The Mini-Columbarium in Carthage's Yasmina
THE MINI-COLUMBARIUM IN CARTHAGE’S YASMINA CEMETERY by CAITLIN CHIEN CLERKIN (Under the Direction of N. J. Norman) ABSTRACT The Mini-Columbarium in Carthage’s Roman-era Yasmina cemetery combines regional construction methods with a Roman architectural form to express the privileged status of its wealthy interred; this combination deploys monumental architectural language on a small scale. This late second or early third century C.E. tomb uses the very North African method of vaulting tubes, in development in this period, for an aggrandizing vaulted ceiling in a collective tomb type derived from the environs of Rome, the columbarium. The use of the columbarium type signals its patrons’ engagement with Roman mortuary trends—and so, with culture of the center of imperial power— to a viewer and imparts a sense of group membership to both interred and visitor. The type also, characteristically, provides an interior space for funerary ritual and commemoration, which both sets the Mini-Columbarium apart at Yasmina and facilitates normative Roman North African funerary ritual practice, albeit in a communal context. INDEX WORDS: Funerary monument(s), Funerary architecture, Mortuary architecture, Construction, Vaulting, Vaulting tubes, Funerary ritual, Funerary commemoration, Carthage, Roman, Roman North Africa, North Africa, Columbarium, Collective burial, Social identity. THE MINI-COLUMBARIUM IN CARTHAGE’S YASMINA CEMETERY by CAITLIN CHIEN CLERKIN A.B., Bowdoin College, 2011 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2013 © 2013 Caitlin Chien Clerkin All Rights Reserved. THE MINI-COLUMBARIUM IN CARTHAGE’S YASMINA CEMETERY by CAITLIN CHIEN CLERKIN Major Professor: Naomi J.
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