| bvlenci |
Jul 21st, 2014 01:08 PM |
In the period of the early Republic, burial (technically imhumation) was the norm in Rome. In the late Republic, cremation was the norm. Then at some time during the empire period, burial once again became the norm. Immigrants from other parts of the empire brought their own burial practices. The body of a child, mummified in the Egyptian manner, was found buried in Rome. (This mummy can be seen at the National Roman Museum at Palazzo Massimo alle Terme.) Jews, Christians, and adherents of Eastern mystery religions didn't use cremation. Obviously, none of these changes happened overnight, so there were transitional periods.
It would have been much more accurate and less value-laden for Paola Germoni to have said that there was evidence that even in the same family both inhumation and cremation were practiced, as might be expected during a transitional period in a very cosmopolitan city rather than to applaud the "free choice that everyone had with their own body, a freedom people no longer had in the Christian era when burial became the norm".
There really is no evidence that the choice of funerary practices was really a "free choice". There are many circumstances that might dictate the decision to use one or the other type of obsequies, even in the same family, and the dearly departed might have had no choice at all in the matter.
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