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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2021

Walking amond the dead, the case of the A19 ambitus of Cumae

Résumé

The site of Cumae has been known since the 17th century, but the excavations undertaken over the last twenty years by the Centre Jean Bérard in the northern necropolis have increased archaeological knowledge and contributed to rethinking the funerary spaces. The history of Cumae is rich, and the succession of populations from the Greeks in the middle of the 8th century B.C., to the Samnites, to the Romans, raises questions about the funerary spaces, the choices of implantation and the management of these spaces in the different eras. The questions that predominate are those of the recruitment of the more than 300 tombs discovered, the determination of the status of the buried and the funerary practices reserved for them. For the Roman period, the structuring of the necropolis suggests a rational organisation with large circulation axes that directly serve the burial enclosures and mausoleums. The various epitaphs discovered provide information on the status of the deceased and their place in society. However, the excavation in 2014 of a circulation space used from the second half of the 1st century AD, the ambitus A19, between four funerary monuments, including two enclosures, leads us to question its purpose. The ambitus A19 has a surface area of 12 metres by 2 metres. It was transformed into a funerary space after it was closed off between the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 3rd century AD by a low wall with an opening on to the Domitian Way. It was used for the burial of about twenty individuals of all ages between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The identified funerary practices are similar to those observed at the same period in the necropolis. However, this ambitus raises questions about the use of space in the necropolis, how did it go from being a simple circulation space, a lateral access point to the burial enclosures, to an extremely dense burial site? Who manages this space, who has access to this enclosed space and why? More specifically, we will question the motivations of the population to use this particular space because at the same time other open areas, accessible to all, such as pavements, are used for burial. This trend may suggest greater pressure on the land available for burial. The procedures related to the purchase of a burial space, the construction of an enclosure and the burial of individuals related to the owners are known procedures. Our work on this ambit has led us to look for comparisons in neighbouring necropolises and in Campania, but at present it seems to be a rare case of reoccupation and reuse of such a compact space.
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Dates et versions

hal-03358113 , version 1 (29-09-2021)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-03358113 , version 1

Citer

Géraldine Sachau-Carcel, Marina Covolan, Marcella Leone, Priscilla Munzi. Walking amond the dead, the case of the A19 ambitus of Cumae. Funerary areas: ownership, management, occupation and reoccupation in the ancient world, G. Granier, R.M. Bérard, A. Lattard, F. Mocci, Sep 2021, Aix-Marseille, France. ⟨hal-03358113⟩
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