| Summary: | The period that followed the foundation of the Greek colonies in Sicily saw the definition of new relationships of identity and diversity with respect to the native world also through new symbols. Among these aspects must be included the funeral practices. The study of the "world of the dead" as a structured system is possible only if a necropolis provides a global set of information, which must be read as evidence of the social framework of a particular historical moment. Between the 7th and 6th century BC the kits of the Syracusan necropolis contribute considerably to defining the commercial relations which in this period brought the Siceliot polis closer to the Greek area, in particular Athens and Corinth, and to the Etruscan area. The presence of cinerary urns associated with the vascular shapes of the symposium can refer to the ideology of the banquet characteristic of aristocratic convivial practices, while their absence could constitute an important element in being able to identify the burials of the Syracusan demos. The latter, between the end of the 6th and the first quarter of the 5th century BC, opposed the aristocracy, causing the expulsion of the gamoroi and the advent of the Dinomenids.
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