Ancient history Books
Peeters Publishers Représenter dieux et hommes dans le Proche-Orient
Book SynopsisQuelle est la fonction des représentations du divin et aussi des hommes dans le Proche-Orient ancien? Quelles sont les différentes manières de rendre visible des dieux et quelles en sont les fonctions particulières? Ces représentations matérielles et visuelles permettent-elles de mieux comprendre les cultes officiels et les cultes privés? Quel est le rôle des images dans le culte royal? Est-ce le roi ou tous les humains qui sont «l’image» des dieux? Pour quelles raisons décide-t-on d’interdire des images cultuelles? Y a-t-il des précurseurs à l’interdiction biblique dans le Proche-Orient ou ailleurs? Comment les représentations des dieux et des hommes changent-elles en l’absence d’image cultuelle? Le colloque «Représenter dieux et hommes dans le Proche-Orient ancien et dans la Bible», qui s’est tenu les 5 et 6 mai 2015 au Collège de France, avait pour but d’éclairer ces questions autour de l’image, un sujet central pour l’intelligence des religions anciennes et modernes. What was the function of representing deities and also humans in the ancient Near-East? Which were the different ways of making gods visible, and the specific functions of these representations? Might these material and visual representations help us to better understand official cults, as well as private cults? What was the role of images in the royal cult? Was the king the only “image” of the gods, or could all humans fulfill this role? Why were cult images forbidden? Does the biblical prohibition have any precedent or parallel in the ancient Near-East, or elsewhere? And how do the ways of representing gods and humans change in the absence of cultic images? The conference Representing Gods and Humans in the Ancient Near-East and in the Bible, held at the Collège de France, Paris, on May 5-6 2015, sought to shed light on these questions surrounding the image, a critical issue for our understanding of ancient as well as modern religions.
£99.42
Peeters Publishers Intercultural Exchange in Late Antique
Book SynopsisLate Antiquity is the land of plenty for scholars interested in intercultural exchange, and yet the subject still lacks systematical investigation. The study of late antique historiography allows for a particularly rewarding approach. Late antique historiographical texts testify to contemporary attitudes towards contacts between different cultures, religions, languages; but they were also impacted on by intercultural exchange, mostly in the form of translation or adaptation of sources imported from other cultural areas. The six contributions gathered in this volume present case studies focused on the Mediterranean region and Western Asia, crossing religious, linguistic and political borders in a chronological framework that goes from the fourth to the eleventh centuries. Besides showcasing the results that can be harvested with such a twofold analytical approach to late antique historiography, they also pinpoint the methodological challenges researchers are likely to meet when venturing in the mainly uncharted field of intercultural exchange in Late Antiquity.
£80.45
Peeters Publishers Greek Paideia and Local Tradition in the
Book SynopsisIn the ancient Graeco-Roman East different types of interaction between Greek and local cultures took place. The present book investigates them from different viewpoints in their different manifestations (education, language, literature, etc.), and in different geographical areas: Egypt, Syria, Pontus Cappadocia, Propontis, Bithynia, Phrygia, Pisidia or the whole of Asia Minor. Did the Greek paideia intermingle with local traditions in the education of the local ruling classes? Did that have an impact on their prestige? Did this affect social classes? What were the extent and consequences of the linguistic contact between Greek and the local languages? Where there phenomena of Greek-local cultural translations or adaptations? What was the degree of penetration of the Greek literary models or topoi? How was the interaction of Greek paideia and the ancestral (local or regional) religions? What was the role of the Greek paideia as a signpost of identity? How did Greek and Latin coexist in this context? To answer such questions, the different papers in the current volume study each of them from a particular point of view, paying attention to the evidence available.
£103.55
Peeters Publishers Le microcosme animal en Égypte ancienne: de
Book SynopsisCette publication fait suite au colloque international organisé par l’Université de Fribourg, Suisse (10-11 septembre 2015). Abordant la relation spécifique entre les Égyptiens et le monde des Arthropodes, objet de peur et de vénération, les études réunies ciblent des espèces liées à des divinités (Isis de Coptos, Isis-Selkis, etc.) capables de déjouer leurs nuisances venimeuses ou de guérir de leurs effets (scorpions, mille-pattes), des espèces véhiculant des maladies parasitaires comme le paludisme ou la leishmaniose (moustiques et phlébotomes), des espèces aux caractéristiques anatomiques et éthologiques remarquables employées d’un point de vue conceptuel (scorpion, scarabée et Lanelater de Neith). Une partie de cette approche est consacrée aux nécrophages, ainsi qu’à l’utilisation médico-magique des Arthropodes dans le corpus médical de l’Égypte classique et la pharmacopée de l’Égypte gréco-romaine. Contributions de S.H. Aufrère, L. Baqué Manzano, T. Bardinet, J. Berlandini, A.-S. von Bomhard, A. Charron, N. Guilhou, P.P. Koemoth, J. Maître, M.-H. Marganne, F. Rouffet, et C. Spieser.
£130.00
Peeters Publishers Egypt and Empire: The Formation of Religious
Book SynopsisAcross Eurasia and North Africa in the First Millennium AD, empires rose and fell, each adopting a universalizing faith which distinguished it broadly from its neighbours. In Egypt, our sources are particularly rich, owing to the land’s arid climate and the unparalleled survival not only of stone, ceramic and metalwork, but also of organic material such as textiles, wood and manuscripts found on papyrus, parchment and paper. This volume brings together over a dozen of the world’s leading specialists to explore the dialectical interplay between empire and religious identity through a series of case studies from Egypt. Evidence from Egypt suggests that it was precisely in the context of empire that ‘religious identity’ emerged as a distinctive marker. Using the unrivalled abundance and variety of surviving material culture, this volume explores the formation, renegotiation and reconstitution of religious identities from the Roman period forward. Whereas Egypt’s ‘pharaonic’ millennia (c. 3000-30 BC) have been studied as a coherent whole, later eras are often studied as fragments. Egypt and Empire offers a different approach by covering together periods that are usually treated separately in different academic disciplines.
£138.00
Peeters Publishers Egypt at its Origins 6: Proceedings of the Sixth
Book SynopsisThis volume represents the 6th installment of proceedings of the successful international conference series "Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt", which this time was held at the University of Vienna in Austria from 10th to 15th of September 2017. With this new peer-reviewed volume of focused research on early Egypt, the 41 contributors dedicated their research to various questions surrounding prehistoric Egypt, the emergence of Pharaonic civilization and the territorial state. While some papers present new archaeological results from on-going excavations, others involve the analysis and interpretation of previously known evidence from the different regions along the Nile Valley. A large group of papers specifically discuss the area of ancient Memphis, which was also a central theme of the conference helping to summarize 20 years of research at the archaeological site of Helwan. Following the good tradition of previous Origins conferences, a very large number of papers are dedicated to the area of Lower Egypt and the Nile Delta from early prehistoric through to the early Old Kingdom periods. These papers highlight the significance and enormous progress of archaeological fieldwork in an area that was long considered an uninhabitable swampland in prehistoric times. Other papers report on new fieldwork at different sites in a largely unexplored region of the Egyptian Nile Valley – the Eastern Desert of Middle Egypt, where active mining on a very large scale has taken place raising questions about the organization and scale of such activities during the formative periods of Egyptian civilization. There are numerous contributions on archaeological evidence from sites in Upper Egypt and their material culture, many of which having been excavated long ago but offering the opportunity to raise new questions. Material culture from within and outside the Nile Valley, bioarchaeological data as well as modern theoretical approaches discussed in several papers, offer great potential for arriving at wider conclusions about specialized craft production, religious practice, interregional exchange, funerary cult, social organization, kingship, administration, state formation as well as music in early Egypt. This volume is yet another exciting collection of latest research on the origins of Pharaonic Egypt and a must-have for any scholar interested in the archaeology of early civilizations.
£165.00
Peeters Publishers Féminités hellénistiques: Voix, genre,
Book SynopsisSi le statut de la femme évolue de manière sensible entre l'époque classique et l'époque hellénistique, si certaines femmes jouent un rôle politique important, peut-on dire que dans l'univers poétique alexandrin la place de la femme se transforme ? Cette place de la femme dans la poésie alexandrine concerne les modalités de la prise de parole féminine et les conditions dans lesquelles un discours féminin est prononcé. Les 25 communications réunies ici s’interrogent sur la dimension politique du discours féminin, sur l’influence du statut familial des femmes dans leur prise de parole, sur la divinisation de la femme de pouvoir, sur la femme comme figure d’altérité, sur les intertextualités du discours féminin marqué par le souvenir de Sappho ou d’Érinna, sur les occupations et fonctions féminines et leurs valeurs symboliques pour dire notamment l’activité poétique assumée par les poétesses et sur l’utilisation du bi-culturalisme gréco-égyptien dans les représentations hellénistiques.
£999.99
Peeters Publishers At the Heart of an Empire: The Royal Household in
Book SynopsisThis study is devoted to the Neo-Assyrian royal household as it emerges from the available cuneiform sources. It addresses the functions as well as the conditions of life and work of the royal household personnel. It clarifies which types of officials, professionals and other employees were active within or on behalf of the royal household. What were their tasks, and what was their position within the royal household and in relation to the king and his family? What departments were in place, and who were the managers? What was the role of lower-ranking personnel within this system? The study also investigates the social and cultural background of the personnel as well as their professional life, including their financial means, the quantity and type of their remuneration, and their career progression. Envisaged also as reference book, the book provides a prosopographical catalogue of the wide range of personnel discussed. As the personal household of the sovereign and the administrative and political centre of the empire, this study of the royal household opens up the immediate environment of the king and his family, but also to the governmental apparatus of the empire as a whole.
£162.33
Peeters Publishers Scribes d'Ougarit et paléographie akkadienne: Les
Book SynopsisLe volume Ras Shamra - Ougarit XXVII présente les résultats de la recherche que Françoise Ernst-Pradal a consacré à la paléographie des textes juridiques signés mis au jour à Ras Shamra-Ougarit et rédigés en cunéiforme idéo-syllabique. L'étude s"attache plus particulièrement à la question des «mains de scribes». Quand on sait que 96% de la documentation écrite découverte sur ce site est anonyme, on en mesure l'intérêt. La méthode mise en oeuvre à partir des photographies numériques des tablettes originales, conservées dans les musées nationaux de Damas et d'Alep et au musée du Louvre, fait apparaître des caractéristiques propres à l'écriture de chacun des scribes et montre que les «mains de scribes» sont une réalité complexe. Les résultats obtenus pour les vingt-sept scribes signataires de quatre-vingt-trois textes sont discutés après avoir été mis à l'épreuve en croisant leurs graphies avec celles des tablettes anonymes. Ils confirment certaines hypothèses émises par les chercheurs et en invalident d'autres parfois communément admises. Des rédacteurs de tablettes non signées ont pu être identifiés, ouvrant ainsi de nouvelles perspectives pour la recherche sur les questions de datation, de formation, d'organisation des scribes et de leurs liens avec les domaines religieux et économiques ainsi qu'avec les pouvoirs en place au royaume d'Ougarit à la période du Bronze Récent.
£95.00
Peeters Publishers Vielfältig geprägt: Das spätperserzeitliche
Book SynopsisIm Zentrum des Bandes stehen die Münzen aus der perserzeitlichen Provinz Samaria und die auf ihnen dargestellte Bildwelt. Das Corpus des sogenannten Samarian Coinage umfasst heute rund 250 Münztypen, wovon 165 mit relativer Sicherheit in Samaria verortet werden können. Dabei handelt es sich um Silbermünzen (Drachmen, Obolen, Hemiobolen und Viertelobolen), die zwischen 401 und 332 v. Chr. geprägt wurden und sich ikonographisch durch ihre grosse Vielfalt auszeichnen. Eine umfassende Untersuchung ihrer Bilder verspricht wichtige Rückschlüsse auf Geschichte und Kultur der Region und ihrer Bewohner. Die vorliegende Arbeit liefert eine detaillierte ikonographische Analyse auf der Grundlage des kritisch aufgearbeiteten numismatischen Materials und unter Einbezug vieler Vergleichsstücke. Ein neuer Ansatz bei der Datierung der Prägetätigkeit in Samaria führt zu einem besseren Verständnis der Münzbilder: Die Unterteilung in vier Prägephasen macht es möglich, die Präferenzen der jeweiligen Prägeherren bei der Bildwahl genauer zu erfassen und sie vor dem Hintergrund der historischen Ereignisse im Palästina des 4. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. zu interpretieren. Durch die minutiöse Auswertung der Bildquellen gelingt es so, neues Licht auf Samaria am Vorabend der hellenistischen Zeit zu werfen. The coins from the province of Samaria in the Persian Period and the imagery depicted on them are at the centre of this volume. The corpus, normally referred to as Samarian Coinage, presently consists of approximately 250 coin types; the provenience from Samaria can be established with relative certainty for 165 of these types. Silver coins (drachms, obols, hemiobols, and quarter obols) minted between 401 and 332 BCE, they are characterised by a wide iconographic variety. A comprehensive study of the images on these coins promises important insights into the region’s history and culture. The present monograph provides a detailed iconographic analysis on the basis of a critical study of the numismatic material with reference to numerous comparative items. A new approach to dating the coin minting in Samaria results in a better understanding of the coin imagery, as the division into four minting phases enables a closer examination of each coin issuer’s preferences. The meticulous evaluation of the pictorial sources, interpreted against the historical background of the 4th century BCE, sheds new light on Samaria before the dawn of the Hellenistic Period.
£96.00
Peeters Publishers When Gods Speak to Men: Divine Speech according
Book SynopsisThe nature of divine speech in Antiquity in the Mediterranean Basin has often been the object of scholarly analysis, especially regarding its divinatory context and questions of genre and rhetoric. The present volume not only provokes a dialogue with this past research, but seeks to respond to a problem that has received little consideration until now: the articulation of divine speech with the various forms of its representation (linguistic, literary, and material). The aim is to analyze the nature of divine speech through its materiality and the impact of the latter on the former’s definition and evolution. La recherche s’est souvent intéressée à la nature du discours divin dans l’Antiquité, par exemple, les contextes divinatoires ou encore les questions de forme et de rhétorique. Si le présent volume n’exclut pas que ces questions soient à nouveau abordées, il vise cependant à répondre plus précisément à une question qui n’a pas encore été traitée, à savoir l’articulation du discours divin avec ses différentes formes de représentations (linguistiques, littéraires et matérielles). Le but est d’étudier ces différentes représentations et de montrer comment elles participent de la définition même et du statut du discours en question.
£72.00
Peeters Publishers Égypte antérieure: Mélanges de préhistoire et
Book SynopsisCet ouvrage se veut un hommage à Béatrix Midant-Reynes, dont la longue carrière de lithicienne, d’archéologue et d’égyptologue est intimement liée à l’Égypte des origines, même si ses travaux couvrent un large éventail de disciplines. Béatrix Midant-Reynes est une figure majeure des études concernant la préhistoire égyptienne et la période prédynastique. Son oeuvre a une influence considérable tant pour les nouvelles théories qu’elle a posées concernant la constitution des premières sociétés nilotiques et l’émergence de l’État en Égypte, que des techniques de fouille ou d’analyse du matériel archéologique. Ce volume de mélanges propose 35 contributions, rédigées en français et en anglais, dues à des universitaires, des chercheurs et des conservateurs de musée. Les thèmes abordés, tous chers à leur dédicataire, illustrent la curiosité intellectuelle et les centres d’intérêt de Béatrix Midant-Reynes: la chronologie, le néolithique des déserts, le matériel lithique, les relations entre l’Égypte et le Proche-Orient, le sacrifice humain, l’habitat, le site d’Adaïma, le Delta du Nil, la culture matérielle, l’anthropologie de terrain, les premières dynasties égyptiennes, etc. This book is a tribute to Béatrix Midant-Reynes, whose long career as a lithic specialist, archaeologist, and Egyptologist is intimately linked to early Egypt, even though her work covers a wide range of disciplines. Béatrix Midant-Reynes is a major scholarly figure in the study of Egyptian prehistory and the Predynastic period. Her work has had a considerable influence in the new theories she has proposed concerning the constitution of the first Nilotic societies and the emergence of the State in Egypt, but also for the techniques of excavation and analysis of archaeological material she has introduced. This volume of essays offers 35 contributions, written in French and in English, by scholars, researchers, and museum curators. The variety of topics illustrates the intellectual curiosity and interests of Béatrix Midant-Reynes: chronology, the Neolithic of the deserts, lithic material, relations between Egypt and the Near East, human sacrifice, settlement archaeology, the site of Adaima, the Nile Delta, material culture, archaeothanatology, the first Egyptian dynasties, etc.
£180.00
Peeters Publishers À l'école de l'Antiquité: Hommages à Ghislaine
Book SynopsisLa philologie requiert autant de rigueur que d’ouverture d’esprit, deux qualités que Ghislaine Viré possède au plus haut degré et qu’elle a toujours conjuguées. Elle a en effet mené de front une double carrière, comme latiniste et comme didacticienne, dans un enrichissement réciproque des deux domaines. Car, pour Ghislaine Viré, la transmission ne concerne pas seulement les manuscrits d’auteurs latins, mais porte aussi sur l’enseignement des langues anciennes. Dans cette logique, les communications rassemblées en son honneur tentent l’exercice périlleux d’associer chaque fois différents points de vue: didacticiens, papyrologues, linguistes, historiens, hellénistes et latinistes, tous ont accepté de sortir de leur zone de confort intellectuel et d’élargir leur perspective pour présenter une recherche originale et diversifiée. Ce volume d’hommages s’articule en trois parties. La première se concentre sur l’éducation dans l’Antiquité; à travers l’analyse de supports d’apprentissage et l’étude des multiples aspects que revêt la relation entre pédagogie et philologie, cette partie aborde des thèmes qui vont d’Hésiode jusqu’à l’Antiquité tardive. La seconde partie concerne le présent; il s’agit de s’interroger, par le biais de diverses réflexions méthodologiques et études de cas, sur la manière dont il convient d’enseigner l’Antiquité dans le monde d’aujourd’hui. La troisième inscrit pédagogie et didactique des langues anciennes à l’intérieur d’un cadre humaniste qui se refuse à faire l’impasse sur les dimensions éthiques et sociétales de nos démarches.
£64.49
Peeters Publishers Dendara. Catalogue des dieux et des offrandes
Book SynopsisLes différents monuments de Dendara accueillent environ deux cents divinités, soixante génies de la fécondité et quelque trois cents entités protectrices. Tous sont recensés dans le présent catalogue selon l’ordre alphabétique, individuellement ou réunis sous une seule rubrique pour les dieux mineurs, les génies de la fécondité ou les cohortes protectrices. Une transcription du texte hiéroglyphique est jointe à chacune des occurrences: un catalogue des offrandes et des statues représentées dans les cryptes clôt l’ensemble.
£140.16
Peeters Publishers Quand la fortune du royaume ne dépend pas de la
Book SynopsisPour l’Égypte lagide, la période 180-116, qui s’ouvre par une crise de succession, suivie d’une invasion séleucide du pays et de luttes dynastiques fratricides, est traditionnellement jugée de manière négative, non seulement par les historiens antiques mais aussi par l’historiographie moderne. À la suite de Polybe, l’intervention croissante de Rome dans les affaires du royaume est considérée comme une marque de faiblesse de la dynastie lagide, bien que celle-ci ait résisté plus longtemps à la mise sous tutelle que ses voisins Séleucides. Si l’on ne peut nier les difficultés, cette période est aussi celle d’une recomposition qui voit la mise en place d’un nouveau mode de gouvernement et un approfondissement des pratiques administratives. Les troubles dynastiques qui affaiblissent réellement le pays, témoignent, paradoxalement, d’un attachement populaire accru à la monarchie: la population soutenant l’un ou l’autre camp lagide. Ce sont ces différents aspects que ce volume propose d’explorer à travers différents cas d’étude.
£999.99
Peeters Publishers The Flood: The Akkadian Sources: A New Edition,
Book SynopsisThe story of the primeval cataclysmic flood which wiped out all life on earth, save for one family, is found in different ancient Mesopotamian texts whence it reached the Biblical and Classical literary traditions. The present book systematically collects the earliest attestations of the myth of the Flood, namely all the cuneiform-written Akkadian sources – from the Old Babylonian to the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods, including Tablet XI of the Epic of Gilgamesh –, presenting them in a new synoptic edition and English translation which are accompanied by a detailed philological commentary and an extensive literary discussion. The book also includes a complete glossary of the Akkadian sources.
£72.00
Peeters Publishers Fragmente eines Lebenswerks: Historischer
Book SynopsisIn the course of his doctoral thesis, Shahin for the first time carried out an in-depth analysis of the 102 surviving fragments of the originally 144 books of the Universal History by Nicolaus of Damascus (64-4 BC). Nicolaus was one of a number of ancient authors including Poseidonius, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Pompeius Trogus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Timagenes who composed universal histories. Shahin analyses Nicolaus' Universal History in terms of both its structure and content by means of (a) composing a commentary on all of the fragments and (b) exploring their respective, distinctive characteristics, which contributed to their preservation. The work is based on Felix Jacoby’s Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, which remains the principal edition. The analysis takes into account the textual context in which the fragments were transmitted, as well as recent research findings about doubtful references, textual variants and fragments that may be the work of Nicolaus.
£60.00
Peeters Publishers A History of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Judah
Book SynopsisThis history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Judah is quite different from the usual narratives of biblical history. It parallels the same author’s History of the Kingdom of Israel (OLA 275) and is mainly based on information provided by epigraphic sources dating from the 19th/18th century B.C. on, when Jerusalem and its rulers are first mentioned. The book is divided in seven chapters. The first one deals with the proto-history of Jerusalem in Bronze Age and Iron Age I. The second one concerns the Davidic dynasty whose lineage is followed until the mid-ninth century. Chapters III and IV continue the history of the kingdom until the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylonians in 587. After ca. 800 B.C. the name of the kingdom was changed from Beth David in Judah following internal dynastic problems. Chapter V examines some questions concerning religion in Jerusalem and Judah, especially the alleged "sacred prostitution" and the "molk-sacrifices". Chapter VI discusses the special case of the relations between the Yahwistic sanctuary of Bethel, annexed to Judah by king Josiah, and the theonym Bethel, attested in Jewish-Aramaean ambiences of the Persian period. Chapter VII deals with burial customs and the conception of the netherworld or Sheol, mainly from the monarchic period on.
£78.78
Peeters Publishers Remove that Pyramid!: Studies on the Archaeology
Book SynopsisThis volume in honour of the career of Stan Hendrickx includes 47 contributions that deal with the archaeology and history of Predynastic and Pharaonic Egypt. Given the influential role that Stan Hendrickx plays on our current knowledge of the Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods, many of the articles cluster in that time frame and deal with topics in material culture, iconography, and archaeology of early Egypt (pottery, stone vessels, lithics, state formation, and rock art). Contributions covering the pharaonic period primarily consist of ceramic studies, another field of expertise of Stan Hendrickx. Several articles focus on sites such as Elkab, Dayr al-Barsha, Adaïma, and the Dakhla Oasis, where Stan Hendrickx has been involved as an archaeologist and a ceramologist.
£210.00
Peeters Publishers Oral et écrit dans l'Antiquité orientale: les
Book SynopsisLa question de la place de l’oralité dans la production et la transmission des grandes traditions littéraires du Proche-Orient ancien a fait couler beaucoup d’encre au moins depuis le XIXe siècle. Alors que l’idée d’une dichotomie entre oral et écrit, avec l’hypothèse d’une première phase orale avant la mise par écrit des textes, a longtemps dominé les reconstructions historiques, les travaux récents soulignent davantage la contemporanéité de l’oral et de l’écrit dans la composition, l’édition et la transmission des textes. L’idée de contemporanéité soulève de nouvelles questions, dont celle des modes d’articulation entre oral et écrit: cette imbrication est complexe, pouvant prendre des formes variées, en fonction des contextes socio-historiques et culturels, des genres littéraires et de la fonction des textes. C’est dans le but d’approfondir la compréhension de ces articulations que le colloque «Oral et écrit dans l’Antiquité orientale: les processus de rédaction et d’édition» s’est tenu au Collège de France les 26 et 27 mai 2016. Dans une perspective comparatiste, les travaux réunis dans ce volume abordent différentes zones géographiques, périodes et corpus de textes, offrant ainsi un aperçu nuancé de la variété des interactions possibles entre l’oral et l’écrit dans le Proche-Orient ancien. The question of the place of orality in the production and transmission of the great literary traditions of the ancient Near East has been widely discussed since at least the 19th century. While the idea of a dichotomy between orality and writing, with the hypothesis of a first oral phase preceding the writing of texts, has long dominated historical reconstructions, recent work has placed more emphasis on the contemporaneity of orality and writing in textual composition, editing and transmission. The very idea of contemporaneity raises new questions regarding the articulation between oral and written, a complex interweaving that may take various forms, depending on the socio-historical and cultural contexts, the literary genres and the function of the texts. With the aim of deepening our understanding of such articulations, the colloquium “Orality and Writing in Eastern Antiquity: The Processes of Composition and Redaction” was held at the Collège de France on May 26–27, 2016. Taking a comparative perspective, the volume addresses different geographical areas, periods, and bodies of texts, thus offering a nuanced overview of the variety of possible interactions between orality and writing in the ancient Near East.
£95.00
Peeters Publishers Bastards in Egypt: Social and Legal Illegitimacy
Book SynopsisThroughout the course of Western history, children born out of wedlock enjoyed neither the social nor legal standing of marital children. Being born out of wedlock caused complications in the lives of not only commoners, but even the elite. The question is whether these attitudes developed independently or if they had a common root. In branches of law regulating the relationships within a family, Roman law is the usual suspect as a kind of ‘ideal law’, which may be understood as a model for modern practices, not only in the scholarship, but even in judicial decisions. On the other hand, Christianity is often recognised as inspiration for model of family in the West. The primary aim of this book is, therefore, to reconstruct the Roman concept of bastardy and how that concept evolved between Augustus and Constantine the Great, who changed the standing of individuals born out of wedlock and shaped legal definitions of illegitimacy for the centuries to come. Although the study is focused on Roman Egypt, the conclusions reached in this book are relevant for the whole of the Roman empire.
£91.07
Peeters Publishers Travels through the Orient and the Mediterranean
Book SynopsisThis volume brings together 36 contributions dedicated to Eric Gubel on the occasion of his retirement as head of the Department of Antiquity at the Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels. Colleagues bring homage to a scholar who made an invaluable mark in the field of Phoenician studies and who spearheaded research, publication and exhibition projects on the archaeology, history, and art of Western Asia and the Mediterranean world. Eric Gubel's research on Egyptian, Levantine, Cypriot, Syrian, and Mesopotamian artistic expressions and interconnections permeated his academic teaching career and is found in the extensive list of publications that opens the volume. To pay tribute to the honoree’s wide-ranging field of interest, this collection of essays is conceived as a voyage from Mesopotamia and the Gulf Region through Syria and the Levant to the Phoenician and Punic West. The volume focuses on Antiquity and its reception in contemporary society. The papers, dealing with architecture and urbanism, ceramics, figurines, ivories, metal bowls, seal-amulets, coins, languages and inscriptions, chronology, iconography, identity, and comics, will appeal to anyone interested in the ancient world.
£140.00
Peeters Publishers Dendara. Hymnes à Hathor et à Isis
Book SynopsisLes temples tentyrites d'Hathor et d'Isis conservent dans la pierre des hymnes millénaires, parfois stylistiquement remaniés à l'époque gréco-romaine. Gravés de manière originale sur l'encadrement des portes, ils permettent en outre d'appréhender les dieux selon une ligne de pensée homogène. Depuis le cœur du temple jusqu'aux portes du pronaos, ils accompagnent les pas des prêtres durant les processions fériales. Le son des sistres rythmant les prières, les fragrances des parfums se mêlant aux odeurs florales, les breuvages et mets choisis exhalant leurs saveurs dans un ballet d'étoffes colorées et de parures chatoyantes, tout contribue à susciter l'extraordinaire fascination exercée par la divinité. Ciel, horizon, soleil, lumière, or, parfum, sistre, ces mots incessamment martelés s'animaient et célébraient la beauté incomparable d’Hathor, la fille de Rê; le temple est ainsi une bibliothèque pariétale et «sonore» utilisant des archives nationales millénaires.
£999.99
Peeters Publishers Observing the Scribe at Work: Scribal Practice in
Book SynopsisScribes are paradoxically both central and invisible in most societies before the typographic revolution of the 15th century, witnessed by every manuscript, but often elusive as historical figures. The act of writing is a quotidian and vernacular practice as well as a literary one, and must be observed not only in the outputs of literary copyists or reports of their activities, but in the documents of everyday life. This volume collects contributions on scribal practice as it features on diverse media (including papyri, tablets, and inscriptions) in a range of ancient societies, from the Ancient Near East and Dynastic Egypt through the Graeco-Roman world to Byzantium. These discussions of the role and place of scribes and scribal activity in pre-typographic cultures both contribute to a better understanding of one of the key drivers of these cultures, and illuminate the transmission of knowledge and traditions within and between them.
£110.00
Peeters Publishers Defixiones Olbiae Ponticae: (DefOlb)
Book SynopsisThis book presents a complete corpus of magical inscriptions (defixionum tabellae) of the ancient Greek city of Olbia, located in the northern Black Sea region. The inscriptions are published systematically and in chronological order with detailed historical and philological commentary.
£76.00
Peeters Publishers Missing Mothers: Maternal Absence in Antiquity
Book SynopsisThe last forty years of research have cast new light on the lives of ancient Mediterranean women in the penumbra of our patriarchal sources, including the pervasive risks they faced in becoming mothers. Current demographic models suggest that perhaps as many as one in five children would have lost their mothers by age ten. The inescapable conclusion is that the absence of ancient mothers is not merely an artifact of bias in our sources, but also a fundamental condition of antiquity, with profound implications for ancient family life and the experience of childhood. Missing Mothers: Maternal Absence in Antiquity is the first volume dedicated to studying mother absence as an integrated phenomenon in the ancient Mediterranean, from its obvious manifestation as total absence in the wake of maternal death, to the partial absences of maternal separation brought about by economic necessity, divorce, slavery, social conventions, and occasionally choice. The fifteen essays collected here explore the gaps left by absent mothers and how individuals, families, and societies in the ancient Mediterranean conceptualized, represented, and responded to those gaps, practically, psychologically, artistically, and politically between the 5th century BCE and late antiquity.
£75.00
Peeters Publishers The Ikun-pisa Letter Archive from Tell ed-Der:
Book SynopsisThis volume sees the publication of fifty-six early Old Babylonian letters from ca. 1880 BCE. They were found by legendary Iraqi archaeologist Taha Baqir in 1941 at the site of Tell ed-Der, ancient Sippar-Amnanum, in central Iraq. The letters are written in an early dialect of Akkadian and are part of the archives of an ancient firm. This firm consisted of a number of families engaged in local agriculture, the manufacturing of textiles, crediting, and international trade. As such it was part of the same larger trade networks as those already known from the contemporary Old Assyrian archives found in central Turkey. The firm strived to have good relations with local Amorite rulers, such as Sumu-la-El, the first king of Babylon, and they used their own trading agents to represent them in far-away cities such as Mari. For these reasons, the letters are also an important source for Babylonia’s political and socio-economic history.
£90.65
Peeters Publishers Dendara. Les structures décoratives du temple
Book SynopsisL'économie du temple d'Hathor répond à des normes strictes auxquelles se conforme la composition architecturale des chapelles. Chacun des éléments est autonome; conçus en fonction du lieu, il convient toutefois de les appréhender globablement. Le présent volume catalogue, en les traduisant, les structures décoratives du temple d'Hathor; séparés du contexte liturgique, des résultats partiels seraient faussés. Reposant sur l'observance de règles et de codes précis, le temple doit se présenter à jamais comme un microcosme parfait, depuis le sol de limon verdoyant jusqu'à la voûte céleste. L'Égypte forme le socle horizontal avec son eau, ses terres et même ses dieux. La philosophie se développe verticalement, des cryptes souterraines aux plafonds astronomiques; elle se hausse, pour ainsi dire, jusqu'à Rê le créateur.
£84.00
Peeters Publishers La gloire de Rhodes au 1er siècle de notre ère (à
Book SynopsisLe Discours aux Rhodiens du sophiste Dion de Pruse, surnommé Chrysostome (c. 40 - après 110 p.C.), est un document historique de première importance. Prononcé au début du règne de Vespasien, il s’adresse à la communauté civique de l'une des plus prestigieuses cités grecques du bassin méditerranéen, Rhodes. Autant qu’Athènes, Rhodes incarna l’hellénisme à l’époque hellénistique et au début de l’Empire. Le sujet principal est la condamnation du réemploi d’anciennes statues honorifiques au bénéfice des nouveaux maîtres, les Romains, mais plusieurs thèmes sont aussi abordés: les honneurs civiques, le statut des cités grecques dans l’Empire romain (particulièrement le statut de cité libre), les rapports des cités avec les autorités romaines, la nature et la place de l’hellénisme impérial. Les nombreux détails et observations réalistes apportés par le sophiste, sur des aspects aussi variés que le cadre institutionnel et politique, la vie économique, les cultes ou les structures familiales, permettent de dresser le tableau historique d’une des plus grandes cités grecques du Ier siècle p.C.
£105.81
Peeters Publishers A Late Christian Pilgrimage Centre in Nubia: The
Book SynopsisThe book is a publication of nearly one thousand wall inscriptions preserved in the so-called Upper Church at Banganarti (Sudanese Nubia), discovered by a Polish expedition between 2001 and 2006. In overwhelming majority, the inscriptions are mementos left by people who visited this cult place to pay homage to its patron, Archangel Raphael, and to ask him or God through his intermediary for various benefactions. Written in either Greek or Old Nubian, and frequently displaying a sophisticated graphic and literary form, they cast an interesting light on different aspects of social, cultural, and religious life of the Christian Nubian Kingdom of Makuria towards the end of its existence (twelfth-fourteenth centuries). The catalogue of inscriptions is complemented by a study addressing general questions provoked by the texts. The book is richly illustrated with plans, photographs and drawings.
£140.00
Peeters Publishers La fonction du lésônis dans les temples égyptiens
Book SynopsisDans la hiérarchie sacerdotale égyptienne, le lésônis désigne le prêtre choisi par ses pairs afin d’administrer les biens et le personnel d’un temple pendant au moins une année. Le terme grec λέσωνις transcrit l’égyptien mr-n. La fonction donnait une place éminente à son porteur dans un pays où les temples jouaient un rôle économique et social important. Après une étude paléographique et lexicale du titre, présentant ses différentes graphies, les difficultés de son étymologie, ses conditions d’emploi en égyptien et les modalités de sa transcription ou de sa traduction en grec, une synthèse socio-historique présente les données sur l’accès à la charge, son exercice et la position de son détenteur dans le temple. Un catalogue de tous les lésôneis attestés depuis les premières mentions du titre jusqu’à la fin de l’époque ptolémaïque complète l’ouvrage, ainsi qu’un choix de 25 textes emblématiques, en démotique et en grec, avec traduction.
£155.00
Peeters Publishers Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Phoenician Culture
Book SynopsisThe Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Phoenician Culture (EDPC) is the result of a wide-ranging international project and is intended to be an in-depth and up-to-date standard reference work for Phoenician studies. It is a series in the form of an encyclopaedia with the structure of a dictionary, comprising about 2000 entries, written by circa 200 contributors from 20 different countries. Current knowledge on Phoenicians and Carthaginians (with close attention to their various interactions with other cultures) will be presented as a sequence of themed volumes, all closely interrelated, dealing respectively with history, religion, language and written sources, socio-economic life, and archaeological sites of both the Levant and the Central and Western Mediterranean. As part of a collection, each volume should be considered as belonging to a set: in one sense independent but at the same time inseparable from the others both in respect of the amount of information included and the network of cross-references linking the various lemmata. The present volume (EDPC II.1), which is exclusively on deities and mythical characters, is a specialised compendium of the divine and mythological figures who feature in Phoenician and Punic documents as well as in indirect sources. Like the thematic volumes to follow, this volume is a reference work: it is based on a piece by piece reconstruction of the entire Phoenician and Punic ‘religious’ universe through its various protagonists. A second volume on religious practices – Cult and Ritual (EDPC II.2) – is in preparation, and the two volumes are to be considered as closely connected, as they examine this cultural dimension from different but intrinsically correlated and complementary points of view.
£130.00
Peeters Publishers Cultural Identity within the Northern Black Sea
Book SynopsisThe book examines the cultural identity of the northern Black Sea poleis. The broad chronological perspective used explains the complex process of the creation of local identities in Greek apoikiai, examined by a thorough analysis of the self-definition of the citizens. As the book shows, the self-definition of Black Sea poleis was expressed through local myths and cults, the connection to a wider Panhellenic tradition and the relationship with the local ‘Others’, whose imaginary view was an integral part of the Greek ‘barbarian repertoire’ that was used creatively in Greek literature, poetry, theatre and art. This study deconstructs out-dated approaches that are based on the culture-history tradition, according to which an ethnos is a stable and continuous unit that can be described by clear ethnic markers visible in the archaeological material, offering instead a new approach to the study of multicultural encounters in the North Pontic region, one that pays attention to flexibility and the situational nature of ethnic groups and their boundaries. The picture of North Pontic society that emerges is more complex and multi-layered than in many previous studies. The hybrid nature of this society allowed for the creation of local collective identities that were based on dynamic interaction, conscious strategies and investment in mutual benefits by the members of the ‘collective’. The book integrates a significant amount of material published by Eastern European archaeologists, classicists and historians that is not readily available to non-Russian speaking Western European scholarship. A wide range of material for researching ancient societies, literary, epigraphic, numismatic and archaeological, has been incorporated into the study.
£127.90
Peeters Publishers Du héros au Sauveur: Imitatio et Aemulatio dans
Book SynopsisFaire mieux que Virgile? ou mieux que l’Évangile? Paraphrase en vers de l’évangile de Matthieu, la première épopée chrétienne qui nous soit parvenue montre toute l’ambiguïté du IVe siècle entre héritage et rupture, imitation et message nouveau. Du héros au Sauveur, la figure du Christ de Juvencus transforme le destin providentiel de Rome, chanté par les poètes antiques, en dessein de Dieu pour l’évangélisation du monde.
£84.02
Peeters Publishers Représentations et personnification de la sagesse
Book SynopsisPar «Dame Sagesse» on désigne généralement la figure de la sagesse telle qu’elle apparaît dans quelques passages bibliques. Si la personnification littéraire est un phénomène relativement courant, celle de la sagesse est plus étonnante, puisqu’elle se développe au point de donner à cette figure une identité unique en relation avec Dieu. La question n’est donc plus seulement littéraire, au point que les concepts d’immanence, de transcendance ou même d’hypostase ont pu être proposés pour la définir, sans oublier les nombreuses tentatives qui l’assimilent à quelque divinité antique connue ou aujourd’hui oubliée. Les diverses études réunies dans ce volume considèrent d’abord les époques et les milieux d’émergence des diverses représentations de la sagesse dans l’Antiquité, elles creusent les influences possibles voire évidentes au sein des traditions mésopotamiennes, égyptiennes, levantines et grecques et démontrent finalement comment la figure de la sagesse personnifiée est une figure fluide, en constante évolution, au gré de certains milieux religieux et de leurs interrogations. Lady Wisdom usually refers to the figure of wisdom personified in some biblical texts. If personification is a relatively common literary device, that of wisdom is more striking, as it develops to the point of giving to the figure a unique identity in relation to God. The question is no longer literary, and concepts of immanence, transcendence and even hypostasis have been proposed to define her, as well as diverse identifications with some known or now forgotten ancient divinity. The contributions in this volume seek first to consider the context of each witness of the representations of wisdom in Antiquity, they trace possible influences within Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Levantine and Greek traditions, and finally demonstrate how wisdom personified is a fluid figure, in constant evolution, according to certain religious milieux and their interrogations.
£82.00
Peeters Publishers Dans les pas d'Imhotep: Mélanges offerts à Audran
Book SynopsisParmi les multiples vies d’Audran Labrousse, celle de l’architecte-archéologue doit retenir toute notre attention. Homme de terrain insatiable, il parcourt les chantiers de fouille depuis un demi-siècle, sillonnant le Proche-Orient et l’Afrique de l’est avec son regard aiguisé et un sens inné des monuments et des civilisations qu’il côtoie. De Suse à Sedeinga, de Pétra à Jérusalem, il observe, analyse, et recense les vestiges des multiples sociétés qui se sont succédé dans ce croissant si fertile au carrefour de l’Afrique et de l’Asie. Fort de cette érudition qui le caractérise, c’est à Saqqâra qu’il trouve le mieux à exercer ses talents d’architecte et d’homme de terrain. La rencontre avec Jean Leclant et Jean-Philippe Lauer le convainc de consacrer ses efforts à la restitution des vestiges monumentaux qui font le renom de cette nécropole royale. Directeur pendant quarante ans des fouilles de la nécropole de Pépy Ier, il met au jour le complexe de ce roi et les ensembles des reines qui lui sont associés. Cet ouvrage se veut à l’image de ce travailleur infatigable. Ses amis et collègues présentent ici un témoignage de reconnaissance et lui offrent un ensemble de contributions qui toutes rendent hommage à l’œuvre entreprise, par des études archéologiques et d’histoire, des présentations de monuments ou d’objets inédits provenant pour l’essentiel de la vallée du Nil. Among Audran Labrousse's many lives, that of the architect and archaeologist must be the focus of our attention. An insatiable hands-on man, he has been travelling through excavation sites for half a century, criss-crossing the Near East and East Africa with his sharp eye and an innate sense of the monuments and civilizations he encounters. From Susa to Sedeinga, from Petra to Jerusalem, he observes, analyses and inventories the remains of the many societies that have succeeded one another in this very fertile crescent, at the crossroads of Africa and Asia. With this erudition that characterizes him, it is in Saqqara that he found the best way to exercise his talents as an architect and a man of action. His meeting with Jean Leclant and Jean-Philippe Lauer convinced him to devote his efforts to the restitution of the monumental remains this royal necropolis is famous for. As the Director of the excavations of the necropolis of Pepy I for forty years, he uncovered the complex of this king and the several queens associated with him. This book is intended to reflect the image of this indefatigable worker. His friends and colleagues hereby present a token of their gratitude and offer him a set of contributions, all of which paying tribute to the work undertaken, through archaeological and historical studies, presentations of monuments or unpublished objects, mainly originated from the Nile Valley.
£84.00
Peeters Publishers An Ancient Mesopotamian Herbal Handbook: The
Book SynopsisThe related series uru.an.na = mas / ltakkal, “uru.an.na means the mas/ltakkal plant”, and mud-ur.mah = mê sa libbi bini, “lion’s blood means the liquid from the heart of the tamarisk”, both give synonyms and equivalent foreign names for plants, herbs and wood, as well as for other ingredients ancient medical practitioners used to effect cures. This first volume about both series focuses on the cuneiform tablets on which the texts were written, from the British Museum, London, the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, and the Oriental Institute, Chicago. New hand copies and sketches show the physical and non-physical joins. Viewing the tablets as archaeological objects, the author provides numerous observations about format, shape, colour, ‘firing holes’, worm holes and trace fossils. The ways scribes marked out their tablets with horizontal lines (sometimes doubled) to separate entries or paragraphs or provide ruled tablets are described; vertical rulings defined the left edge and column divisions (sometimes replaced by a Glossenkeil). Areas reserved for writing, layout, slanted lines of writing, alignment and indentation of paragraphs, line spacing and ductus (especially changes from Middle to Neo-Assyrian) are carefully examined. The last chapter concentrates on scribal corrections and various correction marks, line markers and supplementary glosses. Such features illuminate the personal preferences and professional experience of the frequently anonymous scribes behind the tablets. Les séries uru.an.na = mas / ltakkal (mot-à-mot «uru.an.na signifie la plante-mas / ltakkal») et mud-ur.mah = mê sa libbi bini («“Sang de lion” signifie le liquide provenant du coeur du tamari») donnent toutes deux des synonymes et des équivalents étrangers pour des noms de plantes, d’herbes et de bois, ainsi que d’autres ingrédients utilisés par d’anciens médecins pour soigner. Ce premier volume est consacré aux tablettes cunéiformes qui véhiculent ces textes, conservées aujourd’hui au British Museum (Londres), Vorderasiatisches Museum (Berlin) et à l’Institut Oriental (Chicago). Les nouvelles copies et esquisses illustrent les joins (directs et indirects). Les tablettes sont considérées comme des objets archéologiques, avec de nombreuses remarques concernant le format, la forme, la couleur, l’éventuelle présence de «trous de cuisson», les trous laissés par des vers et les traces de fossiles. L’auteur a prêté une attention particulière à l’art du scribe : la «mise-en-page» au moyen de traits horizontaux, parfois dédoublés, pour séparer les lignes ou paragraphes, et de traits verticaux pour définir la marge gauche et pour séparer les colonnes (parfois un Glossenkeil joue ce rôle). Le lecteur trouvera également une étude des zones réservées pour l’écriture, le format, l’inclinaison des lignes en cours d’écriture, ou encore l’alignement des paragraphes, l’espacement des lignes et le ductus (en particulier les différences entre médio- et néo-assyrien). Enfin, le dernier chapitre est dédié aux corrections des scribes, avec les différentes marques de correction, marqueurs de lignes ou gloses supplémentaires. De telles caractéristiques indiquent les préférences personnelles et l’expérience professionnelle du scribe copieur qui bien souvent, reste anonyme derrière les tablettes.
£78.00
Peeters Publishers The King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art: Essays
Book Synopsis
£84.46
Peeters Publishers Achemenet. Vingt ans après: Études offertes à
Book SynopsisEn créant le programme international Achemenet en 2000, l’année où il inaugurait la chaire «Histoire et civilisation du monde achéménide et de l’empire d’Alexandre» au Collège de France, Pierre Briant avait pour objectif de rassembler les données primaires sur l’Empire perse achéménide à travers les territoires immenses qu’il a couverts en Orient. Vingt ans après, le site achemenet.com met à la disposition des spécialistes, des étudiants et du grand public une dizaine de milliers de textes, des données archéologiques et près de cent mille images d’objets conservés dans une vingtaine de musées du monde entier. À ces vastes corpus documentaires sont venues s’ajouter la collection Persika, en 2001, dont ce volume porte le numéro 21, et une revue en ligne, ARTA (Achaemenid Research on Texts and Archaeology), seul périodique consacré aux études achéménides. Les auteurs de cet ouvrage célèbrent les vingt ans d’Achemenet et rendent, du même coup, hommage à son fondateur. Tous sont des spécialistes dans différents domaines des recherches achéménides et leurs contributions illustrent l’immensité géographique de cet empire-monde et la diversité des disciplines que requiert son étude.
£999.99
Peeters Publishers Nonnus of Panopolis in Context IV: Poetry at the
Book SynopsisToday, Nonnus of Panopolis is widely recognized as one of the most interesting and important Greek authors of Late Antiquity. His Dionysiaca is the last grand epic poem of Antiquity and challenges all established epic conventions; his hexametric paraphrase of the Gospel of John, in the same 'baroque' style, combines Christian content and classical epic language and style. Both are key texts to understand Late Antique poetic innovation. This volume brings together contributions by promising early career researchers and established specialists of Nonnus' poetry and adjacent fields of scholarship. It is the result of the fourth international Nonnus in Context conference, held in Ghent in the Spring of 2018. Taking the metaphor of the crossroads as a starting point, it explores Nonnus' poetry and its context(s) along the synchronic and diachronic axes of tradition and society.
£195.00
Peeters Publishers The Catacombs of Anubis at North Saqqara: An
Book SynopsisIn 1897 Jacques de Morgan published a map of the Memphite necropolis, showing for the first time a pair of catacombs for mummified dogs. No further information was given and the catacombs remained largely un-investigated until the 21st century. In 2009 the Catacombs of Anubis Project was set up by Cardiff University who worked in collaboration with the Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities in an attempt to understand the larger of the two catacombs. This publication describes the work of the Catacombs of Anubis Project. It examines the way in which the catacomb was created and the likely phases of its development in the Late and Ptolemaic periods. The way in which the many thousands of animal mummies were procured is discussed in the light of modern faunal analysis and these results are combined with a new survey of the site to give a picture of the functioning of the cult at Saqqara. Finally, the way in which the monument may have been re-used in the post-pharaonic era is discussed. The results will be of interest to all those interested in animal mummies and in the development of catacombs as well as those concerned with the evolution of the sacred landscape of Saqqara.
£127.70
Peeters Publishers Composition in Athenian Black-Figure
Book SynopsisAll Athenian black-figure vases – unique masterpieces as well as mass-produced vases – reflect the conventions of Athenian pictorial language. The starting point for this study is that knowledge of this pictorial language provides a better comprehension of the meaning of the representations. Athenians in the 6th century BCE knew its conventions intimately, and one can assume they could easily understand vase-paintings because a few elements or a specific combination of elements were sufficient for them to identify the whole picture. The modern viewer, however, can only approach the intuitive knowledge of the ancient viewer by studying and analysing the surviving images. This study focuses on mass-produced vases, because large numbers provide vital statistical evidence for understanding the meaning of gestures, attributes, and other details, which makes it possible to deduce the rules of Athenian pictorial language and to recognise what is usual and normal, or unusual and exceptional. The methodology is demonstrated in an introductory case study of the type scene ‘Fighting men separated’. Since the visual artists’ use of pictorial language resembles the way in which in oral poetry a singer tells the story by using type scenes, formulaic verses, and epitheta ornantia while adding, omitting, or varying details and names, in this study terms are used that are borrowed from literary studies of Homer’s oral poetry like type scene (the compositional schema or general arrangement of a depiction), subtypes, and typical elements (e.g., figure types, attributes, gestures, and other details). In this study the imagery of more than 1,200 Athenian black-figure vase-paintings of the type scene ‘Chariot in profile’ is examined. Three subtypes are distinguished: ‘Hoplites and other men leaving’ (with a hoplite and charioteer in or near the chariot, and representations with an unarmed man instead of the hoplite in or near the chariot), ‘Wedding procession’ (with a woman as passenger in the chariot and a man holding the reins), and ‘Apotheosis of Herakles and divine departures’ (with Herakles and Athena in or near the chariot, and related representations of gods driving chariots). The conclusions of this investigation are that Athenian vase-painters composed their paintings according to a commonly understood system of pictorial language; that they were free to make variations, additions, and omissions, but stayed within the boundaries of the system and did not randomly add or omit figures; that innovative compositions were based upon existing compositions with a related meaning, since new images had to be easily and quickly understandable by the public; and that typical elements could have different meanings depending on their context. Since the painters composed the paintings according to a commonly understood system of pictorial language, knowledge of this system will help the modern viewer to understand the deeper meanings of paintings that at first sight are hard to grasp.
£73.00
Peeters Publishers Women and Power in Hellenistic Poetry
Book SynopsisIt is a well-known and striking fact that Hellenistic Poetry is full of powerful and powerfully present women, ranging from Ptolemaic and other queens, to female (semi-) divinities and epic heroines. But the Hellenistic era is likewise remarkable for being relatively rich in female authors, specifically in the domain of epigrammatic poetry. This volume sets out to broach not only the question who the powerful women of Hellenistic poetry were, and what their power consisted of, but also, quite emphatically, in what ways they differ from or resemble previous literary representations of women in, for example, Homeric epic, archaic lyric and Athenian tragedy, and why.
£79.00
Peeters Publishers Galatian Victories and Other Studies into the
Book SynopsisStephen Mitchell's Anatolia (1993) and Karl Strobel's Die Galater (1996) were by no means end points for the study of Hellenistic and Roman Galatia. Rather, they stimulated several new research initiatives. The introduction to this volume synthesises the results of some 700 mostly very recent scholarly publications, before ten case studies explore new trends in military, political, cultural and religious history. Methodologically refined approaches to the fragmentary literary sources have nuanced our understanding of the Galatians’ migration, settlement, state formation, warfare and diplomacy. Investigations into the Galatians as the object of Attalid and Seleukid propaganda are complemented by studies into their political agency as independent tribes with varying objectives. For the Roman period, Greek inscriptions available in constantly growing numbers, besides coinage and other archaeological data, allow for a nuanced understanding of what provincialisation meant in practice: the loss of political autonomy was immediate (25 BC), as was the foundation of colonies in Pisidia; a landscape of monumentalised cities in the heartland of Galatia followed only slowly in the course of the next century. Cultic innovation was also diverse: the temple for the goddess Roma and the god Augustus was constructed in Ankyra from 5 BC to AD 14, whereas traditional Hellenistic-Phrygian cults densely resurface in the epigraphic evidence of the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Interest in Paul's evangelisation of Asia Minor has been the catalyst of scholarly interest in the Galatians since the 4th century. Two studies devoted to the historical context of Paul's Letter to the Galatians try to connect the bulk of Pauline scholarship with latest research on urbanisation, ethnic constructs and spatial conceptions in the Graeco-Roman world, to lift discussions to a new level.
£95.00
Peeters Publishers The Beginning of Coinage in the Cimmerian
Book SynopsisThis book is devoted to the only hoard of the earliest silver coins minted in the Cimmerian Bosporus (Kerch Strait). It was hidden in a dwelling destroyed by fire in 480 BC during an enemy attack on Phanagoria. The widespread opinion in academic literature is that Panticapaeum was the first Bosporan city to mint coins - in the middle of the 6th century BC or a little later. But the discovery of a hoard whose deposition date is very well established enables us to date the beginnings of coinage on the shores of the Kerch Strait to the 490s BC. The authors propose that the coins were minted not in Panticapaeum but by a union of Greek cities under the umbrella of the temple of Aphrodite Ourania Apatouros, an extra muros temple, 'most famous' in the words of Strabo, already established in the 6th century BC in Phanagoria. With the coming to power of the Archaeanactids in Panticapaeum, about which Diodorus Siculus provides information, that became the dominant city of the Cimmerian Bosporus. It started to mint coins with the (Greek) inscription 'pan'.
£146.31
Peeters Publishers Monks and the Hierarchical Church in Egypt and
Book SynopsisMany modern scholars of late antique Christianity are convinced that there was a structural conflict between the Church of the bishops and monasticism, which was a charismatic movement that emerged alongside the Church hierarchy understood as a (reasonably) stable institution ruled by largely non-charismatic laws. The author has decided to verify the validity of this opinion. She has studied groups of sources which focus on particular events and people in order to trace the social and political context of the conflicts, and to determine to what extent they were rooted in doctrinal controversies rather than the charisma, or the lack thereof, of the protagonists of ecclesiastical history. The book is therefore a collection of case studies in relations between the Church and monasticism in the vast area from Egypt to the Sasanian Empire. The studies show the full extent of the diversity of the relations between monastic groups and clergy.
£110.30
Peeters Publishers The Birth of History: From the Third Millennium
Book SynopsisOne of the not frequently mentioned characteristics of us as humans is both an interest in the past and a desire to leave records of our own time, place or selves. This is not necessarily, however, the same thing as ‘history’, which has a very clear meaning, namely ‘enquiry’. The very essence of history is the asking of questions and the search for answers to them. These questions concern especially causation (why?), or responsibility (who?). This book is a bold attempt to survey narratives from the beginning of written records in Egypt and Mesopotamia through the major pre-classical cultures down to Herodotos, whom Cicero named ‘The Father of History’, to test the accuracy of that epithet, against a current fashion of denigration of the Greek’s achievement. The fascinating pre-classical cultures, usually neglected by classicists, were certainly interested in the past and recording the present, but never asked questions about them. The narrative was already fixed, governed overwhelmingly by divine control and designed usually to glorify the ruler in question. An entirely new world is revealed by Herodotos, who never stopped asking questions. History was born.
£123.37
Peeters Publishers Tracing Technology: Forty Years of Archaeological
Book SynopsisWith the resumption of archaeological investigations at Satricum (Borgo LeFerriere, Latium), in 1977, a broad array of themes, methodologies and analytical approaches have been pursued. A common thread is technology, which encompasses all social, economic and cultural aspects of human agency. Artefacts, built structures and even landscapes shaped by people prompt technical description and analysis while at the same time testifying to technological knowledge and know how in ancient communities. The prolonged research history of Satricum itself, furthermore, nicely epitomizes the development of archaeology as a discipline over almost half a century. The papers in the present volume address technology as a cultural phenomenon embedded in specific worldviews, social practices and human agency. At the same time, they underline the contribution of this subject to understanding technical events and choices in their social and cultural contexts. The contributions touch upon four themes: landscape, building practices, artefacts production, and modern visualisation techniques. Each represents a different angle through which technology might be addressed. The geographical context is broader Central Italy between the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic regions. Chronologically, they cover the Bronze Age to the late Republican period. In all sections, Satricum was chosen to serve as either focus or point of departure.
£127.40