Incontro Internazionale di Studi
a cura di
Valentino Nizzo
Atti del Terzo
Antropologia e archeologia a confronto:
archeologia e antropologia della morte
2. Corpi, relazioni e azioni: il paesaggio del rito
9
INDICE
VAlentino nizzo, Archeologia è [sic!] antropologia della morte:
introduzione al convegno.................................................................................. p.
Programma del convegno..................................................................................p.
Abbreviazioni e norme bibliograiche...............................................................p.
15
43
57
II SeSSIone
The SocIal lIfe cycle of bodIeS and ThIngS: rIcomporre e rIpenSare la
realTà rITuale e quella SocIale Tra maTerIal engagemenT, enchaInmenT
e acTor neTwork Theory
InTroduzIone e InquadramenTo TemaTIco e problemaTIco
VAlentino nizzo, The social life cycle of bodies and things: ricomporre e
ripensare la realtà rituale e quella sociale tra material engagement,
enchainment e actor network theory................................................................. p.
63
keynoTe Speech
chriS fowler, Personhood, the life course and mortuary practices in
Mesolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic Europe.................................................p. 83
ugo fAbietti, Legami di vita, legami di morte. Oggetti, corpi e immagini
nella pratica funeraria....................................................................................... p. 121
relazIonI
VAleriA bellomiA, iVAnA fiore, Più che umano: palingenesi dell’osso
umano come strumento per accompagnare la morte. L’omichicāhuaztli
mesoamericano..................................................................................................p.
pietro ScArduelli, Nutrire gli ospiti per nutrire i defunti: doni e offerte nei
riti funerari dei Toraja e dei Tlingit [con discussione online]........................... p.
mAuro gerAci, Prometeismo e morte nell’Albania comunista. Riti
dell’immortalità o dell’annullamento in Enver Hoxha e Musine Kokalari.......p.
lucA bASile, clAude pouzAdoux, Società ed ideologia funeraria ad arpi nel
IV sec. a. C.: il sistema di interazioni tra uomini e prodotti culturali nelle
necropoli dell’ONC 28 e 35.............................................................................. p.
SimonA cAroSi, cArlo regoli, Esaltare l’individuo, frammentare gli
individui. Alcune attestazioni rituali dall’Area C della necropoli dell’Osteria
di Vulci.............................................................................................................. p.
cAterinA gioStrA, Rompere e distribuire sulle tombe longobarde:
le cinture come veicolo di conservazione della memoria e di trasmissione
dello status.........................................................................................................p.
mAuro puddu, Identità precarie e pratiche funerarie creative nella Sardegna
di Età Romana: studio postcoloniale della cultura materiale come
continuum semiotico......................................................................................... p.
141
159
173
189
213
225
233
10
AndrÉiA mArtinS, The virtual wake in Brazil. The unknown stranger as a
vector for the online discussion of death and dying..........................................p. 245
petiA georgieVA, VictoriA ruSSeVA, Human skull roundels–powers and
abilities of the dead, preserved in bone fragments [con discussione online].... p. 249
dIScuSSIone SeSSIone II
Moderatori: chriStopher Smith, mAriAno pAVAnello
Interventi di: chriStopher Smith, mAriAno pAVAnello, mAuro puddu,
VAlentino nizzo, pAolA negri ScAfA, chriS fowler, mike pArker peArSon,
pietro ScArduelli, lucA bASile, mAuro gerAci, JuliA SAndrA VirStA...........p. 273
SeSSIone poSTer
The SocIal lIfe cycle of bodIeS and ThIngS: rIcomporre e rIpenSare la
realTà rITuale e quella SocIale Tra maTerIal engagemenT, enchaInmenT
e acTor neTwork Theory
dAnielA coStAnzo, Eccezione rituale, “partibilità” e “oggettiicazione” del
corpo, strategie per deinire un’identità. Il caso della tomba 93 di
San Montano, Pithecusa.................................................................................... p.
dAnielA fArdellA, Lo stamnos come “metafora plastica” della corporeità
umana nelle sepolture a incinerazione di area frentana meridionale.................p.
pAolA negri ScAfA, Cose e persone di fronte alla morte: la testimonianza
della documentazione legale mesopotamica in Nuzi, a est del Tigri.................p.
mAriA AntoniettA iAnnelli, SerenellA ScAlA, Ritualità funeraria e
speciicità sociale: la necropoli di Picarielli, Salerno........................................p.
SÉgolène mAudet, Les objets d’une tombe et leurs réseaux: l’exemple du
mobilier de la tombe 159 de Pithécusses............................................................ p.
luciAno AltomAre, Costruzione e rappresentazione della stratiicazione
sociale nelle necropoli enotrie di Francavilla Marittima e Amendolara........... p.
lucA ScAlco, L’altare funerario di Papias e “famiglia” tra affettività e
riformulazione del ruolo sociale del committente.............................................p.
285
303
313
321
331
339
351
III SeSSIone
la poeTIca delle emozIonI: performance e paeSaggIo rITuale
InTroduzIone e InquadramenTo TemaTIco e problemaTIco
VAlentino nizzo, La poetica delle emozioni: performance e paesaggio
rituale.................................................................................................................p. 367
keynoTe Speech
AndreA cArdArelli, La necropoli della Terramara di Casinalbo (Modena).
Forme dell’organizzazione sociale e paesaggio rituale.....................................p. 375
chiArA puSSetti, Cantare la morte. Per un’antropologia che spezza i cuori.....p. 403
11
relazIonI
monicA ricciArdi, leonArdo di blASi, iSAbellA bucci, henri dudAy,
cArlA cAldArini, StefAniA di giAnnAntonio, I sepolcri della ‘piazzola di
Alcimo’: aspetti del rituale funerario nella necropoli della via Triumphalis
(Stato Città del Vaticano).................................................................................. p.
luciA Alberti, Emotional landscapes: vedere o non vedere, respirare
o non respirare nel paesaggio funerario di Cnosso del II millennio a.C. [con
discussione online]............................................................................................ p.
nucciA negroni cAtAcchio, Paesaggi cerimoniali funerari protostorici nella
valle del iume Fiora (province di Grosseto e Viterbo).....................................p.
cArmelo rizzo, Ιl dialogo oltre la morte. Spazi funerari e ritualità ctonie a
Pontecagnano in un contesto sociale di integrazioni e differenze.....................p.
federicA mAnfredi, Note di campo sull’elaborazione del lutto nell’Italia
contemporanea: rilessione sui tatuaggi commemorativi e ipotesi
di auto-poiesi.....................................................................................................p.
eliSAbettA dAll’ò, “Du berceau à la tombe”. Tra riti dei vivi e riti dei morti:
i contributi di Van Gennep e Cravel sul curioso caso del libera me nella
messa di matrimonio valdostana....................................................................... p.
giAnfrAnco Spitilli, La signora dei santi e dei morti: Giannina Malaspina
cantastorie......................................................................................................... p.
robertA SAlibrA, Frammentazione rituale nella necropoli
di Passo Marinaro..............................................................................................p.
fulVio coletti, AnnA buccellAto, Silicernium e parentalia. Nuovi dati sul
banchetto nelle feste in onore dei morti: strutture, vasellame e resti
alimentari dalle necropoli del suburbio romano [con discussione online]........p.
435
459
487
503
525
535
545
567
585
dIScuSSIone SeSSIone III
Moderatori: AleSSAndro guidi, henri dudAy
Interventi di: AleSSAndro guidi, henri dudAy, monicA ricciArdi,
AndreA cArdArelli, VAlentino nizzo, chiArA gemmA puSSetti,
luciA Alberti, nucciA negroni cAtAcchio, clArA SteVAnAto,
AleSSio de criStofAro, federicA mAnfredi......................................................p. 607
SeSSIone poSTer
la poeTIca delle emozIonI: performance e paeSaggIo rITuale
cleliA petrAccA, La gestualità femminile nei riti funerari in Grecia
tra VIII e VI sec. A.C. Il dolore femminile tra letteratura e iconograia........... p. 623
SoniA modicA, Paesaggio sonoro e rituale funerario: al conine tra natura,
cultura e spiritualità...........................................................................................p. 631
AngelA belliA, Musica e morte nell’iconograia delle ceramiche attiche:
considerazioni sul cratere della tomba 949 dalla necropoli greca di Akragas
(V sec. a.C.).......................................................................................................p. 639
12
frAnceScA lAi, Genita Mana. Ambivalenza e liminarità della morte in
associazione al genere femminile nell’antica Roma......................................... p . 6 4 3
elenA cAStillo rAmírez, La musica come chiave del contagio emozionale
nei cortei funebri imperiali.................................................................................p. 649
clArA SteVAnAto, La morte degli animali d’affezione nel mondo romano:
per una zooepigraia tra ritualità e sentimento.................................................. p. 661
SimonA dAlSoglio, L’analisi spaziale degli oggetti nelle sepolture per la
ricostruzione del rituale funerario: il caso delle cremazioni
protogeometriche del Kerameikos di Atene......................................................p. 677
SAbrinA bAtino, Oltre la soglia a veglia del defunto. Per una interpretazione
delle oinochoai igurate in bucchero nella tomba etrusca arcaica
di Villastrada......................................................................................................p. 687
lucinA giAcopini, rominA moSticone, giAndomenico ponticelli, Paesaggio
funerario Medievale. Sepolture privilegiate e
pratiche funerarie.............................................................................................. p. 701
gAëlle grAnier, AlexiA lAttArd, florence mocci, titien bArtette,
cArine cenzon-SAlVAyre, cÉline huguet, The Role of a funerary space
in the construction of a ritual landscape: the domainal necropolis
of Richeaume XIII, near Aquae Sextiae (France)............................................. p. 713
mArco bAldi, Verso la deiicazione del sovrano: la ritualità funeraria
nella Nubia meroitica........................................................................................ p. 723
giuliA pedrucci, L’ambiguità del latte, bevanda dei morti nel mondo greco...p. 735
StefAniA pArAdiSo, Tracce di un rituale: la libagione come nutrimento
dei morti............................................................................................................ p. 741
federicA mAriA riSo, donAto lAbAte, roSSellA rinAldi,
mArtA bAndini mAzzAnti, gioVAnnA boSi, Primi dati sulle offerte vegetali
della necropoli romana dell’area archeologica Novi Sad a Modena.................p. 759
AnAmArijA Kurilić, ZrinKA Serventi, The Caska Necropolis – Exceptions,
Rituals and “Deathscapes”................................................................................ p. 765
gioVAnnA monteVecchi, Ravenna crocevia di popoli. Ritualità funeraria
nelle necropoli di età imperiale romana........................................................... p. 779
dIScuSSIone onlIne SeSSIone poSTer
la poeTIca delle emozIonI: performance e paeSaggIo rITuale
Interventi di: eugenio fAntuSAti, Antonio fornAciAri, cleliA petrAccA,
luigi QuAttrocchi, giuliA pedrucci, Sergio del ferro, SArAh liberAti,
clArA SteVAnAto, chiArA dellA VAlle, lucA ScAlco, frAnceScA lAi...........p. 793
abSTracTS e keywordS
relazIonI II SeSSIone.......................................................................................p.
poSTer II SeSSIone............................................................................................p.
relazIonI III SeSSIone.....................................................................................p.
poSTer III SeSSIone..........................................................................................p.
799
802
804
808
798
AbstrActs e keywords
arCheologia e antroPologia della morte
799
relAzioni ii sessione
Chris Fowler
Personhood, the life course and mortuary practices in Mesolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic Europe
This chapter argues that mortuary practices may be carried out in accordance with cultural ethos about
proper conduct and an idealized or expected life course. From this basis the chapter explores the treatment
of the human remains of the dead and artefacts associated with them in different processes of personal
transformation and commemoration.While accepting that other factors may also be as important or
more important in funerary practices, the piece illustrates its argument with a series of ethnographic
studies and sociological observations, before presenting an analysis of prehistoric European mortuary
practices at the large scale and over the long term, from the Mesolithic, through the Neolithic and
Chalcolithic, and into the Early Bronze Age. This analysis draws out trends and highlights speciicities
in how communities commemorated and transformed the dead during the burial process and afterwards
based on factors such as the inclusion of certain objects in the grave and the exclusion of others,
the bodily transformation of the dead, and the location of burials with respect to one other and to
architectural features. It draws broad conclusions about personhood at the large scale by focusing on
the way and extent to which mortuary practices accentuated gender, age, life course, relations between
humans and animals, and other features of community ethos in different periods and regions.
Key-Words
Personhoood, life course, mortuary practices, anthropological comparison, twentieth century, mesolithic
europe, neolithic europe, chalcolithic europe, early bronze age europe.
Valeria Bellomia, iVana Fiore
Più che umano: palingenesi dell’osso umano come strumento per accompagnare la morte.
L’omichicāhuaztli mesoamericano
Two musical instruments made of human bone, coming from ancient Mesoamerica and now part of the
archaeological collection of the Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnograico Luigi Pigorini in Rome, have
been studied with a multidisciplinary approach, in order to understand the cultural meanings involved
in manufacturing a musical instrument using human bones as raw material. A new case study about
music and funerary rituals seeks to explain the social and religious reasons for this choice and the
process of manipulation of the human body, revealing the symbolic power man has always given to the
representation of himself and his corporeity beyond death.
Key-Words
Mesoamerica, musical instruments, funerary rituals, bone as raw material, pigorini museum.
Pietro sCarduelli
To feed the guests, to feed the dead: gifts and offerings in the funerary rituals of Toraja and Tlingit
Among the Toraja of Sulawesi and the Tlingit of British Columbia guests play a key symbolic and
social role in the funerary rituals because they are deemed to be necessary to set up a relationship
with the dead. Usually the anthropological analyses of ritual offers to the dead are focused on the
relationship among the corpse, the soul and the survivors. However it is necessary to underscore the
importance of another collective subject, the guests invited to the funeral, who play a key-role. Through
their involvement in the funerary rituals and their participation in the ritual services, a three-sided
symbolic network is shaped (dead, hosts, guests); the dead represents the medium for the establishment
of a reciprocal relationship between guests and hosts.
Key-Words
Toraja, Tlingit, funerary rituals; reciprocity; native models.
800
mauro geraCi
Prometeismo e morte nell’Albania comunista. Riti dell’immortalità o dell’annullamento in Enver
Hoxha e Musine Kokalari
In Albania the narratives of death are an important part of a great literary phenomenon that,
since XIX century, is still functional to the succession to the high ofices and political transition,
especially after the fall of communist regime (from 1945 to 1991), since Albania has opened a
dialogue with the governments of Western Europe. Through the comparison between two funeral
ceremonies apparently opposite in ethical purposes - funeral of Enver Hoxha, absolute guide of the
communist regime, and for Musine Kokalari, dissident writer persecuted by the same dictatorship
- come out the common features of a prometeism, rhetorical and symbolical fulcrum of the literary
poetics of an ideal Albania that never coincides with nation but is and has been instrumental in its
incessant reconstruction.
Key-Words
Albania, communism, nationalism, isolation, literature, politic succession, transition.
luCa Basile, Claude Pouzadoux
Società ed ideologia funeraria ad Arpi nel IV sec. a. C.: il sistema di interazioni tra uomini e
prodotti culturali nelle necropoli dell’ONC 28 e 35
At the base of the phenomenon of funerary representation there is the system of relations between
human beings and objects and their own interdependence. In fact, the death of a member of a society
always brings an imbalance to heal through the coding of a ritual and the use of particular elements
of symbolic type that the society of the living shall endeavor in its transposition into the community
of the dead. The inter-relationships, on which we would like to put the attention, are deducible
from two samples of tombs found in the locality Montarozzi in Arpi. These burials are the tangible
manifestation of strategies of self representation by social groups that, on the one hand are linked
to a cultural system extremely traditional and, on the other hand are open to new suggestions from
contact with Greek culture.
Key-Words
Arpi, human-thing entangled, social group, elite group, traditional culture, greek culture.
simona Carosi, Carlo regoli
Esaltare l’individuo, frammentare gli individui. Alcune attestazioni rituali dall’Area C della
necropoli dell’Osteria di Vulci
New archeological researches in the C compartment of the Osteria necropolis, one of the most
important of Vulci since its early life stages, are the result of the fruitful collaboration between
Soprintendenza and several institutions and make use of a group of engaged experts (paleo-botanists,
geologists, anthropologists, archaeozoologists) to provide the correct scientiic support to the results
of archaeological excavation. The ield investigation consists in the most western part of a large
group of tombs “a fossa profonda”, dating from the irst half of the 7th century BC, some of which
maybe relevant to family groups and small “tombe a camera”; an ipogeo is remarkable because of its
monumental grandeur and wealth. In the eastern part the excavation revealed within a large cut in the
geological bank, a situation characterized by a series of rectangular enclosures, bordered by limestone
slabs stuck directly in the bank, whose usage period dates back to 4th century BC. Outside of these
structures a jug, placed near a corner, kept the remains of cremated. All around, concentrations of
burned areas, are perhaps to be connected to act of worship.
Key-Words
Vulci, orientalizing necropolis, funerary practices, ritual offerings, chamber tombs, cinerary urns.
arCheologia e antroPologia della morte
801
Caterina giostra
Rompere e distribuire sulle tombe longobarde: le cinture come veicolo di conservazione della
memoria e di trasmissione dello status
The study of Longobards grave goods has shown that among the ittings of the belt to which weapons
were attached there is often a piece that is alien to the rest of the whole and generally one generation
older; the originating belt is usually found in a tomb not far away and slightly older. The practice seems
to express the symbolic transmission of status and personal connection: a spiritual inheritance that may
have been received during the funeral of an ancestor and that was kept by the descendant until death.
Key-Words
Longobards; belts; symbolic transmission; funerary practice.
mauro Puddu
Identità precarie e pratiche funerarie creative nella Sardegna di Età Romana: studio postcoloniale
della cultura materiale come continuum semiotico
This paper looks at a speciic case of burial manipulations registered in the necropolis of Sa Mitza
Salida, Masullas, central western Sardinia. It does so with the aim of looking at the concept of identity,
used and sometimes abused in archaeology, within a theoretical framework imbued in the semiotic
research of American Pragmatist C.S. Peirce, and particularly in the concept of continuity, or synechism.
Key-Words
Masullas, sardinia, roman province, funerary practice, burial manipulation, c. s. peirce, synechism.
andréia martins
The Virtual Wake in Brazil. The unknown stranger as a vector for the online discussion of death
and dying
This paper aims to show the interactions between users of a Brazilian social network group that often
watch virtual wakes of strangers. The virtual wake is the real-time, online transmission of the wake,
which comprises, in the Brazilian culture, the period of 12 to 24 hours spent with the body before burial
or cremation. Since the end of the 19th century, the wake stopped being a community event and became
a private moment, shared only by friends and family. The Virtual Wake is offered since 2001 as an
alternative to friends and family who cannot be physically present at the wake, to overcome distance.
However, some funerary companies keep the access to their cameras also open to the general public
who never knew the deceased that’s being waked. The online group, called “Dead people proiles”
was created in 2004 in a social network called Orkut, as a space dedicated to listing the proiles and
causes of death of the users of that very social network. Nevertheless, in 2007, it also became a space
for viewing the virtual wakes through those open-access cameras. In the group space, the members
also discuss their personal experiences with death and dying and the conduction of the wake as a ritual
according to Brazilian-Catholic standards. After migrating from Orkut to Facebook in 2011, the group
is adopting different forms of interactions, along with the advance of technology. The members’ points
of view on the virtual wakes and general interactions related to discussing death online were analysed
during a participant observation period and private online interviews in 2013, as part of a netnographic
work for my Master’s degree in Anthropology. Since September 2014, a further study of this group
was initiated as part of my PhD thesis in Sociology. This paper also intends to draft a representation
of the Virtual Wake as a possibility to deal with death and dying. Therefore, grasping the concept that
this exposure of the ritual and the body, now considered atypical, can act as a bridge re-connecting the
Brazilian culture to its communal aspects of yesterday.
Key-Words
Virtual wake, death, digital mourning.
802
Petia georgieVa, ViCtoria russeVa
Human skull roundels–powers and abilities of the dead, preserved in bone fragments
Five roundels and a skull cap fragment are found in the Late Chalcolithic layers of Kozareva Mogila,
Bulgaria. The inds are in a non burial context, in dwelling environment. Parallels found point to their use in
magic rituals in which a possible role of the already dead member of the social group has a particular role.
Key-Words
Human skull bone objects, cranial roundels, late chalcolithic, kozareva mogila.
Poster ii sessione
daniela Costanzo
Eccezione rituale, “partibilità” e “oggettiicazione” del corpo, strategie per deinire un’identità. Il
caso della tomba 93 di San Montano, Pithecusa
The tomb 93 in the necropolis of San Montano (Ischia, ancient Pithekoussai) is a secondary incineration
within Attic krater of a 10-year-old child. It dates back to the second half of the ifth century BC. The
unusual treatment of the body (cremation is usually used for adult people of high social status) and the
correspondence between the vessel iconography (races in weapons and scenes of gymnasium) and the
grave goods (strigil and aryballos), denote the dead as member of an aristocratic group.
The association krater/cremation also suggests a subtle allusion to the Dionysian ideas of immortality
largely diffused in Magna Graecia and Sicily during this period, as there is evidence in the near
necropolis of Cumes.
A further element of distinction of this tomb is the presence in the krater of an unburnt bone, belonging
to a second person, whose exceptional presence could open new patterns of research in the wider issue
of Greek burial customs.
Key-Words
Pithekoussai, san montano, incineration, attic krater, dionysism, partibility/fragmentation, enchainment theory.
daniela Fardella
Lo stamnos come “metafora plastica” della corporeità umana nelle sepolture a incinerazione di
area frentana meridionale
This contribution analyzes the symbolic value of stamnos used as bronze urn in the Southern Frentania
necropolis during the fourth century BC. Stamnos signs the adoption of elitist customs by groups of
individuals who choose to characterize their social status after death through speciic meaning-bearing
objects. The body unity of the deceased is recomposed and he acquires a new identity by turning
himself into a character with Dionysian connotations.
Key-Words
Stamnos, incineration, body recomposition, metamorphosis, elitist groups.
Paola negri sCaFa
Cose e persone di fronte alla morte: la testimonianza della documentazione legale mesopotamica
in Nuzi, a est del Tigri
An analysis of Nuzi testaments (east of the Tigris, the XV-XIV century BC.), carried on under a
symbolical point of view, can highlight some issues, which will be important for further investigations
both in an assyriological and anthropological key. Elements like the burial of the wife honoured with
the abbūtu, or the symbolism of the inheritance shares, or also the rituals related to the rejection of
an unfaithful heir offer arguments to the discussion. The examples given are indicative; it will be
arCheologia e antroPologia della morte
803
important, as a result of the discussion, to continue these studies and deepen the symbolic aspects and
rituals that can be drawn from the reading of texts.
Key-Words
Mesopotamia, Nuzi, last wills, family gods, heirs.
maria antonietta iannelli, serenella sCala
Ritualità funeraria e speciicità sociale: la necropoli di Picarielli, Salerno
Recent archaeological investigations, still in progress, have allowed to identify in the city of
Salerno, in the place Picarielli, part of an imputable necropolis to the irst phases of the Ancient
Bronze. The necropolis, organized for nucleuses, has revealed 26 burials. The preliminary
analysis of the results, concerning the organization of the sepulchral space, the funeral typology,
the formalities of the body deposition and the elements of the outit, has provided interesting
observations for the deinition of the ritual and funeral practices. These were tightly connected to
the social speciicity of community, within a facies-cultural identity of the people of the Ancient
Bronze that populated the territory of Salerno. Such facies is emerging more and more thanks to
an articulated and systematic archaeological investigation of guardianship, which has taken place
over the past few years.
Key-Words
Necropolis of the ancient bronze, social speciicity, sepulchral space, funeral typology, body deposition,
elements of the outit.
ségolène maudet
Les objets d’une tombe et leurs réseaux: l’exemple du mobilier de la tombe 159 de Pithécusses
The research of B. Latour and his conception of the actor-network theory have recently been used by
C. Knappett to rethink the key role of objects in past societies. This poster intends to show how this
theory can be useful in order to study the assemblage of objects found in a grave. The grave 159 of the
San Montano necropolis in Pithekoussai (Ischia) provides a good example to explore some networks
of objects, in particular the networks of a small amphora, most likely made in another area (Latium or
South Etruria). The actor-network theory offers some interesting tools in order to analyse the objects
of a grave, in particular the possibility of a multi-scalar view. However, those new perspectives must
always be considered in association with a detailed study of the funerary context.
Key-Words
Actor-network theory, funerary assemblage, networks of objects, interactions.
luCiano altomare
Costruzione e rappresentazione della stratiicazione sociale nelle necropoli enotrie di Francavilla
Marittima e Amendolara
In this paper we analyze the representation of social stratiication in the necropolis of Francavilla
Marittima and Amendolara. The indigenous funerary world will be examined in the stages immediately
preceding and following the installation of Sybaris, trying to capture not only the impact of the new
foundation, but, above all, the endogenous transformations to the native world. In contrast to the theory
of the sudden upheaval in the Oenotrian world of Sibaritide after Greek implantation, will be studied
phenomena of continuity between Iron Age and colonial era.
Key-Words
Social stratiication, materiality of death, francavilla marittima, amendolara, sibari.
804
luCa sCalCo
L’altare funerario di Papias e “famiglia” tra affettività e riformulazione del ruolo sociale del committente
Self-representation is considered a fundamental aspect of Roman funerary monuments: proper dress
and working tools were iconographic symbols understood by “society” as markers of social ranking and
importance. Selective use of images was a powerful instrument, which actors could employ to re-create
their role and position in a speciic network.
The funerary altar of Papias, servus publicus, could be considered an example of self-re-formulation
in an ANT perspective: in contrast with the family scene on the front of the monument, the inscription
shows a dificult situation, characterized by legal and social problems. In this point of view, the
monument as agent of memory was considered by Papias the way to re-present himself to society and
to create a proper family and affections in reality.
Key-Words
Roman funerary monuments, roman funerary art, altars, affection, emotion, family, gestures, actornetwork-theory, entanglement.
relAzioni iii sessione
andrea Cardarelli
La necropoli della Terramara di Casinalbo (Modena). Forme dell’organizzazione sociale e
paesaggio rituale
The necropolis of Casinalbo (Modena) is the best known and explored burial site in the area of the
Emilian terramare. Altogether, 673 Bronze Age graves are known. Among these, 604 were excavated
between 1994 and 2009, while the other ones were brought to light during researches conducted in
1880, 1949-50 and 1976/77.
The necropolis covers about 1,2 hectares. The researches conducted between 1994-2009 allowed
exploring about 2000 square meters.
The chronology of the necropolis, or at least of the portion so far investigated, spans from the advanced
Middle Bronze Age 2 to the end of the Recent Bronze Age (1500 -1150 B.C.). By contrast, the settlement
(terramara of Casinalbo), situated just 200 meters to the NE, dates back also to the advanced Middle
Bronze Age 1. This inconsistency is here discussed and some solutions are proposed.
The study of the cemetery of Casinalbo (published in 2014) represents a very interesting case from a
methodological point of view since it requires to tackle the rare evidence of grave goods. This is due
to a particular ritual choice of the inhabitants of the terramare in the South Po plain area. However, the
researches on the necropolis of Casinalbo clariied that the deads were collocated on the pyre with their
goods. After the cremation, the goods were fragmented and collocated in speciic ceremonial areas
where some ritual activities occurred. The internal organisation of the cemetery seems assimilable to
that of the settlements characterized by an orthogonal network of streets delimitating blocks of houses.
Likewise in the necropolis of Casinalbo, the grave groups are delimitated by perpendicular paths.
The dificulty to investigate social and ritual transformations in the cemetery was due to the impossibility
to realize an exhaustive chronology on most of graves. This problem was solved through various
methodologies that allowed a detailed seriation of the graves. Altogether, 78% of the graves explored at
Casinalbo were dated and it was thus possible to propose a social picture of the terramare communities
between 1500 – 1150 BC., namely from the apogee and to the crisis the terramare culture.
The combination of pleodemographic and achaeological data allowed proposing some considerations
regarding the social structure of graves groups interpreted in some cases as mononuclear familiar
groups and in other ones as extended familiar groups.
arCheologia e antroPologia della morte
805
Key-Words
Funerary rituals, social forms, bronze age, cremation, pyre goods and grave goods.
Chiara Pussetti
Cantare la morte. Per un’antropologia che spezza i cuori
By presenting the main disciplinary debates on emotions, this article aims, irst, to rethink the
limits of the classical anthropological approaches based on the dichotomy nature/culture. Second,
it addresses the thorny issue of ethnographic gathering of emotions, observing gestures, feelings
and ritual practices related to death in a distant context, both geographically and culturally.
Considering emotions as a ield, as a research method and as a privileged instrument of transmission
of knowledge, this article also presents the research strategies related to the concept of resonance
proposed by the Norwegian anthropologist Unni Wikan. Finally, it will put forward ideas and
proposals for an anthropology that is able to touch your heart and to bridge beyond the obvious
cultural differences.
Key-Words
anthropology of emotions, death, mourning, research methodology, resonance, ethnography-based art,
guinea-bissau, africa.
moniCa riCCiardi, leonardo di Blasi, isaBella BuCCi, henri duday
I sepolcri della ‘piazzola di Alcimo’: aspetti del rituale funerario nella necropoli della via
Triumphalis (Stato Città del Vaticano)
The necropolis of the Via Triumphalis, inside the State of Vatican City, offers from more than 50 years
an interesting contribution to the knowledge of the funerary ritual of the roman age between the end
of the I century B.C and the I century A.D. The archaeological data has been greatly enriched by the
most recent anthropological investigation, from which emerged new and important acquisitions. The
study has open interesting perspectives on the possibility to reconstruct some aspects of the funerary
ritual dreamed in acts before the burial to the ritual practices, it is not always easy to read, that have
accompanied and followed the burial.
Key-Words
Necropolis via triumphalis, funerary ritual, practical ritual, alcimus.
luCia alBerti
Emotional landscapes: vedere o non vedere, respirare o non respirare nel paesaggio funerario di
Cnosso del II millennio a.C.
During the Bronze Age, in the Knossos valley tombs and necropolis are distributed in time and
space with different architectures and grave goods. In a irst phase (ca. 1700-1450 BC) they are
located high up, enjoying an extraordinary view of the natural landscape and the main focal points
of Minoan political and sanctiied milieux (mountains, sea, caves and springs; peak sanctuaries and
necropolis; palace and city); in a second one (ca. 1450-1200 BC), they are located lower down, in
places from which the important settings of Minoan memory and identity are not visible. It is not
merely the degree of visibility, but the quality of the visual perception, the ideologies and thoughtprocesses, the emotional and intangible aspects of burial practices that are changed. The discussion
involves also theoretical issues concerning the integration between archaeology and anthropology
in Aegean studies.
Key-Words
Minoan bronze age, funerary landscape, phenomenology, intervisibility, places of memory.
806
nuCCia negroni CataCChio
Paesaggi cerimoniali funerari protostorici nella valle del iume Fiora (province di Grosseto e Viterbo)
In 2012 the Conference “Ceremonial Landscapes” took place in Valentano and Pitigliano, organized by the
writer, who is also editor of the proceedings, now available in print. The conference aim was to analyze in more
detail the issues discussed in an earlier conference, dedicated to “Real landscapes and mental landscapes”.
In those occasions we had taken into account landscapes, natural or constructed, where religious or
funeral ceremonies took place, acknowledging the ceremony and the area where it was celebrated as
two indivisible elements.
Indeed this combination could be considered, especially in the case of burials of high ranked individuals,
almost a performance, the “staging” of social and economic power. The deathscape, consisting of often
still visible rock-hewn tombs, or of mounds built speciically for the dead, was a key part of this
representation, as much as the scenic background is a key part of the drama.
On the basis of these premises I will analyze some necropolises in the Fiora valley (on the frontier
between Tuscany and Lazio) where it is possible to identify the construction of a deathscape and to
suggest the ceremonies that took place there.
In particular, I will examine some Copper Age necropolises with cave-like burial chambers dug into
the rock, in use for more than a thousand years. The chambers were reopened for further burials or for
rituals that involved the manipulation of bones, probably linked to the ancestors’ worship.
During the Bronze Age there are different types of landscapes and ceremonies: sometimes the deceased
were simply buried in natural caves, which were placed in a speciic area of the territory, far from the
villages but at the same time shared between several of them. This occurrence suggests the existence of
“processions” that carried the deceased from each settlement to the cave or, maybe in speciic occasions,
returned from different villages to the “territory of the dead” to honor them.
Almost contemporary are the necropolises with chamber tombs, whose dimensions are surprising for the
time: in such cases the tombs’ majesty seemed to indicate that the funerary space was destined to hegemonic
classes. The ceremonies concerned the burial of the deceased in the sepulchral chamber and, perhaps not
at the same time, some rituals related to vessels deposition and ritual fragmentation in the long dromoi.
At the end of the Bronze Age, cremation rite spreads. In the site of Crostoletto di Lamone (Viterbo), a
unique area throughout the territory under exam, the urns are laid within mounds which sometimes are
contemporary to the incinerations. Sometimes on the other hand the mounds appear to be more ancient,
as they contain inhumation burials. During this period the understanding of burial ceremonies is easier:
we can use slightly later iconographical evidences, in particular the early scenes painted on Greek
vessels and very detailed descriptions of Patroclus’ and Hector’s funerals in the Iliad.
Key-Words
Deathscapes, funerary ceremonies, necropolises, monumentalized landscapes, ethnographic and
literary sources.
Carmelo rizzo
Ιl dialogo oltre la morte. Spazi funerari e ritualità ctonie a Pontecagnano in un contesto sociale
di integrazioni e differenze
In the orientalizing necropolis of Pontecagnano there is a plurality of funerary behaviour, particularly
highlighted by different funeral rituals that shape the landscape mortuary. This is organized for groups
of tombs around tombs emerging or sacral areas structured with fences, canals or small altars. In a
recent excavated area can seize these behaviours highlighted by special funeral rites different from
each other that conceal social demands, tensions and negotiations not only between the different social
groups but of individual subjects deposed.
Key-Words
Pontecagnano, burial, ritual, libation, deathscape.
arCheologia e antroPologia della morte
807
FederiCa manFredi
Note di campo sull’elaborazione del lutto nell’Italia contemporanea: rilessione sui tatuaggi
commemorativi e ipotesi di auto-poiesi
Every society creates models of cultural reference for managing life events. Death is a painful and
tragic events to be treated and the culture is called upon to manage it. The aim is domesticating death
and making it less full of unknown. But what happens when a society is lacking of these rituals? If
contemporary societies are maybe losing their funeral rites, it’s also true that new spontaneous rituals
are arising: it’s the case of commemorative tattoos. They have been studied as modern effort to give a
form to the person that survive, in a personalized auto-poiesis project. These body modiications seem
rites ready to be customized and reilled with the meaning that the protagonist needs to celebrate. Are
they an answer to the shortage of death rituals in the modern culture?
Key-Words
Commemorative tattoo, contemporary rite of passage, auto-poiesis project, anthropo-poiesis theory,
death, mourning, funeral rite.
elisaBetta dall’ò
“Du berceau à la tombe”. Tra riti dei vivi e riti dei morti: i contributi di Van Gennep e Cravel sul
curioso caso del libera me nella messa di matrimonio valdostana.
Until the end of 18th century, in some of the Western Alps areas, during the catholic oficial nuptial
rites, in some case only, a further step took place just at the end of the ceremony in order to legitimize
and consecrate the new couple. The ritual consisted of a special and rare celebration: the bride and the
bridegroom went with the priest to visit the tombs of their reciprocal families. There the priest was
charged to chant the “Libera”, the ancient prayer for the dead. By this celebration the young married,
before entering into the community of the living as a couple, – and I would dare to say, before entering
into their reciprocal genealogy as “future ancestors”– they had to obtain the consent of their ancestors.
Key-Words
Alps, rites of passage, marriages, religion, dead, ancestors.
gianFranCo sPitilli
La signora dei santi e dei morti: Giannina Malaspina cantastorie
Giannina Malaspina is an elderly itinerant storyteller. Together with her husband, she was engaged
in ceremonial activities in the rural and mountainous districts of the central Apennines, where she
performed a ritual chant for the deceased of the house at host families. After the death of her husband she
has spent her days in the cemetery: a dialogic practice that is expressed through different communication
registers, renewing the relationship between presence and absence. On the occasion of November 2 the Christian day of the commemoration of the dead - the storyteller directs an installation of devotional
lights on the graves of the communities, by means of a mnemonic plot which deines it as a guardian of
the collective memory and a protagonist of the dialectical relationship between the cemetery space, its
burials, and the world of the living.
Key-Words
Central apennines, storyteller, cemetery, dead, saints, living, ritual chant.
roBerta saliBra
Frammentazione rituale nella necropoli di Passo Marinaro
The context of the so-called t. 10, found in 1966 in the necropolis of PassoMarinaro at Camarina, is an
appropriate starting point for a more general discussion of the theme of libations and rituals performed
on the graves both during burial ceremonies and later, as part of periodical recurrence celebrations. This
contribution aims at a more detailed analysis of the fragmentation and partial dispersion of vases on the
808
ground of the necropolis during the 5th century b. C. The vases under consideration are generally attic redigured. Particularly, a special focus on the shape of the pottery employed allows for an identiication of
these materials as ritual tools which were intentionally smashed so that the fragments could be dispersed
after use, as well as for a relection regarding the type of performance/offering they may have referred to.
Key-Words
Necropolis of passomarinaro (camarina), libations, fragments, dispersion, attic red-igured vases.
FulVio Coletti, anna BuCCellato
Silicernium e parentalia. Nuovi dati sul banchetto nelle feste in onore dei morti: strutture,
vasellame e resti alimentari dalle necropoli del suburbio romano
Recent archaeological researches carried out by the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Colosseo il Museo
Nazionale Romano e l’area Archeologica di Roma allowed to identify important cemeteries in the
roman south-west and south-east Suburbs. Some of these cemeteries are interpreted such as urban
funeral organism and generally they are located inside great fundi. The burials excavations gave back
data and ceramics materials that refer to the funerary cerimonies or the annual festivities celebrated by
alive parents at the graves that ancient sources mentioned such as silicernium.
Key-Words
Ancient roman cemeteries, silicernium, parentalia, porca praesentanea.
Poster III Sessione
Luigi QuattroCChi*
Il dolore per la morte. Espressioni artistiche dal Geometrico al Tardo Classico in Grecia
The grief over someone’s death is still very strong now as in the past. In ancient times the loss of a member of
society threatened the harmony, instilling a sense of fear for its unavoidability. Thank to the phóbos the idea
of death was not hidden to people any more but it actually made them conscious of everyone’s ultimate aim.
The artistic expressions from the Geometric to the Classical period return very well this sense on
anxiety that pervaded the human being. Analyzing the main indings, either painted vases, reliefs
or sculptures, we’ll try to igure out, irst of all, whether the funerary rituals have undergone some
changes, for instance the próthesis (one of the initial phases), the ekphorá (intermediate phase), the real
sepulture and, inally, the banquet.
Key-Words
Athens, ancient greece, funerary rituals, gestures, death.
Clelia PetraCCa
La gestualità femminile nei riti funerari in Grecia tra viii e vi sec. a.C. Il dolore femminile tra
letteratura e iconograia
In ancient Greece, funeral rites include several ceremonies as well as the burial and the cremation of
the corpse. There is a more intimate deathscape inside the walls of the house, where the women of the
family mourn and complain the death in a very particular way during the pròthesis. They hit their head
and chest, tear their hair and scratch their cheeks until the bleeding.
The Attic pottery and the Iliad show different kinds of ritual self-mutilation made only by women.
These are the real protagonists of funeral rites between VIII and VI century BC since they hold the
*
Si è mantenuto in questa sede per completezza l’abstract dell’intervento di Quattrocchi anche se non pervenuto in
tempo per l’edizione [N.d.R.].
arCheologia e antroPologia della morte
809
ritual knowledge needed to correctly prepare the corpse and lament his death. In this way they guarantee
the success of the ceremony and carve out for themselves a prominent role in this important event of
city life.
Key-Words
Funeral rites, women, pain gesture, self mutilation, attic pottery.
sonia modiCa
Paesaggio sonoro e rituale funerario: al conine tra natura, cultura e spiritualità
Il contributo presenta valutazioni metodologiche e alcune “ contestualizzazioni per un’indagine che
vuole essere un aspetto del percorso sulle implicazioni storiche (valenze indigene/non indigene,
continuità diacronica o discontinuità di diversi segni sonori), degli indicatori culturali e sociali (rituali,
genere, rango, funzione). In particolare si tratta di evidenziare le strette, seppur indirette, relazioni
tra oggetti sonori, connotazioni socio-culturali e loro pertinenza a modalità rituali complementari e/o
sostitutive, attraverso i dati forniti dalla documentazione archeologica e storiograico-letteraria.
Key-Words
Indicatori sonori, epoca arcaica, rito funerario, percezione sensoriale, sonagli.
angela Bellia
Musica e morte nell’iconograia delle ceramiche attiche: considerazioni sul cratere della tomba
949 dalla necropoli greca di Akragas (V sec. a.C.)
Most of the painted vases with musical representations is closed to the theme of death, because so much
of what still exists comes from graves. However, only some of the preserved vases were produced
as objects for the funerary rituals. In this paper, we will analise a scene depicted on a column krater
from Akragas, modern Agrigento, where a male lyra player and a female auloi player are engaged in
a funerary ritual. These musical instruments reveal a strong connection between music and funerary
sphere: the lyra seems to evoke the status of the deceased and of his socio-political role; the aulos is
the wind instrument for the accompaniment of the funerary procession. The representation of both lyra
and aulos in the scene seems linked to the idea that music was one of the most pleasures in the afterlife.
Key-Words
Lyra, ancient musical instruments, aulos, musical iconography, column-krater.
FranCesCa lai
Genita Mana. Ambivalenza e liminarità della morte in associazione al genere femminile
nell’antica Roma.
In Ancient Rome women have a speciic role in the funus. Men supervise the formal aspects of the
burial and its public conception, essentially to preserve the memory of the dead; women take care the
initial and inal moments of the funus. They express the pain and mourning with the visible and audible
manifestations. Praeicae in Rome and the modern attittidu in Sardina are strictly connected with the
same ancestral Indo-European and Mediterranean rituals. Women are liminal corpse during the life:
they provide to childbirth and nurse the human population with their milk. The myth of Pero e Micon
provide a interesting aspect of the life and death connected to breastfeeding, as the religion provide to
express, with the deity of Genita Mana, the similar expression of the feminine power, in the balance
with the existence and the loss.
Key-Words
Women mourning, funus, genita mana, nursing, midwife.
810
elena Castillo ramírez
La musica come chiave del contagio emozionale nei cortei funebri imperiali
The death of a roman emperor or of a member of the domus augusta started a great display of political
and ideological propaganda in which the music played a crucial role. The funeral procession was one
of the few occasions during which all imperial family and members of the highest aristocracy was
seen in public all together, with all their richness and sumptuousness. The ceremony had to involve the
crowd in the mourning, in order to create a favorable situation to legitimate the values of the monarchy.
The shrill and dramatic sound of brass instruments increased listeners´ affective response to the public
mournful spectacle, and therefore changed the (emotional) processing of symbols and words that they
saw and listened. Cornicines, liticines, tubicines and choirs of men, women and children of the most
illustrious families took part in a magniicent performance.
Key-Words
Imperial mourning, roman music, choirs, emotional mimesis, ritual performance.
Clara steVanato
La morte degli animali d’affezione nel mondo romano: per una zooepigraia tra ritualità e sentimento
A particular category of Latin inscriptions includes funerary epitaphs addressed to animals, especially
dogs and horses. These inscriptions have been often ignored by scholars but they provide a considerable
amount of interesting contents. The two main aspects investigated in this study concern the funerary
practices adopted for animal burials and the bond of affection that emerges from the epigraphic message.
There is almost no difference between human and animal funera and the inscription is permeated by
affection and emotions. The premise to both aspects is the relationship between humans and their pets
which was seen in terms of continuity after death.
Key-Words
Animal Latin epitaphs, emotions, funerary practice, human-animal relationship, pet-keeping.
simona dalsoglio
L’analisi spaziale degli oggetti nelle sepolture per la ricostruzione del rituale funerario: il caso
delle cremazioni protogeometriche del Kerameikos di Atene
For the Protogeometric period in the Kerameikos cemetery at Athens it is not possible to recognize a
particular area dedicated to the burning of the pyres; moreover the funerary rites left no traces into the
landscape of the necropolis. The structure of the graves, that belong to the well known trench-and-hole
type, makes possible a study of the objects that occur more frequently into the urn, the hole with the
cinerary amphora and the upper trench with the pyre debris. Through the analysis of the objects and of
their disposition into the tomb it is possible to propose a partial reconstruction of the different phases of
the funerary ritual, included the ones that took place outside the grave.
Key-Words
Protogeometric, athens, kerameikos, cremation, grave structure, iliad.
saBrina Batino
Oltre la soglia a veglia del defunto. Per una interpretazione delle oinochoai igurate in bucchero
nella tomba etrusca arcaica di Villastrada
“But the Etruscans built everything of wood-houses, temples- all save walls for fortiication, great
gates, bridges, and drainage works. So that the Etruscan cities vanished as completely as lowers. Only
the tombs, the bulbs, were underground.”
D.H. Lawrence, Etruscan Places, Siena 2007 (5° ed.), p. 36.
This paper will examine an Etruscan burial context dating back to the second quarter of VI cent. B.C.,
included in the agrarian estate of the powerful city of Camars-Clusium.
arCheologia e antroPologia della morte
811
The settlement nearby Villastrada- Castiglione del Lago (Pg), rose up in the archaic period presumably
by exercising a control along the road linking the east part of river Clanis with the city of Perugia. The
small chamber tomb discovered by chance in 1977 during building works on private property was
summarily carved in the sandstone, and had an almost square planimetry preceded by a narrow access
corridor. The inding of bone remains suggests that the deceased individual was a man. The excavation,
carried out by the staff of the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage of Umbria, allowed them to acquire
signiicant materials, both for the quantity of objects (more than ifty carefully restored inds), and for
the quality level of the artefacts.
During the research project carried out for the setting up of a 3D multimedia exhibition at Palazzo
della Corgna in Castiglione del Lago (Pg), it was possible to investigate once again the burial context
thanks the archive documents that, on the basis of order followed during the excavation, throw some
more light on the “geography” within the cell and possible levels of interpretation suggesting the
ritual ratio. Among the grave goods, there are three interesting heavy bucchero oinochoai, whose
decoration patterns would seem to acquire a great symbolic power by their own location too,
intentionally placed near the entrance to the tomb to ensure a kind of ideal “parade” saving and
commemorating the dead.
Key-Words
Ager clusinus, archaic period, cylinder – and mould - pressed bucchero decorations, symposion.
luCina giaCoPini, romina mostiCone, giandomeniCo PontiCelli
Paesaggio funerario Medievale. Sepolture privilegiate e pratiche funerarie
In this paper we describe some brief considerations arising from direct experience of excavation of a core
of depositions from the late XIV century of the medieval cemetery of St. Nicholas of Cesano in Rome,
a funerary complex investigated in the years 2013 - 2014 with the intervention of accommodation the
medieval town of Cesano in Rome. The burials investigated that returned a minimum of 28 individuals
in anatomical connection, are contained within formae in drafts of tufa, whose construction is inserted
architecturally close to an open room, perhaps a hall, part of a building, almost certainly a medieval
church whose origins could be traced back to the eleventh century.
Key-Words
Middle ages, late medieval cemetery, funerary rituals, burials it, brotherhoods, ospedale s. Spirito in
sassia, medieval villages.
gaëlle granier, alexia lattard, FlorenCe moCCi, titien Bartette, Carine
Cenzon-salVayre, Céline huguet
The Role of a funerary space in the construction of a ritual landscape: the domainal necropolis of
Richeaume XIII, near Aquae Sextiae (France)
The ancient Domaine Richeaume includes the remains of a vast villa (Richeaume I) and its burial space
(Richeaume XIII).The burial space at Richeaume XIII comprises 43 funerary structures, broadly grouped
into two chronological phases: (Ist-IIIrd c. AD and IIIrd-VIIth c. AD). The irst phase is characterized by
the exclusive use of cremation, except for the very young infants. The key element on the site is a large
monument, around and within which the Early Imperial funerary elements were situated.
Research at the site was situated within a framework assessing ritual and gesture. The recognition of the
function and nature of the archaeological structures allowed us to deine the ritual landscape. The visual
prominence of the monument is a dominant element in the ritual landscape. Moreover, the various
stages in the funerary rites have been identiied and allow us to infer the visual, audible and olfactory
experiences associated with cremation.
Key-Words
Cremation, roman funerary practices, funerary monument, anthracology, southern france.
812
marCo Baldi
Verso la deiicazione del sovrano: la ritualità funeraria nella Nubia meroitica
The Meroitic kingdom dominated the Nubian territories from the third century BC to the fourth century
AD. Kings and queen were buried in pyramids having rich iconographical programmes, that visualize
the transiguration of the dead in a divine being. Manifold rituals, accurately chosen by the expert local
priesthood and whose real making is conirmed by grave goods, allowed to the dead to pass successfully
from the Underworld to the divine status as new Osiris. The scenes reporting the different phases of the
deiication process reveal the syncretic nature of the Meroitic religion, which was the result of a well
thought-out mixture of Napatan heritage, local beliefs and Hellenistic inlux.
Key-Words
Meroitic funerary religion, egyptian-nubian syncretism, osiris rituals, mortuary reliefs, divine
transiguration of the royal members.
giulia PedruCCi
L’ambiguità del latte, bevanda dei morti nel mondo greco
Milk is an ancient and universal food, sustaining us from birth. However, only a small percentage of
the world’s population drinks milk: Animal milk is probably the most controversial of foods. Milk’s
qualities and associated dangers have been debated since the dawn of civilization, which has resulted in
milk being demonized as “white poison” or exalted as “white elixir”.
As concern Greece, from the sources, we gain the impression that there was a heated debate on milk as
an ailment, probably because of its hemogenesis from the menstrual blood. Indeed, some sources seem
to suggest that the milk as an aliment was indicated only for children, women, old and/or sick people
and barbarians: These are all categories of otherness, not fully civilized people. A healthy young citizen
was not supposed to drink milk (even if he probably did sometimes in his everyday life), but it could be
used in magic or medical potions. Moreover, it was used to prepare libations for dead people.
Key-Words
Milk, libations, dead people, funerary practices, ancient greek world.
steFania Paradiso
Tracce di un rituale: la libagione come nutrimento dei morti
During the Late Bronze Age, it was usual in Ugarit for the living and dead to remain in close proximity.
Houses were homes for both the living and the dead, with mausoleums occupying chambers under the
house. The builders put wall apertures in place for grave goods, as ceramics, glass, zoomorphic vases,
rhyta. Some of Ugarit’s many religious records suggest possible reasons why families kept their dead
so close. To the people of Ugarit, their ancestors were not dead and gone; they had merely evolved to
another state. In the city of Ugarit the ritual texts provide information about the kinds of liquid and
instruments that were used during the libation. The literary material of Ugarit offers a diverse picture
of libation practice in the ancient city. The liquid used was usually wine, but water and oil too. They
were poured out of rhytons; they were poured into any sort of vessels, or into various receiving tibes/
channels, or directly onto the loor.
Key-Words
Ugarit city of syria, libation offerings, rhyta, zoomorphic vases, intramural burials.
FederiCa maria riso, donato laBate, rossella rinaldi, marta Bandini mazzanti,
gioVanna Bosi
Primi dati sulle offerte vegetali della necropoli romana dell’area archeologica Novi Sad a Modena
The excavation of the Novi Sad site in Modena brought to light a necropolis dated from the I to the IV
arCheologia e antroPologia della morte
813
century AD. The purpose of the research is to analyse archaeological and archaeobotanical remains in
order to make a wider and complete framework of which kind of foodstuffs and offers were common
in graves, what they represent and which was the symbolism related to death in juxtaposition with life.
Ritual offerings were widespread especially in three principal phases of the ceremony: the libation, the
funeral meal and the gift to the dead. Seeds and fruits, that were collected from archaeological layers,
are the most direct evidence delivered by botanical remains of the after-death rituals. In particular,
beans, igs and dates are frequent, certainly for they symbolic meaning.
Key-Words
Funerary banquet, paleobotany, symbolic meal, funerary rituals, roman convivium
AnAmArijA Kurilić, zrinka serVenti
The Caska Necropolis – Exceptions, Rituals and “Deathscapes”
Caska, present-day settlement located within a deep cove on the island of Pag (Croatia), was most likely
during the Roman period the ancient settlement of Cissa (Gissa), mentioned by Pliny the Elder. The
island of Pag was inhabited by the people of Liburni and after the Roman expansion it was included
in the province of Dalmatia. Nice and cosy Caska bay attracted the attention of one of the Rome’s
most powerful senatorial families - the Calpurni Pisones, who most likely had their estates there and
certainly made an impact on life and customs of its inhabitants during the early 1st century AD.
The site is also important because of a complex Early Roman necropolis located at the southern end of
the cove. This necropolis is truly an exceptional site for its complex grave constructions, unique in all
Liburnia and province of Dalmatia, and with no known direct analogies elsewhere in the Roman world
(which justify naming them as tombs of the Caska type): these tombs consist of two different layers of
construction placed around the incinerated remains of the deceased and the grave-goods: the internal
one, almost always of the alla cappuccina type (i.e. with tegulae and imbrices put in such a manner as
to imitate a gabled roof), and the external one, rectangular and built of local stone and mortar, which
was closely attached to the former. The top part of the latter - slightly smaller than the bottom part - was
executed with greater care and most certainly was intended to be visible above ground and to carry
the tombstone. Furthermore, almost every such tomb had at least one libation pipe (profusio) so stone
structures and their libation pipes absolutely dominated the “deathscape” of the Caska necropolis.
The complex structure of the Caska type tombs in itself should imply an elaborate and distinct funerary
ritual. Furthermore, through libation pipes (quite uncommon in Liburnia and entire Province of
Dalmatia) - which clearly indicate common libation rituals - the worlds of both the living and the
dead interlaced. Apart from the libation pipes, necropolis in Caska displays remains of other potential
rituals, which are rarely found in the territory of Liburnia, making them exceptional and unique for
the aforementioned area (although some are attested at other necropolises throughout the province of
Dalmatia and the Roman world in general). Such rituals are, in example, the placement of amphorae
immediately by the grave or partly beneath it, which could also indicate the existence of libation rituals,
rustic and almost unusable ceramic lamps deposited next to the deceased, which were most likely used
only in sepulchral contexts, remnants of sepulchral meals within the graves (mostly seashells) or the
procedure of cleansing of the burial space with ire before the placement of the cremated remains of
the deceased. The most intriguing feature, possibly also linked with libation and/or some other ritual,
can be observed in a circle made of 15 glass balsamaria placed beneath the urn bottom with their necks
turned downwards.
Therefore, in this contribution we shall extensively discuss the issue of the funerary landscape created by
the Roman necropolis in the Caska bay and, at the same time, explore the occurrence and importance of
funerary rituals present therein, but also in the context of territory of Liburnia and province of Dalmatia.
Key-Words
Cissa (caska, island of pag, croatia), roman necropolis, funerary rituals, libation, deathscape.
814
gioVanna monteVeCChi
Ravenna crocevia di popoli. Ritualità funeraria nelle necropoli di età imperiale romana
The research aims to analyze the funerary habits of the people of Ravenna in the early centuries of
the Roman Empire: when the city was the base of Augustan military leet and many people locked to
Ravenna from different areas of the empire.
The contexts of necropolis we have chosen are a perfect example to help us to understand the funerary
habits in Ravenna: the choice of ritual (cremation or burial); the kind of burial and the structure of the tomb;
the presence of ‘segnacoli’; libatory systems; the analysis of the items placed inside and outside the burials,
related to single acts of ceremonial who are fundamental to understand the different steps of the ritual.
The aim is to catch the peculiarities of the customs of Ravenna and the changes over time between early
and middle imperial age.
Key-Words
Ravenna, military leet, roman necropolis, funeral practices, death and burial.
La morte è l’unica esperienza della vita che coinvolge ineluttabilmente tutti ma che tutti possono conoscere solo
attraverso l’esperienza degli altri, come ha colto efficacemente Pirandello: «I vivi credono di piangere i loro morti e
invece piangono una loro morte, una loro realtà che non è più nel sentimento di quelli che se ne sono andati».
L’antropologia ha codificato nella forma concettuale del rito di passaggio quanto gli antichi avevano già esemplificato
attraverso la metafora del viaggio e della transizione. I momenti e gli atti che ruotano intorno alla morte, per la sua
condizione di assoluta liminarità, costituiscono dunque il fulcro di un’esperienza collettiva e il tramite necessario per
il superamento di quella soglia (limes) che ci permette di transitare da una condizione che non è più a una nuova
dimensione, variamente concepita da cultura a cultura. In questo senso la morte è per eccellenza la metafora del
confine; di un “limite” che, paradossalmente, viene raggiunto solo nel momento in cui non siamo più e, dunque, non
possiamo più raccontarlo. E, in quanto tale, un confine contribuisce a codificare e rafforzare – fittiziamente –
l’“identità” delle realtà che vivono ai suoi margini. Anche per questo, la morte può contribuire a definire l’idea e la
percezione dell’“identità” che ciascuno di “noi” (singolarmente e/o collettivamente) si attribuisce, poiché è il culmine
– naturale o meno – di un’esistenza e, al tempo stesso, l’atto estremo dell’esperienza terrena. È l’unica storia che non
possiamo raccontare ma è anche quella attraverso la quale gli altri possono raccontare noi stessi o la percezione che,
pirandellianamente, essi hanno avuto della nostra “realtà” o, meglio, di se stessi attraverso la nostra “realtà”. Ma la
morte, ovviamente, è anche un atto biologico, nel corso del quale il cadavere subisce una metamorfosi che lo fa
transitare dalla dimensione corporea a quella minerale, tornando materia, in un processo che può essere alterato
casualmente e/o intenzionalmente dalla natura e dalla cultura, dando luogo a pratiche rituali e/o culturali di ricodifica
simbolica della nostra essenza terrena, anch’esse variabili da società a società in relazione alla percezione che ciascuna
di esse può avere della dialettica tra vita e morte e tra morte e ciò che si suppone ne segua.
La terza edizione del convegno di Antropologia e Archeologia a Confronto ha inteso affrontare queste complesse
problematiche, cercando di offrire una panoramica dei più fruttuosi approcci teoretici e delle più aggiornate
metodologie d’indagine messe in campo dall’antropologia culturale, dall’archeologia, dalla bioarcheologia e
dall’archeotanatologia per cogliere l’essenza di questa frontiera; per decrittare il linguaggio di gesti, segni, sentimenti,
riti, paure ed emozioni che contribuiscono a definirla; come sempre con l’ambizione gianiforme di guardare al passato
per cogliere l’essenza del nostro presente.
VOL. 1: La regola dell’eccezione
VOL. 2: Corpi, relazioni e azioni: il paesaggio del rito
VOL. 3: Costruzione e decostruzione del sociale
Valentino Nizzo: Archeologo senza frontiere (Todi 1975). Da maggio 2017, in seguito a una selezione internazionale,
dirige il Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia a Roma. Dal 2010 è stato funzionario archeologo presso la
Soprintendenza Archeologia dell’Emilia Romagna e dal 2015 presso la Direzione generale Musei come responsabile
della promozione, comunicazione e accessibilità culturale del sistema museale nazionale. Ha conseguito il PhD in
Etruscologia presso la “Sapienza” Università di Roma e il Post-dottorato presso l’Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane di
Firenze pubblicandone i risultati nel volume Archeologia e antropologia della Morte: storia di un’idea (Edipuglia,
Bari, 2015) da cui ha tratto ispirazione il presente convegno. È ideatore e direttore scientifico della Collana:
Antropologia e Archeologia a Confronto edita dalla E.S.S. Editorial Service System per la Fondazione Dià Cultura.
ISBN 978-88-8444-181-2
€ 50,00