{"id":1209,"date":"2017-06-14T15:23:19","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T15:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ajaonline.org\/2017\/06\/14\/3461\/"},"modified":"2024-08-13T03:46:06","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T03:46:06","slug":"3461","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3461\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Continuity and Change: The <em>Columelle<\/em> of Southern Campania"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Spread throughout the necropoleis surrounding Pompeii are hundreds of humble stelae that share an unusual form. As rectangular standing stones topped with disks, they resemble stylized human busts; examples featuring carved hairstyles on the rear of the disk make clear that this association was intentional. Known as <em>columelle<\/em>, the grave markers were used from the first century B.C.E. through the first century C.E. not only at Pompeii but in all the cities of southern Campania. Traditionally, they have been understood as a continuation of the region&rsquo;s pre-Roman funerary practice, despite there being no evidence for their use prior to the Roman period. This article presents a new interpretation. Rejecting the idea of direct precursors that have been lost, I argue that the <em>columelle <\/em>were new creations of the first century B.C.E. but that their form was archaizing, intended to evoke the past. They can be understood within a larger trend of this period, in which Italians across the peninsula stressed local identities tied to Italy&rsquo;s historic regions, often by reviving, reimagining, or even inventing both material and nonmaterial traditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spread throughout the necropoleis surrounding Pompeii are hundreds of humble stelae that share an unusual form. As rectangular standing stones topped with disks, they resemble stylized human busts; examples featuring carved hairstyles on the rear of the disk make clear that this association was intentional. Known as columelle, the grave markers were used from the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[904],"tags":[11,29],"issues":[649],"region":[874],"class_list":["post-1209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-mortuary","tag-romanperiod","issues-649","region-italy-campania"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Beyond Continuity and Change: The Columelle of Southern Campania | July 2017 (121.3) | American Journal of Archaeology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3461\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beyond Continuity and Change: The Columelle of Southern Campania | July 2017 (121.3) | American Journal of Archaeology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Spread throughout the necropoleis surrounding Pompeii are hundreds of humble stelae that share an unusual form. As rectangular standing stones topped with disks, they resemble stylized human busts; examples featuring carved hairstyles on the rear of the disk make clear that this association was intentional. Known as columelle, the grave markers were used from the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3461\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Journal of Archaeology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/aja.journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-14T15:23:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-13T03:46:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/1213_Emmerson.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"582\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"aja\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"aja\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3461\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3461\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"aja\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#\/schema\/person\/711697bfd0087a94589eecedb525bf52\"},\"headline\":\"Beyond Continuity and Change: The Columelle of Southern Campania\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-14T15:23:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-13T03:46:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3461\/\"},\"wordCount\":197,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3461\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/1213_Emmerson.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Mortuary\",\"Roman Period\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Article\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3461\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3461\/\",\"name\":\"Beyond Continuity and Change: The Columelle of Southern Campania | July 2017 (121.3) | American Journal of Archaeology\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3461\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3461\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/1213_Emmerson.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-14T15:23:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-13T03:46:06+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3461\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3461\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/3461\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/1213_Emmerson.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/1213_Emmerson.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":582,\"caption\":\"Columelle in the southeast extension of the Porta Nocera necropolis, Pompeii (upon authorization of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Environment; 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