University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill): Master’s Thesis, Department of Classics (2005)
Abstract
On account of differences in the evolution of the field of anthropology in American and Italian scholarship, the role of bioarchaeology has been nearly non-existent in the latter. Numerous scholars over the past two decades have advocated a more holistic approach to Roman archaeology, namely fostering communication between the disciplines of anthropology and classics, yet little has been accomplished towards this goal. A change in the current perception of the Roman world is necessary in order to dismantle long-held assumptions about this culture. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate the utility of bioarchaeology as applied to the Roman world for framing and answering questions about the lifeways of people in this ancient society.
In a compact, ten-line poem, Catullus eloquently captures both his sentiments of lossand his fraternal duty of last rites following the death of his brother in a foreign land:
Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectusAdvenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias. Ut te postremo donarem munere mortisEt mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem. Quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum, Heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi. Nunc tamen interea haec, prisco quae more parentum Tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias, Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,Atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.
Perhaps Catullus is employing a rhetorical trope in Poem 101, or possibly he penned this verse moved by the physical passing of someone quite close to him. Either way, we gain insight into the nature of funerals, grief, and post-mortem rites in Rome in the firstcentury BC: Catullus’ brother is cremated; he is upset and crying at his loss; and he has travelled very far, moved by an innate need to effect the last rites over his brother’s ashes in the custom of their ancestors.
Kristina Killgrove
University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill): Master’s Thesis, Department of Classics (2005)
Abstract
On account of differences in the evolution of the field of anthropology in American and Italian scholarship, the role of bioarchaeology has been nearly non-existent in the latter. Numerous scholars over the past two decades have advocated a more holistic approach to Roman archaeology, namely fostering communication between the disciplines of anthropology and classics, yet little has been accomplished towards this goal. A change in the current perception of the Roman world is necessary in order to dismantle long-held assumptions about this culture. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate the utility of bioarchaeology as applied to the Roman world for framing and answering questions about the lifeways of people in this ancient society.
In a compact, ten-line poem, Catullus eloquently captures both his sentiments of lossand his fraternal duty of last rites following the death of his brother in a foreign land:
Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectusAdvenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias. Ut te postremo donarem munere mortisEt mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem. Quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum, Heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi. Nunc tamen interea haec, prisco quae more parentum Tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias, Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,Atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.
Perhaps Catullus is employing a rhetorical trope in Poem 101, or possibly he penned this verse moved by the physical passing of someone quite close to him. Either way, we gain insight into the nature of funerals, grief, and post-mortem rites in Rome in the firstcentury BC: Catullus’ brother is cremated; he is upset and crying at his loss; and he has travelled very far, moved by an innate need to effect the last rites over his brother’s ashes in the custom of their ancestors.
Click here to read this thesis from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
Sponsored Content