AIA Lecture, "Dignity And Social Control Through Burial Practices In Ancient Rome"

Burial is a deeply personal act that responds to personal bereavement but also a timeless ritual that mitigates the social disruptions caused by a death in the community. Because of its significance, it is not surprising that people in ancient times took measures to ensure a dignified funeral for themselves and their loved ones. On the flipside, this importance enabled interment to be weaponized, for example through “deviant” burials or the outright denial of funerary rites. This lecture presents remarkable examples of archaeological sites, inscriptions, legal regulations and literary reflections from the ancient Mediterranean, which show that communities in antiquity were preoccupied with funerary rites. More specifically, these examples illustrate the lengths to which people went to secure the privilege of burial and the means they used to deny it. While some ancient practices might seem outlandish today, there are still distant echoes in modern societies, in which some cemeteries are treasured whereas others are threatened with disappearance.