Elite Burial Practices and Processes of Urbanization at Gabii

This article discusses the recent discovery of a late archaic burial ground at the site of ancient Gabii. Some time during the late 6th and 5th centuries BC, seven inhumation burials were placed in one of three rock-cut tombs that were constructed along the perimeter of a preexisting complex in a long-inhabited sector of the archaic city. The tombs consist of deep trenches cut into the bedrock tuff with loculi carved on one or more sides; one of the tombs features a monolithic tuff sarcophagus. Between them, the tombs contain the burials of six adults and one adolescent, but they are largely devoid of grave goods. On the basis of their considerable size and intramural location, the burials may have belonged to relatively high status individuals. The emergence of the cemetery within the limits of the city may point to a period of social and political change between the Archaic and Republican periods.