The Fundación Uncastillo and UNED Tudela have announced the first colloquium on the archaeology and ancient history of Los Bañales: ‘Las Cupae Hispanas: Origen, Difusión, Uso, Tipologia’, which will be held from 16-18 April 2010 at Uncastillo (Zaragoza).
This colloquium investigates the phenomenon of the cupae, which are roughly semi-cylindrical or barrel-shaped tomb monuments found at various sites across the Iberian Peninsula from the first to the third centuries A.D. Many are inscribed with funerary texts in Latin. Scholars from many areas of the Peninsula as well as elsewhere in Europe are gathering for the three-day colloquium at Uncastillo to discuss a number of questions relating to these monuments: their origins, which remain a source of contention; their diffusion across the Peninsula; their practical and symbolic uses by members of different social groups; and their typology, which has thus far proved difficult to establish. This is the first conference to be devoted to this enigmatic type of funerary monument.
Further information and the conference programme can be found here:
