Nostoi and Material Culture in the Area of the Classical-Hellenistic Ionian and Adriatic Seas

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Personal Identity ◽  
Epigraphic Evidence ◽  
Ionian And Adriatic Seas ◽  
Combination Of Material

This chapter draws on a combination of material and epigraphic evidence, presenting and analysing four case studies which indicate that nostoi were exploited by communities so as to define themselves in relation to their neighbours. In this way, nostoi served to shape communal as opposed to personal identity.

Syncretisms

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippa Adrych ◽  
Robert Bracey ◽  
Dominic Dalglish ◽  
Stefanie Lenk ◽  
Rachel Wood
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Ancient Religion

The Conclusion to this volume returns to the three main questions posed in the Introduction, examining how a shared name, alongside material culture, can affect our understanding of ancient religious practices. The first section explores the benefits of a collaborative and comparative endeavour, drawing out examples from the earlier chapters and showing how they informed our perceptions of what a name can mean. The second and third parts ask more theoretical questions about how we can use our case studies to explore broader problems of interpreting ancient religious practices, and the role of objects within them. Finally, we return to the main theme of the volume: the name Mithra, and the ideas, expectations, and traditions that have been attached to it in antiquity and in modern scholarship. We suggest a new way of approaching the phenomenon of the shared name, and what that can entail for those interested in ancient religion.

Archaeology and Material Culture of Moab and the Moabites

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Porter
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Subsistence Economies ◽  
Permanent Settlement ◽  
Second Millennium Bce ◽  
Landscape Survey ◽  
Epigraphic Evidence ◽  
The 19Th Century

Moab was both a culture area and an Iron Age kingdom located in the west-central half of the modern Middle Eastern country of Jordan. Moab is mentioned frequently in the Hebrew Bible and was often in contact with its Israelite neighbors. Scholars have used the biblical text to reconstruct Moab’s history and society despite the original authors’ and editors’ skewed perspectives on the kingdom. Moab has been the subject of archaeological research since the latter third of the 19th century. Landscape surveys have identified many large and small settlements across the region while excavations at key settlements have documented public and private architecture, and recovered art and epigraphic evidence. This research has been reported over many decades in archaeological and landscape survey reports, and the evidence has been frequently summarized in scholarly syntheses. Moab’s development occurred in three phases. During the Iron I period, a collection of small settlements was founded at the end of the second millennium bce. These semi-autonomous settlements organized their household and communal agro-pastoral subsistence economies at local levels. The point at which these settlements began to be integrated into a political polity likely occurred in the late 10th or early 9th century, the beginning of the Iron II period. The Mesha Inscription, a royal inscription of one of Moab’s earlier kings, describes how he increased his territory, established a new capital and cult center at Dhiban, and incorporated new populations within an expanded kingdom. The Mesopotamian empire of Assyria began to intervene in Moab’s and its neighbors’ affairs starting in the mid-8th century, commencing the Iron III period. Soon after, Moab’s agro-pastoralist economy and textile industries intensified, a change likely brought on by producers responding to new international markets and Assyria’s demand for taxes and tribute. Currently, very little is known about Moab in the final centuries of the Iron Age, the 6th through 4th centuries bce. Permanent settlement activity decreased during these centuries, possibly due to a combination of population deportations and the return to semi-sedentary and nomadic settlement practices. Readers should note that transliterations of ancient and Arabic place names have shifted over the course of modern scholarship. Some titles may preserve older variants that contrast with the now updated versions.

Gath of the Philistines

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Pioske
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
The Creation ◽  
A Site ◽  
The City

Chapter 2 begins a series of case studies that are devoted to exploring what knowledge was drawn on by the biblical scribes to develop stories about the early Iron Age period. This chapter’s investigation is devoted to the Philistine city of Gath, one of the largest cities of its time and a site that was destroyed ca. 830 BCE. Significant about Gath, consequently, is that it flourished as an inhabited location before the emergence of a mature Hebrew prose writing tradition, meaning that the information recounted about the city was predicated primarily on older cultural memories of the location. Comparing the biblical references to the site with Gath’s archaeological remains reveals moments of resonance between these stories and the material culture unearthed from the location. Accordingly, what comes to light through this chapter’s analysis is one mode of remembering that informed the creation of these biblical stories: that of resilience.

Are the irreversibly comatose still here? The destruction of brains and the persistence of persons

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukas J Meier
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Personal Identity ◽  
Brain Damage ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
Philosophical Literature ◽  
Functional Loss ◽  
Empirical Basis ◽  
Persistence Conditions ◽  
Mental Characteristics

When an individual is comatose while parts of her brain remain functional, the question arises as to whether any mental characteristics are still associated with this brain, that is, whether the person still exists. Settling this uncertainty requires that one becomes clear about two issues: the type of functional loss that is associated with the respective profile of brain damage and the persistence conditions of persons. Medical case studies can answer the former question, but they are not concerned with the latter. Conversely, in the philosophical literature, various accounts of personal identity are discussed, but usually detached from any empirical basis. Only uniting the two debates and interpreting the real-life configurations of brain damage through the lens of the philosophical concepts enables one to make an informed judgment regarding the persistence of comatose persons. Especially challenging are cases in which three mental characteristics that normally occur together—wakefulness, awareness and memory storage—come apart. These shall be the focus of this paper.

Trends in the Use of Perfumes and Incense in the Near East after the Muslim Conquests

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
AMAR ZOHAR ◽  
EFRAIM LEV
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Medical Literature ◽  
New Crops ◽  
The World ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Level Of Importance

AbstractPerfumes have been known as utilizable but exclusive products since antiquity. Use of aromatic substances was first mentioned in archaic sources of the ancient world. The origin of such fragrant substances was mainly vegetable and animal. Throughout history, the use of subtle perfumes increased and some of the exotic materials became expensive and valuable commodities. They were the source of wealth for cultures and rulers. The contribution of the Arabs to the distribution of new crops, knowledge, industrial techniques and substances is a well-known phenomenon. In our article we intend to focus on the new perfumes that were distributed throughout the world thanks to the Arab conquests and the knowledge of their other uses, mainly medicinal, that was handed down along with the products themselves. About 20 common perfumes are known to have been used in the medieval world, though half of them were not mentioned in earlier sources.These phenomena will be dealt with and presented in a profile we built up for four perfumes: agarwood, camphor, musk and ambergris. The theoretical and practical uses of these perfumes that are presented in detail (based on various sources including traders’ documents, medical literature and practical Genizah fragments, dealing mainly with medicine) will serve as case studies for the understanding of new trends in the uses of perfumes after the Muslim conquest. Arab perfumes can be divided into three groups, according to their level of importance:A. New perfumes, mainly from the vast region named “India”; most of which (such as camphor, ambergris and sandalwood and a compound made out of them known as nadd and ghāliya) were not known in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region until the Muslim conquests.B. Perfumes that kept their popularity including: a variety of cinnamon, costus, spikenard, frankincense, saffron and rose.C. Perfumes that lost their worth like balsam and myrrh.It seems that camphor was the best and most cherished perfume that substituted balsam. Like balsam, the importance of myrrh that was imported from Arabia and East Africa also declined and it seems that its substitute was musk. Transformations in perfume fashion were in fact only part of a wider revolution of the Arabic material culture which the Middle East, the Mediterranean region and even many European countries experienced due to the Arab conquests.

Danish Bell Beaker pottery and flint daggers – the display of social identities?

2007 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torben Sarauw
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Major Part ◽  
Wide Distribution ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Type I ◽  
Male Identity ◽  
Social Perspective ◽  
Settlement Site ◽  
Bell Beaker

This article summarizes and discusses recent research into the Danish Bell Beaker phenomenon c.2350–1950 BC. Its focus is on the meaning of material culture here represented by Bell Beakers and bifacial lanceolate flint daggers, both seen from a social perspective. The Bell Beaker pottery is known to have had a very wide distribution. However, questions remain as to why Bell Beakers were only adopted in some regions and what meaning this special pottery had? Similarly the Danish type I daggers, which were manufactured within the context of the Danish Bell Beaker phenomenon in the northern parts of Jutland, had a wide distribution. Daggers of this type, which in general denote male identity, were exported in vast quantities, especially to Norway and the western parts of Sweden. In both case studies the evidence from a Danish Bell Beaker settlement site excavated in recent years – Bejsebakken – plays a major part.

Divergent Ways of Relating to the Past in the Viking Age

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Lund ◽  
Elisabeth Arwill-Nordbladh
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Viking Age ◽  
The Past ◽  
Dynamic Part ◽  
Ancient Monuments

The flexibility of material culture encourages material phenomena to take a dynamic part in social life. An example of this is material citation, which can provide society with links to both the past and connections to contemporary features. In this article, we look at the diverging ways of relating to and reinventing the past in the Viking Age, exploring citations to ancient monuments in the landscape of Gammel Lejre on Zealand, Denmark. Complementing the placement of landscape monuments, attention is also brought to examples of mortuary citations related to bodily practices in Viking-age mortuary dramas, such as those visible at the mound of Skopintull on the island of Adelsö in Lake Mälaren, Sweden. Through these case studies, we explore the variability in citational strategies found across tenth-century Scandinavia.

Identity in Caregiving

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen K. Black ◽  
John T. Groce ◽  
Charles E. Harmon
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Personal Identity ◽  
Personal Values ◽  
Moral Worth ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
The Self ◽  
Use Case ◽  
Self Worth

In this chapter we use case studies and men’s own words to show how each man’s caregiving style reflected his sense of personal identity. We also examine if and how the legacy of his culture and family prepared him for the role of caregiver. Witnessing and taking part in caregiving earlier in life supported men’s belief in the moral worth of both affective and instrumental acts of providing care. The self-worth individuals found in caregiving both reflected and paralleled the self-esteem men found in maintaining important personal values, such as compassion, loyalty, helpfulness to others, and religious or spiritual faith.

Africa, Egypt and the Danubian Provinces of the Roman Empire

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric C. De Sena
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
North African ◽  
African Region ◽  
The North

This volume springs from the symposium Africa and the Danubian Provinces of the Roman Empire which was held in Timișoara on July 29-30, 2018. It uses case studies to discuss the Egyptian and African military and civilian presence in the Danubian provinces, the Egyptian and African influences manifested at the level of material culture, religion and magic, as well as the presence of the inhabitants of the Danubian provinces in the North African region of the Roman Empire and Egypt.

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