Buried Far Away: Easterners in Roman Liburnia
Authors
Anamarija Kurilić and Zrinka Serventi
Abstract
Ancient Liburnia, stretching along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, has
always been a sea-faring region, and its people – the Liburni – have always been
regarded as notorious pirates and sea-people. As such, the region has been visited by
foreigners from both the west and the east. Greeks have sailed across the Adriatic since
the seventh century BC, but travellers from the Greek mainland visited the region even
in the more remote past, judging by finds of Mycenaean pottery at several Adriatic sites.
In this contribution the authors shall look into the foreigners of eastern origins
who came to Roman Liburnia and died there during the first three centuries AD, and
investigate the ways they were buried in this land so far from their homelands. Due to
exact written records left in the form of their epitaphs – mostly belonging to soldiers of
legions and auxiliary units, but to some seamen and traders as well – the authors shall
analyse distribution of their homelands and investigate whether there were some
peculiarities with regard to their burial customs.
In addition to these foreigners of unambiguously eastern origins, the authors
shall also take into consideration other persons who might have also been easterners, as
suggested by particular religious affiliations (such as, e.g., an archigallus buried in
Iader), anthroponymy, use of the Greek language and/or writing, and similar. This
analysis shall also look into the specific grave goods that strongly indicate eastern
origins of those buried within these graves, and investigate whether there were some
particular burial customs and/or tomb types that would indicate the same. Furthermore,
the authors shall also take into consideration the influences which originated from the
western territories of the Roman state and compare them to the eastern ones.
Keywords
Roman Liburnia, foreigners of eastern origins, burial customs, epigraphy,
anthroponymy.