Death and Memory in the Ancient Mediterranean

In this course we will propose the analysis on the relations between death and memory in the ancient Mediterranean. As we understand, death is a historical process, and in general, archaeological evidence and written culture focus on mortuary practices, rites, and symbologies that reflect population movements and cultural changes such as the conversion to Christianity. It is noteworthy to emphasize the symbology of death, the funeral and its insertion in the political field, from the vestiges of the family of the dead to its memory and the ambiguities of death in the gladiatorial combats, the understanding of the concept of memory as a device of Power, which is linked to the recreation in the present of images about the past, so the spaces of remembering depend on the social and cultural conditions present in Greek and Roman societies.