Styles of drinking and the burial rites of Early Iron Age Middle-Tyrrhenian Italy

This paper addresses some aspects of ritualized commensality in the early stages of the Iron Age in Middle-Tyrrhenian Italy, by focusing on the variable configurations shown by the material culture linked to the consumption of alcohol or other elaborate beverages. Point of departure is the recognition of the political importance of commensality (either having at its centre alcoholic beverages or food) for most complex societies, as stressed by authors like A. Sherratt, M. Dietler and B. Arnold. A strong emphasis on drinking practices and secondarily on meat consumption is seen especially from the rich burial record of Etruria and the nearby region of Latium vetus, with a particular emergence of this phenomenon in the second phase of the EIA in South Etruria. Contrary to the common assumption that links sets of vases for consuming/serving alcohol mainly to the aristocratic warrior ethos, there appears a diversified distribution of drinking assemblages in graves belonging to both genders and to a wider range of social positions. The lavishness of many elite burials richly furnished with metal drinking equipments, both male and female, will be contrasted with the occurrence of many non-elite, or ‘sub-elite’ burials provided with specific classes of exotic ceramics or isolated bronze vessels for consuming liquids. Thus the possible existence of distinct levels of consumption of wine, expressed through the adoption of different kinds of material culture linked to specific rules of drinking etiquette, will be discussed.