October 9, 2025

A Window on Women’s Dress and Community Identities in the Fourth Century Bc in Southern Italy: Funerary Iconography in Campania and Lucania

Key Points

Clothing in tomb portraits reflects ethnic identity and social status among Italic groups in the fourth century BC.
The analysis shows women predominantly expressed group belonging through clothing, headdresses, and patterns.
Images from grave assemblages indicate local identity expression rather than broad national identification.
This exploration offers insights into the social dynamics and cultural tensions during Rome's expansion in the region.

Abstract

This paper examines clothing depicted in the portraits painted on the walls of the tombs of elites at various settlements in Campania and Lucania in southwest Italy in the fourth century BC, as it provides important information on sartorial appearances and self-perception, especially in view of the dearth of textiles and lack of textual sources. It investigates the interconnected relationship between dress behaviour, ethnic identity and social status among independent Italic groups in the region in this century, a time of political and cultural tensions triggered by Rome’s aggressive expansion of its territorial control. The images, as well as the material culture from grave assemblages, indicate that people expressed who they thought they were through clothing and dress accessories and that this happened on a local basis rather than on a large scale or ‘national’ level. It was predominantly women who were expressing group belonging through specific garments and styles, headdresses, colours and patterns. These images painted for perpetuity offer us a precious window on dress behaviour and they suggest that women were the primary bearers of small-scale community identities in funerary representation and in life in this period of political and social change.

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