Funerary Archaeology and Changing Identities: Community Practices in Roman-Period Sardinia

This book analyses in detail the funerary evidence from burial sites in southern and central Sardinia, proposing an alternative interpretation of the island and of other Roman Provinces in which local communities played an active and creative role in shaping back the Roman-world within the specific material and historical conditions they lived in.

Funerary Archaeology and Changing Identities: Community Practices in Roman-Period Sardinia examines three inter-woven research questions. The first one concerns a theoretical issue of how identities can be inferred from archaeology; the second asks what were the material relationships between communities of Sardinia and the Roman world’s power and culture when based on the burial evidence on the ground; third question asked was how can the interpretive frameworks of today’s world and symbolic structures affect our understanding of the past. These questions are approached through the detailed analysis of the funerary evidence from mostly unpublished burial sites from southern and central Sardinia that can become a key to an alternative interpretation of the island and of other Roman Provinces. The questions are answered throughout the book by drawing on social studies, particularly post-colonial approaches to the history of the past, interpretive frameworks on the Roman world, and semiotic theories. By in-depth look at the archaeological evidence from Sardinia’s burials, the book retrieves the active and creative role played by the local communities in shaping of the Roman world within the specific material and historical conditions they lived in.