Description
Book SynopsisFunerary Archaeology and Changing Identities: Community Practices in Roman-Period Sardinia examines three inter-woven research questions. The first one concerns a theoretical issue of how identities can be inferred from archaeology; the second asks what were the material relationships between communities of Sardinia and the Roman world’s power and culture when based on the burial evidence on the ground; third question asked was how can the interpretive frameworks of today’s world and symbolic structures affect our understanding of the past. These questions are approached through the detailed analysis of the funerary evidence from mostly unpublished burial sites from southern and central Sardinia that can become a key to an alternative interpretation of the island and of other Roman Provinces. The questions are answered throughout the book by drawing on social studies, particularly post-colonial approaches to the history of the past, interpretive frameworks on the Roman world, and semiotic theories. By in-depth look at the archaeological evidence from Sardinia’s burials, the book retrieves the active and creative role played by the local communities in shaping of the Roman world within the specific material and historical conditions they lived in.
Trade Review'By incorporating a robust theoretical framework, the author joins others […] in rejecting the now-outdated conception of “Romanized” cities along Sardinia's coast versus a “native” rural hinterland… The author is at his strongest when dealing with theory.' —Allison L.C. Emmerson, American Journal of Archaeology, September 2020Table of ContentsPREFACE ;
1. ROMAN-PERIOD SARDINIA: A SEMIOTIC THEORY OF IDENTITY ;
2. BURIALS OF SARDINIA: METHODOLOGY OF DATA COLLECTION ;
3.FUNERARY PRACTICE AND THE URBAN COMMUNITIES OF SULCI ;
4.FUNERARY PRACTICE AND RURAL COMMUNITIES OF MASULLAS ;
5. FUNERARY PRACTICES AND URBAN COMMUNITIES IN KARALES ;
6. CONNECTING THE DOTS: SULCI, MASULLAS, KARALES AND THE MEDITTERRANEAN ;
7. SARDINIA’S COMMUNITIES AND THE MEDITERRANEAN AT LARGE ;
APPENDIX 1 ;
APPENDIX 2: COARSE WARE TYPOLOGY OF CERAMICS FROM MASULLAS
