Roman Funerary Rituals in Mutina (Modena, Italy)

Federica Maria Riso is a Classical archaeologist with a particular interest in the symbolic forms of the funeral ceremonies of the Roman period. Her research currently combines archaeology and archaeobotany to focus on the funeral banquet and Roman funerary offerings. She graduated in Archaeology in 2012 at the University of Ferrara and obtained her PhD from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in 2017. In 2019 she obtained a Specialization Diploma in Archaeology at the University of Bologna. From 2021 Dr Riso has been a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Louvain.

Contents ;



List of Figures and Tables ;



Introduction ;


Project ;


Religious thought ;


Rituals ;


Plants ;


Gardens ;



The Roman funerary ritual ;


Cremation and burial ;


Epigraphic, literary, and iconographic evidence ;


Literary sources ;


Epigraphic sources ;


Iconographic evidence ;



Mutina: The city and the Necropolis ;


North of the Via Emilia ;


South of the Via Emilia ;


The Necropolises ;


Site A – Novisad ;


Site B – Ferrari ;


Site C – Via Cesana ;


Site D – Via Pica ;


Site F – Fer-Mo-Sa ;


Site G – Marzaglia Corpus Domini ;


Site I – Spilamberto ;



Material and methods ;


The Mutina necropolis ;


Necropolis of the ager mutinensis ;


Archaeobotanical analysis ;


Seeds/fruits ;


Charcoals ;



Results ;


Archaeological remains ;


Cooking and table ware ;


Oil lamps ;


Nails ;


Decorated bones ;


Archaeozoological remains ;


Coins ;


Archaeobotanical remains ;


Charcoals ;



CT-scan and Saxs analysis ;


SAXS Results ;


Discussion ;


CT-scan discussion ;


Conclusion ;



Tombs analysed by funerary ritual aspects ;


Site A ;


Site B ;


Site G ;



Conclusion ;



Bibliography