Date Thesis Awarded
5-2021
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Arts (BA)
Department
Classical Studies
Advisor
Molly Swetnam-Burland
Committee Members
Molly Swetnam-Burland
Jessica Stephens
Michael Daise
Abstract
This thesis investigates hybridity and identity within the funerary culture of the indigenous peoples of pre-Roman Italy called the Lucanians. I argue that archeological evidence from Paestan-Lucanian necropleis, primarily consisting of funerary art, objects of the grave assemblage, and tomb architecture, reveals the emergence of a cultural diversity which does not reflect assimilation to a supposedly dominant cultural group. I suggest that the presence of Greek cultural influences in Lucanian tombs did not signal the dissipation of native Italic culture, but rather a dexterous negotiation of that Italic identity with local variation. This research interprets Greek influence found in Lucanian funerary culture as something which represents processes of self-locating by a people identifying with multiple cultural sources which derive from varied groups of Italic peoples and Greek colonists.
Recommended Citation
Rodgers, Ashton, "Between Italic and Greek: Native Identity and Hybridity in Paestan-Lucanian Tombs" (2021). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1656.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1656
