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The initial focus of Ancient Greek Agriculture is firmly on the art of agriculture proper, the tools and the technique, the plants cultivated and the animals reared. Thereafter, Isager and Skydsgaard focus on the position of agriculture in the society of gods and men in the Greek city-states . The arguments of Ancient Greek Agriculture are strengthened by the book's close adherence to contemporary Greek sources, literary as well as archaeological, avoiding the use of later as well as Roman material.
Miniature and fragmentary objects are both eye-catching and yet easily dismissed. Tiny scale entices users with visions of Lilliputian worlds. The ambiguity of fragments intrigues us, offering tactile reminders of reality's transience. Yet, the standard scholarly approach to such objects has been to see them as secondary, incomplete things, whose principal purpose was to refer to a complete and often life-size whole. The Tiny and the Fragmented offers a series of fresh perspectives on the familiar concepts of the tiny and the fragmented. Written by a prestigious group of internationally-acclaimed scholars, the volume presents a remarkable diversity of case studies that range from Neolithic E...
Classica et Mediaevalia is an international periodical, published annually, with articles written by Danish and International scholars. The articles are mainly written in English, but also in French and German. The periodical deals from a philological point of view with Classical Antiquity in general and topics such as history of law and philosophy and the medieval ecclesiastic history. It covers the period from the Greco-Roman Antiquity until the Late Middle Ages.
For over a thousand years, the practice of animal sacrifice held a central place in ancient Graeco-Roman culture as a means of both demonstrating piety to the gods and structuring social relationships. As Christianity took root in Rome in the third century CE, the cultural role of this practice changed dramatically. In Animal Sacrifice in the Roman Empire (31 BCE-395 CE), J. B. Rives explores the shifting socio-economic, political, and cultural significance of animal sacrifice in this crucial period of change. Drawing on literary, epigraphic, archaeological, art historical, philosophical, and scriptural evidence, this volume provides a comprehensive and detailed study of the central role of ...
Ancient pastoralism and pastoral economies are currently absorbing much scholarly interest, as part of the wider problem of understanding the social and economic life of rural communities. In antiquity the rural poor formed the vast majority of the population and were the main producers of wealth. Yet what is written about them in our sources is disproportionately small and often has to be quarried from authors who had little interest in the subject and whose information was distorted by romantic myths of the past. In recent years, however, archaeology, comparative anthropology and new techniques of historical criticism have been able to supplement our knowledge and have stimulated a reexamination of previously accepted theories. The papers in this volume are a contribution to that debate. They range from the archaic societies of Greece and Rome to the last days of the Roman Empire, with contibutions from both archaeologists and historians, some of whose views are controversial and throw entirely new light on the subject.
Systematically explores the changing size and structure of the population of classical Athens and the implications for economic history.
This volume presents a wide range of literary and epigraphic sources on the history of the world's first democracy, offering a comprehensive survey of the key themes and principles of Athenian democratic culture. Beginning with the mythical origins of Athenian democracy under Theseus and describing the historical development of Athens' democratic institutions through Solon's reforms to the birth of democracy under Cleisthenes, the book addresses the wider cultural and social repercussions of the democratic system, concluding with a survey of Athenian democracy in the Hellenistic and Roman age. All sources are presented in translation with full annotation and commentary and each chapter opens with an introduction to provide background and direction for readers. Sources include material by Aristotle, Homer, Aristophanes, Herodotus, Thucydides, Cicero, Tacitus and many others. The volume also includes an A-Z of key terms, an annotated bibliography with suggestions for further reading in the primary sources as well as modern critical works on Athenian democracy, and a full index.
With a focus on science in the ancient societies of Greece and Rome, including glimpses into Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China, The Oxford Handbook of Science and Medicine in the Classical World offers an in depth synthesis of science and medicine circa 650 BCE to 650 CE. The Handbook comprises five sections, each with a specific focus on ancient science and medicine. The second section covers the early Greek era, up through Plato and the mid-fourth century bce. The third section covers the long Hellenistic era, from Aristotle through the end of the Roman Republic, acknowledging that the political shift does not mark a sharp intellectual break. The fourth section covers the Roman era from ...
The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life is the first comprehensive guide to animals in the ancient world, encompassing all aspects of the topic by featuring authoritative chapters on 33 topics by leading scholars in their fields. As well as an introduction to, and a survey of, each topic, it provides guidance on further reading for those who wish to study a particular area in greater depth. Both the realities and the more theoretical aspects of the treatment of animals in ancient times are covered in chapters which explore the domestication of animals, animal husbandry, animals as pets, Aesop's Fables, and animals in classical art and comedy, all of which closely examine the nature of human-animal interaction. More abstract and philosophical topics are also addressed, including animal communication, early ideas on the origin of species, and philosophical vegetarianism and the notion of animal rights.