Abstract: Studies on Ethno-cultural Dynamics in Early Iron Age Northern Campania.

Strontium Stable Isotope Analysis and Archaeological Considerations from Prehellenic

Cumae


In this abstract I outline the research conducted for my Master’s thesis, investigating cultural identity and
mobility in Northern Campania with a case study on isotopic evidence from Cumae. The analysis was
conducted at three different research institutions: The extraction of the samples at the Museo Preistorico
Etnografico Nazionale Luigi Pigorini Rome, the chemical treatment at the Institut für Anthropologie LMU
Munich and the mass spectroscopy at the Department of Earth Sciences RHUL. The results of the research
and their interpretation are the focus of an article to be submitted to various journals.
In the last two decades the ethno-cultural image of the facies in Southern Italy has been reanalysed
especially regarding Northern Campania, which underwent important simultaneous changes in this period:
the consolidation of the Fossa facies as a defining cultural habit for the indigenous population, the
appearance of the Protovillanova facies as a new entity in South-Italy, an increase in connectivity with other
cultural regions (such as Latium), as well as the arrival of the Greek colonists between 750-730 B.C. The
classification of ethno-cultural identities in the Italic sector is based on differences in burial rites, which
represent a crucial element for distinguishing between different Southern Italian facies. As far as the
distinction between Protovillanova facies and the Fossa facies is concerned, the burial rites are traditionally
considered the most revealing aspects.
Recently, the finding of two Early Iron Age cremation tombs at Cumae (excavations of P. Munzi, 2006 and
of M. D‘Acunto, 2015), the most important settlement of the Fossa facies named after the common burial
rite in rectangular pits, suggests a new view on the reliability of the distinction of the burial rites, since the
total evidence of Fossa burials is very small and doubts on the traditional interpretation had already arisen
(ca. 60 burials in Cumae; Bartoli 2007).
Hence, starting point of my research was the formulation of a hypothesis on the non-local origin of the
two aforementioned cremations, to be tested by means of an isotopic analysis of 87Sr/86Sr. The aim of the
analysis was to gain a deeper insight on the ethno-cultural homogeneity and tolerance of the population of
Cumae, as well as on the interpretative impact of its funerary rite.
The two individuals were analysed together with twelve additional individuals (8 adults, 6 subadults) from
the excavation of Munzi, which were buried with the common rite of the Fossa burial. The analysis was
conducted on dental enamel of the first molar and, in the case of bad teeth conservation, on the otic capsule
of the petrous bone. In the case of one cremated individual, whose tooth and otic capsules were not
preserved, a radius and a femur fragment were taken as samples. A reliable reference for the childhood value
of the individual is ensured in the turn-over rate in this bone material, since the anthropological observation
shows a young man around the age of 20 years. In order to determine the local Sr signal from Cumae two
faunal samples (a more recent marten and an isocronic ovicapris) were analysed and crosschecked with the
results of the numerous geological isotopic investigations conducted in the volcanic material (Mercurio et al.
2014).

Irene Högner, September 2018

The Fossa burial KY728 (Brun et al. 2009), the incineration KY716 (Brun et al. 2009) and the column separation at the LMU Munich.

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