Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity

by: Morris, I.

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.

Launch of a new textbook series
Death continues to be an 'in vogue' topic
Ian Morris was highly praised for his Burial and Ancient Society: The Rise of the Greek City-State (Cambridge University Press 1987, PB 1989); he manages to practise New Archaeology without abandoning the virtues of the Old

Table of Contents
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
8. Conclusion
Bibliographical essay
Bibliography
Index.

Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity

by: Morris, I.

• ISBN-13: 9780521376112 / 978-0-521-37611-2
• ISBN-03: 0521376114 / 0-521-37611-4
• Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996