Theme:
4. Persisting with Change: Theory and Archaeological Scrutiny
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Ritualism and Funerary Practices in the Mediterranean Basin: Objects, Symbolism, Inputs, and Resilience
Content:
Mobility and cultural exchanges were not uncommon around the Mediterranean in antiquity, whom populations had long been interconnected for centuries before the surge of Rome. However, when addressing migration, individuals often misjudge the implications for the people involved in these processes, and the impact they had in their destinations. Upon their deaths, individuals who were fortunate enough had the opportunity to build something to be remembered by. However, those funerary monuments represent more than a longing for eternity, as they convey the cultural background of the displaced and preserve their cultural ethos in a foreign land.
Scholarship on funerary archaeology has grown exponentially in recent decades. However, academic organisational and intellectual structures often artificially isolate the study of funerary evidence as they encompass established cultural parameters rather than assessing the interconnectivity that the Mediterranean had for centuries. This created artificial boundaries that ignore this connectivity, categorising funerary elements as Punic, Greek, Roman, or Barbaricum. When assessing funerary evidence, we tend to point out the main differentiating elements between cultural backgrounds, effectively neglecting the connections that different communities shared. As academics, we usually ignore that the funerary elements acted as conveyors of identity, which were often assimilated by the local communities, rather than as a characteristic feature of a determined civilisation.
This session brings together scholars who work across temporal and spatial boundaries in the Mediterranean Basin. We will reconsider how to re-evaluate the interconnectivity among the Mediterranean, and how this shaped the diversity of the materiality of belief. The aim is to extend the chronological timeframe of our session beyond the constraints of the Roman Empire to cover a broad range of cultures within the Mediterranean sphere. Thus, we invite contributions analysing funerary practices, cross-cultural influences, and identity from the Phoenician colonisation of the Mediterranean to the Early Medieval Period.
Keywords:
Rituality, Funerary Practices, Symbolism, Resilence
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Noe Conejo (Italy) 1,2
Co-organisers:
Carlos Cáceres Puerto (Spain) 3
José Luis Ramos Soldado (Spain) 4
Affiliations:
1. Università degli Studi di Padova
2. UNIARQ-Universidade de Lisboa
3. Independent Research
4. Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage-IAPH.
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