Funerary Objects Research Articles

Combined use of gas chromatography and HPLC-ESI-Q-TOF to assess the culinary uses of archaeological Santa María style ceramic vessels from El Colorado (Catamarca, Argentina)

In this paper, an interdisciplinary investigation was carried out to study if Santa Maria tricolor style vessels were used as culinary equipment in a 14th century ad domestic cooking space in El Colorado (Yocavil valley, Catamarca, Northwest Argentina) and to question the long-established idea that Santa Maria vessels were exclusively funerary objects. The combined use of gas chromatography (GC-FID), gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-Q-TOF) to study residual lipids from Santa Maria style vessels provided valuable information on their ancient use. Also, an ordinary striated style ceramic pot with distinct visible soot marks, as well as sediments from the cooking area, was studied for comparative purposes. Fatty acid, sterol, and acylglyceride profiles were characterized, and markers of food sources were searched in the complex mixtures. We identified intact triacylglycerides (TAGs) in the archaeological samples, even unsaturated, indicating exceptional preservation of lipids in the ceramic matrixes. Cholesterol or cholesterol oxidation products were observed in all ceramic containers, as well as plant sterols (stigmasterol, sitosterol) in two containers. Markers for ruminant lipids, such as TAGs that contain odd-chain fatty acids, were found, supported by the identification of odd-chain and branched-chain fatty acids with GC-FID and GC-MS. This evidence contributes to the hypothesis that Santa Maria vessels were used for culinary purposes in this archaeological domestic cooking space.

Flaming Pearls and Flying Phoenixes: Materiality, Research, and Stewardship of Liao Dynasty Metalwork

ABSTRACT Metalwork from the Liao Dynasty (907-1125 CE) displays material and technical mastery that draws on the metalware and gilding traditions from the Tang and Song dynasties in China. When the nomadic Khitan people created the Liao polity, their military dominance, worldview, and cultural tastes culminated in a rich physical heritage. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) has three opulent Khitan funerary objects in its collection: a Mongolian-style gilded copper saddle, a pair of gilded silver boots, and a gilded silver crown. Transcendency of materials in the pursuit of form can embed meaning and cultural significance in ways not readily apparent. Increased awareness of the Liao Dynasty metalwork tradition and new archaeological finds are slowly changing the narrative of the Khitan people from “barbaric” nomadic outsiders to culturally-empowered elites. Current research and technical study strive to contextualize the Liao Dynasty metalware and offer a glimpse into the material mastery of the Khitan people and the world in which they lived.

The Life and Afterlife of a Western Han “Covered Mirror” from the Tomb of Marquis of Haihun (59 BCE)

AbstractThis article provides a contextual analysis of an enigmatic object—dubbed the “Confucius Dressing Mirror” (Kongziyijing孔子衣鏡)—recently unearthed from the tomb of Liu He 劉賀 (Marquis of Haihun 海昏侯, d. 59 BCE) in 2015. I raise questions about the prevailing identification of this object as a “dressing mirror” and a “lived object,” used by Liu He for moral self-cultivation or political self-preservation in his volatile life as the deposed ninth emperor of Han. Instead, I treat the object as an assemblage and analyze its complete material composition and physical placement in Liu He's tomb in the broader context of funerary material culture and burial practice in early imperial China. I propose that the entombed object can be considered as a composite talisman to protect the deceased against baleful and harmful influences in the tomb and in his afterlife. Methodologically, this article stresses the importance of contextual analysis in shedding light on the traditional conceptual categories such as “lived object” (shengqi生器) and “funerary objects” (mingqi明器) in actual funerary ritual processes.

중국 고대회화의 ‘분과(分科)’ 형성에 관한 시론 : 북조 석장구 회화를 중심으로

중국 고대회화의 ‘분과(分科)’ 형성에 관한 시론 : 북조 석장구 회화를 중심으로

중국 고대회화의 ‘분과(分科)’ 형성에 관한 시론 : 북조 석장구 회화를 중심으로

중국 고대회화의 ‘분과(分科)’ 형성에 관한 시론 : 북조 석장구 회화를 중심으로

The Embodiment of the Plot “After Death Meal” in the Ancient Funerary Monuments of the Northern Black Sea Region

In the first centuries of our era, the Greek cities of the Northern Black Sea region experienced crisis processes. They resulted in significant changes in the life of policies, including the burial rite. The significance of individual plots used in its performance changes. The plot of the “afterlife meal” and certain types of funerary objects, in which it was embodied, are widely spread. Two types of such objects have been identified and analyzed: stone tombstones with corresponding images and underground crypts with niches – beds in the chambers. Earlier, the corresponding stone tombstones appear in small quantities in Olbia in the Hellenistic period. Since the beginning of the new era, they are widely spread throughout the Northern Black Sea region. On the tombstones the interior of the house and the deceased, reclining on the boxes during the “afterlife meal”, is often depicted. The same interior is embodied in the internal structure of the underground crypts chambers. In this niche – beds symbolize the burial bed. Such crypts appear in insignificant quantities in Hellenistic Olbia, but they are also widely spread from the 1st c. AD throughout the Northern Black Sea. Thus, the plot of the “afterlife meal”, widely known in the ancient world, on the territory of the Northern Black Sea region is embodied in at least two categories of archaeological monuments – stone tombstones with corresponding images and underground crypts with niches – stove beds. Such monuments appear in small numbers in Hellenism, and since the beginning of the Roman era they have become widespread. This is partly due to the intensification of the process of “heroization” of the dead and changes in the social structure of the population of this region.

Jubaji, a Neo-Elamite (Phase IIIB, 585–539 BC) Tomb in Ramhurmuz, Khuzestan

ABSTRACTIn May 2007, a Neo-Elamite period (phase IIIB) burial site was discovered during excavations carried out as part of a piping project by the Khuzestan Water and Sewage Company around Jubaji village, which is near the town of Ramhurmuz, Khuzestan province. The site included a small tomb structure and two bronze coffins. A large number of diverse funerary objects were recovered both inside and outside the coffins, having been scattered as a result of the action of mechanical machinery. Several inscriptions were preserved on gold items, one of which includes the royal name Shutur-Nahunte son of Indada. This paper aims to introduce and describe the tomb and its related artefacts and outline some historical interpretations. A hypothetical reconstruction of the site and the much damaged coffins is also given at the end.

Western Han Funerary Relocation Documents and the Making of the Dead in Early Imperial China

In this first comprehensive study of what I call funerary “relocating-to-the-Underworld documents” (abbr. relocation documents), I analyze the ten known cases that have been excavated between 1973 and 2016 in southern China. Through the analytical lens of the making of the dead, I argue that this particular type of textual object found exclusively in Western Han tombs in the second and first centuries b.c.e. can be viewed as a material manifestation of the strategic negotiation between an omnipresent imperial state and its agentive imperial subjects at the intersection of bureaucratic authority and the creation of a desirable afterlife for the dead of the empire. There are three main objectives of the present study. First, I propose to designate these entombed objects as “relocation documents” (yi dixia shu 移地下書), highlighting their primary ritual function as to present and/or produce a desirable afterlife status for the deceased when they relocate to the Underworld. I argue that a typical funerary relocation document has two essential components: a “notification letter” (yiwen 移文) and “itemized details” (ximu 細目). In the current scholarship, the former has been called gaodice 告地策 (informing-the-Underworld document), and the latter qiance 遣策 (tomb inventory). They are conventionally considered to be two distinct and separate genres of text. Although qiance have been found alone in tombs, in the case of funerary relocation documents, I argue that they are integral to the complete package to fulfill its ritual function and that these two components should be considered together as a single document. Second, instead of characterizing these relocation documents collectively as a homogenous genre of text and identifying them as imperfect imitations of Han official documents, I emphasize their material nature as funerary objects and contextualize them as part of the funerary assemblage for burial. I analyze their structural composition—both physical and textual—and situate them in the context of their production and entombment in relation to the deceased as well as the broader social-historical conditions shared by the local community of which the dead was a part. The detailed case studies of the relocation documents, on the one hand, expectedly confirm a wide and deep penetration of the state power into the fabric of the Han society, in life and in death, through the institutions of household registration and the 20-rank system; on the other hand, they also reveal the much less understood side of imperial control, that the lesser elite and the ordinary subjects of the empire were not passive receivers. Rather, they were informed about and understood the authority embedded in state institutions and bureaucratic procedures to the extent that they knew how to “work the system” to their own advantage with regard to the afterlife. Third, although each relocation document exhibits notable individual, even idiosyncratic, characteristics, the fact that nine of the ten known specimens were found in close geographical and temporal proximity to one another in the greater Han Jiangling 江陵 region in present-day Hubei strongly indicates that Jiangling was the center for the practice of interring funerary relocation document in burials. Evidence also suggests that there was likely a regional funerary tradition and economy enabling and supporting their production and circulation among other funerary objects such as tomb figurines. A fully annotated translation of the eight published cases of funerary relocation documents is included in the Appendix.

The African Burial Ground in New York City: Memory, Spirituality, and Space

The African Burial Ground in New York City: Memory, Spirituality, and Space

Imagining the Beyond: The Conceptualization of Duat between the Old and the Middle Kingdoms

This paper focuses on the evolution of the concept of Duat in the Old and Middle Kingdom funerary texts. This notion is already attested in the Pyramid Texts, which provide early but ambiguous references to it, seemingly identifying the Duat both with part of the sky and with a liminal domain located somewhere between earth and horizon, and endowed with regenerative power. Toward the end of the Old Kingdom, and with the emergence of the Coffin Texts, the depiction of the cosmos appears to have altered slightly. A better-defined universe was now sketched in the spells. Contrasted with the earth and the diurnal sky stood the Duat, which was, to some extent, described as including both nether sky and netherworld. This article traces the process of development of the concept of Duat within the broader frame of the ancient Egyptian funerary beliefs as attested in the Pyramid and Coffin Texts. Moreover, a brief analysis of a particular category of funerary objects popular in this period shows that the evolution in the conceptualization of the afterlife found in funerary texts underlies changes in material culture as well. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5913/jarce.54.2018.a016

Snow in Midsummer , by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig. Based on the Classical Chinese Drama The Injustice to Dou E That Moved Heaven and Earth by Guan Hanqing. U. S. Premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland Oregon, August 2–October 27, 2018

PERFORMANCE REVIEW: SNOW IN MIDSUMMER, BY FRANCES YA-CHU COWHIG. BASED ON THE CLASSICAL CHINESE DRAMA THE INJUSTICE TO DOU E THAT MOVED HEAVEN AND EARTH BY GUAN HANQING. U. S. PREMIERE AT THE OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL, ASHLAND OREGON, AUGUST 2-OCTOBER 27, 2018. CATHERINE SWATEK The University of British Columbia Snow in Midsummer (hereafter “Snow”), a very free adaptation of the Yuan drama Injustice to Dou E (Dou E yuan, hereafter “Injustice”) in two acts, is the first fruit of a project initiated in 2015 by the Royal Shakespeare Company, to commission new translations of Chinese classic plays and inspire adaptations of them by contemporary playwrights.1 The play had its first run at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon from 23 February to 25 March 2017, and a second run, in a new production with a different cast, at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival from 2 August to 27 October of 2018. This review is based on the production in Ashland, where I attended two performances near the end of its run. Cowhig was attracted to a play about a female ghost seeking revenge because, in her words, “I was drawn to the idea of a wronged woman going on a quest to clear her name.”2 Having lived in China and Taiwan, off and on, for more than ten years (her mother is Chinese, her father served in the State Department with postings in China), she also drew inspiration from ghost films when adapting a Yuan dynasty play to explore contemporary issues having to do with environmental degradation, the ravages of global capitalism, and the particular difficulties faced by women, in this case marginalized rural women in China. These issues emerge in the play in an urban setting, an industrial town called New Harmony located somewhere in China’s north, but they resonate beyond China.3 To judge by production photos posted at the Royal Shakespeare Company website, the set design for the Stratford production was a brutalist but vibrant 1 For this project and its history, go to https://www.rsc.org.uk/about-us/our-work-in-china/ chinese-classics-translation-project/research-and-development-for-the-chinese-classics-project. 2 For this interview with the playwright, go to: http://sincerelyamy.com/2017/02/28/ interview-rscs-snow-in-midsummer-writer-frances-ya-chu-cowhig/. 3 In the words of one critic, “Cowhig mobilizes the play’s Chinese setting to invite audiences in Britain (where the play was first staged) and the U.S. to make critical connections to their own CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature 37. 2 (December 2018): 161–170© The Permanent Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature, Inc. 2019 DOI 10.1080/01937774.2019.1589665 evocation of a teahouse-cum-bar, constructed of rough beams embellished with neon signs in Chinese.4 The cast of eleven (nine for the Oregon production) included actors of Asian heritage for most of the lead roles,5 mostly wearing modern clothes but with some use of more traditional dress. In Ashland the set was a largely bare stage, with actors also in modern dress most of the time. Its use of several key props in a minimalist setting struck me as more in keeping with traditional xiqu staging, and suited the play’s dystopian theme. The props included a table of Chinese design, a hospital bed, a grill for broiling lamb skewers, a giant statue of the goddess Guanyin, several plastic chairs, and modern funerary objects (floral wreaths and paper items for burning that included a sportscar, tv set, video game, and bottle of beer). The bright colors of these funerary objects, and of some of the costumes, contrasted with the drabness of a set consisting of a gray brick building at stage left with leaves piled up against it. This use of color to enliven a bare stage is also reminiscent of traditional Chinese drama (fig. 1). Cowhig’s adaptation takes the form of a sequel, set three years after the death of the female protagonist of Guan Hanqing’s play, Dou E (now Dou Yi, pronounced “Yee”). A brief prologue—reminiscent of the opening wedge of Yuan drama—introduces Dou...

Discerning Ancient Identity: The Case of Aashyet’s Sarcophagus (JE 47267)

Abstract Aashyet’s sarcophagus (JE 47267) offers a unique case for understanding how the intersection of a person’s identities, such as ethnicity, gender, age, or religion, is portrayed on a funerary object within the historic and religious circumstances of a specific context. Aashyet’s sarcophagus portrays her as a wealthy, elite priestess, and the head-of-household, while being a Nubian who celebrated her non-Egyptian origins. The sarcophagus’s archaeological context also demonstrates the importance of Priestesses of Hathor within Montuhotep II’s funerary complex at Deir el-Bahri for the legitimation of his kingship before he unified Egypt, late in his reign.

Grave Finds: Mortuary-Derived Antiquities from England and Wales

Artefacts deriving from mortuary contexts form a unique group among the vast numbers of unstratified portable antiquities found every year in England and Wales. Such finds, usually discovered by hobbyist metal detectorists, have great potential to tell us about the character, state, and preservation of the mortuary environments from which they derive. Yet, unlike the situation regarding the discovery of human remains, the reporting of unstratified grave goods is not compulsory. This presents a strange paradox in view of contemporary theory in mortuary archaeology and practice in indigenous heritage overseas, where funerary objects are usually regarded as a fundamental aspect of the archaeological deceased, if not an inalienable part of it. At present, grave goods — whether found on the body or dislodged from it — are normally the property of the landowner and as such can be lawfully privately owned or traded on the antiquities market. This paper outlines the current ethical and legal status of unstratified grave goods sourced from England and Wales, and explores current trends in their discovery and subsequent sale on the antiquities market. Throughout the paper, consideration is given to the question as to whether mortuary-derived antiquities should be given some form of enhanced legal or ethical status; however, the discussion reveals a range of complexities that present significant challenges.

Being Roman: Rethinking Ethnic and Social Boundaries in the Roman South-Eastern Alpine World

This paper considers three specific artifact sets and mortuary practices occurring in the Roman south-eastern Alpine world from the first to third centuries ad. These are the ‘Norican-Pannonian’ costume set, the ‘Norican-Pannonian’ barrow phenomenon, and the Latobici ‘House’ urns. These funerary practices and objects have generally been interpreted as expressions of ethnic, social, and gender identities and as spatial boundaries connected with pre-Roman groups in the area. While current interpretations see the presence of Roman material culture as reflecting the Roman conquest, organization, and administration of the provinces—i.e. debates on Romanization that often concentrate on dichotomies between pre-Roman socio-political groups vs. ‘Romans’; civilians vs. soldiers; and elites vs. non-elites—this paper seeks to re-examine earlier explanations by drawing attention to the facets of personal and group identities that may be reflected upon (or negotiated) through these phenomena.

Art aesthetics in China: some observations

ABSTRACTThis paper begins with Nick Pearce’s exploration of how the senses are engaged as tools in the production and connoisseurship of the high arts in China, starting with calligraphy and moving on to a consideration of painting, bronze vessels and funerary objects. The sensuous dimensions of these diverse media are evoked and also, at a more abstract level, the peculiarly Chinese “sense of temporality” that imbues them with meaning and value. The imperial (or “premodern”) Chinese sense of temporality is interrogated by Beverley Best in her response. The latter brings a historical materialist perspective to bear on Pearce’s account of timelessness in the appreciation of Chinese art (until it got museumized). This is referred to as “the past in the present [as tradition – Best adds].” Best juxtaposes this imperial, “premodern” ideological formation with the modern sense of “past-present-future as progress” and the aesthetics of singularity or novelty (after Jameson). This approach is in turn challenged by Mingyuan Hu in the rejoinder, where questions about the sense of temporality and about time itself, and about theory and historical enquiry, are posed.

Current Research: Recent Documentation of Ceramic Vessels and Other Funerary Objects in the Titus Phase Cemetery at the Tuck Carpenter Site, Camp County, Texas

Recently, we had the opportunity to complete the documentation of Late Caddo period Titus phase ceramic vessels and other funerary offerings from the Tuck Carpenter site (41CP5) in the Big Cypress Creek basin in Camp County, Texas. This portion of the funerary assemblage from the site has been in the hands of R. W. Walsh since the 1960s. Unable to properly care for the assemblage, he recently donated his collection to an anonymous individual, who graciously allowed us to fully document these funerary offerings. The Tuck Carpenter site (41CP5), on Dry Creek several miles from its confluence with Big Cypress Creek, is perhaps the best known Titus phase cemetery in the Big Cypress Creek basin in East Texas. This is due to the careful analysis and reporting of the recovered funerary offerings and remains from 45 burials excavated by Robert L.Turner and R. W. Walsh between 1963-1967. More than 95 percent of the graves had the bodies of single individuals laid in an extended supine position on the floor of the pit, but two burial features had two individuals placed side by side in the burial pit.

Mummies, Magic and Medicine in Ancient Egypt: Multidisciplinary Essays for Rosalie David by Campbell Price, et al.

Reviewed by: Mummies, Magic and Medicine in Ancient Egypt: Multidisciplinary Essays for Rosalie David by Campbell Price, et al. Rita Lucarelli KEY WORDS Rita Lucarelli, Campbell Price, Roger Foreshaw, Andrew Chamberlain, Paul Nicholson, Rosalie David, Ancient Egypt, Mummies, Egyptian Magic, Egyptian Medicine, Funerary Customs, Funerary Practices, Egyptian Ritual, Egyptology, Archaeology, Egyptian Funerary campbell price, roger forshaw, andrew chamberlain, and paul nicholson, eds., with robert morkot and joyce tyldesley. Mummies, Magic and Medicine in Ancient Egypt: Multidisciplinary Essays for Rosalie David. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016. Pp. 520. This volume is in honor of a worldly renowned British Egyptologist, Rosalie David, who produced a series of studies appreciated not only by the scholarly Egyptological community, but also by a wider audience. She is known within the Egyptological community for her interdisciplinary approach to the study of ancient Egypt and for the application of scientific analytical techniques through what is called the “Manchester method,” which was first developed in the 1970s within the “Manchester Mummy Project” in order to obtain a comprehensive examination of mummies. This book collects a number of articles produced mostly by British Egyptologists and scholars of bioarchaeology, biomedical Egyptology, and the like on a variety of topics related to Rosalie David’s main interest, namely mummies, magic, and medicine in ancient Egypt, as announced in the book’s title. The editors of the volume have brilliantly managed to assemble and organize articles on rather different topics in four main sections. The first section, “Pharaonic sacred landscapes,” includes contributions on recent archaeological finds and interpretation of sacred areas. The first two articles are devoted to the necropolis of Saqqara: Aidan Dodson provides an overview on the layout and chronology of the site’s tombs and monumental buildings while Paul T. Nicholson focuses on a landscape “archaeological narrative” for North Saqqara in the Late and Ptolemaic Period when the animal necropolis was functioning. Steven Snape reports on the archaeological work done in the Middle Kingdom necropolis of Rifeh in Upper Egypt while Angela P. Thomas provides an assessment of the Ramesside monuments of Unnefer at Abydos. Two articles are devoted to the study of individual artefacts: Peter Robinson presents a peculiar ostracon with a sketch of a burial scene recalling a similar scene found in a papyrus of the Book of the Dead and depicting the funeral and a tomb substructure; Penelope Wilson provides new interesting evidence for the Ptolemaic Royal Tombs at Sa el-Hagar (Sais), in particular a red granite block depicting the Four Sons of Horus, very probably belonging to a large funerary object such as a sarcophagus, and an ushabti with a royal cartouche of Psamtek. The contribution of Philip Turner on Seth as a “con-man,” which closes the first section of the book, would have been better included in the following section, which is devoted to magico-medical practices. This second section presents the publication of two artefacts and a few [End Page 136] more general overviews on topics related to magic and medicine in ancient Egypt, some of which are written by experts in the field of medicine and biomedical Egyptology. Carol Andrews presents a peculiar amulet of a wedjat eye with an uncommon animal iconography for this kind of object (including a recumbent lion, a lion head, and a crocodile); John Taylor describes and discusses a wooden funerary figurine with magical/ritual function, which seems to be a miniature copy of an early New Kingdom Theban anthropoid coffin. The rest of the articles present reassessments, according to the most recent research, of topics such as the magico-medical remedies and treatments for the scorpion sting according to Ramesside sources from Deir el Medina (Mark Collier), and as occurring in passages of the “Contendings of Horus and Seth” (Essam el-Saeed); surgery and trauma care on the basis of a new translation of the Edwin Smith Papyrus (Roger Forshaw); the ancient veterinary practice in relation to human healing and care (Conni Lord); the function of the healing statues and their materiality in relation to their text (Campbell Price); the healing and magico-medical texts of the so-called “Ramesseum Papyri” (Stephen Quirke); and finally, a study on schistosomiasis in ancient Egypt (Patricia Rutherford...

Crtice o palimpsest reljefu apostola Ivana iz crkvice sv. Jere na Marjanu

The relief depicting John the Evangelist which was once embedded in the Church of St. Jerome on Marjan is a palimpsest of a Roman funerary monument. Since the removal, it has been visible from all sides, and this paper first presents their description. The upper side is particularly interesting as it bears the remains of an insertion groove. In the author's opinion, the figure of the saint was made by reworking a portrait of a woman in the Eumachia-Fundilia statue type. This means that the hair was also re-carved from some characteristic female coiffure and that the object in the left hand (etui with a pen or a pen?) was made of drapery or some typical female attribute. Considering the manufacturing process and shaping of the front with two joint niches, the relief from Split could have been formed only from a monumental stele or a relief incorporated into a larger funerary object. There are no comparable examples in Salona and its close hinterland meaning that it was a monument of peculiar rendering, i.e. a previously unknown typological variant. Since several elements contradict the thesis on attribution to the embedded relief (presence of an inscription, portrait format), the author supports an opinion that it was a monumental stele made after a northern Italic model.

El ajuar funerario del arzobispo de Zaragoza y Valencia, Don Alonso de Aragón (1470-1520)

El ajuar funerario del arzobispo y mecenas don Alonso de Aragón (1470-1520), hijo natural de Fernando el Católico, nos permite reflexionar sobre las inquietudes e intereses del prelado. Sus alhajas, encontradas en 1994 durante los trabajos de restauración de la Catedral del Salvador, por un lado materializan la internacionalidad de las relaciones del arzobispo, y por otro, las conexiones artísticas del Reino de Aragón en las postrimerías de la Edad Media.

FUNERARY TRANSFORMATIONS IN AN ETRUSCO-ITALIC COMMUNITY: SOCIAL DISPLAY AND AUSTERITY IN HELLENISTIC CHIUSI

From the end of the third century BC on, the funerary culture of the Etruscan city of Chiusi saw the gradual disappearance of the most expensive containers and tombs. At the same time, there was first a dramatic increase in the number of such monuments, followed by an equally sharp decline in the first century BC. The qualitative development has traditionally been explained using sumptuary laws, which should have constrained funerary expenditure. However, a close examination of the local evidence reveals that this is not only unlikely, but also does not explain the quantitative development and why there was a social and cultural need to constrain these funerary objects in the first place. Using the concepts of distinction and habitus developed by Bourdieu, this paper analyses the developments in Chiusine funerary practice by focusing on social interactions within and between élites and non-élites. This gives both groups agency in a complex social, cultural and political process that caused the criteria for distinction to change, ultimately making funerary culture less important for status differentiation in the rapidly changing context of Hellenistic Italy.