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Burial Practices and Tombs in the Roman World

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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

Introduction

Understanding the rituals associated with death and burial can help reveal a past society’s attitudes toward death and beliefs about the afterlife. Information concerning burial practices and commemoration in the Roman world is derived from ancient literary sources written by elite male members of Roman society, often about the funerary practices of aristocrats from the city of Rome. The archaeological record also provides invaluable information on burial practices, but only a small percentage of burials have survived intact from the Roman period and are overrepresented by monumental tombs that belonged to a small elite segment of Roman society. Through the integration of different lines of evidence, general patterns can be discerned, but it is important to emphasize that there was not one universal “Roman” way of burying the dead throughout the Roman world and that these practices varied both geographically and temporally.

Definition

The term “burial” refers to the act of...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Tracy Prowse

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  1. Tracy Prowse
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Correspondence to Tracy Prowse .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claire Smith

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Prowse, T. (2014). Burial Practices and Tombs in the Roman World. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_950

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_950

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-0426-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-0465-2

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