Projects
The Expansion of the Venetian Republic in the Adriatic
Introduction
This is a well established project and has been the brain child of Prof. Sauro Gelichi, of Ca'Foscari, Venice. He and his team from the Insegnamento di Archeologia Medievale have been investigating the dynamic role of the Venetian Republic from various perspectives. Employing systematic excavation within Venice itself and from 'colonised' enclaves, Prof. Gelichi and his team are providing material evidence to better understand the full impact of Venetian colonial expansion.
I have worked with Aleksander Pluskowski, Department of Archaelogy, Reading, to provide a zooarchaeological perspective to the broader study. We have endeavoured to use the faunal remains to address the exploitation of animals within both economic and culinary spheres. Food lies at the heart of a people’s identity and has been noted as a crucial vehicle of social and cultural expression. However, whilst the value of display and feasting are well documented during the medieval period, we lack a perspective on how this can form an overt expression of a group’s reaction to colonisation. Some of the most far-reaching implications of colonialism, and indeed colonisations themselves, have been as a consequence of ‘food politics’. Thus, alimentation should be used to study the intricacies of change as a consequence of colonising activity. However, our understanding of colonial practice is often based on literary sources, raising two key issues: firstly, historical evidence is invariably presented from the perspective of the ‘coloniser’; secondly, these sources may not contain the types of records that illustrate transitions in food culture. Therefore, what is needed is an integration of written and artistic sources with bio-archaeological data.
Main Research Question
The specific environmental conditions of the Venetian heartland meant it had limited ‘farm lands’ – how then did it feed itself? This is a crucially important question and pivotal to a more complete understanding of Venetian Republican expansion. It is also a question that could be aptly answered by a vastly underutilised resource: animal bone. To illustrate the importance of food production to the Venetian economy and way of life, in 1556, at the height of the Republic’s political and economic power in Europe, the provveditori ai beni inculti was created, increasing the amount of land being cultivated for agricultural production. The escalating cost of grain encouraged the transfer of capital from commerce to land cultivation, prompting private investment in agricultural improvement. Venetian Republican expansion is very well documented, but references to ‘food politics’ as outlined above are the exception rather than the rule. An archaeological perspective using material culture is essential to gaining a more complete picture.
Other research questions
In addition to the main question, we have endeavoured to explore the following:
- Was there a difference in the way local groups and Venetians exploited animals and can this be used to evaluate how the coloniser’s ideology interacted with the underlying cultural processes of colonised societies?
- Was the establishment of a Venetian ruling class reflected in a changing pattern of meat consumption, and was this used to express social and ethnic identity or status (as seen, for example, with the Normans and Romans in England)?
- Is there evidence for local groups adhering to 'traditional techniques' of tool manufacture and /or meat processing as a means of maintaining links with their own cultural past? By analysing transitions in cutting implements it is possible to appraise whether technologies were imported into the hinterland region with the colonial Venetian Republic.
Methods and Outcomes
The principal questions outlined above illustrate that there is still much to investigate in order to better understand Venetian colonial activity. What is conspicuously absent is a mechanism by which conceptual issues of commoditisation, knowledge transfer relative to alimentary technologies, and the symbolic value of food can be brought into the sphere of colonial studies.
To date we have studied a range of sites allowing for a preliminary assessment of assemblages from castle, ecclesiastic and larger centres, including a fortified town. Animal bones recovered from medieval contexts within the Venetian Lagoon (the epicentre of the Republic) have been studied long with material from satellite sites from the colonial hinterland, particularly: Commacchio (a trade centre with similar environmental conditions to the Venetian lagoon); Formigine (a 12th century fortified castle with strong military associations); Nonantola (a rural, early medieval monastic site, occupied till 13th century); and Stari Bar, Montenegro (an abandoned fortified town with Serbian, Byzantine, and Venetian levels of occupation). These sites have all demonstrated excellent preservation of archaeological bone.
Our future aim is to synthesize these results within a comparative framework to investigate variation and similarities between the heartland of the Republic to its Adriatic periphery on the basis of site type (i.e. rural vs. urban / monastic vs. castle), environment and social hierarchy.
Recent and forthcoming publications
- In press. (with Pluskowski. A). 'The animal bones', in Gelichi, S. Piuzzi, F. and Cianciosi, A. (eds.) Sachuidic: presso forni superiore - ricerche archeologiche in un castello della carnia.
- 2008a. (with Pluskowski. A). 'The animal bones from UTS 8a', in Gelichi, S. (ed.) A Town Through the Ages. The 2006-2007 Archaeological Project in Stari Bar, All’Insegna del Giglio, Florence.
- 2008b. (with Pluskowski. A). The animal bones from Sacuidic Castle. In, Gelichi. S, &., Piuzzi, F, eds. Richerche nel Castello di Sacuidic (Forni di Sopra – Udine). All'Insegna del Giglio, pg. 84-88, Florence.
- 2006. (with Pluskowski. A). ‘The animal bones from the 2004 excavations at Stari Bar, Montenegro’, in Gelichi, S. (ed.) The Archaeology of a Deserted Town, All’Insegna del Giglio, Florence, 97-111.