Burial and Social Change in First Millennium BC Italy: Approaching Social Agents

by Elisa Perego (Editor), Rafael Scopacasa (Editor)

Overview

In the first millennium BC, communities in Italy underwent crucial transformations which scholars have often subsumed under the heading of ‘state formation’, namely increased social stratification, the centralization of political power and, in some cases, urbanization. Most research has tended to approach the phenomenon of state formation and social change in relation to specific territorial dynamics of growth and expansion, changing modes of exploitation of food and other resources over time, and the adoption of selected socio-ritual practices by the ruling élites in order to construct and negotiate authority. In contrast, comparatively little attention has been paid to the question of how these key developments resonated across the broader social transect, and how social groups other than ruling élites both promoted these changes and experienced their effects.

The chief aim of this collection of 14 papers is to harness innovative approaches to the exceptionally rich mortuary evidence of first millennium BC Italy, in order to investigate the roles and identities of social actors who either struggled for power and social recognition, or were manipulated and exploited by superior authorities in a phase of tumultuous sociopolitical change throughout the entire Mediterranean basin. Contributors provide a diverse range of approaches in order to examine how power operated in society, how it was exercised and resisted, and how this can be studied through mortuary evidence. Section 1 addresses the construction of identity by focusing mainly on the manipulation of age, ethnic and gender categories in society in regions and sites that reached notable power and splendor in first millennium BC Italy. These include Etruria, Latium, Campania and the rich settlement of Verucchio, in Emilia Romagna. Each paper in Section 2 offers a counterpoint to a contribution in Section 1 with an overall emphasis on scholarly multivocality, and the multiplicity of the theoretical approaches that can be used to read the archaeological evidence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781785701856
Publisher:	Oxbow Books
Publication date:	11/30/2016
Series:	Studies in Funerary Archaeology , #11
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	33 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

Table of Contents

Preface and acknowledgements v

List of contributors vii

Introduction: burial and social change in first-millennium BC Italy: an agent-focused approach Elisa Perego Rafael Scopacasa xi

Section 1 Funerary symbolism and ritual practice: from élite identities to gender, age, personhood and connectivity

1 Theoretical issues in the interpretation of cemeteries and case studies from Etruria to Campania Mariassunta Cuozzo 3

2 Styles of drinking and the burial rites of Early Iron Age Middle-Tyrrhenian Italy Cristiano Iaia 31

3 Potting personhood: biconical urns and the development of individual funerary identity Lucy Shipley 55

4 Somebody to love: gender and social identity in seventh-and sixth-century BC Chiusi Eóin O'Donoghue 77

5 Women in a warriors' society Amalia Faustoferri 97

6 Verucchio. The social status of children: a methodological question concerning funerary symbolism and the use of space within graves Giorgia Di Lorenzo Patrizia von Eles Lisa Manzoli Claadio Negrini Paola Poli Elena Rodriguez 111

7 Quid in nomine est? What's in a name: re-contextualizing the princely tombs and social change in ancient Campania Owain Morris 139

8 Nested identities and mental distances: Archaic burials in Latium Vetus Ulla Rajala 161

Section 2 Identities on the fringe

9 Frontiers of the plain. Funerary practice and multiculturalism in sixth-century BC western Emilia Lorenzo Zamboni 197

10 Falling behind: access to formal burial and faltering élites in Samnium (central Italy) Rafael Scopacasa 227

11 Youth on fire? The role of sub-adults and young adults in pre-Roman Italian Brandopferplätze Vera Zanoni 249

12 Inequality, abuse and increased socio-political complexity in Iron Age Veneto, c. 800-500 BC Elisa Perego 273

Finale

13 Shifting perspectives: new agendas for the study of power, social change and the person in late prehistoric and proto-historic Italy Elisa Perego Rafael Scopacasa 313

Index 339

Editorial Reviews

"The book is a well-edited, intriguing and thought-provoking contribution. It is clearly written and devoid of spelling mistakes. It makes a genuinely noteworthy contribution."

Ancient West & East