The Neanderthal dead: exploring mortuary variability in Middle Palaeolithic Eurasia
The question of whether or not Neanderthals buried their dead has received considerable attention over the last few decades and has played a central role in exploring the similarities and differences between Neanderthals and early anatomically modern humans.
Rethinking the Role of Health Care in Early Christianity
The distinct aspect of our approach to health care is drawn from recent advances in medical anthropology. In its most general sense, an anthropological approach seeks to apply the insights and theories that develop from the observation of actual societies. Such insights may help place an ancient culture in comparative perspective.
The Afterlife in Ancient Egypt
The Egyptians envisioned the hereafter as a duplication of the best moments of earthly existence. There was nothing morbid in their lifelong preoccupation with death, they prepared for it earnestly and confidently.
Thrown Away Like Rubbish – Disposal of the Dead in Ancient Greece
In this article, the literary and archaeological evidence for burial practices that can be associated with the English expression ‘to be disposed of like rubbish’ are discussed.
The Elusive Etruscans: The Quests for the Origins of the Etruscan Civilization
The Romans prided themselves on their ability to embrace the very best aspects of each culture that they encountered. There was one culture in particular, however, that held their fascination: the Etruscans.
Scapegoat Rituals in Ancient Greece
The Greek scapegoat rituals have often been discussed. The so-called Cambridge school in particular, with its lively and morbid interest in everything strange and cruel, paid much attention to it.’ Our own time too has become fascinated once again by these enigmatic rituals…
Dedications in clay: terracotta figurines in early Iron Age Greece (c. 1100-700 BCE)
This dissertation explores early Greek religion and society through a contextual analysis of the ritual use of terracotta votive figurines in the Early Iron Age, c. 1100-700 BCE.
Kapeleion: casual and commercial wine consumption in classical Greece
The symposion is consistently referred to as the framework around which all studies of Classical Greek drinking are built, regardless of a body of archaeological and literary evidence to suggest that this type of drinking was enjoyed primarily by a small minority of the elite male, and perhaps predominantly Athenian, population (although various forms of ritualised drinking were widespread throughout the Greek world).
Bioarchaeology in the Roman World
In particular, human skeletal remains, which can elucidate various past behaviors through careful scienti?c analysis, have largely been ignored as a credible source of information about the ancient Roman world of both the living and the dead.
Greco-Roman sex ratios and femicide in comparative perspective
Is it possible to demonstrate that ancient Greeks or Romans disposed of newborn daughters in ways that skewed sex ratios in favor of males?