The procession
The procession that accompanies the warrior's last journey passes through the necropolis. Leading it is the officiant of the rite who raises a disc with the solar symbol towards the sky.
The pyre and ossilegium
The warrior is laid on a wooden platform to be prepared for the afterlife journey and then laid, together with his sword, on the pyre.
What remains after the burning are small fragments of bones that are carefully selected and washed to be placed in the urn: usually the remains of the lower limbs were deposited at the bottom, while towards the mouth of the vessel the remains of the skull bones were placed.
The last ceremony
A final ceremony is reserved for the warrior: the sword, which will no longer serve him and must not belong to anyone else, is broken and the fragments laid on the ground. The funeral banquet and libations, probably based on wine, conclude the ritual.
The reconstruction is the result of archaeological excavations conducted in the necropolis of Casinalbo and of accurate multidisciplinary research that has returned the detailed picture of a ritual that evokes a famous funeral of antiquity strikingly similar to those of the terramare, the funeral of Patroclus narrated by Homer.
