The Bioarchaeology of Ritual and Religion

Alexandra Livarda, Richard Madgwick, Santiago Riera Mora

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2017
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781785708299
• Subtopic: Biology
• Index: Biological Sciences

The Bioarchaeology of Ritual and Religion is the first volume dedicated to exploring ritual and religious practice in past societies from a variety of 'environmental' remains. Building on recent debates surrounding, for instance, performance, materiality and the false dichotomy between ritualistic and secular behavior, this book investigates notions of ritual and religion through the lens of perishable material culture. Research centering on bioarchaeological evidence and drawing on methods from archaeological science has traditionally focused on functional questions surrounding environment and economy. However, recent years have seen an increased recognition of the under-exploited potential for scientific data to provide detailed information relating to ritual and religious practice. This volume explores the diverse roles of plant, animal, and other organic remains in ritual and religion, as foods, offerings, sensory or healing mediums, grave goods, and worked artifacts. It also provides insights into how archaeological science can shed light on the reconstruction of ritual processes and the framing of rituals. The 14 papers showcase current and new approaches in the investigation of bioarchaeological evidence for elucidating complex social issues and worldviews. The case studies are intentionally broad, encompassing a range of sub-disciplines of bioarchaeology including archaeobotany, anthracology, palynology, micromorphology, geoarchaeology, zooarchaeology (including avian and worked bone studies), archaeomalacology, and organic residue analysis. The temporal and geographical coverage is equally wide, extending across Europe from the Mediterranean and Aegean to the Baltic and North Atlantic regions, and from the Mesolithic to the medieval period. The volume also includes a discursive paper by Prof. Brian Hayden, who suggests a different interpretative framework of archaeological contexts and rituals.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright page
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables, Figures and Plates
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• 1. Ritual and Religion: Bioarchaeological Perspectives
• 2. Sacred to the Soil: Micromorphology, Geoarchaeology, and the Bioarchaeology of Ritual and Religion, with Reference to the Iron Age Site of High Pasture Cave, Scotland
• 3. Pollen Signatures of a Ritual Process in the Collective Burial Cave of Cova des Pas (Late Bronze Age, Minorca, Balearic Islands, Spain)
• 4. The Final Masquerade: Resinous Substances and Roman Mortuary Rites
• 5. Plant Rituals and Fuel in Roman Cemeteries of Apulia (SE Italy)
• 6. Feasting in a Sacred Grove: A Multidisciplinary Study of the Gallo-Roman Sanctuary of Kempraten, Switzerland
• 7. Ritual Meals and Votive Offerings: Shells and Animal Bones at the Archaic Sanctuary of Apollo at Ancient Zone, Thrace, Greece
• 8. Animals and Rituals in Iron Age Iberian Settlements in the Region of Valencia, Spain
• 9. Animal Biographies in the Iron Age of Wessex: Winnall Down, UK, Revisited
• 10. Faunal Remains and Ritualisation: Case Studies from Bronze Age Caves in Central Italy
• 11. Towards an Archaeology of the Social Meanings of the Environment: Plants and Animals at the Prehistoric Ceremonial and Funerary Staggered Turriform of Son Ferrer (Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain)
• 12. Animals and Worldviews: A Diachronic Approach to Tooth and Bone Pendants from the Mesolithic to the Medieval Period in Estonia
• 13. Birds in Death: Avian Archaeology and the Mortuary Record in the Scottish Islands
• 14. Beyond Bones: Ritual and Social Secrets in Archaeological Remains
• Back Cover