This book analyses in detail the funerary evidence from burial sites in southern and central Sardinia, proposing an alternative interpretation of the island and of other Roman Provinces in which local communities played an active and creative role in shaping back the Roman-world within the specific material and historical conditions they lived in.
In Revaluing Roman Cyprus, Ersin Hussein provides a study of local identity formation in Roman Cyprus addresses its traditional characterisation as a weary, uneventful, and insignificant province and champions it as a rich case study for investigations of the Roman Empire. Hussein collates well-known, overlooked, and newly uncovered evidence to revaluate local responses to, and experiences of, Roman rule. The investigation opens with a look at the island as a real and imagined space to explore its marginalisation in ancient and modern scholarly narratives. Hussein revisits the events surrounding the annexation of the island by Rome from Ptolemaic Egypt and its subsequent administration to establish the dynamics between the inhabitants of the island and their rulers. The spread and impact of Roman citizenship across the island is assessed through an exploration of the strategies employed by individuals to distinguish themselves in local and regional contexts. Hussein examines the poleis of Roman Cyprus, notably the preservation of their myths in literary records and the production of these in the material record, are examined to explore collective identity formation. Roman Cyprus is revealed as an active and dynamic participant in negotiating its identity and status in the Roman Empire. An island was poised between multiple landscapes, Hussein shows how Cyprus maintained deep-rooted connections between mainland Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, and the Near East.
In 2014, aerial photography revealed a structure that appeared to be in the shape of a basilica submerged beneath Lake Iznik, near the ancient city of Nicaea. Including excavation images and dig site maps, biblical scholar and archaeologist Mark Fairchild's work reveals what he argues is likely the location of the First Council of Nicaea.
Burial and Memorial explores funerary and commemorative archaeology A.D. 284-650, across the late antique world. This second volume includes papers exploring all aspects of funerary archaeology, from scientific samples in graves, to grave goods and tomb robbing and a bibliographic essay. It brings into focus neglected regions not usually considered by funerary archaeologists in NW Europe, such as the Levant, where burial archaeology is rich in grave good, to Sicily and Sardinia, where post-mortem offerings and burial manipulations are well-attested. We also hear from excavations in Britain, from Canterbury and London, and see astonishing fruits from the application of science to graves recently excavated in Trier.
This book analyses in detail the funerary evidence from burial sites in southern and central Sardinia, proposing an alternative interpretation of the island and of other Roman Provinces in which local communities played an active and creative role in shaping back the Roman-world within the specific material and historical conditions they lived in.
Human societies have disposed of their dead in a variety of ways. However, while considerable attention has been paid to bodies that were buried, comparatively little work has been devoted to understanding the nature of cremated remains, despite their visibility through time. It has been argued that this is the result of decades of misunderstanding regarding the potential information that this material holds, combined with properties that make burned bone inherently difficult to analyse. As such, there is a considerable body of knowledge on the concepts and practices of inhumation yet our understanding of cremation ritual and practice is by comparison, woefully inadequate. This timely volume therefore draws together the inventive methodology that has been developed for this material and combines it with a fuller interpretation of the archaeological funerary context. It demonstrates how an innovative methodology, when applied to a challenging material, can produce new and exciting interpretations of archaeological sites and funerary contexts. The reader is introduced to the nature of burned human remains and the destructive effect that fire can have on the body. Subsequent chapters describe important cremation practices and sites from around the world and from the Neolithic period to the modern day. By emphasising the need for a robust methodology combined with a nuanced interpretation, it is possible to begin to appreciate the significance and wide-spread adoption of this practice of dealing with the dead.
In April 2017, an international conference, From Invisible to Visible. New Data and Methods for the Archaeology of Infant and Child Burials in Pre-Roman Italy, was held at Trinity College Dublin and brought together for the first time a large number of experts on pre-Roman Italy to present and discuss their current research. This volume contains some of the papers presented at the conference, together with contributions by colleagues who did not attend the conference but expressed their interest in contributing to this volume. All chapters discuss mainly previously unpublished data from pre-Roman Italy with the exception of the last chapter that presents a case study from Late Antique Greece. The first part of the volume constitutes the premise to the others and focuses on methodologies and theorethical approaches to the study of sub-adult burials in pre-Roman Italy. The second part discusses the archaeology of infant and child burials in ancient Latium and Rome, with new data from Rome, Gabii and Satricum. The third part presents data from the two South Etruscan towns of Veii and Tarquinia. In the fourth part, the different chapters follow a journey towards the north; the sites of Tivoli, Spoleto, Novilara, Murlo, Forcello and Verona are discussed. The fifth part presents comprehensive overviews on infant and child burials in Abruzzo and Samnium and discusses a significant case study from Jazzo Fornasiello in Puglia. The final and sixth part is devoted to the archaeology of the Islands, from the necropoleis of eastern Sicily (Monte Finocchito, Cassibile and Pantalica) to the tofet of Motya and the necropoleis of Monte Sirai and Villamar in Sardinia.
This landmark volume combines classic and revisionist essays to explore the historiography of Sardinia’s exceptional transition from an island of the Byzantine empire to the rise of its own autonomous rulers, the iudikes, by the 1000s. In addition to Sardinia’s contacts with the Byzantines, Muslim North Africa and Spain, Lombard Italy, Genoa, Pisa, and the papacy, recent and older evidence is analysed through Latin, Greek and Arabic sources, vernacular charters and cartularies, the testimony of coinage, seals, onomastics and epigraphy as well as the Sardinia’s early medieval churches, arts, architecture and archaeology. The result is an important new critique of state formation at the margins of Byzantium, Islam, and the Latin West with the creation of lasting cultural, political and linguistic frontiers in the western Mediterranean. Contributors are Hervin Fernández-Aceves, Luciano Gallinari, Rossana Martorelli, Attilio Mastino, Alex Metcalfe, Marco Muresu, Michele Orrù, Andrea Pala, Giulio Paulis, Giovanni Strinna, Alberto Virdis, Maurizio Virdis, and Corrado Zedda.
