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Document Details : Title: Changing Burial Practices at Patras and Knossos Subtitle: The Impact of Migration on Two Roman Colonies in Greece Author(s): DIJKSTRA, Tamara M. , MOLES, Anna C. Journal: Pharos Volume: 25 Date: 2021-2023 Pages: 111-139 DOI: 10.2143/PHA.25.0.3293420 Abstract : This paper investigates the impact of Roman colonisation on two Greek cities: Knossos on Crete and Patras in the northwest Peloponnese. Both colonies were installed in the last decades of the first century BCE with the double aim of establishing a firmer grip on Greece and incorporating the area more fully in the network of connectivity and exchange that spanned the Mediterranean and beyond. Both Knossos and Patras saw an influx of Italian settlers as well as an intensification of overseas contact in the first century or so following their transformation into Roman colonies. In this paper, we use archaeological, epigraphic and osteological evidence from burials to assess if and in what ways colonisation – and processes of migration and increased connectivity in particular – led to demographic, social and cultural change. An increase in cremations, an introduction of new tomb types, and a steep rise in the use of Latin in epitaphs in Patras testifies to a profound transformation of the local community, whereas the changes in Knossos are much more modest and gradual. Nonetheless, both cities give evidence for the development of a newly organised social structure. |
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