Etruscan women and their social networks

Please join us for the first Saxo research seminar of the autumn term. Classical archaeologist Marjatta Nielsen will be visiting us with a lecture on “Etruscan women and their social networks”. All are welcome!

The lecture takes its outset from decades of studies on social aspects of the Etruscan culture, combining methods from archaeology, art history, epigraphy, ancient history and social anthropology. Instead of giving an overall presentation of the state of studies on Etruscan women, the lecture will present some alternative approaches to aspects, which are totally absent in written sources.

On one hand, the abundant archaeological material and rich epigraphical evidence from the last four centuries BC invite to a large-scale statistical approach. On the other hand, hundreds of tomb contexts invite to look at women’s roles and status within changing family- and marriage patterns, and reveal women’s social networks, which were not necessarily confined to close family relationships.