LE ÉLITES CERETANE E ROMA IN ETÀ ELLENISTICA TRA ARCHEOLOGIA ED EPIGRAFIA FUNERARIA

Abstract

A closer examination of the necropolises of Caere, especially those in the Vecchio Recinto, between the late
4th century BC and the late 1st century BC/beginning of the 1st century AD, reveals significant changes in
the burial assemblages and customs that match with the construction of new tombs and the reoccupation
of old ones. This phenomenon is strictly related to the setting up of new relationships with Rome, that in
the end brought to the acceptance of Roman funerary customs, even if the use of cippi in front or inside the
tombs even now reveals a persistence of the Etruscan ones. Moreover, this phenomenon testifies that the
gentes of the Caeretan elite for centuries chose to bury their deceased in the central and main areas of the
necropolis, and this tradition was not modified by the new arrivals of families from Rome or Latium.