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Photographer: Angela Kalinowski
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The images of boxing, chariot racing, duelling with weapons are interpreted as images of funeral games that were held in honour of the deceased. The images of the funeral games were painted on the two long sides of the tomb, occurred in tombs of both male and female deceased. They are comparable to the tomb paintings of Etruria in subject matter but the Etrurian examples cease at the end of the 5th century BCE. The tombs are of interest because some scholars have seen in the ones that depict men fighting with sharp weapons the origins of Roman gladiatorial combat, which originally took place in a funerary context.
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Attributed to Angela Kalinowski under the license CC-BY-NC 4.0
Abstract
Fresco from the south wall of the tomb. Two men armed with spears face off- they are both dressed in loin cloths with bare chests. They wear no body armour, but are helmeted and each bears a large oval shield. Each man has wounded his opponent. It may be that this kind of bloody duel was part of funeral games for the deceased person buried in the tomb. Ancient sources refer to 'Campanians' enjoying bloody spectactles at (funerary?) banquets, Livy, 9.40 and Silius Italicus 11.51. The five images in this series are from the south and north long walls of the same cist tomb, Tomb X of the Laghetto necropolis. They depict funerary games that were part of the rituals surrounding the burial of an elite man or woman in 4th century BCE Lucanian society.
Institution Name
Origin Place Name
Paestum (Poseidonia)
Origin Country
Italy