death-ritual and social structure in classical antiquity

8/10/2019 Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity

1/4

Death Rituals

Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity by Ian MorrisReview by: W. G. CavanaghThe Classical Review, New Series, Vol. 44, No. 2 (1994), pp. 372-374Published by: Cambridge University Presson behalf of The Classical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/712824.

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2/4

372

THE

CLASSICAL

REVIEW

expressing

the amazement of one who has

experienced

the Dutch

educational

system

-

that there were both medical and

legal practitioners

with

adult

responsibilities

even

in

their twenties. The children of senators

and

equestrians

were

expected

to

accept

their parents' values from their teens, since they already shared their positions of

social and

political responsibility.

This comes

through

most

clearly

in evidence

for

office-holding

by

children or

young

adults in the Greek

(Ch. 9)

and Latin

(Ch.

10)

worlds;

here K.

(who

earlier

appeared

to see the classical world

as

an undifferentiated

gerontocratic

continuum)

realises that there is

copious

evidence for

changes

over

time.

As

he

points

out,

these

changes

are

gradual

and not the result of some sudden

crisis in civic

values;

but

K.

does not seem to

offer

any explanation

(e.g.

in

terms of

the

increasing importance

of'private'

values).

The book comes to a sudden

end with

a

carefully arranged presentation

of the

epigraphical

evidence

for western

city

councillors and

magistrates aged

under or around

twenty-five.

It is K.'s wide knowledge of both Greek and Latin epigraphical material, as much

as his wide

and

up-to-date reading

in

modern

scholarship,

which

makes

this

a useful

book.

How

far his

interpretation

of that material is clear

enough

to

be

persuasive

is

another matter.

(It

would be

unfair

to

comment

on the

English;

but the hundreds of

spelling

errors could

easily

have been eradicated

by running

a

spell-check

programme.)

Thus

when

K.

suggests

that both

hereditary office-holding

(p.

230)

and

public

benefactions

(p.

244)

are less

emphasized

in Roman than in Greek

texts,

he

ignores

the

considerable

literary

and

epigraphic

evidence

(by

no means all from late

antiquity

as

claimed

on

p.

245

n.

97)

that members

of rich Roman families exercised

patronage

a

pueritia.

Public

office-holding

was indeed a different

matter;

under the

principate, fear of imposing on the emperor's privileges perhaps inhibited the

senatorial families from

making

the kind of

public

utterances about their

expectations

for

prematurely

deceased

offspring

which we

find

expressed

in

the second

century

B.C.

by

two of the

Scipionic epitaphs. Change

was not

uniformly

linear;

and K.'s

concentration

on the

epigraphical

evidence

is

exaggerated.

His criticism of

Eyben

is

revealing (p.

52): 'Unfortunately,

he restricts himself to

literary

sources,

thereby

ignoring

a whole

spectrum

of

epigraphical

texts

providing

useful information

on this

subject'. Precisely

the

converse

criticism

may

be made of K.: while

berating

others

for

failing

to discuss a

particular inscription (e.g.

p.

82 n.

30,

or

p.

170 on

non-literary

lawyers),

his footnotes

suggest

that most of

his

literary

references

are selective and

derived from the modern authors he has read

(thus

a section on 'infant

prodigies'

contains

many

interesting epigraphical

examples,

but

K.

seems

unaware of

Quintilian's

detailed account

of

his

two

sons:

123ff.);

and his

grasp

of

the

problems

of

interpretation

involved

in

using (e.g.)

the evidence of

the Historia

Augusta (p. 213)

or of

panegyric

is

weak.

Universityof

Bristol

THOMAS

WIEDEMANN

DEATH

RITUALS

IAN

MORRIS:

Death-Ritual

and Social Structure

in

Classical

An-

tiquity.

(Key

Themes

in Ancient

History.) Pp.

xx+264;

48

figs.

Cambridge:

Cambridge

University

Press,

1992.

'I want to make

your

flesh

creep'

claimed

Joe,

the Fat

Boy

in Pickwick

Papers.

In

Death Ritual

M.

explicitly

is concerned

less

with the emotional

and

religious

impact

372

THE

CLASSICAL

REVIEW

expressing

the amazement of one who has

experienced

the Dutch

educational

system

-

that there were both medical and

legal practitioners

with

adult

responsibilities

even

in

their twenties. The children of senators

and

equestrians

were

expected

to

accept

their parents' values from their teens, since they already shared their positions of

social and

political responsibility.

This comes

through

most

clearly

in evidence

for

office-holding

by

children or

young

adults in the Greek

(Ch. 9)

and Latin

(Ch.

10)

worlds;

here K.

(who

earlier

appeared

to see the classical world

as

an undifferentiated

gerontocratic

continuum)

realises that there is

copious

evidence for

changes

over

time.

As

he

points

out,

these

changes

are

gradual

and not the result of some sudden

crisis in civic

values;

but

K.

does not seem to

offer

any explanation

(e.g.

in

terms of

the

increasing importance

of'private'

values).

The book comes to a sudden

end with

a

carefully arranged presentation

of the

epigraphical

evidence

for western

city

councillors and

magistrates aged

under or around

twenty-five.

It is K.'s wide knowledge of both Greek and Latin epigraphical material, as much

as his wide

and

up-to-date reading

in

modern

scholarship,

which

makes

this

a useful

book.

How

far his

interpretation

of that material is clear

enough

to

be

persuasive

is

another matter.

(It

would be

unfair

to

comment

on the

English;

but the hundreds of

spelling

errors could

easily

have been eradicated

by running

a

spell-check

programme.)

Thus

when

K.

suggests

that both

hereditary office-holding

(p.

230)

and

public

benefactions

(p.

244)

are less

emphasized

in Roman than in Greek

texts,

he

ignores

the

considerable

literary

and

epigraphic

evidence

(by

no means all from late

antiquity

as

claimed

on

p.

245

n.

97)

that members

of rich Roman families exercised

patronage

a

pueritia.

Public

office-holding

was indeed a different

matter;

under the

principate, fear of imposing on the emperor's privileges perhaps inhibited the

senatorial families from

making

the kind of

public

utterances about their

expectations

for

prematurely

deceased

offspring

which we

find

expressed

in

the second

century

B.C.

by

two of the

Scipionic epitaphs. Change

was not

uniformly

linear;

and K.'s

concentration

on the

epigraphical

evidence

is

exaggerated.

His criticism of

Eyben

is

revealing (p.

52): 'Unfortunately,

he restricts himself to

literary

sources,

thereby

ignoring

a whole

spectrum

of

epigraphical

texts

providing

useful information

on this

subject'. Precisely

the

converse

criticism

may

be made of K.: while

berating

others

for

failing

to discuss a

particular inscription (e.g.

p.

82 n.

30,

or

p.

170 on

non-literary

lawyers),

his footnotes

suggest

that most of

his

literary

references

are selective and

derived from the modern authors he has read

(thus

a section on 'infant

prodigies'

contains

many

interesting epigraphical

examples,

but

K.

seems

unaware of

Quintilian's

detailed account

of

his

two

sons:

123ff.);

and his

grasp

of

the

problems

of

interpretation

involved

in

using (e.g.)

the evidence of

the Historia

Augusta (p. 213)

or of

panegyric

is

weak.

Universityof

Bristol

THOMAS

WIEDEMANN

DEATH

RITUALS

IAN

MORRIS:

Death-Ritual

and Social Structure

in

Classical

An-

tiquity.

(Key

Themes

in Ancient

History.) Pp.

xx+264;

48

figs.

Cambridge:

Cambridge

University

Press,

1992.

'I want to make

your

flesh

creep'

claimed

Joe,

the Fat

Boy

in Pickwick

Papers.

In

Death Ritual

M.

explicitly

is concerned

less

with the emotional

and

religious

impact

?

Oxford

University

Press,

1994

Oxford

University

Press,

1994

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http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/4

THE CLASSICAL

REVIEW

373

of

ritual,

('I

see no

way

to

approach

it

without

making

a series

of indefensible

assumptions' p.

21

[though

how less

or more

defensible than

other

ascriptions

of

meaning

such as 'success

of the

ruling group

was

indissolubly

linked to the Roman

alliance' (p. 47) or mound-burial as 'symbolic resistance to imperialism' (p. 51) I am

not

sure])

-

more with the social: the

'

Taken-for-granted

norms

about the roles and

rules which make

up society

-

relationships

of

power,

affection, deference,

rights,

duties and so on'

(p.

3).

He

writes with students

in

mind

(with

an excellent

apparatus

of

references:

prompts

in the

footnotes,

a

bibliographical

essay,

as well as full

reading

list);

but

the book merits a much

wider

readership among

archaeologists

and ancient

historians,

so rich

are its ideas. It is not

simply

that the mountain

of

grave

evidence,

Everest-like,

is

there,

not

simply

a

huge

statistical

sample,

but,

M.

argues, by

examining

death

ritual it is

possible

to

win

an

understanding

of social

relationships

that the

partial

and

fragmentary

accounts of

the Greek and Roman

historians cannot

provide.

He

ranges

over a

large

area and covers an immense

span

of time: the

examples

include Archaic

Rhodes,

Classical

Athens,

Imperial

Rome and Britain

in

the Late

Empire,

and the

topics

touched

on

vary

from dental caries

in

Ptolemaic

Egypt,

to

in-breeding

in

Cambridge.

What to

include,

what not

to include? The book is

organized

with a first

chapter

explaining,

as it

were,

M.'s

philosophy

of

interpretation:

what is understood in the

book

by

social

structure,

ritual and

symbols

and how

they

are to be

read,

and the

problems

of

interpreting

these

through archaeological

evidence. Then come two

groups

of

chapters,

the

first

looking

at the treatment of the

body (cremation/

inhumation;

the

study

of ancient

populations through

skeletal

remains),

the second

at

display

in

rituals

(grave goods, funerary

monuments,

and inscribed

epitaphs);

these

are followed

by

a case

study,

the

site of

Vroulia,

in

Rhodes.

Finally

there is a brief

retrospect.

The

chapter

on

cremation/inhumation

does not

pull

its

punches

'the

change

in "the Roman custom" from cremation to inhumation...involves

tens of

millions of

people

across the

whole western

part

of the

empire'.

M. favours the view

that

inhumation

swept

through

the Western

Empire

for social

reasons,

roughly

that

the

people

identified themselves

as

Romans,

and therefore

although

dying

in York or

at

Ampurias

or

wherever,

buried

themselves as the Romans did. A

process starting

through 'competitive

emulation' became a

symbol

of

unity precisely

as the

empire

seemed to fall to bits. Much of the chapter on skeletal analysis is concerned with

demography, enlarging

on the

point

M. has made

previously

that burials do not

reflect the

make-up

of the

population

in a

simple way,

and a rise or fall in the number

of those buried in cemeteries does not

necessarily

mean a rise or fall

in

the total

population.

Likewise where

the

ratio

of males to

females

is

impossibly

unbalanced

this reflects a social

factor,

not the true structure of the

population:

inconvenient to

demographers

but

interesting

for historians. The

chapters

on

Grave-goods

and Grave

markers

in

Classical

Athens

go closely together; again changes

in

practice

are seen to

operate

in

terms

of

ideology,

the

ideology

of democratic Athens

(here

he refers to the

recent work

by

Ober and

Ostwald).

I have one grouse, the use of statistics. It has to be admitted first of all that evidence

from

graves presents very

real difficulties of

analysis,

and no

easy

answer is available.

All the same M.'s use of statistical

measures,

of

regression

and of

significance

tests,

in

so far as I understand his

aims,

which

are

not

very

clearly

stated,

lacks clear

formulation of an

underyling

mathematical

model;

there

appears

rather to

be a

'cook-book'

approach

where even the choice of

recipe

seems

unjustified.

Even

the

diagrams

and

simple

descriptive

devices seem

likely

to confuse the reader.

But this is an

interesting

book,

rich

in

ideas,

widely

read and

innovative. It is



4/4

37474

THE CLASSICAL

REVIEW

HE CLASSICAL

REVIEW

written

n a

beguiling,

enthusiastic

manner;

the

style

is

fluent,

and

although

packed

with

nformation

the

prose

is

not

unduly

dense

or overloaded.

It is

also an

honest

book:

M. states

his

beliefs

and

makes

his

case,

but

the

information

is there

and

an

alert eader will find the means to disagree, if unconvinced. Buy it, read it

University

f

Nottingham

W. G.

CAVANAGH

BRONZE

AGE

THESSALY

JOSEPHMARAN:

Die

deutschen

Ausgrabungen

uf

der

Pevkakia-

Magula

n

Thessalien,

II:

Die

Mittlere

Bronzezeit,

Teil

I,

Teil

II.

(Beitrage zur Ur- und FruihgeschichtlichenArchaologie des

Mittelmeer-Kulturraumes,

0-31.)

2 vols.

Pp.

xii+413;

84;

1

colour

plate,

30

black/white

plates,

190

figures,

13

plans,

2

microfiches.

Bonn:

Dr

Rudolf

Habelt,

1992.

Cased.

The

German

excavations

at

Pefkakia

Magoula

on the

Gulf

of

Volos

were

undertaken

by

Milojcic

in

1967-77.

This

report

on the

Middle

Bronze

Age

follows

H.-J.

Weisshaar,

Die

Deutschen

Ausgrabungen

uf

der

Pevkakia-Magula

in

Thessalien

I:

Das

spate

Neolithikum und

das

Chalkolithikum

Bonn,

1989),

and

there

will also

be

volumes

on

the

Early

and

Late

Bronze

Ages.

Excavation

of

the

Middle

Bronze

Age

levels on the summit of the mound proved difficult because of erosion and later

disturbance,

and

the

main

focus

of this

report

is

consequently

trench

E-F

VIII,

the

great

cut

which

is

such

a

prominent

feature

on

the

south

side

of the

mound.

The

stratigraphy

in trench

E-F

VIII

indicates

a

transitional

phase

and

then

seven

successive

Middle

Bronze

Age

levels,

designated

phases

1-7.

Analysis

of

the

architecture

suggests

a break

between

the

Early

and

Middle

Bronze

Ages

but

there

was

no evidence of

the

burnt

destruction

level

which

Theocharis

found

when

he

excavated

at Pefkakia

in 1957.

It would

seem

that

the

Middle

Bronze

Age

houses

were

built

in

concentric

circles

around

the

summit

of the

mound.

The houses

were

rectangular

and

either

had

a

single

room

with

a

central

hearth

or

consisted

of

a series

of

rooms.

After

phase

6 the architectural sequence in trench E-F VIII ended and

phase

7

is

represented

by

a

cist

grave

cemetery.

The

stratigraphy

and

architecture

of

the

other

trenches

are

presented

in less

detail

but

the

presence

of

a

possible

ritual

deposit

in a

phase

7 context

in

E

VII

is of

considerable

interest.

In the

second

section

of the

report

M.

analyses

the

Middle

Bronze

Age

pottery

from

Pefkakia.

Clarification

of

the ceramic

sequence

was

in fact

one

of the

main

aims

of

the

excavation.

The

pottery

from

each

trench

is divided

into

four

main

categories

(fine,

domestic,

coarse

and

painted)

and

then

further

subdivided

by

ware.

The wares

are

defined

by

surface

treatment

rather

than

fabric,

the classification

system

preferred

by

Zerner

(Hydra

2

[1986],

58-74

and

Hydra

4

[1988],

1-10).

First

the

technique

and

chronological

range

of

each

of

the

wares

are

discussed,

then there is a list

of

shapes

and

decorative

motifs.

The

summary

at

the end

of

this

section

traces

the

development

of

the

Middle

Bronze

Age

pottery

of

Pefkakia

by phase.

The

appearance

of

Grey

Minyan

and

Matt-Painted

pottery

as

early

as

the

transitional

phase

is

significant,

especially

as

Early

Helladic

III dark-on-light

and

Ayia

Marina

ware sherds occur

in the

earliest

Middle

Bronze

Age

levels.

In

phases

6 and

7 there

were

four

Minoan

or

Minoanising

sherds

and

two

sherds

which

could

be

Cycladic.

However,

M. does

?

Oxford

University

Press,

1994

written

n a

beguiling,

enthusiastic

manner;

the

style

is

fluent,

and

although

packed

with

nformation

the

prose

is

not

unduly

dense

or overloaded.

It is

also an

honest

book:

M. states

his

beliefs

and

makes

his

case,

but

the

information

is there

and

an

alert eader will find the means to disagree, if unconvinced. Buy it, read it

University

f

Nottingham

W. G.

CAVANAGH

BRONZE

AGE

THESSALY

JOSEPHMARAN:

Die

deutschen

Ausgrabungen

uf

der

Pevkakia-

Magula

n

Thessalien,

II:

Die

Mittlere

Bronzezeit,

Teil

I,

Teil

II.

(Beitrage zur Ur- und FruihgeschichtlichenArchaologie des

Mittelmeer-Kulturraumes,

0-31.)

2 vols.

Pp.

xii+413;

84;

1

colour

plate,

30

black/white

plates,

190

figures,

13

plans,

2

microfiches.

Bonn:

Dr

Rudolf

Habelt,

1992.

Cased.

The

German

excavations

at

Pefkakia

Magoula

on the

Gulf

of

Volos

were

undertaken

by

Milojcic

in

1967-77.

This

report

on the

Middle

Bronze

Age

follows

H.-J.

Weisshaar,

Die

Deutschen

Ausgrabungen

uf

der

Pevkakia-Magula

in

Thessalien

I:

Das

spate

Neolithikum und

das

Chalkolithikum

Bonn,

1989),

and

there

will also

be

volumes

on

the

Early

and

Late

Bronze

Ages.

Excavation

of

the

Middle

Bronze

Age

levels on the summit of the mound proved difficult because of erosion and later

disturbance,

and

the

main

focus

of this

report

is

consequently

trench

E-F

VIII,

the

great

cut

which

is

such

a

prominent

feature

on

the

south

side

of the

mound.

The

stratigraphy

in trench

E-F

VIII

indicates

a

transitional

phase

and

then

seven

successive

Middle

Bronze

Age

levels,

designated

phases

1-7.

Analysis

of

the

architecture

suggests

a break

between

the

Early

and

Middle

Bronze

Ages

but

there

was

no evidence of

the

burnt

destruction

level

which

Theocharis

found

when

he

excavated

at Pefkakia

in 1957.

It would

seem

that

the

Middle

Bronze

Age

houses

were

built

in

concentric

circles

around

the

summit

of the

mound.

The houses

were

rectangular

and

either

had

a

single

room

with

a

central

hearth

or

consisted

of

a series

of

rooms.

After

phase

6 the architectural sequence in trench E-F VIII ended and

phase

7

is

represented

by

a

cist

grave

cemetery.

The

stratigraphy

and

architecture

of

the

other

trenches

are

presented

in less

detail

but

the

presence

of

a

possible

ritual

deposit

in a

phase

7 context

in

E

VII

is of

considerable

interest.

In the

second

section

of the

report

M.

analyses

the

Middle

Bronze

Age

pottery

from

Pefkakia.

Clarification

of

the ceramic

sequence

was

in fact

one

of the

main

aims

of

the

excavation.

The

pottery

from

each

trench

is divided

into

four

main

categories

(fine,

domestic,

coarse

and

painted)

and

then

further

subdivided

by

ware.

The wares

are

defined

by

surface

treatment

rather

than

fabric,

the classification

system

preferred

by

Zerner

(Hydra

2

[1986],

58-74

and

Hydra

4

[1988],

1-10).

First

the

technique

and

chronological

range

of

each

of

the

wares

are

discussed,

then there is a list

of

shapes

and

decorative

motifs.

The

summary

at

the end

of

this

section

traces

the

development

of

the

Middle

Bronze

Age

pottery

of

Pefkakia

by phase.

The

appearance

of

Grey

Minyan

and

Matt-Painted

pottery

as

early

as

the

transitional

phase

is

significant,

especially

as

Early

Helladic

III dark-on-light

and

Ayia

Marina

ware sherds occur

in the

earliest

Middle

Bronze

Age

levels.

In

phases

6 and

7 there

were

four

Minoan

or

Minoanising

sherds

and

two

sherds

which

could

be

Cycladic.

However,

M. does

?

Oxford

University

Press,

1994


death-ritual and social structure in classical antiquity

Documents