Wiener Beiträge zur Alten Geschichte online (WBAGon)

KOMPLETTE AUSGABE

Petra Amann, Raffaella Da Vela, Robinson Peter Krämer — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Der komplette Band wird wie folgt zitiert:

P. Amann, R. Da Vela, R. P. Krämer (edd.), Gesellschaft und Familie bei Etruskern und Italikern. Akten des 18. Treffens der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Etrusker & Italiker (Wien, Institut für Alte Geschichte und Altertumskunde, Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 6.–7. März 2020), Wiener Beiträge zur Alten Geschichte online (WBAGon) 4, Wien 2022 (DOI: 10.25365/wbagon-2022-4-0).

Für die Zitierweise der einzelnen Beiträge siehe jeweils dort.

Etruskische Sozialgeschichte – von alten Vorurteilen zu neuen Ufern

Petra Amann — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

As an introduction to the topic of the meeting this article aims to provide a detailed overview of the scholarly literature that has dealt more or less directly with Etruscan social history since the 19^th century. It shows that certain ideas – still frequently found today – were developed quite early on the basis of a very modest number of sources and subsequently passed on, often without critical discussion. These ideas include the assumption of a rigid division of the population into masters on one side and highly dependent “serfs” on the other and the supposedly extraordinarily high position of the female element in the city-states of Etruria. Modern research has made only hesitant progress in these areas. Even though there are of course limits to the improvement of our knowledge due to the problematic source situation, the author nevertheless believes that a more systematic and chronologically differentiated approach to the heterogeneous but numerous Etruscan source material (of archaeological, iconographic, and epigraphic nature) allows new insights into Etruscan social structures – beyond old (pre)judices. Areas and desiderata of research that are particularly worthwhile investigating in future studies are listed at the end of the article as examples.

Für immer zusammen! Doppel- und Mehrfachgräber in den vorrömischen Nekropolen der Po-Ebene von der Villanovazeit bis zur orientalisierenden Phase

Claudio Negrini — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This article investigates the presence of multiple burials in the Po Valley during the Villanovan and Orientalising periods (9^th–7^th centuries B.C.). It focuses on the two main Villanovan centres north of the Apennines: Verucchio (Rimini) and Bologna. Anthropological analyses have allowed the identification of multiple tombs in Verucchio, while the absence of such analyses for Bologna leaves archaeological evidence as the only indication for such a phenomenon. The author suggests possible archaeological indicators of the presence of several individuals in a burial, such as for example the existence of double grave goods.

Früh- und ältereisenzeitliche Verwandtschaftsgruppen in den kampano-etruskischen Nekropolen Pontecagnanos

Olaf Dörrer — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The topic of this contribution is the question of the relevance of kinship-units with regard to the development of societies, especially in Iron Age Italy. Until now, the phenomenon of social and political change has been strictly connected to the formation of the gens, despite this connection is not securly proven.

Therefore the vast necropoleis of Pontecagnano, an Iron Age etruscophone centre south of Naples, were used as a touchstone for the topic in question. The comparison of the population of a well-preserved kinship-unit of the late Early Iron Age (8^th cent. B.C.) with one of the Orientalizing Period (7^th cent. B.C.) shows, that there was no change in the extension of the basal kinship-units, although the society has decided to develop further, that is urbanism.

Wie viel Macht hinter der Pracht? Erste Überlegungen zu reichen Frauenbestattungen in Numana

Giacomo Bardelli — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This paper presents a number of graves of the necropolis of Numana (AN, Italy) belonging to wealthy females. In particular, the female graves from the ”Circolo delle Fibule“ and the ”Tomba della Regina“ are compared with each other, with the aim to understand similarities and differences between high-ranking burials of the necropolis. All female graves are distinguished by the extremely high number of fibulae in the attire of the deceased – up to several hundreds. This and other aspects of the local burial custom can be interpreted as strategies to highlight status, rank or age of the deceased. It is more difficult to understand which role these women played in their community. Besides the common gender indicators among the grave goods, there are no clear indicators of these women’s political or religious positions. Only the grave assemblage of the ”Tomba della Regina“ allows us to speculate about a possible leading role of the deceased, as shown by the extremely opulent burial with two two-wheeled wagons, hundreds of ornaments, and an unparalleled banqueting set. A more accurate definition of the role of the women of Numana could be offered by the investigation of other burial complexes with circular ditch from the local necropolis, which were probably a prerogative of the local elites.

Grabinschriften als Spiegel des Stellenwertes der Frau in der etruskischen Gesellschaft

Gertraud Breyer — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The focus of this article lies on Etruscan funerary inscriptions, especially on the nomenclature of men and women regardless if freeborn or freed persons. First of all it becomes apparent that there is no difference between free men and free women concerning the elaborateness of the formulas. In fully developed formulas in inscriptions of the 4^th century there is no discrimination of women: for both gender praenomen, gentilic, cognomen, patronymic and the name of the grandfather, the papponymic, can be used. The gamonymic is evidently limited to female formulas. It must be considered that the order of these elements can differ from city-state to city-state. Every city-state can also favor or neglect certain elements. Especially the metronymic, which appears in the nomenclature of both genders, must be highlighted. It is unique in the central Italic system of names. It also appears in the latest Etruscan inscriptions and – latinized – in Latin inscriptions found in Etruscan regions. Furthermore, the use of praenomina and cognomina in female Etruscan inscriptions is mentioned as well as the denomination of the patrona in inscriptions of freedmen and freedwomen. All this is considered in relation to the Latin epigraphic habit, whereby different developments of the originally common system of names become evident. This may be understood under the premises of different social developments. It is a fact that Rome was ruled by a rigorous patriarchy, while women were kept in the background. They were apparently no individual persons, but only part of the gens and were not mentioned among the ancestors. In Etruria too, there was a patriarchal structure of society, but probably it was less constringent. The Etruscan woman remained, at least in the context of the family, an individuum. Furthermore it was obviously accepted by the Etruscan society, even not only in funerary context, that the mother’s name appeared in the official ‘formula onomastica’ of a man. Another fact is that grandmothers are evident in some funerary inscriptions.

La coppia: un’invenzione etrusca?

Marie-Laurence Haack — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Around 530 BC the Etruscans invented a form of representation of the spouses, one next to the other, on the same bed, which has no equivalent in Roman Republican culture, and probably corresponds to a particular notion of family: certainly the union of two families that preserve strong bonds after marriage, but probably also the union of two persons. I study this Etruscan married couple through urns and bisome sarcophagi, in which man and woman are represented next to each other. I argue that this idea of the couple lasted for almost five hundred years: it was reinvented in internal Etruria in the 3rd and the early 2nd century BC, probably because this area was less permeable to foreign notions of the couple (e.g. from Greece) and then it was revived at Perusia, where this idea flourished at the end of the 2nd century BC. I examine the significance of this exhibited proximity, which is peculiar of the Etruscans, to understand if the images of these couples show an attitude and a gratitude that goes beyond the moment of the marriage, that is affection and care toward the other.

Starke asymmetrische Abhängigkeitsverhältnisse und soziale Ungleichheiten in Etrurien. Ein ikonographischer Ansatz

Patrick Zeidler — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Social inequality as well as permanent and institutionalized forms of strong asymmetrical dependency, such as slavery and captivity, have to be considered as an integral part of Etruscan society. In the period from the 6^th to the 1^st century BCE, depictions of dependent and/or socially inferior persons were very common in Etruscan art and occurred in many different types of visual culture, like mural and vase paintings, urns, sarcophagi, mirrors, figurines and gems as well as in the architectural decoration of sacral buildings and aristocratic residences. Visual representations of captives, strangers and various types of dependent laborers, working in the households of the Etruscan nobility, such as nurses, pedagogues, cupbearers, kitchen staff, dancers and musicians, can be mentioned as examples for this. The main focus of my research is on the analysis of the iconographical elements, which have been used in these images in order to show social hierarchies and power imbalances between different actors. Thereby, it will be possible to draw conclusions about the Etruscan society in regard to the marginalization of dependent persons and the self-representation of the powerful elite. In order to broaden the perspective, Etruscan inscriptions, for example from craftsmen and manumitted slaves, and literary sources from Greek and Roman authors, dealing with different forms of dependency in Etruria, will be considered, too.

Familie und Individuum. Zur Sichtbarkeit von Familienstrukturen im funerären Kontext auf etruskisch-hellenistischen Steinsarkophagen

Laura Nazim — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The representation of family as well as the worship of the ancestors are among those topics that were particularly strongly emphasized within Etruscan art. Thus, the common burials of family members from several generations in large tombs are documented ever since the orientalizing period and culminate in the great family chambers of the Hellenistic period, wherein the members of the respective family can spend the eternal afterlife together. This idea is especially perceivable within funerary wall paintings. The sense of belonging and communion of the individuals gets stressed by the depiction of certain topics, outlining the importance of family and marriage. Although the Hellenistic stone sarcophagi are considered a type of sepulchral art rich in illustrations, depictions of marriage and bonding within the family are perceived to be found here rarely or not at all. Within the limits of my article, I will, based on a few selected examples, attempt to point out that there certainly are sarcophagi whose figurative decorations focus on the bond between husband and wife. Therefore, the depictions of the often discussed sarcophagus of Ramtha Vishnai and the Lasa sarcophagus from the necropolis of Ponte Rotto in Vulci as well as those of the so called ‘sarcofago del magistrato ceretano’ from the Tomba dei Sarcofagi in Caere will be examined in regard to relevant motifs, which allow for a (re-)interpretation of the scenes in a marital context and to check if in fact every procession of a magistrate can be interpreted in the sense of a journey to the underworld.

Demographische Verhältnisse oder kommemorative Praktiken? Überlegungen zur sozialen Aussagekraft etruskischer Grabinschriften des 4.–1. Jhs. v. Chr.

Robinson Peter Krämer — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Little demographic research has been conducted in Etruscan and Italic studies compared to other fields of Classical Antiquity. Hellenistic funerary inscriptions are an important data set for demographic studies of Etruscan and Italic societies, since they provide information about sex, age, kinship, political and religious offices, and personal mobility. However, for the field of Ancient History, Keith Hopkins was able to demonstrate that funerary inscriptions do not provide valid data for the reconstruction of ancient demographic structures because inscriptions and their media were used during funerals for social representation and therefore create a distorted picture of social structures. At the same time, Hopkins’ critique introduced the use of modern comparative data and model life tables to this field. Nonetheless, these studies and concepts remain largely ignored in Etruscan and Italic studies to date.

In this article, I will examine 4^th–1^st cent. BCE funerary inscriptions from Tarquinia and the ager Tarquiniensis as a case study, and compare them with demographic models and model life tables. The demographic indicators specifically considered here are birth and mortality rates, the distribution of age classes and sex, as well as mentions of socio-political titles and offices and their display in burials. The significant discrepancies in the data from funerary contexts in Tarquinia and its territory when compared with historical and modern data allows us to reconstruct practices of commemoration and representation of elite clans (gentes), as well as the degree of segmentation in the Etruscan society of Tarquinia.

Von realen und konstruierten Familien: Die Wiederbelegung etruskischer Gräber als Resilienzstrategie

Paul P. Pasieka — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Etruscan sepulchral culture is characterized by its pronounced temporality, which includes the sometimes very long occupancy periods or ritual uses of graves as well as the deliberate references to the past on various levels and with differing qualities. Both topics were repeatedly the subject of archaeological research. However, another practice has remained largely unnoticed, namely the re-use of older tombs for new burials after a longer hiatus. In my paper, I’d like to present a first summary of the practice of re-use of older tombs in Etruria concentrating on the early hellenistic re-use of tumuli in Cortona, Chiusi, and Vetulonia.

Of particular interest in this context is how the older burials and their grave goods were dealt with. What role did the older burials and the memory of them play? This refers more generally to the way the past and memory are engaged with. In particular, the association of new burials with older, visually prominent ones raises the question of broader socio-historical ramifications. These references to the past will be analysed with the concept of resilience and understood as a factor in coping with exogenous and endogenous crises. The tumuli constitute a landscape of memory. Re-occupations can thus be understood as part of memorial discourses of distinction and conscious identity constructions.

Die Familie als soziale Ressource in Hirpinien (8.–2. Jh. v. Chr.)

Raffaella Da Vela — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The present contribution approaches the structures and social values of family and families in ancient Hirpinia, a region in Inland Campania. This topic has not been addressed in the studies of the region so far, because of the lacunary state of publications. An accurate review of past publications, of the recent surveys and emergency excavations offers a wider dataset, covering large parts of the first millennium BC, from the so called Iron Age Oliveto-Cairano facies to the late Hellenistic period. During the Hellenism the construction of the consular road via Appia across the region, the deduction of Roman coloniae (Beneventum and Abellinum) and of municipia (Compsa, Aeclanum, Frigentum), as well as the foundation of new settlements (fora gracchana) and farms significantly changed the asset of the region and consequently transformed social structures. This analysis presented takes into account the social use of space, symbols and assemblages within three different kinds of communicative contexts: cemeteries, sanctuaries and households. The analysis interlocks the data on the social value of the nuclear family and of families intended as clans or kinship groups, to reconstruct how the attribution of roles and functions to family members, as well as family strategies has made them fundamental resources for the construction and the definition of social identities in ancient Hirpinia. Additionally, the adopted heuristic frame considers family and families as social resources, and invites to question our view of ancient families. Some of the roles and functions, such as education and socialization of young people or transmission of knowledge, on which our modern definition of the family as a social unit is based, were possibly taken over by other social institutions and groups. The agency of these social groups in ‘family matters’ is challenging our modern interpretative frames of the social function of family and families. It is therefore necessary to put our interpretative categories under discussion in order to better understand the social dynamics in Hirpinian communities of the first millennium BC.

Feste feiern im Haus, auf dem Land und in der Stadt: Ritualplätze und soziale Strategien im archaischen Sizilien

Maria Carmen D'Onza — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The article is based on a completed PhD research on the architecture and ritual places of the indigenous communities in Sicily from the 9^th to 6^th centuries BC. The aim was to examine the internal social processes and communication strategies of the indigenous communities. In the 6^th century, these communities found themselves in a phase of change towards a (proto-)urban society.

This paper will focus on a specific topic of the broader research: To what extent can we reconstruct the social structure of indigenous communities by analyzing their residential buildings, settlement structures, and ritual places?

In a first step, I will give a brief outline of the prevailing residential architecture, settlement forms, and burial customs from the 9^th to 6^th centuries BC in Sicily. This is followed by a diachronic analysis based on selected examples of the ritual places with regard to topography, architecture, and archaeological record. The areas where evidence of ritual activities can be archaeologically identified are addressed as ritual sites. The term refers to the areas within the indigenous settlements where rituals have taken place, without, however, placing them in a religious context beforehand. In archaeological findings, rituals can be generally identified as recurring and thus recognizable patterns that refer to formalized and repetitive complexes of action. In a final step, the presented findings are related to each other and analyzed with regard to the overriding question.