The bioarchaeology of ritual and religion / edited by Alexandra Livarda, Richard Madgwick and Santiago Riera Mora.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Livarda, Alexandra, editor.

Madgwick, Richard, editor.

Riera Mora, Santiago, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Archaeology and religion.

Rites and ceremonies.

Human remains (Archaeology).

Physical Description:

xi, 199 pages : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) ; 29 cm

Other Title:

Bioarchaeology of ritual & religion

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; Philadelphia : Oxbow Books, 2018.

Summary:

The Bioarchaeology of Ritual and Religion' is the first volume dedicated to exploring ritual and religious practice in past societies from a variety of 'environmental' remains. Building on recent debates surrounding, for instance, performance, materiality and the false dichotomy between ritualistic and secular behaviour, this book investigates notions of ritual and religion through the lens of perishable material culture. Research centring on bioarchaeological evidence and drawing on methods from archaeological science has traditionally focused on functional questions surrounding environment and economy. However, recent years have seen an increased recognition of the under-exploited potential for scientific data to provide detailed information relating to ritual and religious practice. This volume explores the diverse roles of plant, animal and other organic remains in ritual and religion, as foods, offerings, sensory or healing mediums, grave goods, and worked artefacts. It also provides insights into how archaeological science can shed light on the reconstruction of ritual processes and the framing of rituals. The 14 papers showcase current and new approaches in the investigation of bioarchaeological evidence for elucidating complex social issues and worldviews. The case studies are intentionally broad, encompassing a range of sub-disciplines of bioarchaeology, including archaeobotany, anthracology, palynology, micromorphology, geoarchaeology, zooarchaeology (including avian and worked bone studies), archaeomalacology and organic residue analysis. The temporal and geographical coverage is equally wide, extending across Europe from the Mediterranean and Aegean to the Baltic and North Atlantic regions and from the Mesolithic to the medieval period. The volume also includes a discursive paper by Prof. Brian Hayden, who suggests a different interpretative framework of archaeological contexts and rituals.

Contents:

Ritual and religion : bioarchaeological perspectives / Alexandra Livarda, Richard Madgwick

Sacred to the soil : micromorphology, geoarchaeology, and the bioarchaeology of ritual and religion, with reference to the Iron Age site of high Pasture Cave, Scotland / Jo McKenzie

Pollen signatures of a ritual process in the collective burial cave of Cova des Pas (Late Bronze Age, Minorca, Balearic Islands, Spain) / Santiago Riera Mora, Gabriel Servera-Vives, Llorenç Picornell-Gelabert, Manon Cabanis, Marzia Boi, Yannick Miras

The final masquerade : resinous substances and Roman mortuary rites / Rhea Brettell, Eline Schotsmans, William Martin, Ben Stern, Carl Heron

Plant rituals and fuel in Roman cemeteries of Apulia (SE Italy) / Valentina Caracuta, Girolamo Fiorentino

Feasting in a sacred grove : a multidisciplinary study of the Gallo-Roman sanctuary of Kempraten, Switzerland / Pirmin Koch, Ömi Akeret, Sabine Deschler-Erb, Heide Hüster-Plogmann, Christine Pümpin, Lucia Wick

Ritual meals and votive o fferings : shells and animal bones at the archaic sanctuary of Apollo at Ancient Zone, Thrace, Greece / Rena Veropoulidou, Daphne Nikolaidou

Animals and rituals in Iron Age Iberian settlements in the region of Valencia, Spain / Maria Pilar Iborra Eres

Animal biographies in the Iron Age of Wessex : Winnall Down, UK, revisited / James Morris

Faunal remains and ritualisation : case studies from Bronze Age caves in central Italy / Letizia Silvestri, Mario F. Rolfo, Micaela Angle, Robin Skeates, Leonardo Salari

Towards an archaeology of the social meanings of the environment : plants and animals at the prehistoric ceremonial and funerary staggered turriform of Son Ferrer (Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain) / Llorenç Picornell-Gelabert, Manuel Calvo Trias, Jaume Garcia Rosselló, Gabriel Servera-Vives, Giovanna Bosi, Jordi Nadal Lorenzo, Santiago Riera Mora, Ethel Allué

Animals and worldviews : a diachronic approach to tooth and bone pendants from the Mesolithic to the Medieval period in Estonia / Tõnno Jonuks, Eve Rannamäe

Birds in death : avian archaeology and the mortuary record in the Scottish islands / Julia Best, Jacqui Mulville

Beyond bones : ritual and social secrets in archaeological remains / Brian Hayden.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

1785708287

9781785708282

OCLC:

992784600

Publisher Number:

99977620440