Il patrimonio musicale dei Fenici: archeologia, verosimiglianza storica e problematiche identitarie delle sonorità levantine tra Mediterraneo e Atlantico.

The text deals with the complex issue of reconstructing Phoenician and Punic musical heritage, emphasising the methodological difficulties that have remained despite the profusion of studies on the subject, eighteen years after the author’s first structured research. In particular, through the citation of a few classes of artefacts on which researchers have mainly focused their attention, emphasis is made on the need to consistently bring the data back to a reliable historical and archaeological perspective. This must be done without the pitfall of applying modern conventions and mental procedures to the assessment of the available documentary repertoire, even if they are supported by ethnographic and anthropological parallels that are, in themselves, convincing. Furthermore, it is essential to focus on the problem of the ‘identity’ connotation of certain musical instruments spread throughout the eastern Mediterranean. In the case of the Phoenician and Punic cultural space, such an interpretative category rests on extremely fragile foundations. This is due to the difficulty of elaborating unequivocal criteria of recognisability concerning the craft and artistic manifestations of Levantine peoples who were engaged in a high degree of mobility and varied dynamics of encounter, which we define using purely conventional terms. It is therefore important to emphasise the cosmopolitan and multicultural; that is, the ‘Mediterranean’ character of Phoenician musical knowledge.