Fingere l'identità fenicia: confini culturali e cultura materiale in Oriente

This paper is focused on the topic of the Phoenician identity in the Levant paying special attention to the history of studies and to the perspectives of a new research. The Phoenician identity is discussed here as an "ideal type" (using Max Weber's words). First of all, we try to adopt some methodological notions issued from anthropology: the identity concept has been recently deobjectivized and consequently the supposed concrete features of the Phoenician identity now become less signiicant in the historical reconstruction. Moreover, we suggest here that a special attention has to be paid to the study of "boundaries" (their continuous creation, transformation, negotiation). Finally, we discuss the contribution possibly provided to the question of identity by the study of the "pottery boundaries" in the Levant.