This session brings together historians and archaeologists who tackle Greek colonization from various perspectives and regional data, particularly those deriving from Italian soil. Three underlying themes unite these papers. The first is that they take direct and indirect account of the world context in which the study of Greek colonization finds itself today. This matter is raised directly in two papers: Bernstein sees this stimulus as leading to a more open and active role in respect of Greek-native relations, and De Angelis pursues this point more generally in attempting to find a new role for Greek colonization in this century, especially relevant in a world being more and more characterized by migrations and multiculturalism. Current scholarly climate is also a matter that lies in the background of the remaining papers by De Siena and Castoldi, Rocco, and Gasparri as evidenced by the very questions and approaches they adopt, particularly their willingness to look in a more balanced matter at the other side of the cultural relationships that occurred in their regions. The second underlying theme is related and regards the uses and development of material culture from the Greek homeland by both pre-existing native cultures and the Greek settlers who established cities in new lands. This is the particular focus of the papers by Rocco and Gasparri, who, respectively, examine the cultural exchange and relationships between Daunia and its wider world and between Selinous and East Greece. Both studies open up a crucial window onto an important issue, taken up in passing too in the other papers. The third theme involves how all the papers share the desire of advancing new interpretations and approaches. Such a desire derives from their extensive individual and collective experience in both the study and field (as in especially the case of De Siena and Castoldi) of dealing with an important episode in ancient Mediterranean culture contact.

1. Frank Bernstein (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität)

Migranten und Indigene. Das Beispiel der sog. Großen Kolonisation der Griechen

2. Laura Gasparri (Università degli Studi di Torino)

I Kouros “vestito” dal santuario della Malophoros a Selinunte. Vasi figurati e figurine di importazione ionica e di imitazione locale

3. Antonio De Siena (Soprintendenza della Basilicata) & Marina Castoldi (Università degli Studi di Milano)

Trasformazioni e interazioni culturali sulla costa ionica della Basilicata prima della fondazione di Metaponto: il caso dell’Incoronata

4. Giulia Rocco (Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata)

Iconografie greche nel mondo indigeno della Daunia tra VII e VI secolo a.C.: le decorazioni figurate sulle vesti delle statue-stele

5. Franco De Angelis (University of British Columbia)

Ancient Greek Colonization in the 21st Century: Some Suggested Directions