Research into pre-Roman burial grounds in Italy

This book results from a specialist workshop held at the University of Groningen in 2011 highlighting new results in the field of funerary archaeology. It contains papers on funerary sites in Italy ranging from Verucchio in Emilia Romagna to Francavilla Marittima in Calabria between the 9th and 4th centuries BC. Four papers deal with the hundreds of Iron Age and Archaic tombs excavated at Crustumerium (Rome). Other papers deal with the necropoleis of Francavilla Marittima, Satricum, Verucchio, Vetulonia and Veii. The volume concludes with an article on the excavation of 3700 medieval and later graves around St. Peter's church in the centre of Berlin offering an example of recent developments in recording and assessing large funerary datasets. Archaeologists working on pre-Roman Italy are indeed frequently confronted with large burial grounds holding hundreds to thousands of graves and having complex excavation and publication histories. These and other challenges of funerary archaeology are conscientiously and creatively addressed by the authors of this volume.