ion and selection, fi gurines 249–251 Aegean region 502–525

A companion to gender prehistory

The late sixth century was a period of considerable change in Etruria; this change is traditionally seen as the adoption of superior models from Greece. In a radical re-alignment of agency, this book examines a wide range of Etruscan material culture - mirrors, tombs, sanctuaries, houses and cities - in order to demonstrate the importance of local concerns in the formation of Etruscan material culture. Drawing on recent theoretical developments, the book emphasises the deliberate nature of the smallest of changes in material culture form, and develops the concept of surface as a unifying key to understanding the changes in the ways Etruscans represented themselves in life and death. This concept allows a uniquely holistic approach to the archaeology of Etruscan society and has the potential for other archaeological investigations. The book will interest all scholars and students of classical archaeology. • Offers a new interpretation of Etruscan society • Brings together different types of material culture within a single coherent framework • Proposes surface as an overarching means of looking at material culture Contents Introduction; 1. Models of change in Etruria; 2. Etruscan mirrors: reflections on personal and gender identity; 3. Funerary architecture: the living and the dead; 4. Sanctuaries: the sacred and the profane; 5. Domestic architecture: public and private; 6. Urban form and the concept of the city; 7. Making Etruscan society: culture contact and (material) culture change.

The Archaeology of Etruscan Society

Migration, Identity, and Multilingualism in Late Hellenistic Delos

House societies have become popular with archaeologists in recent years, due to (among other things) their conspicuous material basis (wealth, heirlooms and the houses themselves). As yet, however, most archaeological studies have focused only on individual societies. In this article, we offer a comparative and long-term approach to the phenomenon, using as case studies the Bronze Age and Iron Age communities of the Levant, the Aegean and the central Mediterranean. We describe the elements that define them as house societies and examine their evolution through time. We follow a strictly Levi-Straussian definition of the house that prevents the concept from losing heuristic power. Using this definition, we consider that houses are to be found in ranked societies without centralization and in complex agropastoral systems, like those of the Mediterranean, where agricultural soil is scarce and liable to be monopolized. We argue that the house emerges in these competitive contexts as an institution to control land and retain patrimony undivided. Through a combination of archaeological and written sources, we try to demonstrate that it is possible to document several strategies used by house societies to acquire and retain power and wealth, including dowry, levirate, a bilateral system of marriage alliances, ancestor cults, specific architectures and house treasures. The case studies addressed here offer good comparative material for assessing similar processes elsewhere. At the same time, we argue that the Mediterranean area developed a particular ideology, that of the shepherd ruler, that was essential to legitimate the house.

House Societies in the Ancient Mediterranean (2000–500 BC)

Cultural Interactions and Social Strategies on the Pontic Shores.: Burial Customs in the Northern Black Sea Area ca. 550-270 BC.

Reinventando la tradizione. Immaginario sociale, ideologie e rappresentazione nelle necropoli orientalizzanti di Pontecagnano

Etruscans in Campania

The study proposed here, based on a representative sample (148 tombs), deals with the patterns of organization and the funerary customs in the necropolis of Pontecagnano, Salerno (over 6000 tombs dated from the ninth to the fourth century BC), during the Orientalizing period with special regard to the period between the last quarter of the eighth and the middle of the VII BC.Through the analysis of the buried groups and of the spatial distribution it has been possible to highlight certain trends useful for the reconstruction of the social organization in its horizontal and vertical (gender, age, status, rank) and finally to propose an interpretation of certain social dynamics involving the community to which the cemetery belonged.The resulting image is that of a society where social stratification has become permanent, and where inferior social status possibly implies exclusion from formal burial areas. The community seems to be dominated by strong kinship group loyalties, probably opposing differ...

Patterns of Organisation and Funerary Customs in the Cemetery of Pontecagnano (Salerno) During the Orientalising Period

Prospettive teoriche e metodologiche nell'interpretazione delle necropoli: la Post-Processual Archaeology

Orizzonti teorici e interpretativi, tra percorsi di matrice francese, archeologia post-processuale e tendenze italiane: considerazioni e indirizzi di ricerca per lo studio delle necropoli

Mariassunta Cuozzo

Papers

Reinventando la tradizione. Immaginario sociale, ideologie e rappresentazione nelle necropoli orientalizzanti di Pontecagnano

Etruscans in Campania

Patterns of Organisation and Funerary Customs in the Cemetery of Pontecagnano (Salerno) During the Orientalising Period

Prospettive teoriche e metodologiche nell'interpretazione delle necropoli: la Post-Processual Archaeology

Orizzonti teorici e interpretativi, tra percorsi di matrice francese, archeologia post-processuale e tendenze italiane: considerazioni e indirizzi di ricerca per lo studio delle necropoli