Death, Burial & the Afterlife in Ancient Rome-Dr Rietveld- Ipso Facto-Nov 4

Death, Burial and the Afterlife in Ancient Rome.

Much can be gleaned from the material remains that a culture produces, mirroring the social conditions of a society.

For instance, Roman gladiator games began as funeral gifts for the deceased members of high status families.

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The Ancient Romans engaged in often extravagent and detailed funerary customs, interring their dead outside the city walls in a burial belt or ritual boundary, which came to encircle the city.

Not only monumental in life, but also in death, the wealthy were buried in elaborate tombs prominently along the roads of the empire, while the less prosperous had their ashes in urns interred on a niche in a vast underground columbaria complex or their bodies placed along a long catacomb tunnel.

Roman views of death and the afterlife were a complicated affair, with elaborate funeral rituals, feeding the dead ceremonies, and magic to prevent ritual pollution.

Meticulously-worded wills provided for the proper upkeep of the tombs as well as continued observance of prescribed rituals.

Curses were very entrenched in Roman life, and it was customary to place inscriptions on tombs warning of the consequences of corpse desecration or grave robbing. Roman law declared graves to be inviolable with penalties for infractors.

While those in service of imperial or aristocratic families were often interred together in the tombs of their patrons, organizations sprang up as burial societies to purchase land communally for building columbaria, for the benefit of the less prosperous or for slaves, whose manner demonstrated respect for each one's life's accomplishments, no matter the station.

It was believed that without benefit of funeral rites, vagrant spirits of the dead, would haunt the living. Subsequent generations were tasked with bringing offerings of food or drink to the deceased and making special observances during Roman festivals.

Join us at Ipso Facto with Dr. James Rietveld as we descend into the Roman underworld, exposing its ghosts, and uncovering some of the secrets long buried!

This will be a hybrid event welcoming both in-person and virtual attendees.

In- person attendance will be indoors, therefore proof of vaccination and face masks will be required.

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