Le sepolture di defunti in età subadulta nei sepolcreti etruschi di Bologna di "fase Certosa": un primo bilancio tra questioni di metodo e aspetti rituali

This contribution aims to analyze the phenomenology of subadult burials in the Etruscan necropoleis of Bologna dating from the second half of the 6th to the beginning of the 4th century BC, the so-called “Certosa phase”. An investigation, that is part of a wider reflection on these contexts that the Chair of Etruscology of the University of Bologna has been carrying out for some time, through which we will try to draw up an initial assessment on this topic in hope of bringing some elements useful for comparison also from this point of view. Unfortunately, it is an analysis that results as inevitably penalised by a series of aspects with which one must necessarily measure oneself when taking on the study of the Bologna Estruscan funerary evidence brought to light by 19th century excavations. In particular, the enquiry is heavily burdened by an almost complete lack of osteological analysis, which are the only ones able to safely indicate some elements regarding the gender of the deceased and the different age categories. Thus, among these contexts, the identification of child graves is made possible only by the recovery - whitin the digging documentation - of explicit references to the presence of «ossa di fanciullo» or of «piccolo scheletro» or in the light of the small size of the funeral pits. Based upon this criteria, the census carried out on the published necropoleis, or the unpublished ones for which the original excavation documentation was available, made it possible to collect a dossier of 55 testimonies. This number, only corresponding to around 5% of the slightly over 1000 currently-known burials for the period in question, represent a very small percentage and effectively appear far from describing a real population. This lack of evidence, even if it can be related to criteria that normally influence the visibility of this category, among which, in first place, the limited access to a formal burial, must be reckoned, once again, with a series of elements which are independent from the funerary ritual. For example, frequent looting has compromised the legibility of a large number of burials. Through a combined investigation of the few available osteological analyses and of the anthropometric data which are often present in the digging reports, the dossier has been articulated according to three distinct age groups: infants (0-2/3 years), pre-puberal children (2/3 - 10/12 years); puberal youths (10/12 - 14/16 years). Generally speaking, the child funerary treatment reveals a substantial alignment to the “Bologna system” and does not show great differences from the customs held for adults, even if there are some tendentious elements that are significant to this group. Amongst the most frequent elements, for example, the almost complete absence of the large vases related to banquet has been noticed. The functional selection seems to privilege thus a religious and ritual approach reflected frequently by sets of vases suggesting the practice of libation, holy acts par excellence. The recurring presence of objects to which an amuletic or a passepartout meaning has been given also provides evidence of the belief in an otherworldly destiny, but in particular a strong need of protection, typical of marginal categories like women and children. Alongside religious needs, other signs of social self representation or of an ethnic nature which had the function of showing family lineage or the link to the generic group of reference are not amiss