Investigating Social Exclusion in Late Prehistoric Italy: Preliminary Results of the ‘‘IN or OUT’’ Project (PHASE 1)

pia Saracino, M et al 2014 Investigating Social Exclusion in Late Prehistoric Italy: Preliminary Results of the ‘‘IN or OUT’’ Project (PHASE 1). Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, 24(1): 12, pp. 1-14, DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.5334/pia.462 SHORT REPORT Investigating Social Exclusion in Late Prehistoric Italy: Preliminary Results of the ‘‘IN or OUT’’ Project (PHASE 1) Massimo Saracino*, Lorenzo Zamboni†, Vera Zanoni† and Elisa Perego‡ This report presents the preliminary results of the ‘‘IN or OUT’’ Project, a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort which aims to investigate social exclusion, marginality and the adoption of anomalous funerary rites in late prehistoric Italy. In particular, this contribution explores the incidence and meaning of practices of ritual marginalisation and funerary deviancy in the region of Veneto between the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age period. Introduction This report presents the preliminary results of the “IN or OUT” Project, a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort which aims to investigate social exclusion, marginality and the adoption of anomalous funerary rites in late prehistoric Italy. In particular, research focusing on Practices of Ritual Marginalization in Bronze Age Veneto (“IN or OUT” Project PHASE 1) has been carried out by our team (Perego, Saracino, Zamboni and Zanoni) since April 2013 (see Perego et al. 2013a, 2013b, forthcoming; Saracino et al. 2014). To the best of our knowledge, this research represents the first systematic attempt to investigate funerary deviancy and social exclusion in Bronze Age Italy. * PhD Independent researcher, Verona, Italy † Università degli Studi di Pavia, Italy , ‡ Institute of Archaeology, UCL, United Kingdom Research Background Recent research by the authors of this contribution has investigated the incidence of practices of marginalization and funerary deviancy in the Italian region of Veneto between the beginning of the Iron Age and the early Roman period (c.10th-9th century BC – early 1st century AD) (e.g. Perego 2010, 2012a, 2012b, in press, forthcoming; Perego et al. 2013a, forthcoming; Saracino 2009; Saracino and Zanoni 2014; Zamboni and Zanoni 2010; Zanoni 2011). A fundamental aspect of this research was the attempt to connect the adoption of rare or anomalous funerary rites (e.g. prone or settlement burial) to genuine occurrences of social exclusion, potentially relating to the status, age, gender, health condition or cause of death of the deceased. From a methodological and theoretical point of view, our work has drawn on archaeological research on funerary deviancy (e.g. Murphy 2008; Reynolds 2009; Tamorri 2012) and on anthropological approaches to marginality and social exclusion (e.g. Germani 1980; Park 1928, 1931; Stonequist Art. 12, page 2 of 14 Saracino et al: Investigating Social Exclusion in Late Prehistoric Italy Fig. 1: Map of Veneto region with sampled sites (elaboration by L. Zamboni). 1935). When available, a particular emphasis has also been placed on osteological and bioarchaeological data (e.g. Agarwal and Glencross 2011; Robb 2002). This evidence – potentially shedding light on the life conditions, health status and cause of death of the deceased – may be vital to uncover the reasons motivating the adoption of abnormal funerary treatments (e.g. immature or abnormal death, contagious disease, handicap and physical deformity, or social discrimination based on gender, age or status). Aims and Methodology The aim of the “IN or OUT” Project, PHASE 1, is to widen the focus of our research to include the Bronze Age period, in order to identify possible occurrences of social exclusion and funerary deviancy in Veneto during the late third and the second millennia BC (FIG. 1). In this article, therefore, we propose the preliminary results of a contextual and statistical analysis of funerary evidence archived in a relational database hosting all the archaeological, bioarchaeological, Saracino et al: Investigating Social Exclusion in Late Prehistoric Italy archaeometric and taphonomic data available for each burial selected for examination. To date, our research has mainly consisted of a preliminary screening of published data: this includes evidence from more than 30 settlement and cemetery contexts across an area roughly corresponding to present-day Veneto. Further research relating to PHASE 1 is intended to add unpublished evidence to our dataset. Furthermore, we aim to broaden the focus of our analysis to sites we have previously been unable to sample, or to archaeological contexts currently under study or in press. Future research may be extended to other regions of Italy and/or to different chronological phases. A suitable methodology for the identification of funerary deviancy in the context under study has been preliminarily discussed in recent publications and conference presentations (e.g. Perego 2012a; forthcoming; Perego et al. 2013a; forthcoming; Saracino and Zanoni 2014; Zanoni 2011). For Iron Age Veneto, possible markers of funerary abnormality include the adoption of the inhumation rite (but see below); a lack or scarcity of grave goods; forms of spatial displacement (settlement burial, burial in ritual or sacrificial sites, burial in marginal cemetery areas and/or burial in isolation); the adoption of anomalous tomb structures; the evidence of pre-mortem, peri-mortem and post-mortem violence, deviant body treatments (e.g. binding) and/or anomalous body postures (e.g. prone or face-down burial); the adoption of practices of skeletal manipulation (e.g. disarticulation) and hasty interment possibly aimed at constraining or degrading the corpse. The social criteria determining the adoption of anomalous mortuary treatments for some individuals may have been linked to their low social status, health condition, age and/or cause of death. Occurrences of capital sentence, damnation and forms of exclusion relating either to local religious practice or necrophobia (the fear of the dead: Tsaliki 2008) are also possible, although they remain more difficult to demonstrate due to Art. 12, page 3 of 14 the complete lack of Venetic written sources regarding these issues. Preliminary Results Early Bronze Age (23rd – 17th centuries BC) The funerary rituals of Early Bronze Age Veneto remain poorly investigated and poorly understood, with the exception of some recent discoveries (e.g. de Marinis and Valzolgher 2013). However, a recent survey of the available evidence (de Marinis 2003) offers a starting point for identifying possible occurrences of anomalous mortuary behaviour in this region. The skulls or cranial fragments found at sites such as the pile dwellings of Canàr (San Pietro Polesine, Rovigo) and Dossetto di Nogara (Verona) – as well as at other contemporaneous northern Italian pile-dwellings settlements – might have been linked to rituals relating to ancestor and skull veneration (culto dei crani) or other forms of skeletal manipulati (...truncated)