'Breaking the mould' Roman non-elite plaster death masks: Identifying a new form of funerary commemoration and memory

This paper sets out to explore the Roman non-elite plaster death masks and their place in nonelite funerary commemoration and memory preservation. The non-elite plaster death masks have been overlooked due to overall interest focused on the elite class more than their less wealthy counterparts. This research explores the timeline in which the masks belong, the provinces they belong to, technique of manufacture, evidence of uniformity, degrees of likeness, and examination of age and sex represented. The results of the analysis of these factors has determined that the non-elite plaster death masks in Rome appear in a funerary context starting in the second century AD and spread to the provinces of France and Tunisia into the late third to early fourth century AD. The earliest masks date to the first century BC to first century AD from Egypt. This practice spread through trade into the ports of Rome, simultaneously influencing the Roman plaster death masks with the elite imagines. Non-elite Roman citizens were not allowed to have ancestors, who comprised of prominent men in the family. The presence of women and children plaster masks concludes that the non-elite were allowing members of the family outside of the older male category to become ancestors. Therefore, the non-elite had to begin crafting their ancestry in the present through their representation in funerary commemoration.