Columbarium tombs and collective identity in Augustan Rome
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Columbarium tombs and collective identity in Augustan Rome
Cambridge University Press, 2014
- : hardback
Available at / 3 libraries
-
No Libraries matched.
- Remove all filters.
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 261-283) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Columbarium tombs are among the most recognizable forms of Roman architecture and also among the most enigmatic. The subterranean collective burial chambers have repeatedly sparked the imagination of modern commentators, but their origins and function remain obscure. Columbarium Tombs and Collective Identity in Augustan Rome situates columbaria within the development of Roman funerary architecture and the historical context of the early Imperial period. Contrary to earlier scholarship that often interprets columbaria primarily as economic burial solutions, Dorian Borbonus shows that they defined a community of people who were buried and commemorated collectively. Many of the tomb occupants were slaves and freed slaves, for whom collective burial was one strategy of community building that counterbalanced their exclusion in Roman society. Columbarium tombs were thus sites of social interaction that provided their occupants with a group identity that, this book shows, was especially relevant during the social and cultural transformation of the Augustan era.
Table of Contents
- 1. Studying columbaria as a historical phenomenon
- 2. Tradition and innovation in the architectural design of columbaria
- 3. Making and breaking the rules: the use and evolution of columbaria
- 4. Reading between the lines: the vocabulary of columbarium epitaphs
- 5. Finding niches in society: the occupants.
by "Nielsen BookData"
