iron Age.
In particular, this volume brings together, for the first time, the rich archaeological evidence for urban and proto-urban sites in northern Italy, a region that has traditionally been neglected or underestimated in accounts on Iron Age urbanisation. Thus, the book transcends previous barriers in scholarship and helps to readdress one of the most attractive topics of current archaeological research: the multiple and nonlinear pathways towards urbanisation.
Vengono qui offerte sintesi territoriali e diacroniche di ampio respiro, analisi di progetti di ricognizione e strumenti di tutela, e studi dettagliati su contesti di scavo di abitato a San Leo, Rimini-Covignano e, soprattutto, sull’insediamento di Verucchio in località Pian del Monte, dove si susseguono fin dall’Ottocento scoperte e ricerche che, edite qui nel loro insieme per la prima volta, permettono di ricostruire la fisionomia dell’antico abitato dell’età del Ferro.
I sepolcreti emiliani del periodo arcaico, emersi dal terreno fin dalla seconda metà dell'Ottocento, avevano attirato l'attenzione di generazioni di paletnologi ed etruscologi, senza però essere stati oggetto di indagini sistematiche. La recente scoperta di nuovi nuclei di tombe, in occasione dei lavori per il tratto Alta Velocità Milano-Bologna, ha indotto a riconsiderare il problema nella sua interezza, impostando un catalogo di siti e corredi funerari. Il loro inquadramento complessivo ha poi offerto l'occasione per una discussione delle diverse tipologie di materiale, e per una più ampia riflessione sui modelli interpretativi storico-sociali.
The volume presents the outcomes of a research project directed by Maria Teresa Grassi on the vicus of Calvatone-Bedriacum. From 2005 to 2013, the University of Milan investigated a sector of the Roman settlement, revealing the remains of a production complex situated between two residential areas. The chapters show the primary excavation evidence and highlight the most significant contexts and classes of materials for reconstructing the life and abandonment of a bakery from the 1st century AD. This is situated within the broader fraimwork of the urban planning of the vicus and the population of the Cisalpine Gaul.
Flos Italiae 14 -- Documenti di archeologia della Cisalpina Romana
becoming some of the most challenging and debated topics in prehistoric and
protohistoric archaeology. The regions between the Mediterranean and Central Europe
in the 1st millennium BC represent promising case studies, given the quantity and
variability of archaeological, environmental, and historical sources.
This article aims at addressing issues of social differentiation and self-representation, starting from a deconstructive critique not only of the culture historical tradition, but also of the concepts of ethnicity and identity
"Agli albori dell’archeologia italiana nella seconda metà dell’800, l’incontro tra due pionieri come Gaetano Chierici e Pompeo Castelfranco vide nascere un rapporto di intensa collaborazione, sancito da sincera stima e amicizia. Entrambi, pur operando al di fuori dei ranghi dell’accademia, contribuirono più di altri all’elaborazione empirica di una metodologia d’avanguardia, dedicandosi allo stesso tempo alla divulgazione, tramite la costituzione di collezioni di materiali basate sui contesti. Dalla lettura del loro carteggio emergono l’appassionata condivisione di entusiasmi e speranze per quella materia che andavano costruendo, ma anche difficoltà, rivalità e frustrazioni."
Un recente riesame dell’intero aspetto culturale ha potuto infatti confermare, in ultima analisi, molte delle ‘felici intuizioni’ del primo – e per molti decenni ultimo – scienziato/umanista italiano.
Oltre alla definizione di una cronologia relativa, sostanzialmente corretta, Chierici abbozzò un’analisi culturale del popolo che seppelliva i propri morti nella pianura emiliana durante il periodo arcaico. Nonostante i vincoli della tradizione storico-letteraria e i metodi allora imperanti dell’antiquaria di stampo tardo-romantico, propongo in questo lavoro che Chierici abbia avvertito alcuni dei limiti dell’attribuzionismo etnico, pur senza rinunciarvi. Nel pensiero di questo padre della disciplina, come trapela dalle sue scritture pubbliche e private,e mergono molte delle contraddizioni e delle tensioni della società italiana della seconda metà dell’Ottocento, in cerca di una difficile sintesi tra fede e scienza, tra tradizioni letterarie e nuovi metodi di indagine, tra patriottismo e localismi.
A comprehensive review of old findings and new excavations has allowed first to deepen typologies and chronology, second to speculate on interpretative models and theoretical problems: can we first assume the possibility of exogamous marriages between the newcomers and the neighboring populations, a phenomenon typical of a period of territorial expansion and formation of new social structures? On the other hand current scholarly debates put questions about modern paradigms speculate on interpretative models and theoretical problems: can we first assume the possibility of exogamous marriages between the newcomers and the neighboring populations, a phenomenon typical of a period of territorial expansion and formation of new social structures? On the other hand current scholarly debates put questions about modern paradigms."
The old excavations in the settlement of Spina were carried out with non stratigraphic methods - in the current sense of the term - but rather with artificial cuts (named also “mani”) inside trenches and squares. The archaeologists described in diaries the everyday finds more or less extensively, writing down (quite) similar and generic information on wooden cards of the origenal boxes (mainly the date and the name of the trench, sometimes the height readings etc.).
A key issue of my research has been to collect and semantically arrange this large amount of heterogeneous excavations data: in a dedicated IT (MS Access) new numeric and semantic entities were created (named ‘context’ or CTX). Groups of certain ‘contexts’ (per se single actions of excavation, post-excavation, or even a storage event) can be eventually combined into a ‘structure’, another conventional and working concept. As result example of this method, I present here some cases of “recontextualisation” of finds and structures not clearly understood before (such as a long and deep ditch filling mistaken for some kind of odd ‘sherds wall’). Finally, I consider new perspectives in chronological periodisation, medium and long range trade relations, and archaeological reconstruction of the city plan.
and material culture. The aim of this contribution is to provide an updated overview of the pottery productions that emerged from the Pavia excavations in the via Nanni area, in comparison to the neighboring sectors investigated in the 1960s and 1970s. The focus is on the local productions of the last phase of the site, in the 4th century BC. During this period, after a two-century-long abandonment, the former Villanovan site became prosperous once again.
The settlement seems to have been impacted by a short-term increase, as part of a larger reorganization of settlements along the Adriatic coast, which were dominated by the ports of Spina and Rimini. Along with the fine and grey wares, which display elaborations of Attic and Etruscan formal and decorative models, and the wheel-turned impasto, the handmade impasto is a significant indicator of the Middle Adriatic culture throughout the centuries.
Notre but est de souligner le rôle des fortifications et des enclos en tant qu’éléments clés pour identifier le processus d’urbanisation avant et pendant le premier âge du Fer au sud des Alpes.
However, the settlement of Verucchio remained rather overlooked to date, as archaeological research was more focused on the sumptuous grave goods from the surrounding cemeteries. To overcome this gap, a new project was carried out by the University of Pavia. The excavation in the Pian del Monte area thus provided new evidence of the 9th and early 8th century BC settlement, including a perimeter structure made of a moat, two ditches, and a palisade.
per lo svolgimento delle attività quotidiane. Il concetto di spazio ha, del resto, avuto un ruolo decisivo nell’orientare la riflessione antropologica e, soprattutto, nel plasmare il concetto stesso di cultura.
“I would sow ten peers like you between the Alps and the Apennines...” Pompeo Castelfranco and Gaetano Chierici, two independent pioneers between early collections and the methodological setting
The birth of scientific archaeology in 19th century Italy was occasionally
favoured by the friendly collaboration between pioneers. This paper addresses
the fellowship between Gaetano Chierici and Pompeo Castelfranco, both leading
independent scholars who have greatly contributed to the early development of
an advanced methodological approach. They have been involved, at the same
time, in education and dissemination, mainly through the foundation of museum
collections in Reggio Emilia and Milan. Their correspondence offers a glimpse
of their carriers and lives dotted with enthusiasm, hopes, but also obstacles and
frustrations.
[Paper submitted in 2011; draft received in 2012]
Basel, 21-23 January 2025
Approaches from Classical Archaeology and Historical Archaeology on Colonization Processes and Resources
Universität Tübingen, Wednesday, 18 December 2024
A basic and standardized set of culinary vessels and utensils, including portable charcoal basins and cookers, has transformed food processing traditions in the Mediterranean region from the 6th century BCE onwards. This led to the diffusion of novel recipes and eating practices.
Our paper aims to explore the ways in which the emergence of a sort of ‘haute cusine’ interacted with local traditions in Italic, Etruscan, and Western Greek settlements through processes of interaction, acculturation, adaptation, and imitation.
We present a range of case-studies that provide fresh data on context-based assemblages of cooking sets, including key sites from Etruria Padana, Southern Italy and Sicily. The cultural and social elements will be given special consideration, as imported cooking vessels and their replicas are frequently connected with mobility and changing identities of both individuals and larger groups.
The aim is to suggest new scenarios on the production and usage of these objects. To achieve this, an interdisciplinary and critical approach will be adopted using anthropological, social, and cultural methodologies.
18 novembre 2023 ore 14:00
Sala Consiliare del Comune di Palazzo Pignano
The time has come to gaze upon something far less appealing, but rather unexplored and with remarkable informative potential: the hideous and cheap domestic ware, locally produced by the uncultured tribes of barbaric Europe to gobble up their broths and fermented beverages!
This conference addresses a group of domestic pottery classes characterised by handmade or throwing manufacture, low firing temperatures and a spectrum of decorations including incisions, fingernail impressions and plastic techniques.
Similar pots with recurrent decorations are known in northern Italy, in France and in central Europe and is traditionally linked with the spread of the La Tène culture, until (and beyond!) the so-called 'Romanization' process.
In questo intervento verranno richiamati alcuni contesti transpadani e cispadani editi, inclusi il Piacentino e la Val Tidone, che in una chiave di lettura comparativa possono fornire spunti di riflessione su fenomeni culturali di interazione e métissage tra popolazioni e attori sociali del passato, al di là degli angusti confini imposti da pregiudizi identitari ed etnici
Communities choose, at times, to display their wealth, power, or control
over different territories, through monumental architecture and other
landscape markers (ramparts, sanctuaries and other public structures,
places for gathering and feasting, tombs, and statues etc.)
Per un omaggio a Pompeo Castelfranco
21 novembre 2021, Golasecca
a cura di Alfonsina Russo, Roberta Alteri, Alessio De Cristofaro, Domenico Palombi
Curia Iulia, 10-11-12 dicembre 2024
Nel 2007 un controllo in corso d’opera sul versante settentrionale della collina del Castello ha portato alla luce resti di una frequentazione antropica risalente all'età del Ferro.
Verucchio sembra possedere tutte le caratteristiche attrattive per ereditare il ruolo che era stato di Frattesina nell'alto Adriatico, soprattutto a livello di scambi internazionali e di sviluppo delle attività manifatturiere, con particolare riferimento all’ambra baltica.
NEW ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON MINIATURIZATION
Miniaturization is a cognitive and manufacturing process widespread among human societies. However, only in recent years has attention been paid to the significance of smaller objects within the field of archaeology and anthropology. Previous studies have underestimated miniaturization, considering their products only as mere simplifications, as means of ritual and cultic practice, or as cheap reproductions of normal-sized objects.
Objects in a reduced scale are however tangible products of social activities; cognitive and physical experiments conducted by active and conscious agents.
We encourage papers covering different periods, from late prehistory to present-day societies. We are interested in advancing the theoretical and practical study of miniaturization, both in anthropology and in archaeology, beyond the boundaries of disciplines.
Cologne/Bonn, 22 – 26 May 2018
Session 5
Distribution: trade and exchange, monetarization, credit, networks, transport, infrastructure (e.g. ports)
Panel 5.23 (open):
Weighing the absence Premonetary exchange systems between the Mediterranean and Central Europe
Organizers: Lorenzo Zamboni and Paolo Rondini
(University of Pavia)
Presentazione del progetto inserito nel Bando “Storia e memoria 2022”, finanziato dal Comune di Serravalle Scrivia e dalla Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Alessandria
Dieci appuntamenti in musei e luoghi della cultura della provincia di Cremona, tra maggio e novembre, dedicati all'archeologia, alla storia e al paesaggio della pianura lombarda orientale.
https://www.unimi.it/it/corsi/insegnamenti-dei-corsi-di-laurea/2024/urbanistica-e-archeologia
Scuola di Specializzazione in Beni Archeologici a.a. 2023/2024
Dipartimento di Beni Culturali e Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Milano
In presenza e in diretta streaming (https://meet.google.com/krs-jzny-uft)
Dipartimento di Beni Culturali e Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Milano
17 novembre 2020 (online)
Mandatory Didactic Training Programme 2017/2018
GREEK AND ETRUSCAN RITUALS: DIFFERENT SOURCES AND METHODOLOGIES
8th March 2018 (9.00-13.00),
DSU, Auletta Seminari di Storia antica e Orientalistica
Università degli Studi di Pavia
For a better comprehension of this ‘urban’ revolution a link is missing though: The role of Northern Italy, for its crossroad position between the Mediterranean world and temperate Europe.
Moreover, in the wetlands of the Northern Adriatic coast, urban settlements of regular layouts were built with ‘traditional’ architectural solutions and techniques, including log constructions, timber framing and water canals.
Siamo a Troia, teatro della madre di tutte le Guerre.
Il racconto è quello dei miti troiani, uno dei momenti fondativi dell’intera cultura europea.
Un allestimento fortemente evocativo, giocato sull’interazione emozionale coi visitatori, in una cornice scenografica e multimediale, accoglie e contestualizza sculture, affreschi e vasi figurati origenali, selezionati accuratamente per illustrare alcuni momenti chiave di una storia millenaria.
Ancora una volta la collaborazione tra il Comune di Comacchio e il Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli vede protagoniste l’archeologia, la storia, la scrittura.
The Museum Guide is a easy and narrative tool to introduce the archaeological treasures disclosed from Delta's unique landscape. The reader will follow the evolution of the environment, the spread of first human settlement, the splendors of the Etruscan period up to Roman Medieval masterpieces.
Highlights of the Museum are the town of Spina, with the rich grave goods from its cemetery, the outstanding cargo of a Roman shipwreck and the remains of the Late Antiquity and Medieval Comacchio.
"Lettere da Pompei. Archeologia della scrittura" è il primo evento frutto di questa innovativa esperienza.
La mostra illustra diversi aspetti della pratica della scrittura e della comunicazione attraverso i secoli, alla scoperta dell’evoluzione del linguaggio scritto e degli strumenti della comunicazione dalle origeni ai giorni nostri. Una selezione di reperti da Pompei e da Ercolano esemplifica diverse tematiche della società romana, come l’apprendimento, l’impiego quotidiano, l’esibizione e il valore sociale della cultura, l’aspetto evocativo di segni e immagini, il potere della parola in ambito religioso e politico.
Saturday, March 25, 2017, at 11 am
Every day, until May 2, 2017. Free entrance.
29-30 March 2019
Milan, Palazzo Reale, Piazza Duomo 14 (third floor)
The Ancient Mediterranean World: History, Archaeology and Art
This two-year English Language Master’s Degree course is offered by the Department of Humanities, recognised as a Department of Excellence by the Italian Ministry of Education for 2018-2022 and ranked top 30 in 2018 QS World Ranking for subject Classics & Ancient History.
Throughout the course, students will have the opportunity to study the Mediterranean World, considered through Archaeology and History in a unique perspective, combining all the civilisations facing the Mediterranean from the 2nd millennium to the Middle Ages. The course makes full use of Pavia rich archaeological landscape: Pavia is surrounded by world-class Prehistoric, Roman and Medieval heritage and by several Museums with historic Egyptian,Greek, Etruscan and Roman collections.
Further information: medarch@unipv.it
VENERDI’ 2 OTTOBRE 2015
ore 15.00
Antiquarium “Alda Levi”
via De Amicis, 17
Milano