Nicola Cucuzza
Biography
Nicola Cucuzza is associate professor of Aegean archaeology at the University of Genoa (Italy), where he has worked since 2000 and held the role of director of the School of Specialization in Archaeology from 2018 to 2021. During his USIAS Fellowship, he will be hosted by Professor Daniela Lefèvre-Novaro within the unit Archaeology and Ancient History: Mediterranean-Europe (ArcHiMèdE).
His main scientific interests concern Minoan architecture and the territorial organization in Crete between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. Professor Cucuzza graduated in classics from the University of Catania; he was a student of the Italian Archaeological School of Athens and obtained a PhD in classical archaeology. He was researcher at the Italian National Research council (CNR) from 1997 to 2000 and is currently a member of the Centre of Cretan Archeology (CEARC) of the University of Catania. For several years, he has participated in the work of the ongoing archaeological missions in Crete at the sites of Haghia Triada, Phaistos and Kannia. As part of this research, Nicola Cucuzza developed an interest in the history of the first Italian archaeological investigations in Greece.
His most recent publications include a study on the monumental buildings of Haghia Triada in Late Minoan IIIA-B and an investigation of Arthur Evans in Italy in the period preceding the start of the excavations of the Minoan palace at Knossos in 1900. A monograph on the Minoan Villa at Kannia near Gortys is forthcoming.
Fellowship 2024
Dates - 01/09/2024-30/09/2025
Project summary
CULTS AND RITUAL PRACTICES AT PHAISTOS (CRETE) IN THE BRONZE AGE AND EARLY IRON AGE: AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
The island of Crete has been the subject of a series of systematic archaeological excavations since 1900; the investigations have brought to light extraordinary archaeological documentation starting from the 6th millennium BC up to the Bronze Age (with the famous Minoan palaces) and, subsequently, up to the most recent periods of Greek civilization. Some settlements in Crete have a continuity of occupation that extends from the most ancient prehistoric phases to historical periods. Among these, we highlight the site of Phaistos, occupied since the 4th millennium BC up to 150 BC: the archaeological investigations covered not only the famous Minoan palace, but also various sectors of the ancient settlement and several other localities in the area. Among these, the sites of Haghia Triada and Kommos that were of great importance in the Minoan palatial phases became, at the end of the Bronze Age, the site of sanctuaries still frequented in the Hellenistic era.
The project that we intend to carry out concerns the theme of cultic practices in the area of Phaistos between the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age: it is part of the broader field of research of the transition from the palatial sites of the Bronze Age to the poleis of the historical times. The objective is to acquire useful elements to better illuminate the relationship between the religion of the Bronze Age and that of the historical era. Specifically, a corpus of archaeological evidence referring to the cultic context for the phases of the Bronze Age will be developed for the Phaistos area, for which there is much archaeological data available for a wide chronological period. By integrating with studies conducted on religious practices attested in the same area in subsequent times, the project aims to provide new data on the broader theme of the transition between the Bronze Age and the historical era in the Aegean basin. It will also allow further reflections on the archaeological identification of protohistoric cult contexts.
