This book is concerned with the analysis of funerary data of some important archaeological sites located in the northwestern area of South Etruria (Italy): Tarquinia, San Giuliano, Vulci and Bisenzio. They belong to the ‘Villanovan culture’, dating to the Italian Early Iron Age (10th - 8th centuries BC). The main aim of the book is the collection and analysis of contextual evidence concerning the formal features of funerary practices, with particular regard to cremations. The theoretical background of the study is inspired by the ‘post-processual’ principles of interpretation of the archaeological record, which conceives burial customs not as a direct reflection of the social system, but instead as a set of codified and symbolic acts, that deserve to be contextualized in its specific historical and geographical background . The Iron Age cemeteries and tombs of Tarquinia make up the core of the study. The analysis starts from a synthetic overview of the relative chronology of artifact types and burials. The data are first divided into three wide chronological stages. The next section is centred on the overall characteristics of the funerary ritual, including the classification of grave-types, containers of cremated bones and their lids, as well as interpretation of peculiar aspects of the ritual. In the following analysis the composition of hundreds of grave-groups is classified through the employment of elementary statistics. Burials are firstly divided according to chronology, and secondly on basis of gender and level of complexity of grave-goods composition. As a result they are subdivided into discrete groupings that could have corresponded to different social categories, such as warriors and non-armed men, females with and without associations of ornaments and tools for spinning/weaving activities etc. All these features, correlated with other ritual attributes, such as grave-types and spatial organization of funerary plots, have been interpreted in order to highlight transformation processes of the social groups. Funerary customs in the Villanovan cemeteries of Tarquinia are thus compared with the more limited data available for Vulci, San Giuliano and Bisenzio, allowing an integrated picture on a regional scale. In particular, the study attempts at investigating issues such as: the increasing tendency to the formation of a collective ethos of the incipient urban communities; the process of social differentiation and the birth of a new social elite, who holds the main political roles and ranks; the ideological implications of these phenomena and their reflections in the burial record.
Simbolismo funerario e ideologia alle origini di una civiltà urbana. Forme rituali nelle sepolture "villanoviane" a Tarquinia e Vulci, e nel loro entroterra
Iaia, Cristiano
1999-01-01
Abstract
This book is concerned with the analysis of funerary data of some important archaeological sites located in the northwestern area of South Etruria (Italy): Tarquinia, San Giuliano, Vulci and Bisenzio. They belong to the ‘Villanovan culture’, dating to the Italian Early Iron Age (10th - 8th centuries BC). The main aim of the book is the collection and analysis of contextual evidence concerning the formal features of funerary practices, with particular regard to cremations. The theoretical background of the study is inspired by the ‘post-processual’ principles of interpretation of the archaeological record, which conceives burial customs not as a direct reflection of the social system, but instead as a set of codified and symbolic acts, that deserve to be contextualized in its specific historical and geographical background . The Iron Age cemeteries and tombs of Tarquinia make up the core of the study. The analysis starts from a synthetic overview of the relative chronology of artifact types and burials. The data are first divided into three wide chronological stages. The next section is centred on the overall characteristics of the funerary ritual, including the classification of grave-types, containers of cremated bones and their lids, as well as interpretation of peculiar aspects of the ritual. In the following analysis the composition of hundreds of grave-groups is classified through the employment of elementary statistics. Burials are firstly divided according to chronology, and secondly on basis of gender and level of complexity of grave-goods composition. As a result they are subdivided into discrete groupings that could have corresponded to different social categories, such as warriors and non-armed men, females with and without associations of ornaments and tools for spinning/weaving activities etc. All these features, correlated with other ritual attributes, such as grave-types and spatial organization of funerary plots, have been interpreted in order to highlight transformation processes of the social groups. Funerary customs in the Villanovan cemeteries of Tarquinia are thus compared with the more limited data available for Vulci, San Giuliano and Bisenzio, allowing an integrated picture on a regional scale. In particular, the study attempts at investigating issues such as: the increasing tendency to the formation of a collective ethos of the incipient urban communities; the process of social differentiation and the birth of a new social elite, who holds the main political roles and ranks; the ideological implications of these phenomena and their reflections in the burial record.
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