VEILED AND UNVEILED: UNCOVERING ROMAN INFLUENCE IN HELLENISTIC ITALY 1 (original) (raw)

Etruscans were deemed “the most religious of men” by their Roman successors and it is hardly surprising that the topic of Etruscan religion has been explored for some time now. This volume offers a contribution to the continued study of Etruscan religion and daily life, by focusing on the less explored issue of ritual. Ritual is approached through fourteen case studies, considering mortuary customs, votive rituals and other religious and daily life practices. The book gathers new material, interpretations and approaches to the less emphasized areas of Etruscan religion, especially its votive aspects, based on archaeological and epigraphic sources.

Updated version of this PhD thesis has been published at BAR International Series 2369 (2012). This doctoral thesis is a study on textile production in central Tyrrhenian Italy from the final Bronze Age to the Republican period. Textile production is studied here through its technological, social and economic aspects. This dissertation presents new insights on the importance of textile-making in the ancient society and economy. Textiles and their making were important parts of all fields of life in ancient Italy. Textiles and textile implements are found from settlement sites, burials, votive deposits and sanctuaries. The differences between the finds from diff erent contexts through time point out the changes in material culture related to textile-making. The changes in the materials also indicate the change from household production of textiles to a workshop mode of production and specialisation and later on slave work. Through the scope of this study textile production went through the introduction of many new technologies; for example the warp-weighted loom was finally replaced by the two-beam loom. Also, the changes in the making of the implements point to the changes in the society and the economic structures. Textile-making is a process that starts from the selection of fibres and leads through many steps to the final product. The techniques used in central Tyrrhenian Italy are reconstructed through the source materials: textile tools, surviving textiles, written and iconographic sources and the data is combined with the results of experimental archaeology. Although a necessity textile production is also a very time consuming activity and as such had a great economic importance in the ancient society. The changes in the production through time insisted for a greater specialisation of textile makers as indicated by the archeological materials from the early Iron Age onwards and the skill of textile-making became something that was highly valued within the society. Textile-making was a virtue of women. A single spindle whorl became something of a marker for female gender and also the most common grave good given to women. Textiles were mainly done by women, but the importance of children in the field of textile production in antiquity is also to be noted. The archeological materials show that children, also some boys were taught the basics of the craft maybe as early as at the age of three or four. However, the learning of textile-making was started in earnest as a juvenile. Everybody did not become as skilled and the skill level needed for special techniques and professionalism was achieved only by some. Th ey can generally be recognised from the burial materials through the multiple tool sets. The question of the importance of textile-making is approached in this thesis through diff erent angles concerning age, gender, ethnicity, social status, profession and religion. T rough this a new insight on the multifaceted identity of textile makers and their social status is built.

From first glance, it is clear that Etruscan uterus votives are reflective of an understanding of human female anatomy. Beyond this, whether an understanding of the uterus as the place of fertilization existed has been debated. This study examines Etruscan female anatomical votive offerings and their representation of the Etruscans’ understanding of female anatomy, asking what can be understood about social and cultural attitudes towards female sexuality and bodily autonomy, especially in relation to fertility and childbirth in Etruria. These questions are addressed by contextualizing the state of medical knowledge in Hellenistic central Italy (and whom had access to it), looking at the broader Italic context of anatomical votive offerings, and looking closely at female anatomical votive deposits and providing a micro-analysis of form at three case study sites: Punta della Vipera, Tessennano, and Esquiline. I propose that most of these votives were deposited by women of all social strata, in an act of expressing concern and care for their own bodies and reproductive health.

According to Livy, twelve priests known as the Salii were created by King Numa to maintain the cult of Mars Gradivus. A little later, under Tullus Hostilius, these Salii (Palatini) were supplemented by twelve Salii Collini, or Agonales, worshipping Quirinus and associated with the Quirinal hill. 1 Whatever their origin, the Salian priesthood clearly belongs to the archaic phase of Roman religion. In the month of March they processed through the city, chanting a hymn whose meaning was, by the late Republic, entirely obscure, and halting at certain locations to perform athletic ritual dances. 2 These dances are often associated with the campaigning period, although J. Rüpke has refuted the idea that the Salian rituals were preparation for war and that the Salii were ‗warrior priests'. 3 Although the Salii are relatively well attested, it is only through Festus, the mid-imperial epitomator of the Augustan antiquarian Verrius Flaccus, that we hear of their association in cult with a group of otherwise unknown priestesses: Salias uirgines Cincius ait esse conducticias quae ad Salios adhibeantur cum apicibus paludatas; quas Aelius Stilo scripsit sacrificium facere in Regia cum pontifice, paludatas cum apicibus in modum Saliorum. (Fest. 439.18L) Without (yet) attempting a translation, we may note that the passage tells us how these priestesses dress, where they operate (the Regia), and with whom (the Salii and the pontifex).