A perfume for eternity? Unguentaria from the necropolis of Cumae (Magna Graecia), end of the second century BCE to first half of the first century CE
Résumé
In 2001, the Centre Jean Bérard started a research programme on the Roman necropolis of Cumae, which is located outside the Porta Mediana of the northern fortifications. The excavations have brought to light 80 buildings, including monumental graves and funerary enclosures; there are about 200 individual graves for a total of about 400 tombs covering a chronological span from the second century BCE to the mid-fourth century CE. This chapter proposes a typochronological sequence of the unguentaria found in the sepulchral contexts of Cumae, dated between the end of the second century BCE and the mid-first century CE. This typology is based on the morphology of the perfume bottles but also on the stratigraphy, the material associated with the burials and the architecture of the tombs. The unguentaria found in the necropolis are essentially of three types. These are containers belonging to the partially painted ceramic class, where the colour, in this chronological phase, is limited to the upper part of the container, thus involving only the rim and the neck of the vase. Three different forms have been distinguished: the fusiform shape (shape A), globular-piriform shape (shape B) and lenticular shape (shape C). Study of the contexts has highlighted two different uses for the unguentaria in the tombs. In some cases, the vase is included among the objects accompanying the dead as part of the funerary equipment. In other contexts, although archaeological analyses do not provide any element that defines exactly which ritual they belong to, the unguentaria seem to be the material evidence of a ritual. Some of the vessels examined in this study were subjected to chemical-physical analysis to identify the content. Through the results of these analyses new data were obtained.