People

 Chiara Matarese, Alumni

Alumna

Chiara Matarese (Italy, 1986)

M.A. in Sciences of Antiquity (historical curriculum)

PhD project
Deportation of People in the Achaemenid Empire
Migrations are the result of humans’ natural tendency to be mobile on available territories in order to meet different needs and react to environmental changes. Deportations are a form of migration too, but, within the scope of this dissertation project, the people or individuals to be investigated were forced by an enemy political authority to transfer into a territory that was controlled by the adversaries.

This dissertation project is going to shed light on the practice of deportation in the Ancient Near East during Achaemenid times (539-330 BC). Reading the available sources, which are of different origin and “value”, and actually, not exhaustive, we try to reconstruct different cases of deportations and, in particular, the reasons why the Achaemenid kings deported people. Even though the primary motivating factor was to punish enemies defeated on the battlefield, deportations also enabled the kings to effortlessly obtain handworkers and people to “exploit” them according to their specific abilities.

The social status of the uprooted communities transferred into the empire will be extensively investigated in this analysis. First results show that their status may not have been as low as some “biased” classical sources maintain (for example, the Historians of Alexander), since the preservation of culture and identity, which is testified for ethnic minority groups who lived in the Empire, also applied to deportees. In addition, oriental sources also showed that the status of people such as deportees, who were forced to work for the king (the well-attested kurtaš of the Persepolis Tablets), were not slaves at all, but occupied a position “somewhere” between slavery and freedom. The reference model for Achaemenid deportations are those carried out by the kings who ruled the Ancient Near East before, from the Sumerian Age, and, in particular, during Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian times. Our task is to find out whether we can observe recurrent methods and purposes among different dynasties.
Research interests During her career at the University and Scuola Normale Superiore she has researched into Greek Kingship from the Archaic Ages to the Hellenistic ones, Persian Kingship and court ceremonial under the Achaemenian dynasty, the history of Ancient Persia in general, Ancient Greek economy, administrative division of the Land in the Hellenistic Kingdoms, Greek and Roman painting.
She is keen on Ancient Near-East History and Art and Medieval History too.
Education

Since October 2010
Member of the Graduate School.

13/07/2010
Master-Degree in Sciences of Antiquity (historical curriculum) with the thesis “I funzionari amministrativi del regno attalide. Uno studio su personaggi, ruoli, relazioni familiari e legami politici” (“The administrative civil servants of the Attalid Kingdom. A study on people, rolls, family relationships and political connections”) under Professor Virgilio’s (Ordinary Professor of Ancient Greek History) and Professor Ampolo’s (Ordinary Professor of Greek History at Scuola Normale Superiore) guidance, with an overall grade of 110/110 cum laude.

October 2008- July 2010
Scuola Normale Superiore and University of Pisa.

15/07/2008
Bachelor-Degree in Ancient Language and Literature at the Department of Historical Sciences of the Ancient World with the thesis “Alessandro Magno: re macedone, Gran Re, basileus universale” (“Alexander the Great: Macedonian king, Great King, universal basileus”) under Professor Virgilio’s (Ordinary Professor of Ancient Greek History) guidance, with an overall grade of 110/110 cum laude.

October 2005-July 2008
University of Pisa.

12/07/2005
Certificate of Higher Education with grade 100/100.

Work experience

October 2009-March 2010
Active participation on the epigraphic Course (High Education Seminar) at Scuola Normale Superiore with an archaeological trip to Greece and Samo ( March 2010).

June 2003
Training at the general administrative office in the Municipality of La Spezia for three weeks.

Selected publications

2009

C. Matarese, “I caratteri della monarchia macedone. Assoluta o costituzionale?” (“The characteristics of the Macedonian monarchy. Absolute or constitutional?”), 24, December 2009 (LV), instoria.it.


2010

C. Matarese, “I caratteri della monarchia achemenide. Tra assolutismo e decentramento amministrativo”, (“The characteristics of the Achaemenian monarchy. Between absolutism and administrative decentralization”), parte I (part 1), 27, March 2010 (LVIII), instoria.it.

C. Matarese, “I caratteri della monarchia achemenide. Tra assolutismo e decentramento amministrativo”, (“The characteristics of the Achaemenian monarchy. Between absolutism and administrative decentralization”), parte II, (part 2), 29, Mai 2010 (LX), instoria.it.


2011
The Persian king introduces himself: the adaptation of previous imperial ideologies for building a new one. Presented at: Association of Ancient Historians Annual Meeting: „Adaptation in the Ancient World?, Mercyhurst College, Erie (Pennsylvania), May 5-8, 2011.

forthcoming
The Achaemenid Proskynesis between explanations and misunderstandings: the Oriental and the Classical evidence. Presented at the 9th Conference on History: From Ancient to Modern, by ATINER, Athens (Greece), August 1-4, 2011.

accepted
(accepted, with the contributions of many authors) What is Landscape? Towards a common concept within an interdisciplinary research environment. The 2nd Landscape Archeology Conference, Freie Universitaet zu Berlin, Berlin (Germany), June 6-9 2012.

Alexander the Great and the introduction of the Achaemenid proskynesis among his court (327 BC): a logistic decision. Mini Conference on Ancient Macedonian History: a Diachronic Analysis, as a part of the 10th Annual International Conference on History: From Ancient to Modern, Athens (Greece), July 30-31 & August 1-2 2012.

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