Abstract
How do people deal with the loss of their political autonomy, and how do they negotiate their position in a globalizing world? This may sound like a modern dilemma, but it was a burning question in the Hellenistic and early Roman period (300 BC - 100 AD) when the independent cities of the southern Greek mainland became subjugated to the Macedonians, got caught in the wars between Hellenistic kingdoms and subsequently fell victim to the encroaching Roman power. The Greek city-states were gradually relegated to a marginal position in a new global order marked by high levels of personal and social mobility. The central question to be addressed in this study is how these forces affected social divisions, ethnic identities and cultural orientations at the level of the region, the city, the family and the individual. This study will focus on the Peloponnese because of its strategic position along the major maritime routes of the Mediterranean and because of the past importance of the Peloponnesian cities. The locals did not acquiesce in their new status as marginal subjects of an empire. The local balances of power changed and new (mixed) oligarchies arose, as foreign rule and the presence of powerful immigrants forced the old families to compete for local power. This uncertain present was countered by a new interest in the glorious past, demonstrated in the prominence of ancestor cults, (fictive) kinship relations and (re)invented traditions. The applicant proposes to tackle the subject by analyzing the burial record because mortuary practices can provide invaluable insights into shifting social divisions, personal identities, cultural orientations and political values. This is especially true when burial practices are studied across the social body, from the more visible elite to the urban poor and the rural population, and when examined from an interdisciplinary perspective. This project adopts an innovative approach to mortuary practices which integrates archaeological evidence (spatial organization, tomb construction and elaboration, treatment of the body, grave gifts, imagery) with iconograohy, epigraphic data (epitaphs)and literary sources. The applicant's background in Classics, in Archaeology and in Ancient History makes her particularly suitable for this task. Indeed, her BA and MA cum laude theses on Hellenistic funerary material from other regions have shown this to be a very promising research direction that leads to exciting new conclusions about past societies, but also allows us to reflect about contemporary problems.