Kinship and rule in the Apennines. Foreign and indigenous population groups in Iron Age Spoleto

• Applicant: Dr. Joachim Weidig
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 568702652

Richly furnished burials of children under the age of three are rare throughout the Etruscan and Italic world. The ceremonial tombs of babies and infants from the necropolis of Piazza d'Armi in Spoleto, dated to the Orientalising period (720-580 BC) and discovered with grave good assemblages comprising breastplate, daggers, spears, mace heads, decorative discs, items of dress and distinctive vessels thus represent a significant exception. In addition, aspects from different cultures are discernible in Spoleto through grave goods and burial rites. However, only a combination of archaeological and biological methods can establish whether these patterns reflect the presence of foreign people from Etruria, Latium and the Sabine Hills or cultural and selective adaptation processes by the local elite. Therefore, a university PRIN project is currently being funded in Italy, analysing all human skeletal remains from Spoleto from an anthropological and molecular biological perspective. The German research project, on the other hand, will provide the archaeological basis for answering key research questions based on the conventional archaeological evaluation of the entire cemetery: Can we establish a connection between burial rites, grave goods and familial relationships? Can the differences within the burials be attributed to different population groups or to selective adaptation? Did individual families rule for several generations, and do the children's graves indicate an attempt to establish a ruling dynasty in Spoleto in which political and religious positions of power were inherited from birth? Closely linked to these questions, a definition of the local Iron Age material culture in Umbria will be developed in comparison to neighbouring regions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Italy
• Cooperation Partners: Professorin Alessandra Coen; Professorin Maria Cristina Martinez-Labarga; Professorin Marina Micozzi