People and society

The social composition of Roman London is described from the evidence of written sources and archaeological finds. Burials, funerary monuments, and writing tablets identify an elite community dominated by the military and administrative establishments—surrounded by businessmen, merchants, and craftsmen—where slaves were an important presence. Many can be identified as immigrants, whose presence can also be read from the evidence of a DNA and isotope analysis. Most of these powerful foreigners wouldn’t have been citizens of London but incolae. Britons were not widely in evidence. Hybrid identities, varied patterns of consumption, and ritual and ceremonial performance are also described from the finds assemblages.

Intertextuális utalások II-III. századi phrygiai sírfeliratokon

A Közép-Anatóliában fekvő Phrygia nagy történelmi múlttal, sajátos nyelvvel és kultúrával rendelkező térség volt a Római Birodalomban, ahol az írásbeliséget és az irodalmi műveltséget igen sokra becsülték. A Kr. u. II–IV. század közötti időszakból több száz görög nyelvű epigráfiai emlék maradt ránk, amely mindezt tanúsítja. A síremlékeken feltűnően nagy számban ábrázoltak írótáblákat, tolltartókat és papirusztekercseket, és sehol másutt nem került elő ennyi verses sírfelirat, melyeknek szinte mindegyike zsúfolásig tele van homérosi reminiszcenciákkal és klasszikus mitológiai utalásokkal. Mindez ráadásul nemcsak a városok, hanem a rurális területek lakói – többnyire egyszerű földművesek és állattenyésztők – körében is egyformán jellemző. Az epikus nyelven fogalmazott verses epitáfiumok a görög–római vallás hívei és a keresztények között is népszerűek voltak. Az utóbbiak természetesen bibliai idézetekkel és allúziókkal is bővítették irodalmi repertoárjukat, ráadásul már nagyjából másfél száz évvel a konstantini vallásbéke előtti időszakban.Phrygia in Central Anatolia was an area with a rich historical heritage, its own language, and particular culture within the Roman Empire, where literacy and literary education was highly valued. All this is witnessed by hundreds of Greek epitaphs that have come down to us from the period between the second and fourth centuries A.D. A strikingly large number of these funerary monuments depict writing tablets, styluses, pen cases and papyrus scrolls; and nowhere else have so many metrical epitaphs been preserved in the territory of the whole Empire, filled with Homeric reminiscences and classical mythological references. Besides, this is equally typical of the inhabitants of urban and rural areas – simple farmers and stockbreeders – as well. Poetic epitaphs in an epic language were popular among both the devotees of the Greco-Roman religion and Christians. And naturally, the latter expanded their literary repertoire with Biblical quotations and allusions as early as 150 years prior to the religious peace of Constantine’s reign.

The Information System of Pompeii Sustainable Preservation Project. A Tool for the Collection, Management and Sharing of Knowledge Useful for Conservation and Renovation of Archaeological Monuments

Pompeii represents a unique archaeological site in the world for the knowledge potential that it preserves, coinciding with an entire city of the ancient world—a fragile urban organism whose conservation represents an enormous challenge. The Pompeii Sustainable Preservation Project (PSPP) is an international and multidisciplinary research project whose purpose is to provide a concrete contribution to the conservation of the funerary monuments in the necropolis of Porta Nocera. The information system of the PSPP, using the most modern technologies in the field of spatial data management, aims to provide a tool for the management and sharing of knowledge useful for future conservation activities of archaeological monuments.

Archaeology: Sites and Approaches

This chapter presents an overview of the history, practice and results of Byzantine archaeology in modern Greece and Turkey. Originating in Classical and Early Christian archaeology, and Byzantine art history in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, its early focus was largely ecclesiastical; the modern field has widened to investigate the urbanism and rural settlements, fortifications, ecclesiastical, monastic and funerary monuments, along with remains of the Byzantine economy and landscape. The chapter considers sources, contemporary research goals and field methods, theoretical approaches, organization of field surveys and excavations, and the administration of archaeology in Greece and Turkey, as well as academic publishing and the place of the field in academia; It ends with a discussion of future prospects.

The chivalric tomb in fifteenth-century Portugal

The fifteenth-century Portuguese nobility was a proud and image-conscious social group that transformed tombs into opportunities for self-promotion. Manifesting changing conceptualizations of history and agency, the nobility’s elaborately sculpted sepulchres also reveal the means of successful social advancement in this society. The ruling dynasty of Avís encouraged the chivalric ethos of the long fifteenth century to exert control over the powerful nobility and validate their expansionist agenda in Africa. This profoundly shaped the visual idiom of funerary sculpture, resulting in the emergence of the ‘chivalric tomb’ in Portugal. Taking advantage of the blurred lines between chivalry and politics and between history and propaganda, Portuguese aristocrats began to manipulate their posthumous images to construct enduring, positive legacies in the public imagination. Aristocratic Portuguese tombs remain virtually untapped sources of social-historical information, particularly through their display of consistent commemorative strategies ranging from genealogical epitaphs to figural portrayals of Africans. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and archival research and offering a close examination of these monuments through visual, literary and historical evidence, this article explores the artistic intersection of death and memory in late medieval Portuguese society and elucidates how aristocratic funerary monuments performed a persuasive, as well as memorial, function.

In the Footsteps of the Problem of the Third Century BC

Introduction. The problem of selecting monuments of the 3rd century BC in the Early Sarmatian culture came into sight during the process of discussing the reasons for the fall of Scythia, when it became clear that the Early Sarmatian funerary monuments in the Northern Black Sea steppes are recorded starting from the 2nd century BC, a hundred years after the alleged destruction. Methods and materials. During the research process the scientists came to the conclusion that there are no imports of the 3rd century BC in the burials of the Lower Volga region and the Southern Urals. Some researchers stated the absence of monuments of this time in the indicated territories, while others continued to search for new approaches. As a result, they proposed the the method of “clamped” dating, which allows us to distinguish a stratum between well-dated complexes of the 4th and 2nd – 1st centuries BC. Analysis. In the course of clarifying the situation in the original Sarmatian territories, some researchers have decided to devide the reference early Sarmatian burial ground Prokhorovka into two groups, not only chronologically, but also culturally. The 3rd century BC became a time separating these groups, elusive according to these authors, not only in the Northern Black Sea region, but also in the Volga-Ural steppes. Opposing this point of view, supporters of the culture of continuous development in the 4th – 1st centuries BC pay attention to the unity of the funeral rite throughout the entire period, and the lack of well-dated imports is explained by crisis phenomena and migration processes, when old contacts with civilizations are crashing and new ones have not yet been established. The discussion that unfolded in the 90s of the 20th century with the accumulation of new materials and clarification of old dates periodically revived, updated with new participants, but the position of opponents has not really changed. The proposed article is devoted to evaluating the arguments of both sides. Results. The method of “clamped” dating is not the most universal, considering the constantly growing database of sources and its corrections. But this method works and many scientists continue to rely on it. A simple statement of the impossibility of identifying monuments of the 3rd century BC, when the existence of the monuments of this time is asserted, seems even more surprising than the assertion of the “hiatus” of the 3rd century BC, in the Volga-Ural steppes region.

Funerary podia of Hippos of the Decapolis and the phenomenon in the Roman world

In the Roman world a wide variety of funerary architecture was erected along the access roads of cities to catch the eye of passersby. In Hippos (Sussita in Aramaic) of the Decapolis, the most notable funerary structures stood along the city's main approach within the Saddle Necropolis. The most distinctive elements of the necropolis's architectural remains were a series of 13 large funerary podia – the focus of the 2020 excavations. The Hippos podia are unique in the Roman world, in their dating, their architecture, and their multiplicity. The architectural design of this series of structures may be the first evidence of necropolis planning and erection of funerary monuments by the polis itself within the Roman world. The article describes the freshly exposed Hippos podia, proposes reasoning for the choice of this particular type of construction, and analyzes similar funerary structures throughout the Roman world, with emphasis on the Roman East, where sarcophagi were widespread.

Creating the funerary landscape of Eastern Sudan

Funerary landscapes are eminent results of the relationship between environments and superstructural human behavior, spanning over wide territories and growing over centuries. The comprehension of such cultural palimpsests needs substantial research efforts in the field of human ecology. The funerary landscape of the semi-arid region of Kassala (Eastern Sudan) represents a solid example. Therein, geoarchaeological surveys and the creation of a desk-based dataset of thousands of diachronic funerary monuments (from early tumuli up to modern Beja people islamic tombs) were achieved by means of fieldwork and remote sensing over an area of ∼4100 km2. The wealth of generated information was employed to decipher the spatial arrangement of sites and monuments using Point Pattern Analysis. The enormous number of monuments and their spatial distribution are here successfully explained using, for the first time in archaeology, the Neyman-Scott Cluster Process, hitherto designed for cosmology. Our study highlights the existence of a built funerary landscape with galaxy-like aggregations of monuments driven by multiple layers of societal behavior. We suggest that the distribution of monuments was controlled by a synthesis of opportunistic geological constraints and cultural superstructure, conditioned by the social memory of the Beja people who have inhabited the region for two thousand years and still cherish the ancient tombs as their own kin’s.

The Monuments and Artifacts

This chapter discusses the transformations that occur within the urban center of Larinum during the period of study. After a discussion of the early occupation of the site, it investigates the town’s architecture. Emphasis is on public architecture (the fortification wall, town planning, the presumed forum area, and the amphitheater), sacred architecture (the via Jovine sanctuary, the remains of a portico, and an early Imperial temple), domestic architecture (the atrium house), and a series of funerary monuments. The evidence shows that the commissioners of these works were engaged with trends that were popular throughout the Mediterranean, demonstrating their connection to the broader Hellenistic koiné. This chapter also discusses coins minted at Larinum in the third century bce and ceramics found at the site (both locally produced and imported wares). While the inscriptions show some attention to Rome, the artifacts show that the citizens’ attention was not predominantly focused on interactions with the capital. They provide evidence of Larinum’s links to sites throughout the Mediterranean. Many of the monuments and artifacts are made for a local audience and local trade networks, and serve to maintain the status of the elite families within local power networks. Items that had been identified in the past as markers of a Roman presence in the town, when considered in light of the continuity seen in the settlement patterns and the epigraphy, can now be seen to be commissioned by local people engaged in a Mediterranean-wide cultural and artistic discourse.