8/10/2019 Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity
1/4
Death Rituals
Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity by Ian MorrisReview by: W. G. CavanaghThe Classical Review, New Series, Vol. 44, No. 2 (1994), pp. 372-374Published by: Cambridge University Presson behalf of The Classical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/712824.
Accessed: 02/11/2014 12:16
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at.http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Cambridge University Pressand The Classical Associationare collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve
and extend access to The Classical Review.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 143.167.30.128 on Sun, 2 Nov 2014 12:16:09 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cuphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=classicalhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/712824?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/712824?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=classicalhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup8/10/2019 Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity
2/4
372
THE
CLASSICAL
REVIEW
expressing
the amazement of one who has
experienced
the Dutch
educational
system
-
that there were both medical and
legal practitioners
with
adult
responsibilities
even
in
their twenties. The children of senators
and
equestrians
were
expected
to
accept
their parents' values from their teens, since they already shared their positions of
social and
political responsibility.
This comes
through
most
clearly
in evidence
for
office-holding
by
children or
young
adults in the Greek
(Ch. 9)
and Latin
(Ch.
10)
worlds;
here K.
(who
earlier
appeared
to see the classical world
as
an undifferentiated
gerontocratic
continuum)
realises that there is
copious
evidence for
changes
over
time.
As
he
points
out,
these
changes
are
gradual
and not the result of some sudden
crisis in civic
values;
but
K.
does not seem to
offer
any explanation
(e.g.
in
terms of
the
increasing importance
of'private'
values).
The book comes to a sudden
end with
a
carefully arranged presentation
of the
epigraphical
evidence
for western
city
councillors and
magistrates aged
under or around
twenty-five.
It is K.'s wide knowledge of both Greek and Latin epigraphical material, as much
as his wide
and
up-to-date reading
in
modern
scholarship,
which
makes
this
a useful
book.
How
far his
interpretation
of that material is clear
enough
to
be
persuasive
is
another matter.
(It
would be
unfair
to
comment
on the
English;
but the hundreds of
spelling
errors could
easily
have been eradicated
by running
a
spell-check
programme.)
Thus
when
K.
suggests
that both
hereditary office-holding
(p.
230)
and
public
benefactions
(p.
244)
are less
emphasized
in Roman than in Greek
texts,
he
ignores
the
considerable
literary
and
epigraphic
evidence
(by
no means all from late
antiquity
as
claimed
on
p.
245
n.
97)
that members
of rich Roman families exercised
patronage
a
pueritia.
Public
office-holding
was indeed a different
matter;
under the
principate, fear of imposing on the emperor's privileges perhaps inhibited the
senatorial families from
making
the kind of
public
utterances about their
expectations
for
prematurely
deceased
offspring
which we
find
expressed
in
the second
century
B.C.
by
two of the
Scipionic epitaphs. Change
was not
uniformly
linear;
and K.'s
concentration
on the
epigraphical
evidence
is
exaggerated.
His criticism of
Eyben
is
revealing (p.
52): 'Unfortunately,
he restricts himself to
literary
sources,
thereby
ignoring
a whole
spectrum
of
epigraphical
texts
providing
useful information
on this
subject'. Precisely
the
converse
criticism
may
be made of K.: while
berating
others
for
failing
to discuss a
particular inscription (e.g.
p.
82 n.
30,
or
p.
170 on
non-literary
lawyers),
his footnotes
suggest
that most of
his
literary
references
are selective and
derived from the modern authors he has read
(thus
a section on 'infant
prodigies'
contains
many
interesting epigraphical
examples,
but
K.
seems
unaware of
Quintilian's
detailed account
of
his
two
sons:
123ff.);
and his
grasp
of
the
problems
of
interpretation
involved
in
using (e.g.)
the evidence of
the Historia
Augusta (p. 213)
or of
panegyric
is
weak.
Universityof
Bristol
THOMAS
WIEDEMANN
DEATH
RITUALS
IAN
MORRIS:
Death-Ritual
and Social Structure
in
Classical
An-
tiquity.
(Key
Themes
in Ancient
History.) Pp.
xx+264;
48
figs.
Cambridge:
Cambridge
University
Press,
1992.
'I want to make
your
flesh
creep'
claimed
Joe,
the Fat
Boy
in Pickwick
Papers.
In
Death Ritual
M.
explicitly
is concerned
less
with the emotional
and
religious
impact
372
THE
CLASSICAL
REVIEW
expressing
the amazement of one who has
experienced
the Dutch
educational
system
-
that there were both medical and
legal practitioners
with
adult
responsibilities
even
in
their twenties. The children of senators
and
equestrians
were
expected
to
accept
their parents' values from their teens, since they already shared their positions of
social and
political responsibility.
This comes
through
most
clearly
in evidence
for
office-holding
by
children or
young
adults in the Greek
(Ch. 9)
and Latin
(Ch.
10)
worlds;
here K.
(who
earlier
appeared
to see the classical world
as
an undifferentiated
gerontocratic
continuum)
realises that there is
copious
evidence for
changes
over
time.
As
he
points
out,
these
changes
are
gradual
and not the result of some sudden
crisis in civic
values;
but
K.
does not seem to
offer
any explanation
(e.g.
in
terms of
the
increasing importance
of'private'
values).
The book comes to a sudden
end with
a
carefully arranged presentation
of the
epigraphical
evidence
for western
city
councillors and
magistrates aged
under or around
twenty-five.
It is K.'s wide knowledge of both Greek and Latin epigraphical material, as much
as his wide
and
up-to-date reading
in
modern
scholarship,
which
makes
this
a useful
book.
How
far his
interpretation
of that material is clear
enough
to
be
persuasive
is
another matter.
(It
would be
unfair
to
comment
on the
English;
but the hundreds of
spelling
errors could
easily
have been eradicated
by running
a
spell-check
programme.)
Thus
when
K.
suggests
that both
hereditary office-holding
(p.
230)
and
public
benefactions
(p.
244)
are less
emphasized
in Roman than in Greek
texts,
he
ignores
the
considerable
literary
and
epigraphic
evidence
(by
no means all from late
antiquity
as
claimed
on
p.
245
n.
97)
that members
of rich Roman families exercised
patronage
a
pueritia.
Public
office-holding
was indeed a different
matter;
under the
principate, fear of imposing on the emperor's privileges perhaps inhibited the
senatorial families from
making
the kind of
public
utterances about their
expectations
for
prematurely
deceased
offspring
which we
find
expressed
in
the second
century
B.C.
by
two of the
Scipionic epitaphs. Change
was not
uniformly
linear;
and K.'s
concentration
on the
epigraphical
evidence
is
exaggerated.
His criticism of
Eyben
is
revealing (p.
52): 'Unfortunately,
he restricts himself to
literary
sources,
thereby
ignoring
a whole
spectrum
of
epigraphical
texts
providing
useful information
on this
subject'. Precisely
the
converse
criticism
may
be made of K.: while
berating
others
for
failing
to discuss a
particular inscription (e.g.
p.
82 n.
30,
or
p.
170 on
non-literary
lawyers),
his footnotes
suggest
that most of
his
literary
references
are selective and
derived from the modern authors he has read
(thus
a section on 'infant
prodigies'
contains
many
interesting epigraphical
examples,
but
K.
seems
unaware of
Quintilian's
detailed account
of
his
two
sons:
123ff.);
and his
grasp
of
the
problems
of
interpretation
involved
in
using (e.g.)
the evidence of
the Historia
Augusta (p. 213)
or of
panegyric
is
weak.
Universityof
Bristol
THOMAS
WIEDEMANN
DEATH
RITUALS
IAN
MORRIS:
Death-Ritual
and Social Structure
in
Classical
An-
tiquity.
(Key
Themes
in Ancient
History.) Pp.
xx+264;
48
figs.
Cambridge:
Cambridge
University
Press,
1992.
'I want to make
your
flesh
creep'
claimed
Joe,
the Fat
Boy
in Pickwick
Papers.
In
Death Ritual
M.
explicitly
is concerned
less
with the emotional
and
religious
impact
?
Oxford
University
Press,
1994
Oxford
University
Press,
1994
This content downloaded from 143.167.30.128 on Sun, 2 Nov 2014 12:16:09 PMAll use subject toJSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/10/2019 Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity
3/4
THE CLASSICAL
REVIEW
373
of
ritual,
('I
see no
way
to
approach
it
without
making
a series
of indefensible
assumptions' p.
21
[though
how less
or more
defensible than
other
ascriptions
of
meaning
such as 'success
of the
ruling group
was
indissolubly
linked to the Roman
alliance' (p. 47) or mound-burial as 'symbolic resistance to imperialism' (p. 51) I am
not
sure])
-
more with the social: the
'
Taken-for-granted
norms
about the roles and
rules which make
up society
-
relationships
of
power,
affection, deference,
rights,
duties and so on'
(p.
3).
He
writes with students
in
mind
(with
an excellent
apparatus
of
references:
prompts
in the
footnotes,
a
bibliographical
essay,
as well as full
reading
list);
but
the book merits a much
wider
readership among
archaeologists
and ancient
historians,
so rich
are its ideas. It is not
simply
that the mountain
of
grave
evidence,
Everest-like,
is
there,
not
simply
a
huge
statistical
sample,
but,
M.
argues, by
examining
death
ritual it is
possible
to
win
an
understanding
of social
relationships
that the
partial
and
fragmentary
accounts of
the Greek and Roman
historians cannot
provide.
He
ranges
over a
large
area and covers an immense
span
of time: the
examples
include Archaic
Rhodes,
Classical
Athens,
Imperial
Rome and Britain
in
the Late
Empire,
and the
topics
touched
on
vary
from dental caries
in
Ptolemaic
Egypt,
to
in-breeding
in
Cambridge.
What to
include,
what not
to include? The book is
organized
with a first
chapter
explaining,
as it
were,
M.'s
philosophy
of
interpretation:
what is understood in the
book
by
social
structure,
ritual and
symbols
and how
they
are to be
read,
and the
problems
of
interpreting
these
through archaeological
evidence. Then come two
groups
of
chapters,
the
first
looking
at the treatment of the
body (cremation/
inhumation;
the
study
of ancient
populations through
skeletal
remains),
the second
at
display
in
rituals
(grave goods, funerary
monuments,
and inscribed
epitaphs);
these
are followed
by
a case
study,
the
site of
Vroulia,
in
Rhodes.
Finally
there is a brief
retrospect.
The
chapter
on
cremation/inhumation
does not
pull
its
punches
'the
change
in "the Roman custom" from cremation to inhumation...involves
tens of
millions of
people
across the
whole western
part
of the
empire'.
M. favours the view
that
inhumation
swept
through
the Western
Empire
for social
reasons,
roughly
that
the
people
identified themselves
as
Romans,
and therefore
although
dying
in York or
at
Ampurias
or
wherever,
buried
themselves as the Romans did. A
process starting
through 'competitive
emulation' became a
symbol
of
unity precisely
as the
empire
seemed to fall to bits. Much of the chapter on skeletal analysis is concerned with
demography, enlarging
on the
point
M. has made
previously
that burials do not
reflect the
make-up
of the
population
in a
simple way,
and a rise or fall in the number
of those buried in cemeteries does not
necessarily
mean a rise or fall
in
the total
population.
Likewise where
the
ratio
of males to
females
is
impossibly
unbalanced
this reflects a social
factor,
not the true structure of the
population:
inconvenient to
demographers
but
interesting
for historians. The
chapters
on
Grave-goods
and Grave
markers
in
Classical
Athens
go closely together; again changes
in
practice
are seen to
operate
in
terms
of
ideology,
the
ideology
of democratic Athens
(here
he refers to the
recent work
by
Ober and
Ostwald).
I have one grouse, the use of statistics. It has to be admitted first of all that evidence
from
graves presents very
real difficulties of
analysis,
and no
easy
answer is available.
All the same M.'s use of statistical
measures,
of
regression
and of
significance
tests,
in
so far as I understand his
aims,
which
are
not
very
clearly
stated,
lacks clear
formulation of an
underyling
mathematical
model;
there
appears
rather to
be a
'cook-book'
approach
where even the choice of
recipe
seems
unjustified.
Even
the
diagrams
and
simple
descriptive
devices seem
likely
to confuse the reader.
But this is an
interesting
book,
rich
in
ideas,
widely
read and
innovative. It is
This content downloaded from 143.167.30.128 on Sun, 2 Nov 2014 12:16:09 PMAll use subject toJSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp8/10/2019 Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity
4/4
37474
THE CLASSICAL
REVIEW
HE CLASSICAL
REVIEW
written
n a
beguiling,
enthusiastic
manner;
the
style
is
fluent,
and
although
packed
with
nformation
the
prose
is
not
unduly
dense
or overloaded.
It is
also an
honest
book:
M. states
his
beliefs
and
makes
his
case,
but
the
information
is there
and
an
alert eader will find the means to disagree, if unconvinced. Buy it, read it
University
f
Nottingham
W. G.
CAVANAGH
BRONZE
AGE
THESSALY
JOSEPHMARAN:
Die
deutschen
Ausgrabungen
uf
der
Pevkakia-
Magula
n
Thessalien,
II:
Die
Mittlere
Bronzezeit,
Teil
I,
Teil
II.
(Beitrage zur Ur- und FruihgeschichtlichenArchaologie des
Mittelmeer-Kulturraumes,
0-31.)
2 vols.
Pp.
xii+413;
84;
1
colour
plate,
30
black/white
plates,
190
figures,
13
plans,
2
microfiches.
Bonn:
Dr
Rudolf
Habelt,
1992.
Cased.
The
German
excavations
at
Pefkakia
Magoula
on the
Gulf
of
Volos
were
undertaken
by
Milojcic
in
1967-77.
This
report
on the
Middle
Bronze
Age
follows
H.-J.
Weisshaar,
Die
Deutschen
Ausgrabungen
uf
der
Pevkakia-Magula
in
Thessalien
I:
Das
spate
Neolithikum und
das
Chalkolithikum
Bonn,
1989),
and
there
will also
be
volumes
on
the
Early
and
Late
Bronze
Ages.
Excavation
of
the
Middle
Bronze
Age
levels on the summit of the mound proved difficult because of erosion and later
disturbance,
and
the
main
focus
of this
report
is
consequently
trench
E-F
VIII,
the
great
cut
which
is
such
a
prominent
feature
on
the
south
side
of the
mound.
The
stratigraphy
in trench
E-F
VIII
indicates
a
transitional
phase
and
then
seven
successive
Middle
Bronze
Age
levels,
designated
phases
1-7.
Analysis
of
the
architecture
suggests
a break
between
the
Early
and
Middle
Bronze
Ages
but
there
was
no evidence of
the
burnt
destruction
level
which
Theocharis
found
when
he
excavated
at Pefkakia
in 1957.
It would
seem
that
the
Middle
Bronze
Age
houses
were
built
in
concentric
circles
around
the
summit
of the
mound.
The houses
were
rectangular
and
either
had
a
single
room
with
a
central
hearth
or
consisted
of
a series
of
rooms.
After
phase
6 the architectural sequence in trench E-F VIII ended and
phase
7
is
represented
by
a
cist
grave
cemetery.
The
stratigraphy
and
architecture
of
the
other
trenches
are
presented
in less
detail
but
the
presence
of
a
possible
ritual
deposit
in a
phase
7 context
in
E
VII
is of
considerable
interest.
In the
second
section
of the
report
M.
analyses
the
Middle
Bronze
Age
pottery
from
Pefkakia.
Clarification
of
the ceramic
sequence
was
in fact
one
of the
main
aims
of
the
excavation.
The
pottery
from
each
trench
is divided
into
four
main
categories
(fine,
domestic,
coarse
and
painted)
and
then
further
subdivided
by
ware.
The wares
are
defined
by
surface
treatment
rather
than
fabric,
the classification
system
preferred
by
Zerner
(Hydra
2
[1986],
58-74
and
Hydra
4
[1988],
1-10).
First
the
technique
and
chronological
range
of
each
of
the
wares
are
discussed,
then there is a list
of
shapes
and
decorative
motifs.
The
summary
at
the end
of
this
section
traces
the
development
of
the
Middle
Bronze
Age
pottery
of
Pefkakia
by phase.
The
appearance
of
Grey
Minyan
and
Matt-Painted
pottery
as
early
as
the
transitional
phase
is
significant,
especially
as
Early
Helladic
III dark-on-light
and
Ayia
Marina
ware sherds occur
in the
earliest
Middle
Bronze
Age
levels.
In
phases
6 and
7 there
were
four
Minoan
or
Minoanising
sherds
and
two
sherds
which
could
be
Cycladic.
However,
M. does
?
Oxford
University
Press,
1994
written
n a
beguiling,
enthusiastic
manner;
the
style
is
fluent,
and
although
packed
with
nformation
the
prose
is
not
unduly
dense
or overloaded.
It is
also an
honest
book:
M. states
his
beliefs
and
makes
his
case,
but
the
information
is there
and
an
alert eader will find the means to disagree, if unconvinced. Buy it, read it
University
f
Nottingham
W. G.
CAVANAGH
BRONZE
AGE
THESSALY
JOSEPHMARAN:
Die
deutschen
Ausgrabungen
uf
der
Pevkakia-
Magula
n
Thessalien,
II:
Die
Mittlere
Bronzezeit,
Teil
I,
Teil
II.
(Beitrage zur Ur- und FruihgeschichtlichenArchaologie des
Mittelmeer-Kulturraumes,
0-31.)
2 vols.
Pp.
xii+413;
84;
1
colour
plate,
30
black/white
plates,
190
figures,
13
plans,
2
microfiches.
Bonn:
Dr
Rudolf
Habelt,
1992.
Cased.
The
German
excavations
at
Pefkakia
Magoula
on the
Gulf
of
Volos
were
undertaken
by
Milojcic
in
1967-77.
This
report
on the
Middle
Bronze
Age
follows
H.-J.
Weisshaar,
Die
Deutschen
Ausgrabungen
uf
der
Pevkakia-Magula
in
Thessalien
I:
Das
spate
Neolithikum und
das
Chalkolithikum
Bonn,
1989),
and
there
will also
be
volumes
on
the
Early
and
Late
Bronze
Ages.
Excavation
of
the
Middle
Bronze
Age
levels on the summit of the mound proved difficult because of erosion and later
disturbance,
and
the
main
focus
of this
report
is
consequently
trench
E-F
VIII,
the
great
cut
which
is
such
a
prominent
feature
on
the
south
side
of the
mound.
The
stratigraphy
in trench
E-F
VIII
indicates
a
transitional
phase
and
then
seven
successive
Middle
Bronze
Age
levels,
designated
phases
1-7.
Analysis
of
the
architecture
suggests
a break
between
the
Early
and
Middle
Bronze
Ages
but
there
was
no evidence of
the
burnt
destruction
level
which
Theocharis
found
when
he
excavated
at Pefkakia
in 1957.
It would
seem
that
the
Middle
Bronze
Age
houses
were
built
in
concentric
circles
around
the
summit
of the
mound.
The houses
were
rectangular
and
either
had
a
single
room
with
a
central
hearth
or
consisted
of
a series
of
rooms.
After
phase
6 the architectural sequence in trench E-F VIII ended and
phase
7
is
represented
by
a
cist
grave
cemetery.
The
stratigraphy
and
architecture
of
the
other
trenches
are
presented
in less
detail
but
the
presence
of
a
possible
ritual
deposit
in a
phase
7 context
in
E
VII
is of
considerable
interest.
In the
second
section
of the
report
M.
analyses
the
Middle
Bronze
Age
pottery
from
Pefkakia.
Clarification
of
the ceramic
sequence
was
in fact
one
of the
main
aims
of
the
excavation.
The
pottery
from
each
trench
is divided
into
four
main
categories
(fine,
domestic,
coarse
and
painted)
and
then
further
subdivided
by
ware.
The wares
are
defined
by
surface
treatment
rather
than
fabric,
the classification
system
preferred
by
Zerner
(Hydra
2
[1986],
58-74
and
Hydra
4
[1988],
1-10).
First
the
technique
and
chronological
range
of
each
of
the
wares
are
discussed,
then there is a list
of
shapes
and
decorative
motifs.
The
summary
at
the end
of
this
section
traces
the
development
of
the
Middle
Bronze
Age
pottery
of
Pefkakia
by phase.
The
appearance
of
Grey
Minyan
and
Matt-Painted
pottery
as
early
as
the
transitional
phase
is
significant,
especially
as
Early
Helladic
III dark-on-light
and
Ayia
Marina
ware sherds occur
in the
earliest
Middle
Bronze
Age
levels.
In
phases
6 and
7 there
were
four
Minoan
or
Minoanising
sherds
and
two
sherds
which
could
be
Cycladic.
However,
M. does
?
Oxford
University
Press,
1994
This content downloaded from 143.167.30.128 on Sun, 2 Nov 2014 12:16:09 PMAll use subject toJSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp