L’objet dans les nécropoles mégariennes : réflexion méthodologique autour de la notion de « dépôt funéraire »

Abstract

By examining the types and position of artefacts in a grave at its opening, an archaeologist can get many information on the part each object played in the funeral, the symbolic value attached to them and the course of the funeral itself. But the Greek colony of Megara Hyblae is quite specific since graves were frequently reopened and reused to lay down new corpses. Bones and artefacts were thus shifted many times, inviting us to question the notion of funerary deposit itself since as the grave is not a « closed environment » anymore.

Keywords

• funerary deposit
• grave goods
• functionnal items
• shifting
• skeletal reductions