Italic Hellenism and the other side

Notes on temple coroplastics and sacred architecture in central Adriatic Italy (2nd-1st centuries BC)

Abstract

The paper traces an overview of the characters, features, and manifestations of Hellenistic culture in middle-Adriatic Italy, through the study of the morphological, iconographical, and stylistic aspects of some architectural terracottas from the Monte Rinaldo sanctuary, in the Picena area (Italy, Marche region). To do this, a perspective on sacred architecture and architectural terracotta decorations is adopted and an illustrative review of similar materials and other architectonic contexts allows a more precise knowledge of the artefacts from Monte Rinaldo. Therefore, a deeper understanding is possible of these artistic and architectonic expressions within the far-reaching historical and socio-political processes in the broader framework of cultural interconnections that pervades the whole Hellenistic Mediterranean.