Cretule e oggetti sigillati. Strumenti plurifunzionali e interculturali: dall'amministrazione alla Laudatio funebris

Abstract

From the earliest times - as far back as the late Neolithic according to evidence from Sabi Abyad in Syria - cretulae retained their function across the ages of guaranteeing the object in which they had been placed. Cretulae have been found on funerary contexts as late as the second century CE in Calabria (Italy) and at Leptis Magna (Libya). Despite the geographic distance separating these contexts, the seals impressed on the cretulae bore the letters LF in both instances. In view of the distance separating these two sites, these letters could hardly have referred to the initials of the officials who sealed the cretulae, and certainly not those of the deceased. This article suggests that the letters are the initials of the words Laudatio Funebris. The cretulae must therefore have been appended to the document of the Laudatio, to guarantee that the document would accompany the deceased to be cremated with the body. They would then have been gathered together with the ashes of the deceased and placed in the...