Aristocratic Burials from Rutigliano (Bari) in Peucetia: Assemblages, Prestige Goods, and Images from Tombs of Contrada Purgatorio (20 min)

Presenters

Andrea Celestino Montanaro, National Research Council of Italy, CNR

Abstract

A strong contribution to the knowledge of the indigenous peoples of Apulia is provided by archaeological research carried out in Rutigliano, a settlement situated in the central area of Peucetia that has yielded some of the richest and most valuable assemblages found in the region. Here, a sector of the necropolis at “Contrada Purgatorio” was excavated between 1976 and 1980: 367 tombs of different typologies were found, covering a chronological span from the Archaic period through the entire fourth century B.C.E. The northern sector of the necropolis is very interesting, in which 131 tombs, still unpublished, were found. These burials have yielded an impressive quantity of pottery and valuable objects, belonging to members of the elite, which reflect several different themes.

These graves have produced bronzes of Greek and Etruscan production, Attic black- and red-figured and Italic red-figured pottery, included in rich services for the symposium, gold and silver jewels, figured ambers of exceptional manufacturing, and glass balsam containers from the Near East (that may have contained the precious aromatic substances used in the preparation of the body for funeral rituals).

As the most complex elements of the assemblages, there was a specific demand for figured vases: they were entrusted with the ideological messages and representative needs of the deceased, displaying their wealth, the social role they played in life, and their adoption of cultural and ideological models of Hellenic origin. They also refer to the deceased’s forms of religiosity and to their adherence to and participation in beliefs of salvific type, albeit filtered through their own cultural values and ideologies. In fact, it is highly likely that the needs of such rarefied patronage influenced the Italic figured production. The evidence examined in this paper shows that from the beginning their specific requests governed the selection of themes and compositions.