Evidence of ossuary dressing in the funerary rituals of pre-Roman Veneto (Italy)

The topic of this paper is ossuary dressing in the broader context of the commemoration of death in the pre-Roman world. Recent studies suggest that this ritual practice was not linked to exceptional circumstances in Italy; rather, was quite commonplace, as documented by new evidence from cemeteries such as Verucchio and Tarquinia. In Veneto, at the end of the 19th century, Alessandro Prosdocimi, the discoverer of Palaeovenetic civilisation, wrote, “On the custom of the ancients to cover cinerary urns with cloth.” In recent years, more refined techniques of excavation have allowed for the analysis of microstratigraphy and enhanced study of the archaeological record, facilitating the identification of a number of textile traces in graves from Este (PD) and elsewhere. These artefacts are now the subject of expert analysis and detailed studies. Here, some emblematic cases are presented to demonstrate the considerable ritual variability that characterises the depositional sequence of funerary objects during the period from the 8th to the 3rd century BC.