Visual representations of working women in funerary reliefs of Ostia, port of Rome (I B.C. - II A.D.)

• Grant number: 23/17558-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2024
• End date: July 14, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Julio Cesar Magalhães de Oliveira
• Grantee: Isabella Pondian Casteleti
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/16940-7 - Visual representations of working women in funerary reliefs from Ostia, the port of Rome (1st century BC-2nd century AD), BE.EP.IC

Abstract

This research seeks to comprehend the representation of working women in funerary reliefs which pictures them performing some sort of craft in shops, workshop and/or bars in the city of Ostia, between I BC and II AD. We will take as a basis for analysis the perspective of a history from below, in order to understand how these working women and their families experienced work, conceived their world and expressed aspirations in the epitaphs that celebrated their dead, considering that such documents consist on the personal expression of individuals from subaltern groups. Therefore, by making comparisons between different funerary reliefs, we will seek to decode the meanings of the representations, their characteristics, their prevailing forms and what functions they assume in their context.