The Bioarchaeology of Classical Kamarina ― Life and Death in Greek Sicily

“A true, balanced bioarchaeological work of scholarship elucidating the way of life and death for the people of Passo Marinaro.”—Sherry C. Fox, coeditor ofNew Directions in the Skeletal Biology of Greece

Human remains and burial customs are often considered separately in studies of ancient Greek populations. In this seminal work, Carrie Sulosky Weaver synthesizes skeletal, material, and ritual data to reconstruct the cultural practices of Kamarina, a city-state in Sicily.

Using evidence from 258 recovered graves from the Passo Marinaro necropolis (circa the fifth to the third century BCE), Sulosky Weaver suggests that Kamarineans were closely linked to their counterparts in neighboring Greek cities. Evidence of violence, like head trauma and a high young adult mortality rate, indicate exposure to a series of catastrophic events. Other evidence at burial sites allude to Kamarina’s mixed ancestry, ethnicity, and social hierarchy. Despite the tumultuous nature of the times, the resulting portrait reveals that Kamarina was a place where individuals of diverse ethnicities and ancestries were united in life and death by shared culture and funerary practices.

Carrie L. Sulosky Weaver is a Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of History of Art and Architecture.