13.2: Introduction and Figures
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In this chapter I discuss the relationship between ‘Situla Art’ and alphabetic writing in the Italian region of Veneto, c. 650–275 bc. ‘Situla Art’ refers to a metalworking tradition, with realistic images embossed and engraved on a range of bronze items, especially the bucket-shaped vessels known as ‘situlae’, which have come to designate the entire situla art phenomenon. By taking further the approach of Luca Zaghetto (2002; 2006; 2007), who has suggested interpreting the iconographic motifs of this complex decorative technique as a real language, I adopt the concept of iconic literacy — the skill of producing and interpreting images — to compare the elaboration of situla art and traditional literacy in a crucial phase of development for Iron Age North-east Italy.
Importantly, the aim of the study is neither to demonstrate that situla art was structurally equivalent to alphabetic writing nor to delineate general differences and similarities in the logic of iconic and verbal literacy. Rather, following (a) recent developments in sociolinguistics that proposed breaking down the dichotomy between verbal and iconic literacies and (b) Brian Street’s insights into literacy’s social and ideological value (Street 1984), my analysis explores the socio-ritual similarities and differences existing between these two modes of communication by tackling the socio-cultural milieu that produced them.