Egyptian Imports in Archaic Sicily (Minniti)

Title

 * Egyptian Imports in Archaic Sicily. Near East in the Far West.

Details

 * Author: Caterina Minniti
 * Completed: 2016
 * Supervisor: Dr. David O'Connor

Description
This project was my MA thesis at New York University. Egyptian artifacts had been imported since the time of the foundation of the first permanent settlements in Sicily, and have been found in Greek, Phoenician, and native sites alike. My research focused on analyzing Egyptian imports in three of the most powerful and wealthy cities that had well-established trading relationships with the East: Syrakousai, Selinous, and Motya. These settlements were nodal points where people from different cultures came into contact and exchanged goods, practices, and ideas. Consequently, cults, practices, and objects belonging to specific ethnic groups opened to others as well. I have analyzed how certain types of Egyptian artifacts (scarabs, amulets, shawabtis, and faience vessels and figurines) were functionally embedded in the social and religious life of these cities, the different ways in which they were used in Phoenician and Greek cities, and what kind of impact and meaning they had among the culturally diverse people of Sicily.

I have created a database of the objects and their locations which will be available on GitHub both as csv and GeoJSON format. I have also used quantitative methods to analyze the data and produce some original results illustrating the similarities and differences in the type of objects imported and their use in the three cities.