Papers in Italian Archaeology VII: The Archaeology of Death

This volume collects more than 60 papers by contributors from the British Isles, Italy and other parts of continental Europe, and North and South America, focussing on recent developments in Italian archaeology from the Neolithic to the modern period.

The Archaeology of Death: Proceedings of the Seventh Conference of Italian Archaeology’ held at the National University of Ireland, Galway, April 16-18, 2016 includes more than 60 papers, with contributors from the British Isles, Italy and other parts of continental Europe, and North and South America, which consider recent developments in Italian archaeology from the Neolithic to the modern period. Each region of Italy is represented, with specific sections of the volume devoted to Etruria, South Italy, and Sicily. Other sections have a chronological focus, including Italian Prehistory, the Roman period, and Post Antiquity. Following the primary theme of the meeting, the majority of papers revolve around the archaeology of death; numerous contributions analyse the cultural significance of death through examinations of funerary rituals and mortuary practices, while others analyse burial data for evidence of wider social and political change. Various papers consider new and recent discoveries in Italian archaeology, while others ask fresh questions of older datasets. In addition, a number of contributions showcase their employment of new methodologies deriving from technological innovations. The volume opens with a dedicatory section to mark the achievements of the Accordia Research Institute, and to celebrate the careers of two of its founders, Ruth Whitehouse and John Wilkins.

Preface and Acknowledgements – by Edward Herring & Eóin O’Donoghue ;
I. Celebrating Accordia: Introduction – by Edward Herring ;
Reaching a new accord: revitalising feminism in the study of Italian archaeology – by Lucy Shipley ;
At Face Value: questioning the visibility of gender in Etruscan funerary art – by Carrie Murray ;
“You’ll get a belt from your Da”: military prowess, status and masculinity and the evidence of the bronze belts from South Italy – by Edward Herring ;
Recent approaches to early writing – by Christopher Smith ;
II. Cultural contacts, resistance, and integration in South Italy: Métissage, acculturazione or hybridization?: Introduction – by Arianna Esposito & Airton Pollini ;
Have you said métissage or hybridization? A viewpoint from the graves – by Arianna Esposito & Airton Pollini ;
Greek and Indigenous people: investigation in the cemetries of Megara Hyblaea – by Reine-Marie Bérard ;
Constructing deathscapes between Pithekoussai and Cumae: la costruzione del sociale all’alba della colonizzazione tra integrazione e ibridazione – by Valentino Nizzo ;
Material culture and ethnic identity: some case studies from Pontecagnano (first-second quarter of the seventh century BC) – by Anna Maria Desiderio ;
Le necropoli arcaiche di Capua: le tombe a cubo come fenomeno ibrido – by Ellen Thiermann ;
Arpi (Puglia), città aperta? – by Claude Pouzadoux & Luca Basile ;
Funerary art and munera: gladiators, graffiti and tombstones at Pompeii. – by Renata Senna Garraffoni ;
III. Etruria: Diversity in death: a construction of identities and the funerary record of multi-ethnic central Italy from 950 to 350 BC – by Albert J. Nijboer ;
Subordinate satellite communities of Poggio Civitate – by Katharine Kreindler ;
Multicultural interaction, colonial boundaries and changing group identities: contextualising inscriptions, languages and alphabets – by Ulla Rajala & Karin W. Tikkanen ;
Burial Custom Patterns in Early and Middle Orientalising Caere – by Orlando Cerasuolo ;
Lords of Amber. The Villanovan settlement of Verucchio rediscovered – by Loreznzo Zamboni & Paolo Rondini ;
The Etruscan Fortress of Rofalco. Twenty years of excavation and outreach activities – by Orlando Cerasuolo & Luca Pulcinelli ;
Finding a middle ground in the burial ground: Mortuary behaviour at Populonia and Vetulonia in the Early Iron Age – by Sheira Cohen ;
La nascita dei ‘principi’. Il sepolcreto di Vetulonia nel periodo Orientalizzante – by Camilla Colombi ;
The Power of Etruscan Women Revisited – by Eóin O'Donoghue ;
Infancy and Urbanization in Central Italy during the Early Iron Age and Beyond – by Francesca Fulminante ;
Un approccio ‘interdisciplinare’ allo studio di un contesto funerario orientalizzante-arcaico da Tarquinia – by Alessandro Mandolesi, Maria Rosa Lucidi, Margarita Gleba, Ombretta Tarquini, Marcello Colapietro & Augusto Pifferi ;
IV. South Italy: Identità e isotopi: il contributo delle analisi scientifiche all’interpretazione della necropoli enotria di Francavilla Marittima – by Camilla Colombi, Igor M. Villa & Martin A. Guggisberg ;
Funerary customs and social aspects of one community in the Valley of the River Agri between the end of the fifth and third century BC – by Josipa Mandić ;
Società Pithecusana e Traffici Commercialo Etruschi Nell’Orientalizzante Recente – by Francesco Napolitano ;
Dancing Around the Grave? Funerary Rituals and the Creation of Peucetian Identity between the Sixth and Third Century BC – by Bice Peruzzi ;
No Country for Old Men? Gender and Age in a small Archaic South Italian Community – by Christian Heitz ;
Le forme dell’appartenenza aristocratica nella necropoli di Fornaci a Capua. Alcuni dati dalle sepolture orientalizzanti dell’area sud-orientale – by Elena Marazzi ;
Materiali e Corredi Funerari nella Media valle del fiume Fortore tra VII sec. a.C. e III sec. a.C. – by Pasquale Marino, Andrea Capozzi & Diletta Colombo ;
Una preghiera senza voce. I gesti del sacro e la ritualità ctonia nelle necropoli della Campania tra I e II età del ferro – by Carmelo Rizzo ;
Rango, potere e identità sociale nei sepolcreti indigeni di età orientalizzante della Piana del Sarno, Campania – by Francesca Mermati ;
Only princes in Daunia? Critical considerations on the conception of “elite” in Iron Age North-Apulia on the basis of the so-called tombe principesche – by Lisa Obojes ;
Capua in Età Orientalizzante: Tombe di Rango Dall’Area Oxxidentale Della Necropoli di Fornaci – by Mattia Maturo ;
Burial practices in the necropolis of Buccino from the mid-seventh to the early fourth century BC – by Cesare Vita ;
Accedere all’Aldilà? L’Aes rude in tomba: nuove acquisizioni da Pontecagnano – by Anna Rita Russo ;
V. Sicily: La Necropoli Est di Polizzello: Riti e deposizioni dalle tombe 5 e 5A – by Alberto D’Agata ;
La Tomba 24 e 25 della Necropoli Est di Polizzello: i processi di ellenizzazione nelle tradizioni funerarie di un insediamento indigeno della Sicilia centrale – by Antonio Barbera ;
Le Tombe a Grotticella artificiale del territorio di Valguarnera: Nuovi Dati – by Eleonora Draià ;
Via Minervia: nuovi dati dalle recenti indagini a Punta della Campanella – by Tommasina Budetta, Rosa Cannavacciuolo & Carmelo Rizzo ;
The making of sacred and funerary landscapes in central Sicily between the sixth and the first millennium BC – by Enrico Giannitrapani ;
Sepolture femminili e infantili nella necropoli di Sabucina (Caltanissetta) – by Nicoletta Di Carlo ;
Calicantone: A funerary landscape in Sicily – by Pietro Militello, Anna Maria Sammito, Marianna Figuera, Maria Gianchino & Thea Messina ;
VI. Prehistory: Caves and shelters in the Uccellina Mountains (Alberese - Grosseto) - Funerary practices and rituals during the Bronze and Copper Ages at Grotta dello Scoglietto and Buca di Spaccasasso – by Nicoletta Volante & Lucia Sarti ;
Characteristics of the cult and funerary caves in the Agrigento territory – by Domenica Gullì ;
The chamber tombs phenomenon as evidence for the birth of a Bronze Age élite: the case of the Roccoia cemetery (Farnese, VT) – by Nuccia Negroni Catacchio, Matteo Aspesi, Christian Metta, Giulia Pasquini & Andrea Jacopo Sala ;
Copper Age ancestral sanctuaries and landscapes in Valle Camonica – by Raffaella Poggiani Keller ;
Grotta Nisco (Cassano delle Murge-Bari), una necropoli dell’età del Rame. Lo studio di “ambiente 1” e “ambiente 5”. – by Francesca Radina & Maria Lucrezia Savino ;
Discovering Sofia: semi-digital forensic facial reconstruction of a woman from Copper Age Sicily – by Davide Tanasi ;
VII. Roman Italy : False-Doors in Domestic Roman Architecture – by Maurice Owen ;
Cremation structures and funerary dynamics in Roman Veneto. New perspectives from Padua/Patavium – Cecilia Rossi and Irene Marini [Open Access: Download] The Via Castrimeniense: one of the most ancient routes between the Alban Hills and Rome Agnese – by Livia Fischetti ;
Approaching Roman Secondary Settlements in Italy: Diachronic Trends, Spatial Relationships and Economic Roles – by Stefano Bertoldi, Gabriele Castiglia & Angelo Castrorao Barba ;
The discovery of the Roman rural settlement of “Podere San Lorenzo” in Montecastrilli (Terni, Italy) – by Luca Desibio & Pier Matteo Barone ;
VIII. Post Antique: Special deposition in the catacomb of St. Callistus in Rome. New data on the funerary use of catacombs between the eighth and the ninth centuries – by Agnese Pergola ;
Ethnic identity, material culture and social development of the Langobards: some examples – by Federica Codromaz ;
Gli Spazi degli Esclusi. Sepolture isolate d’infanti nell’Italia tardo-antica: Il contributo della ricerca archaeologica – by Lidia Vitale ;
Putridaria (strainer rooms) and draining practices of the bodies. Anthropology of death in the modern age – by Roberta Fusco ;
IX. New Methods & Technologies: 3D modeling and Attic pottery. A new approach to an “old” question – by Alessandro Pace & Daniele Bursich ;
The Stockholm Volterra Project: exploring a cityscape in an urban context – by Ulla Rajala, Arja Karivieri, Andreas Viberg, Elena Sorge, Alessandro Furiesi, Gianfranco Morelli & Gianluca Catanzariti ;
GIS applications in the valorization of the cultural heritage: the case of Campovalano (Central Italy, TE) and its territory – by Carmen Soria ;
Funerary landscapes and archaeology of war in the Cuneo valleys, GIS and interdisciplinarity: toward new frontiers of research – by Isabel Beltrán Gil, Eliana Maniaci & Erika Mattio ;
GIS and visual analysis of a Copper Age funerary site: intra-site perspectives at “Poggio di Spaccasasso” (Grosseto, Italy) – by Giovanna Pizziolo & Nicoletta Volante ;
A Sign of the Times: Updating the Outdoor Wayside Panels of Tarquinia – by Andrew Carroll ;
Chemical characterization of EBA/MBA pottery from Ognina (Sicily). A comparison of XRF and pXRF for analysis of ancient pottery – by Davide Tanasi, Robert H. Tykot, Frederick Pirone & Erin McKendry ;
The Socio-Political Dimensions of Archaeology: Some Reflections on the Italian Path – by Andrea Andrea Maria Gennaro