DEATH-RITUAL AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY

Cambridge University Press. Very Good+. 1992. Softcover. 0521376114 . Very faint creasing to wraps. ; In this innovative book Dr Morris seeks to show the many ways in which the excavated remains of burials can and should be a major source of evidence for social historians of the ancient Graeco-Roman world. Burials have a far wider geographical and social range than the surviving literary texts, which were mainly written for a small elite. They provide us with unique insights into how Greeks and Romans constituted and interpreted their own communities. In particular, burials enable the historian to study social change. Ian Morris illustrates the great potential of the material in these respects with examples drawn from societies as diverse in time, space and political context as archaic Rhodes, classical Athens, early imperial Rome and the last days of the western Roman empire.1. The anthropology of a dead world, 2. 'Mos Romanus': cremation and inhumation in the Roman empire, 3. 'Dem bones': skeletal remains, 4. Taking it with you: grave-goods and Athenian democracy, 5. Monuments to the dead: display and wealth in classical Greece, 6. Famous last words: the inscribed tombstone, 7. At the bottom of the graves: an example of analysis, ; Key Themes in Ancient History .