Death-ritual and social structure in classical antiquity /
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, whic...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge ; New York :
Cambridge University Press,
1992.
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| Series: | Key themes in ancient history
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | 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. Yet hitherto they have been conspicuously under-studied. 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. The methods and arguments used have relevance for historians, anthropologists and sociologists of other cultures and societies, and it is one of Dr Morris' and the series' major aims to enable interdisciplinary exchange of ideas across conventional academic frontiers. |
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| Physical Description: | xvii, 264 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-257) and index. |
| ISBN: | 0521374650 9780521374651 0521376114 9780521376112 |