A glimpse from the ancient world: What a gold necklace from Tillya-tepe reveals about opium in Afghanistan

Afghanistan ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-173
Author(s):  
Sara Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Opium Poppy ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Cultural Importance ◽  
Large Seed ◽  
Potent Drug ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
Societal Role

Among the six excavated burials at Tillya-tepe, in northern Afghanistan, was one occupied by an elite woman wearing a substantial necklace consisting of large gold beads shaped as seed-heads. The scale and fine workmanship of this necklace suggest that it was one of her most important possessions. It can be demonstrated that these large seed-heads are representations of poppy capsules, whose significance lies in the fact that they are the source of the potent drug opium. This necklace is the most outstanding object within a group of items decorated with poppy imagery, all of which were discovered in female burials. The opium poppy has long been a culturally important plant, and the implication of this identification is investigated in several contexts. Firstly, the proliferation of poppy imagery in the female burials at Tillya-tepe is examined, and then there is a discussion of material evidence for opium among relevant peoples along the Eurasian steppes. The particular cultural importance of opium is reviewed, leading finally to a proposal for the societal role of these women.

Central Italian Elite Groups as Aristocratic Houses in the Ninth to Sixth Centuries BCE

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-40
Author(s):  
Matthew C Naglak ◽  
Nicola Terrenato
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
New Models ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
Theoretical Overview ◽  
House Society

This chapter demonstrates the applicability of C. Lévi-Strauss’s “House Society” model for considering the role of kinship in the early moments of state formation and urbanization in Iron Age Latium and Etruria. After a brief theoretical overview of the model, the discussion focuses on two main axioms which are often overlooked in the model’s application to the ancient world: (1) a physical house does not make a social House, and (2) a single House does not make a Society. This is followed by an overview of how material evidence from sites ranging from Vetulonia to Osteria dell’Osa and textual evidence from the Twelves Tables can be interpreted through the lens of a “House Society” to create new models for the development of complex social systems in central Italy.

Reign of Arrows

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolaus Leo Overtoom
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
World State ◽  
State Security ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
International Environment ◽  
Hellenistic World ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
Comprehensive Study

From minor nomadic tribe to major world empire, the story of the Parthians’ success in the ancient world is nothing short of remarkable. In their early history, the Parthians benefited from strong leadership, a flexible and accommodating cultural identity, and innovative military characteristics that allowed them to compete against and indeed eventually overcome Greek, Persian, Central Asian, and eventually Roman rivals who were often more powerful. Reign of Arrows provides the first comprehensive study dedicated entirely to early Parthian history within the Hellenistic world prior to contact with Rome and the first comprehensive effort since 1938 to evaluate early Parthian political history. It is a major effort to synthesize a wide array of especially recent scholarship across numerous fields of study in order to present the reader with the most cogent, well-rounded, and up-to-date account of the intersections of Hellenistic and Parthian history possible. It draws on a wide variety of sources to explain the political and military encounters that shaped the international environment of the Hellenistic Middle East from the middle third to the early first centuries BCE. This study treats broader issues of international relations in the ancient world, state decision-making, royal identity and ideology, evolving spatial perspectives and power relations, and state security concerns. It combines traditional historical approaches, such as source criticism and the integration of material evidence, with the incorporation of modern international relations theory to better examine the rise of the Parthians to dominance over the ancient Middle East.

scholarly journals Hermēneis in the Documentary Record from Hellenistic and Roman Egypt: interpreters, translators and mediators in a bilingual society

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-102
Author(s):  
Rachel Mairs
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Legal Cases ◽  
Roman Egypt ◽  
Monastic Communities

AbstractEgypt of the Hellenistic and Roman periods remains the most thoroughly documented multilingual society in the ancient world, because of the wealth of texts preserved on papyrus in Egyptian, Greek, Latin and other languages. This makes the scarcity of interpreters in the papyrological record all the more curious. This study reviews all instances in the papyri of individuals referred to as hermēneus in Greek, or references to the process of translation/interpreting. It discusses the terminological ambiguity of hermēneus, which can also mean a commercial mediator; the position of language mediators in legal cases in Egyptian, Greek and Latin; the role of gender in language mediation; and concludes with a survey of interpreting in Egyptian monastic communities in Late Antiquity.

The role of ancient remains in the Sarmatian culture of early modern Poland

2018 ◽  
pp. 286-304
Author(s):  
Barbara Arciszewska
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
The Past ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
Ancient Remains ◽  
Class Discourse

Visible material remnants of ancient cultures were, for a variety of historical reasons, not particularly abundant in the territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569-1795). The past monuments of these lands were not hewn in stone and marble but in timber, leaving behind no impressive structures to provoke the interest of subsequent generations. The dearth of material evidence did not, however, prevent generations of Polish historians and antiquarians from assigning Greco-Roman identities to local monuments. They were keen to offer tangible proof of the past glory of the land inhabited by the alleged descendants of the Sarmatians. In this paper, some of these monuments are explored, especially the Mounds of Krakus and Wanda near Cracow as well as an alleged tomb of Ovid in Vohlyna. The narratives fabricated around them as a part of the ideology of Sarmatism, a class discourse, which constructed an identity for the Polish nobility as the descendants of the ancient tribe of Sarmatians, are also examined.

Societal role of food processing: envisaging the future

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Delia B. Rodriguez-Amaya ◽  
Jaime Amaya-Farfan ◽  
Daryl B. Lund
Keyword(s):  
Food Processing ◽  
The Future ◽  
Societal Role

The Role of the Satirist and the Problem of Moral Conviction

2020 ◽  
pp. 207-238
Author(s):  
Meredith McNeill Hale
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Political Satire ◽  
Moral Conviction ◽  
Sexual Perversion ◽  
William Iii ◽  
Political Divide ◽  
Material Evidence

This chapter addresses two related subjects, the reception of De Hooghe’s satires and the role of the satirist. The focus of this discussion is the so-called Pamphlet War of 1690, the primary vehicle for much of the criticism of De Hooghe’s satires. In twelve scathing pamphlets published against Romeyn de Hooghe in the first several months of 1690, witnesses alleged his blasphemy, atheism, and sexual perversion, and embroiled him in a fevered exchange of pamphlets with representatives of Amsterdam. While such rhetoric employed against the printmaker in pamphlet literature vividly described his manifold immorality, Hollands hollende koe (Holland’s running cow), an anti-Williamite satire produced by the printmaker’s enemies in his distinctive etching style, provided material ‘evidence’ of his lack of integrity. With this print, De Hooghe was accused of working for both sides of the political divide—producing Orangist satires for William III and anti-Williamite satires for the Amsterdam regents. The potency of Hollands hollende koe depends fundamentally upon the assumption of integrity between satirist and satire, the notion that he or she believes in the positions and ideologies espoused in his or her satires. It will be argued that the conflation of satirist and satire and the attendant expectation of moral conviction on the part of the satirist are not only associated with the genre of political satire, they are engendered by it and feature prominently throughout its history.

Imaging and imagining the Neanderthal: the role of technical drawings in archaeology

Antiquity ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 72 (275) ◽  
pp. 56-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Van Reybrouck
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Material Evidence

Reconstruction drawings intended to illustrate the realities of prehistoric life can be famously revealing of preconceptions in the minds of the modern illustrator and of the researcher who briefs the illustrator. But are the less interpretative drawings whose purpose is to record the material evidence more neutral in their look? Nineteenth-century technical illustrations of the Neanderthal skull are unintentionally revealing of attitude.

THE LIVES AND ROLES OF WOMEN OF VARIOUS CLASSES IN THE IE OF LATE MEDIEVAL JAPAN

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michiko Goto
Keyword(s):  
Household Head ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Social Unit ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Medieval Women ◽  
Medieval Japan ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
Shed Light

In medieval Japan the household became the basic social unit among all classes. In the process, a division of roles also came about: the household head and husband represented the ie to the outside world, while the wife was in charge of its running. The wife's role was highly regarded in the medieval period, but its details have yet to be fully examined. This paper attempts to shed light on how medieval women lived by studying the role of wives and their integral place in ie management. To do this, it is also necessary to examine the relationship between the father's wife and the son's wife, in other words, the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law. I will look at women from various classes, to the extent the documentation allows, utilizing the diaries of the court nobility, literary works and other documentary, graphic and material evidence.

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