La scelta di un monumento funerario come memoria di appartenenza sociale: le pseudo cupae da una necropoli suburbana sulla via Triumphalis

Abstract

The choice of a funerary monument as memory of social appartenance:the pseudo-cupae from a suburban necropolis on the via Triumphalis.

The necropolises located along the most important Roman roads represent,regarding the ‘funerary archaeology’, a precious source of informationfor the reconstruction of the social profile acquired by the ancienturban and suburban population. In particular the identification of funerarypractices and architectures offers the opportunity to investigate somespecific aspects of the funerary rituality in this area. An example is thefairly recent excavation, which interested the 9th Km of the via Triumphalis:in addition to the discovery of a well-preserved road, a group of20 tombs (second century AD) has been brought to light. Among them,four belong to a specific typology: conical monuments, built directly onthe deposition. The possible reference to the well-known funerary typologyof cupae and the resulting socio-cultural implications are the subjectof this paper. Moreover, the analysis of these specific tombs, as wellas of the grave goods of the entire necropolis, allows us to reconstructthe social status of the monuments’ owners and to propose some generalconsiderations about the architectural typology.

  marco.arizza@uniroma1.it  m.dimento@lateres.it