Calendar of Events

Lecture: "Creating Permanent Memories? Tomb violation and Collective Memory in Pre-Roman Apulia" with Bice Peruzzi
Join the AIA/East Tennessee Society and the McClung Museum for a lecture by Brice Peruzzi, Assistant Professor from the Department of Classics at Rutgers University.

Topic: Tomb re-openings in the ancient Mediterranean have been generally treated as transgressive acts of violation against the memory of the deceased. From Elpinor’s lament in the Odyssey to the jurists in the Justinian Digest, the ancient sources are full of references to the widespread fear of having one’s tomb defaced or otherwise compromised.

Yet, in pre-Roman Apulia re-opening and re-using tombs seem to be a widespread and accepted phenomenon. For example, about a quarterof the tombs in the necropolis of Ruti gliano-Purgatorio (a site about 15 miles from the modern town of Bari), show signs of having been reused, sometimes several times over the course of a century.

This talk analyzes the relationship between graves and collective memory, focusing on tomb violation in Central Apulian necropoleis in the 6th-4th centuries BCE. I argue that this practice, paired with the general lack of grave markers and post-depositional rites, ancient looting, and the unclear boundaries between settlements and necropoleis is part of complex local strategies where the local communities alternately rejected, incorporated, and reinvented memories of their own past to create a narrative about themselves and legitimize their place in the world.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium. This work is also supported in whole or in part by federal award number 21.027 awarded to Knox County by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Arts & Culture Alliance.

Tuesday, April 2 at 6:00pm
Frank H. McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park, Knoxville, TN 37996
https://calendar.utk.edu/event/lecture_creati_ng_permanent_memories_tomb_violati_on_and_collecti_ve_memory_in_pre-roman_apulia_with_bice_peruzzi