Le ceramiche attiche a figure nere dallo scarico di Grotta Vanella a Segesta: primi dati da una revisione

This article examine the fragments of Attic black-figured vases from the so-called Grotta Vanelladeposit at Segesta, which consists of materials dumped from the summit of Mount Barbaro, the NorthAcropolis. The forms are indicated, the figurative themes and functions of the vessels are examined, andthe distribution of certain types and classes of vases in different chronological phases. In absence ofstratigraphic data, the datings were established on the basis of the attribution of the fragments to workshopsor groups of painters known, and, when possible, by comparison with finds from archaeological contextsrather dated. As to the figurative themes, although the fragmentary material has limited the reading, theyshowed the recurrence of some iconographic subjects, interpreted in the light of the Segestan context.These fine vessels, as all imported pottery came from the discharge together with local products, provideduseful information on cultural and commercial relations between Segesta and the Greek world, particularlywith neighboring colonial poleis of the western Sicily. The research provides new data on the presumedsacred context of origin of the ceramics (these data will be put together with those offered by other findingsof the discharge currently under study), and helps to define the methods of acquisition and reception ofthis kind of objects in the Elymian Sicily.