Life and Death in Medieval San Giuliano (Lazio Province, Italy)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Etruscan Centralization to Medieval Marginalization: Shifts in Settlement and Mortuary Traditions at San Giuliano, Italy" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The medieval period in northern Lazio saw significant restructuring of social and economic relationships through *incastellamento, the process by which people chose or were forced to move onto fortified hilltops. Here, I present results from four seasons of mapping, drone photogrammetry, excavations, and analysis of a castle complex located atop the San Giuliano plateau. New radiocarbon dates, combined with artifact and architectural analysis, establish the sequence of occupation of a hall and a semi-subterranean mortuary structure thought to have been attached to an as-yet unexcavated chapel. Economic activities, including trade and feasting, were carried out by the living and indicate a growing degree of wealth and prestige of those using the hall. Meanwhile, the dead were interred in slot graves and in architectural support trenches in a narrow rectangular structure at the eastern end of probable chapel. Preliminary analyses of mortuary practices and the demographics of the medieval burial population are compared to contemporaneous sites in medieval Italy, demonstrating that although interments followed broadly Christian patterning across the region, there was considerable diversity in the details of practice at each site.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Etruscan Centralization to Medieval Marginalization: Shifts in Settlement and Mortuary Traditions at San Giuliano, Italy

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 29886