Beyond the Grave: Biographies from Early Greece

Abstract

Object biography is an analytical technique that traces the changing social meanings an object accumulates during its lifetime. This study of two Late Geometric pots from Argos and Thebes employs biographical methods to address the role played by material goods in contemporary social rituals. The decoration and burial context of both vessels attest discrete stages in the construction of the social identity of the deceased. A giant pyxis from Argos can be connected with the social maturation of the woman buried within it. A figured pithos from Thebes represents what may be an important festival of Apollo and can similarly be connected with the interred child. The biographical data of these objects and their ultimate owners necessitate reconstructing the social setting of goods within complex communities, including the often-marginalized young and aging adult segments of the population. By focusing on the intersections of biographies in the grave, these narratives emphasize the centrality of objects in shaping identity and social order in early Greece.