Social display and increasing funerary austerity in Hellenistic Etruria

What is it about?

From the end of the third century BC on, the funerary culture of the Etruscan city of Chiusi saw the gradual disappearance of the most expensive containers and tombs. At the same time, there was first a dramatic increase in the number of such monuments, followed by an equally sharp decline in the first century BC. The qualitative development has traditionally been explained using sumptuary laws, which should have constrained funerary expenditure. However, a close examination of the local evidence reveals that this is not only unlikely, but also does not explain the quantitative development and why there was a social and cultural need to constrain these funerary objects in the first place. Using the concepts of distinction and habitus developed by Bourdieu, this paper analyses the developments in Chiusine funerary practice by focusing on social interactions within and between elites and non-elites. This gives both groups agency in a complex social, cultural and political process that caused the criteria for distinction to change, ultimately making funerary culture less important for status differentiation in the rapidly changing context of Hellenistic Italy.

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Why is it important?

This is the first time the development of funerary culture in Hellenistic Chiusi has been thoroughly analysed. Moreover, this paper offers new perspectives on the study of ancient funerary evidence and how to integrate this in the social and cultural history of communities. It also aims at contributing to the field of 'Romanisation' studies, by showing that the Roman conquest did not need obliterate local agency.

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