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This document summarizes a review of Ian Morris's book "Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity". The reviewer notes that while Morris focuses on how death rituals reflected social norms and power structures, he does so with less emphasis on the emotional and religious impacts of rituals. The reviewer critiques some of Morris's interpretations of evidence and argues he does not adequately consider both literary and epigraphic sources. However, the reviewer acknowledges Morris provides useful references that would aid students.
This document summarizes a review of Ian Morris's book "Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity". The reviewer notes that while Morris focuses on how death rituals reflected social norms and power structures, he does so with less emphasis on the emotional and religious impacts of rituals. The reviewer critiques some of Morris's interpretations of evidence and argues he does not adequately consider both literary and epigraphic sources. However, the reviewer acknowledges Morris provides useful references that would aid students.
This document summarizes a review of Ian Morris's book "Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity". The reviewer notes that while Morris focuses on how death rituals reflected social norms and power structures, he does so with less emphasis on the emotional and religious impacts of rituals. The reviewer critiques some of Morris's interpretations of evidence and argues he does not adequately consider both literary and epigraphic sources. However, the reviewer acknowledges Morris provides useful references that would aid students.
Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity by Ian Morris
Review by: W. G. Cavanagh The Classical Review, New Series, Vol. 44, No. 2 (1994), pp. 372-374 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/712824 . Accessed: 02/11/2014 12:16 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . Cambridge University Press and The Classical Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Classical Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 143.167.30.128 on Sun, 2 Nov 2014 12:16:09 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 372 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW expressing the amazement of one who has experienced the Dutch educational system - that there were both medical and legal practitioners with adult responsibilities even in their twenties. The children of senators and equestrians were expected to accept their parents' values from their teens, since they already shared their positions of social and political responsibility. This comes through most clearly in evidence for office-holding by children or young adults in the Greek (Ch. 9) and Latin (Ch. 10) worlds; here K. (who earlier appeared to see the classical world as an undifferentiated gerontocratic continuum) realises that there is copious evidence for changes over time. As he points out, these changes are gradual and not the result of some sudden crisis in civic values; but K. does not seem to offer any explanation (e.g. in terms of the increasing importance of'private' values). The book comes to a sudden end with a carefully arranged presentation of the epigraphical evidence for western city councillors and magistrates aged under or around twenty-five. It is K.'s wide knowledge of both Greek and Latin epigraphical material, as much as his wide and up-to-date reading in modern scholarship, which makes this a useful book. How far his interpretation of that material is clear enough to be persuasive is another matter. (It would be unfair to comment on the English; but the hundreds of spelling errors could easily have been eradicated by running a spell-check programme.) Thus when K. suggests that both hereditary office-holding (p. 230) and public benefactions (p. 244) are less emphasized in Roman than in Greek texts, he ignores the considerable literary and epigraphic evidence (by no means all from late antiquity as claimed on p. 245 n. 97) that members of rich Roman families exercised patronage a pueritia. Public office-holding was indeed a different matter; under the principate, fear of imposing on the emperor's privileges perhaps inhibited the senatorial families from making the kind of public utterances about their expectations for prematurely deceased offspring which we find expressed in the second century B.C. by two of the Scipionic epitaphs. Change was not uniformly linear; and K.'s concentration on the epigraphical evidence is exaggerated. His criticism of Eyben is revealing (p. 52): 'Unfortunately, he restricts himself to literary sources, thereby ignoring a whole spectrum of epigraphical texts providing useful information on this subject'. Precisely the converse criticism may be made of K.: while berating others for failing to discuss a particular inscription (e.g. p. 82 n. 30, or p. 170 on non-literary lawyers), his footnotes suggest that most of his literary references are selective and derived from the modern authors he has read (thus a section on 'infant prodigies' contains many interesting epigraphical examples, but K. seems unaware of Quintilian's detailed account of his two sons: 123ff.); and his grasp of the problems of interpretation involved in using (e.g.) the evidence of the Historia Augusta (p. 213) or of panegyric is weak. University of Bristol THOMAS WIEDEMANN DEATH RITUALS IAN MORRIS: Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical An- tiquity. (Key Themes in Ancient History.) Pp. xx+264; 48 figs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. 'I want to make your flesh creep' claimed Joe, the Fat Boy in Pickwick Papers. In Death Ritual M. explicitly is concerned less with the emotional and religious impact 372 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW expressing the amazement of one who has experienced the Dutch educational system - that there were both medical and legal practitioners with adult responsibilities even in their twenties. The children of senators and equestrians were expected to accept their parents' values from their teens, since they already shared their positions of social and political responsibility. This comes through most clearly in evidence for office-holding by children or young adults in the Greek (Ch. 9) and Latin (Ch. 10) worlds; here K. (who earlier appeared to see the classical world as an undifferentiated gerontocratic continuum) realises that there is copious evidence for changes over time. As he points out, these changes are gradual and not the result of some sudden crisis in civic values; but K. does not seem to offer any explanation (e.g. in terms of the increasing importance of'private' values). The book comes to a sudden end with a carefully arranged presentation of the epigraphical evidence for western city councillors and magistrates aged under or around twenty-five. It is K.'s wide knowledge of both Greek and Latin epigraphical material, as much as his wide and up-to-date reading in modern scholarship, which makes this a useful book. How far his interpretation of that material is clear enough to be persuasive is another matter. (It would be unfair to comment on the English; but the hundreds of spelling errors could easily have been eradicated by running a spell-check programme.) Thus when K. suggests that both hereditary office-holding (p. 230) and public benefactions (p. 244) are less emphasized in Roman than in Greek texts, he ignores the considerable literary and epigraphic evidence (by no means all from late antiquity as claimed on p. 245 n. 97) that members of rich Roman families exercised patronage a pueritia. Public office-holding was indeed a different matter; under the principate, fear of imposing on the emperor's privileges perhaps inhibited the senatorial families from making the kind of public utterances about their expectations for prematurely deceased offspring which we find expressed in the second century B.C. by two of the Scipionic epitaphs. Change was not uniformly linear; and K.'s concentration on the epigraphical evidence is exaggerated. His criticism of Eyben is revealing (p. 52): 'Unfortunately, he restricts himself to literary sources, thereby ignoring a whole spectrum of epigraphical texts providing useful information on this subject'. Precisely the converse criticism may be made of K.: while berating others for failing to discuss a particular inscription (e.g. p. 82 n. 30, or p. 170 on non-literary lawyers), his footnotes suggest that most of his literary references are selective and derived from the modern authors he has read (thus a section on 'infant prodigies' contains many interesting epigraphical examples, but K. seems unaware of Quintilian's detailed account of his two sons: 123ff.); and his grasp of the problems of interpretation involved in using (e.g.) the evidence of the Historia Augusta (p. 213) or of panegyric is weak. University of Bristol THOMAS WIEDEMANN DEATH RITUALS IAN MORRIS: Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical An- tiquity. (Key Themes in Ancient History.) Pp. xx+264; 48 figs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. 'I want to make your flesh creep' claimed Joe, the Fat Boy in Pickwick Papers. In Death Ritual M. explicitly is concerned less with the emotional and religious impact ? Oxford University Press, 1994 ? Oxford University Press, 1994 This content downloaded from 143.167.30.128 on Sun, 2 Nov 2014 12:16:09 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 373 of ritual, ('I see no way to approach it without making a series of indefensible assumptions' p. 21 [though how less or more defensible than other ascriptions of meaning such as 'success of the ruling group was indissolubly linked to the Roman alliance' (p. 47) or mound-burial as 'symbolic resistance to imperialism' (p. 51) I am not sure]) - more with the social: the ' Taken-for-granted norms about the roles and rules which make up society - relationships of power, affection, deference, rights, duties and so on' (p. 3). He writes with students in mind (with an excellent apparatus of references: prompts in the footnotes, a bibliographical essay, as well as full reading list); but the book merits a much wider readership among archaeologists and ancient historians, so rich are its ideas. It is not simply that the mountain of grave evidence, Everest-like, is there, not simply a huge statistical sample, but, M. argues, by examining death ritual it is possible to win an understanding of social relationships that the partial and fragmentary accounts of the Greek and Roman historians cannot provide. He ranges over a large area and covers an immense span of time: the examples include Archaic Rhodes, Classical Athens, Imperial Rome and Britain in the Late Empire, and the topics touched on vary from dental caries in Ptolemaic Egypt, to in-breeding in Cambridge. What to include, what not to include? The book is organized with a first chapter explaining, as it were, M.'s philosophy of interpretation: what is understood in the book by social structure, ritual and symbols and how they are to be read, and the problems of interpreting these through archaeological evidence. Then come two groups of chapters, the first looking at the treatment of the body (cremation/ inhumation; the study of ancient populations through skeletal remains), the second at display in rituals (grave goods, funerary monuments, and inscribed epitaphs); these are followed by a case study, the site of Vroulia, in Rhodes. Finally there is a brief retrospect. The chapter on cremation/inhumation does not pull its punches 'the change in "the Roman custom" from cremation to inhumation...involves tens of millions of people across the whole western part of the empire'. M. favours the view that inhumation swept through the Western Empire for social reasons, roughly that the people identified themselves as Romans, and therefore although dying in York or at Ampurias or wherever, buried themselves as the Romans did. A process starting through 'competitive emulation' became a symbol of unity precisely as the empire seemed to fall to bits. Much of the chapter on skeletal analysis is concerned with demography, enlarging on the point M. has made previously that burials do not reflect the make-up of the population in a simple way, and a rise or fall in the number of those buried in cemeteries does not necessarily mean a rise or fall in the total population. Likewise where the ratio of males to females is impossibly unbalanced this reflects a social factor, not the true structure of the population: inconvenient to demographers but interesting for historians. The chapters on Grave-goods and Grave markers in Classical Athens go closely together; again changes in practice are seen to operate in terms of ideology, the ideology of democratic Athens (here he refers to the recent work by Ober and Ostwald). I have one grouse, the use of statistics. It has to be admitted first of all that evidence from graves presents very real difficulties of analysis, and no easy answer is available. All the same M.'s use of statistical measures, of regression and of significance tests, in so far as I understand his aims, which are not very clearly stated, lacks clear formulation of an underyling mathematical model; there appears rather to be a 'cook-book' approach where even the choice of recipe seems unjustified. Even the diagrams and simple descriptive devices seem likely to confuse the reader. But this is an interesting book, rich in ideas, widely read and innovative. It is This content downloaded from 143.167.30.128 on Sun, 2 Nov 2014 12:16:09 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 374 374 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW THE CLASSICAL REVIEW written in a beguiling, enthusiastic manner; the style is fluent, and although packed with information the prose is not unduly dense or overloaded. It is also an honest book: M. states his beliefs and makes his case, but the information is there and an alert reader will find the means to disagree, if unconvinced. Buy it, read it! University of Nottingham W. G. CAVANAGH BRONZE AGE THESSALY JOSEPH MARAN: Die deutschen Ausgrabungen auf der Pevkakia- Magula in Thessalien, III: Die Mittlere Bronzezeit, Teil I, Teil II. (Beitrage zur Ur- und Fruihgeschichtlichen Archaologie des Mittelmeer-Kulturraumes, 30-31.) 2 vols. Pp. xii+413; 84; 1 colour plate, 30 black/white plates, 190 figures, 13 plans, 2 microfiches. Bonn: Dr Rudolf Habelt, 1992. Cased. The German excavations at Pefkakia Magoula on the Gulf of Volos were undertaken by Milojcic in 1967-77. This report on the Middle Bronze Age follows H.-J. Weisshaar, Die Deutschen Ausgrabungen auf der Pevkakia-Magula in Thessalien I: Das spate Neolithikum und das Chalkolithikum (Bonn, 1989), and there will also be volumes on the Early and Late Bronze Ages. Excavation of the Middle Bronze Age levels on the summit of the mound proved difficult because of erosion and later disturbance, and the main focus of this report is consequently trench E-F VIII, the great cut which is such a prominent feature on the south side of the mound. The stratigraphy in trench E-F VIII indicates a transitional phase and then seven successive Middle Bronze Age levels, designated phases 1-7. Analysis of the architecture suggests a break between the Early and Middle Bronze Ages but there was no evidence of the burnt destruction level which Theocharis found when he excavated at Pefkakia in 1957. It would seem that the Middle Bronze Age houses were built in concentric circles around the summit of the mound. The houses were rectangular and either had a single room with a central hearth or consisted of a series of rooms. After phase 6 the architectural sequence in trench E-F VIII ended and phase 7 is represented by a cist grave cemetery. The stratigraphy and architecture of the other trenches are presented in less detail but the presence of a possible ritual deposit in a phase 7 context in E VII is of considerable interest. In the second section of the report M. analyses the Middle Bronze Age pottery from Pefkakia. Clarification of the ceramic sequence was in fact one of the main aims of the excavation. The pottery from each trench is divided into four main categories (fine, domestic, coarse and painted) and then further subdivided by ware. The wares are defined by surface treatment rather than fabric, the classification system preferred by Zerner (Hydra 2 [1986], 58-74 and Hydra 4 [1988], 1-10). First the technique and chronological range of each of the wares are discussed, then there is a list of shapes and decorative motifs. The summary at the end of this section traces the development of the Middle Bronze Age pottery of Pefkakia by phase. The appearance of Grey Minyan and Matt-Painted pottery as early as the transitional phase is significant, especially as Early Helladic III dark-on-light and Ayia Marina ware sherds occur in the earliest Middle Bronze Age levels. In phases 6 and 7 there were four Minoan or Minoanising sherds and two sherds which could be Cycladic. However, M. does ? Oxford University Press, 1994 written in a beguiling, enthusiastic manner; the style is fluent, and although packed with information the prose is not unduly dense or overloaded. It is also an honest book: M. states his beliefs and makes his case, but the information is there and an alert reader will find the means to disagree, if unconvinced. Buy it, read it! University of Nottingham W. G. CAVANAGH BRONZE AGE THESSALY JOSEPH MARAN: Die deutschen Ausgrabungen auf der Pevkakia- Magula in Thessalien, III: Die Mittlere Bronzezeit, Teil I, Teil II. (Beitrage zur Ur- und Fruihgeschichtlichen Archaologie des Mittelmeer-Kulturraumes, 30-31.) 2 vols. Pp. xii+413; 84; 1 colour plate, 30 black/white plates, 190 figures, 13 plans, 2 microfiches. Bonn: Dr Rudolf Habelt, 1992. Cased. The German excavations at Pefkakia Magoula on the Gulf of Volos were undertaken by Milojcic in 1967-77. This report on the Middle Bronze Age follows H.-J. Weisshaar, Die Deutschen Ausgrabungen auf der Pevkakia-Magula in Thessalien I: Das spate Neolithikum und das Chalkolithikum (Bonn, 1989), and there will also be volumes on the Early and Late Bronze Ages. Excavation of the Middle Bronze Age levels on the summit of the mound proved difficult because of erosion and later disturbance, and the main focus of this report is consequently trench E-F VIII, the great cut which is such a prominent feature on the south side of the mound. The stratigraphy in trench E-F VIII indicates a transitional phase and then seven successive Middle Bronze Age levels, designated phases 1-7. Analysis of the architecture suggests a break between the Early and Middle Bronze Ages but there was no evidence of the burnt destruction level which Theocharis found when he excavated at Pefkakia in 1957. It would seem that the Middle Bronze Age houses were built in concentric circles around the summit of the mound. The houses were rectangular and either had a single room with a central hearth or consisted of a series of rooms. After phase 6 the architectural sequence in trench E-F VIII ended and phase 7 is represented by a cist grave cemetery. The stratigraphy and architecture of the other trenches are presented in less detail but the presence of a possible ritual deposit in a phase 7 context in E VII is of considerable interest. In the second section of the report M. analyses the Middle Bronze Age pottery from Pefkakia. Clarification of the ceramic sequence was in fact one of the main aims of the excavation. The pottery from each trench is divided into four main categories (fine, domestic, coarse and painted) and then further subdivided by ware. The wares are defined by surface treatment rather than fabric, the classification system preferred by Zerner (Hydra 2 [1986], 58-74 and Hydra 4 [1988], 1-10). First the technique and chronological range of each of the wares are discussed, then there is a list of shapes and decorative motifs. The summary at the end of this section traces the development of the Middle Bronze Age pottery of Pefkakia by phase. The appearance of Grey Minyan and Matt-Painted pottery as early as the transitional phase is significant, especially as Early Helladic III dark-on-light and Ayia Marina ware sherds occur in the earliest Middle Bronze Age levels. In phases 6 and 7 there were four Minoan or Minoanising sherds and two sherds which could be Cycladic. However, M. does ? Oxford University Press, 1994 This content downloaded from 143.167.30.128 on Sun, 2 Nov 2014 12:16:09 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions