L'archeologia del culto nelle colonie greche d'Occidente. Breve nota sullo stato degli studi tra vecchie e nuove prospettive di ricerca

This paper offers a short literature review on the archaeology of cult in the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia and Sicily. Starting from a reconstruction of colonial religion based almost exclusively on literary sources, archaeology has contributed decisively to completing the knowledge of the specific nature of cult and ritual in Western Greek colonies. The publication of old excavations and the new discoveries have increased the amount of available documentation, while the interpretation of material data (objects, votive deposits, structures, spaces) in a ritual key has improved its quality and has progressively refined, also thanks to the influences from the international debate on these issues. While retaining its specificity, the Italian archaeological research was then opened in the last few decades to an overcoming of traditional studio settings, although some interpretations of rite and votive artifacts, which have been sometimes applied in a repetitive and uncritical manner, require a theoretical reflection on methods and perspectives