Breaking Boundaries, Building Communities: An Analysis of the Funerary Evidence from the Hellenistic-Republican Necropolis of Cefalù (15 min)

Presenters

Claire Challancin, Cornell University

Abstract

This paper problematizes the use of cultural labels to characterize the inhabitants of Sicily during the last four centuries B.C.E. and applies the notion of communities of practice to better understand relational networks between people and things. The evidence from the Hellenistic-republican necropolis of Cefalù serves as a case study. Cefalù played a significant political role first during the conflicts between the kingdom of Syracuse and the Punic settlers in western Sicily, and later, during the Punic Wars. Literary sources describe how the city passed under the control of Syracusan, Punic, and Roman forces. This paper suggests that the strict contrast between Greeks (Syracusans), Carthaginians, and Romans presented in written sources has influenced archaeological discussions about the cultural makeup of those living in the city, driving a search for fixed cultural groups and their archaeological identifiers. Evidence from the necropolis, however, indicates that rigid cultural labels inadequately describe individuals. For instance, the practice of building above-ground markers on cremation burials—common in Cefalù—is found in Sicily both at sites traditionally considered Greek (e.g., Butera) and those considered Punic (e.g., Lilybaeum). Attributing this practice to either group conceals cultural complexity and dynamism. To remedy this, the frequency of this practice within the necropolis and on the island may be more productively understood as the marker of a community of practice: a group of individuals sharing specific skills and knowledge. Within this framework, people are not forced into a cultural group. Instead, they participate in, create, and maintain a practice or set of practices that connects them to one another. When burials are understood in relation to practice(s), a multiplicity of spatial and temporal networks between people and the material world emerges, demonstrating the presence and maintenance of dynamic groups, or communities of practice, independent of fixed cultural boundaries.