Tombs of Pompeii The living Dead Lindsey Nemshick

Tombs of Pompeii: The living Dead Lindsey Nemshick

Overview �Why Pompeii not Herculaneum? �Pre-Roman Burials �Biographies � Marcus Porcius � Marcus Tullius � Arellia Tertulla �Areas of Debate �Conclusion

Pre-Roman Burials �Samnite Cemetery � Dates: 2 nd-4 th Centuries BC �Scanty Evidence � Pottery, coins, and a bronze mirror �Primarily inhumation burials � Plain fossae enclosed with tiles �What can we possibly deduce from this type of burial practice?

Samnite Burials, Outside of Stabian Gate, 4 th-2 nd Centuries BC

Shift in Burial Landscape: Roman Colonization � Recall: � Roman colonization dates? � Who defeated Pompeii? � Colonist Contributions � Theaters, baths, temples, town walls, and funerary customs � * Direct connection between Roman arrival in Pompeii and the shift from inhumation burials to cremation �Evidence: The Epidii family

Street of Tombs, Pompeii

Tomb of Marcus Porcius, Street st of Tombs, 1 Cent. BC

Pompeii, Road of Tombs Jacob Philipp Hackert, 1793

Stabian Gate, Pompeii

Tomb of Marcus Tullius, Outside stabian gate, reign of Augustus

Temple of Fortuna Augusta

Tomb of festius Ampliatus, Street of tombs

Tomb of Arellia Tertulla, Vesuvius Gate

Areas of Debate �Are the placement of tombs, lining the streets, a sign that tombs were important to the people of Pompeii? �Or is it possible that this location, on the outskirts of town, trivialized tombs, rendering them insignificant?

Theory: Tombs Became Insignificant �Henrik Mouritsen �Cyclic changes in funerary practice �Decline in elite tombs and rise of tombs of freedmen and freedwomen (same time) �Did the elite shift their burials back on private property for exclusivity?

Theory: Tombs frequented and Significant �Potential Magnitude of Funerary Landscape �Graffiti as “community announcements” �Feasts �Birthday or anniversary of the death of the deceased �Parentalia (Roman feast of All Souls) �Gardens �Meals shared

Graffiti on Tombs (Porta Nuceria)

Conclusion “Funerary monuments, created to immortalize the dead, in their turn die; tombstones decay, inscriptions weather and stone crumbles and falls. Preservation often entails removal and reuse and once isolated from the cemetery the role of the monument, to mark and protect the last remains of human life, becomes increasingly obscure. The tombstone is an aid to memory but human memory is all too short and every culture ultimately cannot avoid neglecting and forgetting its mounting dead. ” -Valerie M. Hope

Works Consulted � Berry, Joanne. The Complete Pompeii. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print. � Bradley, Pamela. Cities of Vesuvius: Pompeii and Herculaneum. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005. Print. � Castell, Dorothea. Funerary Inscriptions in Pompeii: A Study of the Epitaphs of Pompeiian Freed Slaves. Thesis. Lund University, 2012. N. p. : Lund University Publications, n. d. Print. � Cooley, Alison, and M. G. L. Cooley. Pompeii: A Sourcebook. London: Routledge, 2004. Print. � Cormack, Sarah. "The Tombs at Pompeii. " Ed. Pedar W. Foss. The World of Pompeii. Ed. John J. Dobbins. London; New York: Routledge, 2007. 586 -606. Print. � Emmerson, Allison. "Evidence for Junian Latins in the Tombs of Pompeii? " Journal of Roman Archaeology 24 (2011): 161 -190. Print. � Emmerson, Allison. "Reconstructing the Funerary Landscape at Pompeii's Porta Stabia. " Rivista Di Studi Pompeiani 21 (2010): 77 -86. Print. � George, Clarke. Pompeii. Vol. 2. London: C. Knight, 1832. Print. � Hope, Valerie M. "Constructing Roman Identity: Funerary Monuments and Social Structure in the Roman World. " Mortality 2. 2 (1997): 103 -21. Print. � Jashemski, Wilhelmina F. "Tomb Gardens at Pompeii. " The Classical Journal 66. 2 (1971): 97 -115. JSTOR. Web. 16 Feb. 2014. � Mau, August. Pompeii: Its Life and Art. Trans. Francis W. Kelsey. New Rochelle, NY: Caratzas Brothers, 1902. Print. � Mouritsen, Henrik. "Freedmen and Decurions: Epitaphs and Social History in Imperial Italy. " The Journal of Roman Studies 95 (2005): 38 -63. JSTOR. Web. 1 Mar. 2014. � Toynbee, J. M. C. Death and Burial in the Roman World. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1971. Print.