Christian Mazet is a classical archaeologist, historian of archaeology and specialist in the reception of antiquity. His latest research focuses on the history of Bonaparte's excavations in Vulci (1828-1855) and its scattered Greek and Etruscan antiquities, by bringing together the history of 19th century archaeology and new research in museums and in the field, with the major aim of reassessing southern Etruscan material culture into the broader Mediterranean exchange networks during the Archaic and Classical periods.
Host University: Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Host research group or department: Centre de Recherches en Archéologie et Patrimoine - CReA
Co-host University: Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy
Secondment institution: The British Museum, United Kingdom
Advisor: Prof. Athena Tsingarida
Co-advisor: Prof. Laura Maria Michetti
Secondment mentor: Dr. Alexandra Villing
My research
POTS - Pottery Translocation Stories from Southern Etruria to worldwide museums: the biography of dislocated archaeological artifacts
PoTS aims to build a new transdisciplinary methodology for the analysis of long-time decontextualised archaeological artifacts, focusing on dislocated pottery finds from Southern Etruria. In the study of classical material culture, especially regarding evidence that came to light during the 18th-19th centuries, most data on which archaeologists rely are widely scattered in the art market or museum collections. This especially applies to objects coming from excavations that took part in Tuscany and Lazio, both areas that have seen the rise and fall of the greatest cities of Southern Etruria, from the Villanovan period to the Romanization process (9th-3rd c. BC). To overcome this issue and complement our knowledge of the original material assemblages, this project aims to investigate the many lives of Greek ceramics from antiquity to the present day. It also provides a unique opportunity to deal with the actual issues linked to the phenomenon of Translocations (the territorial displacements of cultural assets) and their relationship to local identities and the notion of Cultural heritage, by setting the debate on a solid historical background. The methodology is based on the interplay between the close analysis of the objects in the museums, the provenance research through archival documentation to reconstruct the original context and allow a practical return to the archaeological field. In a first stage, the study will focus on the funerary ceramic assemblages coming from Vulci (Bonaparte’s excavations) that have been disseminated throughout several noteworthy European museum collections. In a long-term perspective, the project intends to further investigate other major sites in Southern Etruria or other Mediterranean important sites that have experienced similar archaeological haemorrhages.
Date started – Date End
01.01.2024 - 31.12.2025
