Cult Objects of the Neolithic Lengyel Culture

Cult Objects of the Neolithic Lengyel Culture PDF Author: Eszter Bánffy
Publisher: Archaeolingua
ISBN: 9789638046161
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 131

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Book Description
"Altarpieces" are artefacts characteristic of the Lengyel and Moravian Painted cultures, extending across central Europe from 4800-4300 BC. Ranging from 4-12 cm high, cubic in shape, with a small depression in the top, these clay objects have puzzled archaeologists. After cataloguing the published finds under a new typological system, the author examines the surroundings of those examples found in closed contexts in order to work her way towards an understanding of their function. She examines their relationship to identical shapes in the Bronze Age of south eastern Europe and their temporal variation in the process.

Cult Objects of the Neolithic Lengyel Culture

Cult Objects of the Neolithic Lengyel Culture PDF Author: Eszter Bánffy
Publisher: Archaeolingua
ISBN: 9789638046161
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 131

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Book Description
"Altarpieces" are artefacts characteristic of the Lengyel and Moravian Painted cultures, extending across central Europe from 4800-4300 BC. Ranging from 4-12 cm high, cubic in shape, with a small depression in the top, these clay objects have puzzled archaeologists. After cataloguing the published finds under a new typological system, the author examines the surroundings of those examples found in closed contexts in order to work her way towards an understanding of their function. She examines their relationship to identical shapes in the Bronze Age of south eastern Europe and their temporal variation in the process.

The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe

The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe PDF Author: Chris Fowler
Publisher: Oxford Handbooks
ISBN: 0199545847
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1201

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Book Description
The Neolithic - a period in which the first sedentary agrarian communities were established across much of Europe - has been a key topic of archaeological research for over a century. However, the variety of evidence across Europe and the way research traditions in different countries (and languages) have developed makes it very difficult for both students and specialists to gain an overview of continent-wide trends. The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe provides the first comprehensive, geographically extensive, thematic overview of the European Neolithic - from Iberia to Russia and from Norway to Malta - offering both a general introduction and a clear exploration of key issues and current debates surrounding evidence and interpretation. Chapters written by leading experts in the field examine topics such as the movement of plants, animals, ideas, and people (including recent trends in the application of genetics and isotope analyses); cultural change (from the first farming to the first metal artefacts); domestic architecture; subsistence; material culture; monuments; and burial and other treatments of the dead. In doing so, the volume also considers the history of research and sets out agendas and themes for future work in the field.

Fragmentation in Archaeology

Fragmentation in Archaeology PDF Author: John Chapman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134687613
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
Fragmentation in Archaeology revolutionises archaeological studies of material culture, by arguing that the deliberate physical fragmentation of objects, and their (often structured) deposition, lies at the core of the archaeology of the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Copper Age of Central and Eastern Europe. John Chapman draws on detailed evidence from the Balkans to explain such phenomena as the mass sherd deposition in pits and the wealth of artefacts found in the Varna cemetery to place the significance of fragmentation within a broad anthropological context.

The Archaeology of Cult and Religion

The Archaeology of Cult and Religion PDF Author: Peter F. Biehl
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
This is a collection of twenty-one papers deriving from talks given at conferences of the European Association of Archaeologists in 1997 and 1998. The papers discuss specific issues and case studies involving questions of "cult" and religion in the pre- and protohistory of southeast Europe and the Mediterranean, looking at sites in Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Moravia, Italy and Greece, southern Russia and Iberia, amongst others. The papers have been divided into three thematic sections: Symbols of the Other World: Representation and Imagery; Sacred or Profane: Conceptions of Cult Places; and Life and Death: Interpreting Mortuary Practice. As the editors note, studying prehistoric religion is an ambiguous procedure, necessarily mixing the practices of archaeology, anthropology, religious studies and psychology. Yet they anticipate the creation of a generally accepted theoretical framework for the archaeology of cult and religion, a method for reconstructing past belief systems from the contextual evidence of material culture, thus dragging the archaeology of religion back into the academic mainstream. The diverse range of methodological practices represented by these papers clearly highlight the difficulties involved in realising this objective.

Clay Gods

Clay Gods PDF Author: Nándor Kalicz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Copper Age
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description


Archaeology and Fertility Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean

Archaeology and Fertility Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean PDF Author: Anthony Bonanno
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027272530
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
The papers in this volume derive from the First International Conference on Archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean (Malta, 1985). The field remains divided between the view supporting the existence of a universal belief in an all-pervading and all-embracing Mother Goddess – of which the fertility cult is just one, albeit important, aspect – and the view questioning the very bases of that theory. This conference showed that there seems to be a greater disposition for further dialogue. The fertility content in Near Eastern and Classical religions remains indisputable. The conference proved to be also, not accidentally, of special significance to Maltese archaeology. The volume is divided into four sections: Section I. Prehistory; Section II. Prehistory, Malta; Section III. Phoenician and Near Eastern Religions; Section IV. The Greco-Roman World.

The Archaeology of Cult and Death

The Archaeology of Cult and Death PDF Author: European Association of Archaeologists. Meeting
Publisher: Archaeolingua
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
The volume is a collection of the papers presented at The Archaeology of Cult and Death session held at the 9th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists in St. Petersburg, Russia in September 2003. The theme of the session attracted a high number of delegates from several universities and institutions, representing Bulgaria, France, Israel, Norway, Russia, Serbia, the United Kingdom and the United States, with exciting papers discussing death and cult, and the archaeology of death. Although the thematic, temporal, spatial and methodological approaches in this volume are wide, the papers are presented in chronological order, thus allowing synchronous comparisons in the same area or across regions. The nine articles offer new insights into various regions, periods and contexts most of which are different from the ones the reader might usually encounter. Nonetheless, they offer a stimulus through their methodological, theoretical and thematic approaches that are worth considering, offering a stimulating read for all.

Homines, Funera, Astra 3-4: The Multiple Faces of Death and Burial

Homines, Funera, Astra 3-4: The Multiple Faces of Death and Burial PDF Author: Raluca Kogălniceanu
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 180327526X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Papers focus on two central topics regarding past funerary behaviour in Central and South-Eastern Europe: cremation, and cause and time of death. Six studies relate to prehistory, from the Neolithic to Iron Age. Three more papers focus on the Roman Age and the other four are dedicated to the Medieval period.

Body Parts and Bodies Whole

Body Parts and Bodies Whole PDF Author: Katharina Rebay-Salisbury
Publisher: Oxbow Books Limited
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
This volume grew out of an interdisciplinary discussion held in the context of the Leverhulme-funded project 'Changing Beliefs in the Human Body', through which the image of the body in pieces soon emerged as a potent site of attitudes about the body and associated practices in many periods. Archaeologists routinely encounter parts of human and animal bodies in their excavations. Such fragmentary evidence has often been created through accidental damage and the passage of time - nevertheless, it can also signify a deliberate and meaningful act of fragmentation. As a fragment, a part may acquire a distinct meaning through its enchained relationship to the whole or alternatively it may be used in a more straightforward manner to represent the whole or even act as stand-in for other variables. This collection of papers puts bodily fragmentation into a long-term historical perspective. The temporal spread of the papers collected here indicates both the consistent importance and the varied perception of body parts in the archaeological record of Europe and the Near East. By bringing case studies together from a range of locations and time periods, each chapter brings a different insight to the role of body parts and body wholes and explores the status of the body in different cultural contexts. Many of the papers deal directly with the physical remains of the dead body, but the range of practices and representations covered in this volume confirm the sheer variability of treatments of the body throughout human history. Every one of the contributions shows how looking at how the human body is divided into pieces or parts can give us deeper insights into the beliefs of the particular society which produced these practices and representations.

Comparative Archaeologies

Comparative Archaeologies PDF Author: Ludomir R Lozny
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1441982256
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 850

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Book Description
Archaeology, as with all of the social sciences, has always been characterized by competing theoretical propositions based on diverse bodies of locally acquired data. In order to fulfill local, regional expectations, different goals have been assigned to the practitioners of Archaeology in different regions. These goals might be entrenched in local politics, or social expectations behind cultural heritage research. This comprehensive book explores regional archaeologies from a sociological perspective—to identify and explain regional differences in archaeological practice, as well as their existing similarities. This work covers not only the currently-dominant Anglo-American archaeological paradigm, but also Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa, all of which have developed their own unique archaeological traditions. The contributions in this work cover these "alternative archaeologies," in the context of their own geographical, political, and socio-economic settings, as well as the context of the currently accepted mainstream approaches.