Placemaking of the dead in urban Rome

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to shed new light on the religious placemaking of the dead in the very dense and diverse metropolis of Rome in order to understand the role of the urban in the burial of the deceased in antiquity. In the Republican and Imperial periods in Rome, there is ample evidence of the impressive variety of sites and practices by which the dead were buried. However, the location of burial sites and the practices changed dynamically as they had to adapt not only to the growth of the city but also to new civic regulations, which were particularly focused on controlling public hygiene. The tension between the location of burial sites and their place biographies is made even more complex by the pomerium (sacred boundary) in Rome, an intangible and flexible boundary within which burials were forbidden. However, illegal and legal exceptions do exist. Therefore, the aim of this paper is not to provide an overview or classification of burial types, but to shed light on the role of the urban in influencing burial sites and rituals in order to identify where and how urban actors had to negotiate spaces and practices.