Men, Women, and Wine: A Gender-Based Analysis of Lucanian Necropoleis

Abstract

In this paper we provide a fresh perspective on how societies of ancient Lucania were structured, focusing especially on the role of high-ranking women. In particular, we explore the social implications of ritual banquet and sympotic practices that the Italic populations borrowed from the Greeks living in the coastal poleis, as demonstrated by the deposition of sympotic items in high-ranking burials as means of self-representation. Current literature on the Lucanian world asserts a clear-cut division of roles between male and female, men being the protagonists of social and political life, and women being confined within domestic boundaries. Our research addresses whether and to what extent this simplistic dichotomy is valid. Examining a group of sample tombs from a few cemetery sites reveals a far more nuanced and intricate picture. High-ranking female burials display grave goods that imply the practice of sacrifice-banquet, which also involved wine consumption. What does the presence of these objects in female tombs mean? Do they testify to women’s participation in convivial practices that, in the Greek world, were considered exclusively male? If so, what are the social implications? To address these questions, we look at the recurrence of sympotic objects and banquet tools in female burials; at the association of grave goods of different types within the same tomb; and finally, at the socio-economic role of the deceased.