Abstract
In this chapter we employ a multidisciplinary approach to the study of Iron Age Samnite ‘warrior burials’ from central Italy. Building upon previous studies, which suggested that high humeral asymmetry in mechanical strength can be used as a proxy for weapon training from adolescence, we analysed the degree and laterality of asymmetry in 216 male burials, as well as the typology and layout of weapons in 153 burials from the overall sample. The relationship between martial paraphernalia in graves and the participation of the deceased in martial activities, as inferred from biomechanical analysis, has provided valuable insights into the military practices of Iron Age communities and their social significance. The research has revealed that the weapons may have been placed in the graves of individuals that did not undertake intensive military training during their lives. This suggests that they may have been used to signal social affiliation in funerals rather than actual participation of the deceased in martial practices. However, the presence and distribution of ‘prestige weapons’ in the burial sample seems to indicate a highly ‘war prowess-oriented’ society, in which status and wealth were acquired through the practice and display of fighting skills. Furthermore, the scarcity of highly asymmetric, left-handed individuals from the sample suggests that training of the right arm was systematically favoured. This is an extremely interesting result, which suggests that early Samnite armies may not have consisted of loose ranks as previously believed.
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Notes
- 1.
A strap (usually made of leather) attached to a javelin, which can be looped around the first two fingers of the warrior’s hand to increase the speed and range of the throw.
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Acknowledgements
V. Gentile wishes to thank Alessandro Guidi and Tesse Stek for their insightful advice and Bastiaan Steffens for commenting on early drafts of this chapter. V.S. Sparacello thanks Osbjorn Pearson, Brigitte Holt, Lawrence Straus, and James Boone for mentoring and guidance during the completion of his research. The authors are grateful to Joachim Weidig, Gianluca Tagliamonte, Sara Napolitano, and Andrea D’Andrea for their advice on Samnite burial practices. We thank the Soprintendenza Archeologica d’Abruzzo for allowing the study of the material and Andrea Pessina, Vincenzo Torrieri, Domenico Mancinelli, Alberta Martellone, and Paolo Eusani for assistance during data collection. The skeletal remains, as well as the documentation about the burial assemblages, are stored in the museum of prehistory ‘Musé’ (Celano, L’Aquila – Italy) and in the offices and deposits of the Soprintendenza archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio dell’Abruzzo (Chieti – Italy). We thank the staff and in particular Stefania Montanaro, the museum curator, for her invaluable help and support during data collection. We are also grateful to the volume editors for their comments and language editing and to the anonymous reviewer of the chapter for their feedback. This research was partly funded by the Hibben Foundation, University of New Mexico. All opinions and errors rest with the authors.
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This chapter is dedicated to the memory of Domenico Mancinelli.
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Gentile, V., Sparacello, V.S., D’Ercole, V., Coppa, A. (2018). Martial Practices and Warrior Burials: Humeral Asymmetry and Grave Goods in Iron Age Male Inhumations from Central Italy. In: Dolfini, A., Crellin, R., Horn, C., Uckelmann, M. (eds) Prehistoric Warfare and Violence. Quantitative Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78828-9_4
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