Abstract

In April 2017, an international conference, ‘From Invisible to Visible. New Data and Methods for the Archaeology of Infant and Child Burials in Pre-Roman Italy’, was held at Trinity College Dublin and brought together for the first time a large number of experts on pre-Roman Italy to present and discuss their current research. This volume contains some of the papers presented at the conference, together with contributions by colleagues who did not attend the conference but expressed their interest in contributing to this volume. All chapters discuss mainly previously unpublished data from pre-Roman Italy with the exception of the last chapter that presents a case study from Late Antique Greece. The first part of the volume constitutes the premise to the others and focuses on methodologies and theorethical approaches to the study of sub-adult burials in pre-Roman Italy. The second part discusses the archaeology of infant and child burials in ancient Latium and Rome, with new data from Rome, Gabii and Satricum. The third part presents data from the two South Etruscan towns of Veii and Tarquinia. In the fourth part, the different chapters follow a journey towards the north; the sites of Tivoli, Spoleto, Novilara, Murlo, Forcello and Verona are discussed. The fifth part presents comprehensive overviews on infant and child burials in Abruzzo and Samnium and discusses a significant case study from Jazzo Fornasiello in Puglia. The final and sixth part is devoted to the archaeology of the Islands, from the necropoleis of eastern Sicily (Monte Finocchito, Cassibile and Pantalica) to the tofet of Motya and the necropoleis of Monte Sirai and Villamar in Sardinia.