Burial and Social Change in First Millennium BC Italy
Title | Burial and Social Change in First Millennium BC Italy PDF eBook |
Author | Elisa Perego |
Publisher | Oxbow Books |
Total Pages | 377 |
Release | 2016-11-30 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1785701878 |
In the first millennium BC, communities in Italy underwent crucial transformations which scholars have often subsumed under the heading of ‘state formation’, namely increased social stratification, the centralization of political power and, in some cases, urbanization. Most research has tended to approach the phenomenon of state formation and social change in relation to specific territorial dynamics of growth and expansion, changing modes of exploitation of food and other resources over time, and the adoption of selected socio-ritual practices by the ruling élites in order to construct and negotiate authority. In contrast, comparatively little attention has been paid to the question of how these key developments resonated across the broader social transect, and how social groups other than ruling élites both promoted these changes and experienced their effects. The chief aim of this collection of 14 papers is to harness innovative approaches to the exceptionally rich mortuary evidence of first millennium BC Italy, in order to investigate the roles and identities of social actors who either struggled for power and social recognition, or were manipulated and exploited by superior authorities in a phase of tumultuous sociopolitical change throughout the entire Mediterranean basin. Contributors provide a diverse range of approaches in order to examine how power operated in society, how it was exercised and resisted, and how this can be studied through mortuary evidence. Section 1 addresses the construction of identity by focusing mainly on the manipulation of age, ethnic and gender categories in society in regions and sites that reached notable power and splendor in first millennium BC Italy. These include Etruria, Latium, Campania and the rich settlement of Verucchio, in Emilia Romagna. Each paper in Section 2 offers a counterpoint to a contribution in Section 1 with an overall emphasis on scholarly multivocality, and the multiplicity of the theoretical approaches that can be used to read the archaeological evidence.
Burial and Social Change in First-Millennium BC Italy
Title | Burial and Social Change in First-Millennium BC Italy PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | |
Release | 2016-08-01 |
Genre | |
ISBN | 9781785701863 |
Collapse or Survival
Title | Collapse or Survival PDF eBook |
Author | Elisa Perego |
Publisher | Oxbow Books |
Total Pages | 224 |
Release | 2019-12-31 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1789251036 |
In the present-day world order, political disintegration, the faltering of economic systems, the controversial yet dramatic consequences of global warming and pollution, and the spread of poverty and social disruption in Western countries have rendered ‘collapse’ one of the hottest topics in the humanities and social sciences. In the frenetic run for identifying the global causes and large-scale consequences of collapse, however, instances of crisis taking place at the micro-scale are not always explored by scholars addressing these issues in present and past societies, while the ‘voices’ of the marginal/non-élite subjects that might be the main victims of collapse are often silenced in ancient history and archaeology. Within this framework Collapse or Survival explores localized phenomena of crisis, unrest, and survival in the ancient Mediterranean with a focus on the first millennium BC. In a time span characterized by unprecedented high levels of dynamism, mobility, and social change throughout that region, the area selected for analysis represents a unique convergence point where states rise and fall, long-distance trade networks develop and disintegrate, and patterns of human mobility catalyze cultural change at different rates. The central Mediterranean also comprises a wealth of recently excavated and highly contextualized material evidence, casting new light on the agency of individuals and groups who endeavored to cope with crisis situations in different geographical and temporal settings. Contributors provide novel definitions of ‘collapse’ and reconsider notions of crisis and social change by taking a broader perspective that is not necessarily centred on élites. Individual chapters analyze how both high-status and non-élite social agents responded to socio-political rupture, unrest, depopulation, economic crisis, the disintegration of kinship systems, interruption in long-term trade networks, and destruction in war.
Children in Antiquity
Title | Children in Antiquity PDF eBook |
Author | Lesley A. Beaumont |
Publisher | Routledge |
Total Pages | 839 |
Release | 2020-12-30 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1134870752 |
This collection employs a multi-disciplinary approach treating ancient childhood in a holistic manner according to diachronic, regional and thematic perspectives. This multi-disciplinary approach encompasses classical studies, Egyptology, ancient history and the broad spectrum of archaeology, including iconography and bioarchaeology. With a chronological range of the Bronze Age to Byzantium and regional coverage of Egypt, Greece, and Italy this is the largest survey of childhood yet undertaken for the ancient world. Within this chronological and regional framework both the social construction of childhood and the child’s life experience are explored through the key topics of the definition of childhood, daily life, religion and ritual, death, and the information provided by bioarchaeology. No other volume to date provides such a comprehensive, systematic and cross-cultural study of childhood in the ancient Mediterranean world. In particular, its focus on the identification of society-specific definitions of childhood and the incorporation of the bioarchaeological perspective makes this work a unique and innovative study. Children in Antiquity provides an invaluable and unrivalled resource for anyone working on all aspects of the lives and deaths of children in the ancient Mediterranean world.
The Peoples of Ancient Italy
Title | The Peoples of Ancient Italy PDF eBook |
Author | Gary D. Farney |
Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |
Total Pages | 786 |
Release | 2017-11-20 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1614513007 |
Although there are many studies of certain individual ancient Italic groups (e.g. the Etruscans, Gauls and Latins), there is no work that takes a comprehensive view of each of them—the famous and the less well-known—that existed in Iron Age and Roman Italy. Moreover, many previous studies have focused only on the material evidence for these groups or on what the literary sources have to say about them. This handbook is conceived of as a resource for archaeologists, historians, philologists and other scholars interested in finding out more about Italic groups from the earliest period they are detectable (early Iron Age, in most instances), down to the time when they begin to assimilate into the Roman state (in the late Republican or early Imperial period). As such, it will endeavor to include both archaeological and historical perspectives on each group, with contributions from the best-known or up-and-coming archaeologists and historians for these peoples and topics. The language of the volume is English, but scholars from around the world have contributed to it. This volume covers the ancient peoples of Italy more comprehensively in individual chapters, and it is also distinct because it has a thematic section.
Ancient Samnium
Title | Ancient Samnium PDF eBook |
Author | Rafael Scopacasa |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 369 |
Release | 2015 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0198713762 |
Ancient Samnium focuses on the region of Samnium in Italy, combining written and archaeological evidence to form a new understanding of its ancient inhabitants during the last six centuries BC, how they identified themselves, how they developed unique forms of social and political organisation, and how they became entangled with Rome's expanding power and the impact that this had on their daily lives.
RECREATING ARTEFACTS AND ANCIENT SKILLS: FROM EXPERIMENT TO INTERPRETATION
Title | RECREATING ARTEFACTS AND ANCIENT SKILLS: FROM EXPERIMENT TO INTERPRETATION PDF eBook |
Author | Monica Mărgărit, Adina Boroneanț |
Publisher | Editura Cetatea de Scaun |
Total Pages | 324 |
Release | 2022-03-01 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 6065375659 |
This volume focuses on the role and means of archaeological experimentation in understanding the processes involved in the manufacture and use of past artifacts. When asking for contributions, we suggested the five stages of an experimental approach as main-themes: 1. Selection and acquisition of raw material, identical to those present in the archaeological assemblages. 2. Production of replicas following the technological transformation schemes identified by the direct study of archaeological items. 3. Experimental use as indicated by the publications/ethnographic comparisons or as suggested by the morphology/use-wear evolution of the archaeological items. 4. Microscopical analysis of use-wear patterns. 5. Comparison of experimental data with archaeological data in order to validate the existing hypotheses on the way they were manufactured and used by the human communities. A second aim was that the invited authors to have various archaeological backgrounds and cover a broad spatial and temporal interval. As a result, this volume comprises 17 studies organized in three sections, dictated by the various aspects of experimental archaeology they represent: from the more traditional experimental replication, understanding and interpretation of artefact functionality, and relatively recent (and less trodden) directions in experimental archaeology. It also comes to show that experimental archaeology is as well suited for Palaeolithic studies, as it is for the Neo-Eneolithic and the Bronze Age. Although most papers refer geographically to Europe, interesting contributions take us to Argentina and Australia. *** Acest volum se concentrează pe rolul și mijloacele experimentelor arheologice în înțelegerea proceselor implicate în fabricarea și utilizarea artefactelor din trecut. Am invitat o serie de specialiștii să contribuie cu studii care să testeze ipotezele teoretice existente, dar și altele care să aducă abordări inovatoare. Când am solicitat contribuții, am sugerat ca teme principale cele cinci etape ale demersului experimental: 1. Selectarea și achiziționarea de materii prime, identice cu cele prezente în ansamblurile arheologice. 2. Realizarea de replici urmând schemele de transformare tehnologică identificate prin studiul direct al ansamblurilor arheologice. 3. Utilizarea experimentală după cum este indicată de publicații/comparații etnografice sau sugerată de evoluția uzurii pe artefactele arheologice. 4. Analiza microscopică a modelelor de de uzură. 5. Compararea datelor experimentale cu datele arheologice în vederea validării ipotezelor existente privind fabricarea și utilizarea lor de către comunitățile umane. Un al doilea scop al volumului a fost ca autorii invitați să provină din diferite medii arheologice și să acopere un interval spațial și temporal larg. A rezultat un volum cuprinzând 17 studii organizate în trei secțiuni, dictate de diversele aspecte ale arheologiei experimentale: replicarea experimentală la nivel tehnologic, înțelegerea și interpretarea funcționalității artefactelor și direcțiile relativ recente (interdisciplinare) în cadrul experimentului arheologie. De asemenea, volumul ne-a arătat că arheologia experimentală este la fel de potrivită pentru studiile paleolitice, ca și pentru neo-eneolitic și epoca bronzului. Deși majoritatea lucrărilor se referă geografic la Europa, contribuții interesante vin din Argentina sau Australia.