Burial & Society in non-Greek Salento (southeast Italy) 600-250 BC

The paper discusses burial custom in the Iron Age Salento (from 900 to 250 BC), with a focus on non-Greek settlements with a regional focus and a theoretical perspective inspired by Spanish Marxist perspectives. Class differentiation was already established in the non-Greek Salento in the 6th century BC, although it was not expressed in the funerary domain. Through time funerary rituals become more visible and inclusive with a greater proportion of the population being able to access funerary display, with increased tomb elaboration. After a possible period of crisis, the main shift in occupation pattern and burial data occurring after the end of the 5th century BC was possibly matched by important social and economic transformations in aspects such as land tenure, access to power and kinship.