Date of Award

5-2024

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Honors Thesis

Department

History

First Advisor

Lynne Kvapil

Second Advisor

Chris Bungard

Abstract

This project focuses on the ways that social and cultural identity are projected through material culture in Roman-occupied Greece, specifically in the Corinthia region. Using anthropological and archaeological theories on identity, systems, and creolization, I develop an interpretive framework for understanding how Roman Corinthians used material culture to project their identities in a mortuary context. This project is inspired in part by pre-existing research on the fluidity of cultural identity in Roman-occupied Greece but is designed to fill a gap in that scholarship that does not inspect the ways that identity can be displayed in a mortuary context. I use data collected from three burial sites in the Corinthia region of Greece, Corinth’s North Cemetery, the burials at Isthmia, and finally the burials at Kenchreai. By analyzing trends in funerary assemblage makeup and size, orientation of the body of the deceased, and orientation of the grave itself I aim to demonstrate how material evidence was used as a means of identity projection.

Download

Share

COinS