La morte non mi appartiene. Contesti funerari di capi-guerrieri dalla Puglia preromana

The discoveries of the last forty years in Apulia have highlighted the leading role of this region, and especially Peucetia, in the development of high-level societies, able to assimilate external models and rework them autonomously, in which the presence of high-ranking people able to use weapons is affirmed. The latter are not considered as a mere instrument of war, but also become prestige symbols of a privileged minority. At the same time, these communities, especially those of Peucezia, seem to play a fundamental role in the formation process of Italiote figurative tradition which will develop themes particularly linked to the role of warrior. Within the cemeteries of these aristocracies there were several male figures of exceptional rank whose status was expressed through the monumentality of their tomb structure as well as through the complexity and richness of the funerary assemblage. The objects within these assemblages were not merely evidence of lavish opulence but were intended to mirror the social standing of the deceased in order to project a specific image and ideology and express social behavior. These are people of aristocratic rank, placed at the top of the community, real fighters, whose graves were furnished with the weapons and armors that they took with them at the moment of death - weapons and armors of great value, probably imported from Greece and from the colonies of Magna Graecia (Metapontum and Taranto). Although often ceremonial, they highlight the position of both leader and chief that the deceased held in life. These weapons, along with Italic vases decorated with scenes reflecting a warlike ideology, and imported bronze vases (Etruscan and Greek) and metal tools for the symposium, constitute a homogeneous set in terms of the contents and messages they are intended to evoke and transmit. As a whole the funerary assemblages represent the desire on the part of the aristocracy to be distinguished from the rest of society and to achieve an afterlife like that of the heroes of myth.