Bones and the body politic? A diachronic analysis of structured deposition in the Neolithic–Early Iron Age Aegean (original) (raw)
Related papers
Meaningful Materials? Bone Artefacts and Symbolism in the Early Bronze Age Aegean
Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 2017
The symbolically laden use of materials is well documented ethnographically but hard to demonstrate archaeologically, especially for animal bones and teeth, use of which in post-Neolithic contexts is commonly considered expedient. Early Bronze Age southern Aegean mortuary assemblages have yielded three distinctive classes of bone artefact. Comparison with contemporary unworked bone assemblages and contextually or formally related objects in other materials reveals complex cultural associations, the symbolic meaning of which is explored through heuristic use of ethnographic analogues. It is concluded that alternative value systems operated alongside those structured around exoticism and technological sophistication, usually deployed to understand EBA southern Aegean cultures.
2013
The importance of the zooarchaeological evidence as a source for ritual practices in ancient Greece is gradually becoming widely recognized. Animal bones provide a kind of evidence for Greek cult practice which is constantly growing, and can complement and elucidate the information provided by texts, inscriptions and images. This volume brings together sixteen contributions exploring ritual practices and animal bones from different chronological and geographical perspectives, foremost ancient Greece in the historical period, but also in the Bronze Age and as early as the Neolithic period, as well as Anatolia, France and Scandinavia, providing new empirical evidence from a number of major sanctuaries and cult places. On a methodological level, the complexity of identifying ritual activity from the zooarchaeological evidence is a recurrent theme, as is the prominence of local variation visible in the bone material, suggesting that the written sources and iconography may offer simplified or idealized versions of the rituals actually performed. Although zooarchaeology needs to and should be integrated with other kinds of sources, the independent study of the bones in an unbiased manner is of utmost importance, as the bones can provide a different “reality” than that encountered in our other sources.
Journal of ancient Judaism, 2016
This paper addresses the animal bone material from ancient Qumran from the perspective of zooarchaeologial material recovered in ancient Greek cult contexts. The paper offers an overview of the importance of animal bones for the understanding of ancient Greek religion and sacrificial practices in particular, followed by an interpretation of the Qumran material taking its starting point in the bone material and the archaeological find contexts, including importance of the presence or absence of an altar at this site. The methodological implications of letting the written sources guide the interpretation of the archaeological material are explored and it is suggested that the Qumran bones are to be interpreted as remains of ritual meals following animal sacrifice while that the presence of also calcined bones supports the proposal that there was once an altar in area L130. Finally the similarities between Israelite and Greek sacrificial practices are touched upon, arguing for advantages of a continued and parallel study of these two sacrificial systems based on the zooarchaeological evidence.
Thighs or tails? The osteological evidence as a source for Greek ritual norms
La norme en matière religieuse en Grèce ancienne, ed. P. Brulé, 2009
Our knowledge of the normative practice of Greek animal sacrifice is usually based on written and iconographical sources. Recent publications of animal bones from Greek sanctuaries offer new possibilities to define the practical execution of sacrificial rituals. This paper discusses the god’s part of the animal victim burnt on the altar, which could consist of the thigh bones or the osphys (sacrum and caudal vertebrae) or both. The altar debris and consumption refuse from ritual contexts allow us to distinguish variations within this norm. Sheep and goat femora were the preferred parts to burn, though at some sites cattle thigh bones were favoured. Tails and sacrum bones are rarely found. Pig bones hardly ever seem to have formed part of the god’s share burnt on the altar, though pigs clearly were eaten in sanctuaries. It is suggested that the thigh bones may have been the original offering at a thysia, perhaps a tradition deriving from the Mycenaean period. The burning of tails could have been inspired from Near Eastern sacrificial practices and was perhaps added to the Greek animal sacrifices at a later stage to increase the element of divination.
Opuscula, 2017
This paper is a contribution to the zooarchaeological research on animals or animal parts found in human graves during the Middle Bronze Age in Greece. The animal bones from the early Middle Helladic settlement (MH I-II, c. 2100-1800 BC) and contemporary burials at Asine are presented. The goal is to compare the animal bones from the settlement with those from the burials, in terms of species composition and body part distribution. Through this comparison, this paper aims to discuss any symbolic connotations of bone waste from everyday-life practices. The results show that the most common domesticates from settlement contexts, pig, sheep/goat and cattle, also appear to be the most abundant animals deposited in the early MH graves at Asine. This is consistent with mortuary data from other sites on the Peloponnese, especially Lerna. The pig was most abundant in both settlement and graves at Asine. The similarities between wild and domestic pigs might be important, and are discussed as a possible inspiration for the pig symbolism in MH I-II Asine. I also propose a regional change in the later Bronze Age of how animals were deposited in graves, in which period the presence of wild mammals, dogs, and horses in high status graves increases. throughout, pig, sheep/goats and cattle remained the most important animals for ritually connoted events such as funerary meals or feasts.
Feasting With the Dead?–A ritual bone deposit at Domuztepe, south eastern Turkey (c. 5550BC1)
2004
Abstract The Halaf period in the Near East (ca. 6000-5200BC) saw important developments in social complexity illustrated by elaborate craft production, use of seals, and the establishment of long-distance exchange networks. This period laid the foundations for the later rise of state institutions in the Near East but also saw the continuation of earlier forms of organization. The site of Domuztepe is located at the north eastern extreme of the Halaf cultural phenomenon in south eastern Turkey.
In this paper I discuss the connection between the double axe and bulls. The double axe was undoubtedly one of the most important religious symbols in Minoan Crete. There is, however, no general consensus regarding its meaning. That the double axe was associated with the sacrifice of bulls and used to kill or to stun the animal was first suggested by Martin P. Nilsson in 1950 and probably still remains the most common interpretation, although perhaps more by default than for any other reasons. This interpretation is not implausible since the sacrifice of bulls would seem to have been part of Minoan ritual as documented by the iconographical evidence, most notably on the Ayia Triada Sarcophagus. Moreover, the figures carrying large double axes with a definite air of purpose that are depicted on a number of seals could plausibly be identified as sacrificial priests and priestesses (eg. CMS II.6, no.10). The interpretation of the double axe as a sacrificial implement has all the same been questioned, not least because we have no depictions showing it actually being used as such. The double axes depicted on the Ayia Triada Sarcophagus seem to be symbols rather than cult equipment, but this may be debatable. The iconographical evidence clearly indicates that there was some kind of symbolic connection between the double axe and bulls, whether this was related to sacrifice or not. Mention can be made of a number of seals which show a bull’s head with a double axe between the horns (eg. CMS II.3, no.11). The same motif also occurs on pottery. In most examples it is only the head of the animal which is depicted in connection with the double axe. The symbolic value of the double axe would seem to have been particularly associated with the head and perhaps specifically with the horns of the animal. It is noticeable that the horns can be shown in many different ways. The use of axes to shape the horns of cattle is widely attested in eastern African. The axes that are used in this process acquire exceptional symbolic value. This practice has an attested long time-depth and it is believed that it can be traced far back into prehistory and significantly in this context, it seems to be documented in ancient Egyptian iconography. That part of the symbolic meaning of the double axe in Minoan Crete could derive from its use in manipulating the horns of living bulls into a desirable shape is a possible interpretation of the iconographical evidence, which may also be supported by osteological evidence. In the last part of my paper I discuss the iconographical evidence for the association between bulls and double axes in terms of ritual meaning and cosmological beliefs.