From Polis to Colonia: Death, Burial, and Society in Hellenistic and Roman Patras

This thesis studies the ways in which people dealt with their dead in ancient Patras, a small Greek polis turned Roman colonia that is situated in the Northwest Peloponnese. Mortuary practices are reconstructed from Late Classical to Early Christian times; the focus is on the Hellenistic and Roman period (ca. 300 BCE-300 CE). The goal of this reconstruction is to come closer to understanding how the changing political, economic, and social circumstances that characterized the period - imperialism and globalization in particular - affected the culture and identity of the local population.