Crisis and Ambition

Tombs and Burial Customs in Third-Century AD Rome
Erscheinungsjahr 2013
ISBN: 978-0-19-967273-8
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 336 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 193 mm x 246 mm, Gewicht: 953 g

Tombs and burial customs are an exquisite source for social history, as their commemorative character inevitably expresses much of the contemporaneous ideology of a society. This book presents, for the first time, a holistic view of the funerary culture of Rome and its surroundings during the third century AD. While the third century is often largely ignored in social history, it was a transitional period, an era of major challenges - political, economic, and social - which inspired creativity and innovation, and paved the way for the new system of late antiquity.

Barbara Borg argues that during this time there was, in many ways, a return to practices known from the Late Republic and early imperial period, with spectacular monuments for the rich, and a large-scale reappearance of collective burial spaces. Through a study of terraced tombs, élite monuments, the catacomb nuclei, sarcophagi, and painted image decoration, this volume explores how the third century was an exciting period of experimentation and creativity, a time when non-Christians and Christians shared fundamental ideas, needs, and desires as well as cemeteries, tombs, and hypogea. Ambition continued to be a driving force and a determining factor in all social classes, who found innovative solutions to the challenges they encountered.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Borg, Barbara E.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Klassische Archäologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Römische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte Religionen der Antike
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Volkskunde: Sitten, Traditionen, Mythen, Legenden

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Preface

- List of Figures

- List of Plates

- Abbreviations

- 1: Introduction: The third Century

- 2: Traditional Cemeteries and Tombs

- 3: Innovation and New Designs

- 4: Underground Tombs

- 5: Long-Term Use and Re-Use

- 6: Sarcophagi

- 7: Sarcophagi in Context

- 8: Interior Decoration

- 9: Conclusions

- Bibliography

- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Barbara E. Borg is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Exeter. She has worked on a wide range of topics, often linking her core subject Greek and Roman art and archaeology with neighbouring disciplines such as Egyptology, Classical Literature, Ancient History, and Geology.