Opuscula 7 (2014) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. Castration, cult and agriculture. Perspectives on Greek animal sacrifice By Gunnel Ekroth Abstract The castration of most male animals seems to have been the rule in ancient Greece when rearing cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs; only very few adult males are needed for breeding purposes and flocks of bulls, rams, billy-goats and boars are difficult to keep, since they are too aggressive. Castrated males yield more and fattier meat, and, in the case of sheep, more wool. Still, sacred laws and sacrificial calendars stipulate the sacrifice of uncastrated victims, and vase-paintings frequently represent bulls, rams and billy-goats in ritual contexts. This paper will discuss the role of uncastrated male animals in Greek cult in the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods, both from a religious and an agricultural perspective. Of particular interest are the relations between the practical, economic reality and the theological perception of sacrifice. These issues will be explored using epigraphical, literary, iconographical and zooarchaeological evidence. Bibliographical information Gunnel Ekroth, ‘Cult, castration and agriculture. Perspectives on Greek animal sacrifice’, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and…

Opuscula 7 (2014) is now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. Berit Wells in Memoriam By Arto Penttinen & Jenny Wallensten Introduction The following section honours our colleague, teacher, and friend, Berit Wells. The contributions were originally to be included in a Festschrift, which we wished to present to Berit on her 67th birthday. Sadly, Berit lost her battle against cancer before we could finish the volume. We thus decided to transform the Festschrift into a conference dedicated to her memory, and this event took place over two cold winter days in December 2009. For the Festschrift we had chosen two themes: religion and food production in the ancient Greek world. The interface of these very broad themes seemed to us to converge and offer an overall perspective of Berit’s research and simultaneously, they allowed colleagues from all stages of Berit’s careers to take part and contribute to the conference. The six articles included in Opuscula 2014 are a selection of the conference papers, which also included reports from the Poros excavations. Poros was Berit’s last major project and its results will be published elsewhere. Conference proceedings published in Opuscula…

Now available for purchase and free download at Bokorder.se. Also available at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com and Adlibris.com. Bones, behaviour and belief. The zooarchaeological evidence as a source for ritual practice in ancient Greece and beyond Edited by Gunnel Ekroth & Jenny Wallensten https://doi.org/10.30549/actaath-4-55 The importance of the zooarchaeological evidence as a source for ritual practices in ancient Greece is gradually becoming widely recognized. Animal bones form the only category of evidence for Greek cult which is constantly significantly increasing, and they 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…

Now available for purchase at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, and Bokorder.se Perspectives on ancient Greece. Papers in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Swedish Institute at Athens By Ann-Louise Schallin (ed.) This volume presents current research related to Greek prehistory and Classical Archaeology and thus serves as a crosssection of the research strategies, which the Swedish Institute at Athens promotes. The topics relate to research, which span from the Neolithic to the Hellenistic times. The reason for putting this publication together is twofold: one aim is to publish the papers, which were put forward by a select number of Swedish scholars who were invited to give lectures at the Swedish Institute at Athens during the celebrations commemorating the Institute’s 60th anniversary on 10 May 2008. The second aim is to honour professor emeritus Robin Hägg, who was the director at the Swedish Institute at Athens from 1976 to 1994. This book thus consists of articles based on the lectures, which were held at the Swedish Institute celebrations on May 10 2008 and also of a number of articles by scholars who wished to celebrate Robin Hägg and who thus joined the venture. Contents Acknowledgements Ann-Louise Schallin | Introduction Mats Johnson |…

Now available for purchase at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com, Adlibris.com, and Bokorder.se Current approaches to religion in ancient Greece. Papers presented at a symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 17–19 April 2008 By Matthew Haysom & Jenny Wallensten (eds.) In recent years Greek religion has emerged as one of the main topics for the study of ancient Greek society as a whole. This flourishing interest is certainly due to the recognition of the centrality of religion to Greek culture: religious beliefs and practices were connected to almost every aspect of the Greek world. This volume brings together fourteen contributions from a group of upcoming international scholars, presented at a conference held in the Swedish Institute at Athens and the British School at Athens in 2008. The papers take a wide range of approaches: archaeological, epigraphic, iconographical, philological and historical. They demonstrate the diversity of the subject, covering such issues as nineteenth-century historiography, cult epithets, the pantheon, regionalism, polis religion, the performance of ritual, the use of music in ritual, the accessibility of sacred space, and the visual aspects of dedications. The contributions bring new theoretical perspectives, seek to better understand ritual, and highlight the variety of Greek religion. Contents Preface…

Distributed by Eddy.se AB. Available for purchase at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com, and Adlibris.com Via Tiburtina. Space, movement and artefacts in the urban landscape By Hans Bjur & Barbro Santillo Frizell (eds.) How can cities integrate historic layers into their urban development? How can tangible and intangible heritages be read, interpreted and utilised in a sustainable city and landscape development? What significance could an ancient road have in this context? These are the overall questions in this book. It contains a number of different approaches to the interaction between the ancient road Via Tiburtina and the surrounding urban landscape east of Rome towards Tivoli, a rich palimpsest of distinguishable interrelated layers created over at least three millennia. One hypothesis being explored is that structures like Via Tiburtina still can determine the morphology of the urban landscape. Settlements, buildings, space, movement and cultural artefacts have therefore come into focus in investigating whether broken connections could be re-established, and thus creating a dialogue between Rome’s earlier epochs and the future. Contents Index map Introduction Hans Bjur & Barbro Santillo Frizell | Ways to urban landscape archaeology Hans Bjur | That’s the way it is Movement Barbro Santillo Frizell | Changing pastures Simon Malmberg…

Now available for purchase at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com, Adlibris.com. Distributed by Eddy.se AB. Encounters with Mycenaean figures and figurines. Papers presented at a seminar at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 27–29 April 2001 By Ann-Louise Schallin & Petra Pakkanen (eds.) This volume presents fourteen articles which discuss Mycenaean figurines from various points of view. They focus on different aspects of the figurines, elaborating on their function, contextual characteristics, production, use-life, classification, topography, and history of scholarship. The articles are based on papers given at a workshop at the Swedish Institute at Athens in April 2001 entitled ‘Cultic Space and Mycenaean Figurines’. The idea of having a workshop arose from the fact that several of the participants were involved at the time with the documentation of various figurine types from the so-called Potter’s Workshop at Mastos in the Berbati Valley in the Argolid. The number and variety of the Mycenaean figurines from Mastos is impressive, particularly as the excavation had covered only a small area. The excavator, Å. Åkerström, proposed that the site had a cultic function in addition to its role as a production centre. In order to better understand the characteristics and identity of Mastos, scholars were invited to…

Now available for purchase at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Bokus.com, Adlibris.com. Distributed by Eddy.se AB. Unexpected voices. The graffiti in the cryptoporticus of the Horti Sallustiani and papers from a conference on graffiti at the Swedish Institute in Rome, 7 march 2003 By Olof Brandt (ed.) This volume presents the results of a collaboration between the Swedish Institute in Rome and the Embassy of the United States of America in Rome. The object of the research was a cryptoporticus, part of the ancient Horti Sallustiani, in the area of the American Embassy, and especially the graffiti found on the walls of the cryptoporticus, which were also decorated with paintings. The cryptoporticus, which is dated to the first century AD, was excavated in 1949–1950 and in the 1990s, but the graffiti have never been completely published. In this publication, all the graffiti are discussed and dated. Some belong to Late Antiquity, others were made in the 16th and 17th centuries. The study of these graffiti gives important information about the later fate of the first-century cryptoporticus. Several unpublished fragments of wall-paintings are also presented, and more general historic and archaeological aspects of the cryptoporticus are discussed. Part of the project was the first…

Distributed by Astrom Editions. Greek sacrificial ritual, Olympian and Chthonian. Proceedings of the Sixth International Seminar on Ancient Greek Cult, organized by the Department of Classical Archaeology and Ancient History, Göteborg University, 25–27 April 1997 Edited by Robin Hägg & Brita Alroth A collection of eighteen papers, read or circulated at an international seminar in Göteborg, that deal with the ancient Greek sacrificial ritual, with special reference to the traditional dichotomy between the Olympian and the chthonian aspect, the relevance of which has been questioned in modern research. Among the special topics discussed are sacrifices to heroes and in the cult of the dead, magical sacrifice, sacrifice to the sea, pig sacrifice and the sacrifice of pregnant animals. Other aspects dealt with include the role of dedications in the cult and the practicalities of ruler-cult, as well as the priest’s role in Greek sacrifice. Several contributions discuss the implications of the recently published lex sacra from Selinous for the understanding of Greek sacrificial practice, reinterpreting previously known inscriptions in the light of the new evidence. Two papers deal with descriptions of sacrifice in Greek tragedy (Aeschylus, Oresteia; Sophocles, Trachiniae). There is a bibliographical survey of faunal remains from Greek sanctuaries…

Published by the Swedish Institute at Athens. Distributed by Astrom Editions. New research on old material from Asine and Berbati in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Swedish Institute at Athens Edited by Berit Wells After an introductory paper on the creation of a Swedish Archaeological School at Athens, ten papers deal with subjects associated with material excavated at Asine and Berbati in the Argolid before the new wave of excavations in the 1970’s. The following subject matters are discussed in relation to Asine: the emergence of an élite in the Middle Helladic (MH) period; pre-firing marks on MH Aeginetan pottery; wooden boxes used as coffins for infants in MH times; MH child morbidity and child mortality; Asine as a case of economic interaction in the Argolid; the provenience and alloy compositions of metal objects diachronically; the source of iron during the Geometric period; bridging the gap in settlement between 700 and 300 BC. Two papers are concerned with Berbati: one underlines the continuity of the Mastos settlement from Early Helladic II into EH III; and one lays out the possibilities for a detailed study of the provenience of the local Mycenaean ceramics. Contents Preface (p. 7) Berit Wells,…