Reflections: Harbour City Deathscapes in Roman Italy and Beyond

2018

The archaeology of death in pre-Roman Italy frequently focuses on important issues such as social stratification, gender roles and ancestor cult. Central Italy, taken as the regions Etruria, Latium Vetus or Old Latium, the Sabina Tiberina and the Faliscan-Capenate area, was however home to various Peoples and is diverse in many aspects. This variation is mirrored in the funerary record and reveals differences between main centres in each of the four above-mentioned regions. For example, the wealth as deposited in tombs fluctuated considerably per centre and period as if status differences were less expressed in some settlements than in others. Local, cultural choices in funerary rites, and even per clan, are examined in this paper in the broader context of identity. It will address issues such as child burials and the structural presence of elaborate warrior tombs in Etruria during the eight century BC while they hardly occur in Latium Vetus and the other regions. The point of departure will be our excavations at Crustumerium at the crossing into these four regions since the interpretation of its funerary record remains puzzling due to assimilation of diverse cultural traits of the surrounding Peoples and its traditional rituals and ceremonies encasing death (www.Crustumerium.nl; Attema et al. 2016).

Reflections: Harbour City Deathscapes in Roman Italy and Beyond, 2020

This article considers the epitaphs that can be connected with the necropolis of Cappella in Misenum. Misenum served as the main base for one of the two principal Roman fleets, and our present-day perception of the site emphasises this aspect. By looking at all the inscriptions from a specific site, and not just those that name fleet personnel, the intention here is to examine previously unexplored aspects of life in the harbour city, while still acknowledging the fundamental role played by the fleet. The result is the visualization of a much more diverse community than generally recognized.

The Archaeology of Death; Papers in Italian Archaeology VII, 2018

The archaeology of death in pre-Roman Italy frequently focuses on important issues such as social stratification, gender roles and ancestor cult. Central Italy, taken as the regions Etruria, Latium Vetus or Old Latium, the Sabina Tiberina and the Faliscan-Capenate area, was however home to various Peoples and is diverse in many aspects. This variation is mirrored in the funerary record and reveals differences between main centres in each of the four above-mentioned regions. For example, the wealth as deposited in tombs fluctuated considerably per centre and period as if status differences were less expressed in some settlements than in others. Local, cultural choices in funerary rites, and even per clan, are examined in this paper in the broader context of identity. It will address issues such as child burials and the structural presence of elaborate warrior tombs in Etruria during the eight century BC while they hardly occur in Latium Vetus and the other regions. The point of departure will be our excavations at Crustumerium at the crossing into these four regions since the interpretation of its funerary record remains puzzling due to assimilation of diverse cultural traits of the surrounding Peoples and its traditional rituals and ceremonies encasing death (www.Crustumerium.nl; Attema et al. 2016).

2023

From the 3rd century important changes took place in the funerary topography of Roman cities. Firstly, suburban areas previously used for residential or industrial activities outside city walls were used for funerary purposes. Later, beginning in the 4th century, but most commonly in subsequent centuries, dispersed burials start to appear in the intramural space of cities. Both of these two phenomena, widely detected in the Western provinces, are connected to the more general subject of urban transformations in Late Antiquity and therefore have been widely debated since the 1980s. However, no single explanation has been formulated, and the topic is further complicated by the quite vigorous debate on questions such as the 3rd century crisis, the extent of Christianisation and the effects of destructions caused by barbarians and of their settlement in Roman cities. The aim of this paper is to look again at both processes of change, taking into account both old and new archaeological evidence, and new methodologies and interpretations, in order to illuminate their possible causes and interpretations.

One of the principal transformations underlined by researchers analysing urban landscape during late antiquity concerns changes in funerary patterns and the progressive development of intramural burials, a phenomenon that has traditionally been linked to processes of Christianisation, the construction of churches inside cities and particularly a change in the relationship between people and the bodies of the dead, especially those of martyrs and saints (Ariès 1977; Brown 1982). In this paper I shall try to demonstrate that between the 4th and the 6th century the existence of burials inside the city walls is rare and almost never related to Christian buildings. At least in northern Italy roman and Ostrogothic populations continued respecting roman traditions, burying their dead in existing cemeteries located in suburban areas outside the city walls. Some of these burial areas had existed since republican and imperial times and contained pagan and Christian burials alike. Others seem to have been created, again in the suburbs, during the 3rd century and developed a century later into large Christian areas. Real changes in burial practices inside the city would only begin from the end of the 6th century with the multiplication of scattered burials and the development of intramural cemeteries linked to private chapels and, more rarely, episcopal churches.

Neighbourhoods and City Quarters in Antiquity. Design and Experience, 2023

This study looks at two locations in Rome, at Ripetta and Pietra Papa, that could function as a departure for a discussion about harbour neighbourhoods in the city. Since we lack complete preserved ancient urban districts in Rome, as opposed to Pompeii or Ostia, this study will have to combine material from two ancient harbours at Rome, complemented by information about harbour life in early modern Rome. Specific forms of urban neighbourhoods probably evolved in harbours, which were characterised by the interaction between permanent and temporary residents. Neighbourhoods can be seen as socio-spatial phenomena that go beyond material culture. Studying them may challenge the material focus of archaeology by forcing us to look specifically at intangible social relations and human activities that do not necessarily leave any physical traces. This contribution uses material from different periods to highlight the possibility of port functions and neighbourhood arrangements that are not visible in the archaeological or textual material from ancient Rome. It also discusses trajectories of change in the harbours in the short term (days), midterm (seasons) and long term (centuries).

This essay explores the implications for our understanding of ancient Roman burial and commemorative practices of the obliteration of three large suburban cemeteries during the first three centuries of the imperial period, at intervals of approximately 150 to 200 years. Specifically, it investigates the closing down of the Esquiline burial ground to the east of the city by Maecenas around 35 BCE, of the Via Salaria necropolis north of the city by Trajan around 110 CE, and of sections of the Vatican cemeteries along the Via Cornelia to the west of the city by Constantine in the 320s CE. Consideration of the circumstances of these closings suggests 1) that the average "lifespan" of a suburban Roman necropolis, if one restricts the view to the period of its most active use, is likewise about 150 to 200 years; 2) that the coincidence of these two periods is not accidental but 3) is instead due to the influence of purposeful imperial interventions into the landscape. Subsequent developments in suburban burial at Rome during the later fourth, fifth and sixth centuries, though ostensibly marking a break with the past, seem merely to have reoriented the dynamics of the relationship between the living and the dead.