Orientarsi nell’Orientalizzante antico. Appunti per una navigazione tra tipi, riti e miti

This paper offers a set of methodological “navigation notes” for approaching the Early Orientalizing in Tyrrhenian Italy through the intertwined lenses of things, rites, and myths. It frames the circulation of exotic goods and new practices as a relational phenomenon, where objects act as social agents within competitive dynamics of emulation and distinction. A key case-study is the stratified sequence of Pithekoussai, used to refine chrono-typological markers and to track innovations in local and imported repertoires across the transition from the earliest phases to more mature Orientalizing developments. The discussion then shifts from material culture to funerary ritual as a privileged observatory of negotiation, hybridization, and resistance, and finally to the rapid reception and reworking of Greek mythic horizons within emerging indigenous identities.