In the Land of a Thousand Gods

In the Land of a Thousand Gods

Author: Christian Marek

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-07-13

Total Pages: 820

ISBN-13: 0691233659

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A monumental history of Asia Minor from the Stone Age to the Roman Empire In this critically acclaimed book, Christian Marek masterfully provides the first comprehensive history of Asia Minor from prehistory to the Roman imperial period. Blending rich narrative with in-depth analyses, In the Land of a Thousand Gods shows Asia Minor’s shifting orientation between East and West and its role as both a melting pot of nations and a bridge for cultural transmission. Marek employs ancient sources to illuminate civic institutions, urban and rural society, agriculture, trade and money, the influential Greek writers of the Second Sophistic, the notoriously bloody exhibitions of the gladiatorial arena, and more. He draws on the latest research—in fields ranging from demography and economics to architecture and religion—to describe how Asia Minor became a center of culture and wealth in the Roman Empire. A breathtaking work of scholarship, In the Land of a Thousand Gods will become the standard reference book on the subject in English.


The Village in Antiquity and the Rise of Early Christianity

The Village in Antiquity and the Rise of Early Christianity

Author: Alan Cadwallader

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-12-28

Total Pages: 473

ISBN-13: 0567695964

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A complete geographical and thematic overview of the village in an antiquity and its role in the rise of Christianity. The volume begins with a “state-of-question” introduction by Thomas Robinson, assessing the interrelation of the village and city with the rise of early Christianity. Alan Cadwallader then articulates a methodology for future New Testament studies on this topic, employing a series of case studies to illustrate the methodological issues raised. From there contributors explore three areas of village life in different geographical areas, by means of a series of studies, written by experts in each discipline. They discuss the ancient near east (Egypt and Israel), mainland and Isthmian Greece, Asia Minor, and the Italian Peninsula. This geographic focus sheds light upon the villages associated with the biblical cities (Israel; Corinth; Galatia; Ephesus; Philippi; Thessalonica; Rome), including potential insights into the rural nature of the churches located there. A final section of thematic studies explores central issues of local village life (indigenous and imperial cults, funerary culture, and agricultural and economic life).


Life and Death in Asia Minor in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Times

Life and Death in Asia Minor in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Times

Author: J. Rasmus Brandt

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2016-12-31

Total Pages: 1104

ISBN-13: 1785703609

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Life and Death in Asia Minor combines contributions in both archaeology and bioarchaeology in Asia Minor in the period ca. 200 BC – AD 1300 for the first time. The archaeology topics are wide-ranging including death and territory, death and landscape perception, death and urban transformations from pagan to Christian topography, changing tomb typologies, funerary costs, family organization, funerary rights, rituals and practices among pagans, Jews, and Christians, inhumation and Early Byzantine cremations and use and reuse of tombs. The bioarchaeology chapters use DNA, isotope and osteological analyses to discuss, both among children and adults, questions such as demography and death rates, pathology and nutrition, body actions, genetics, osteobiography, and mobility patterns and diet. The areas covered in Asia Minor include the sites of Hierapolis, Laodikeia, Aphrodisias, Tlos, Ephesos, Priene, Kyme, Pergamon, Amorion, Gordion, Boğazkale, and Arslantepe. The theoretical and methodological approaches used make it highly relevant for people working in other geographical areas and time periods. Many of the articles could be used as case studies in teaching at schools and universities. An important objective of the publication has been to see how the different types of results emerging from archaeological and natural science studies respectively could be integrated with each other and pose new questions on ancient societies, which were far more complex than historical and social studies of the past often manage to transmit.


Lycian Families in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods

Lycian Families in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods

Author: Selen Kılıç Aslan

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2023-07-31

Total Pages: 415

ISBN-13: 900454836X

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Can we study the social and legal practices related to families in an ancient society even in the absence of relevant literary and legal sources? In Lycia, thanks to our rich corpus of inscriptions, and the regional funerary epigraphic habit, we can. This book brings together for the first time the full range of Lycian epigraphic evidence, examines it in a systematic way, and investigates three central elements of familial life in the Hellenistic and Roman periods: marriage, children, and inheritance practices; in doing so it briefly touches on a number of prosopographical, demographic, and anthropological questions. The book makes an innovative contribution not only to the history of Lycia but also to the wider study of ancient families.


Urban Rituals in Sacred Landscapes in Hellenistic Asia Minor

Urban Rituals in Sacred Landscapes in Hellenistic Asia Minor

Author: Christina G. Williamson

Publisher: Religions in the Graeco-Roman

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 540

ISBN-13: 9789004461260

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"In Urban Rituals in Sacred Landscapes in Hellenistic Asia Minor, Christina G. Williamson examines the phenomenon of monumental sanctuaries in the countryside of Asia Minor that accompanied the second rise of the Greek city-state in the Hellenistic period. Moving beyond monolithic categories, Williamson provides a transdisciplinary frame of analysis that takes into account the complex local histories, landscapes, material culture, and social and political dynamics of such shrines in their transition towards becoming prestigious civic sanctuaries. This frame of analysis is applied to four case studies: the sanctuaries of Zeus Labraundos, Sinuri, Hekate at Lagina, and Zeus Panamaros. All in Karia, these well-documented shrines offer valuable insights for understanding religious strategies adopted by emerging cities as they sought to establish their position in the expanding world"--


Regionalism in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor

Regionalism in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor

Author: Hugh Elton

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13:

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La notion de région a depuis fort longtemps été un concept de base de l'analyse historique du monde grec. Cependant, ce concept n'a pas toujours été clairement défini. Les contributions de ce volume n'esquivent pas la question et s'efforcent de mettre en évidence les implications de la notion selon différentes perspectives d'analyse, en prenant pour cadre de référence l'Asie Mineure hellénistique et romaine. Qu'elles examinent la culture, le monnayage ou les institutions politiques, les contributions de ce volume s'attachent à explorer les différentes facettes des identités régionales. De même, elles prennent en considération les moyens par lesquels ces identités pouvaient rester tendanciellement stables ou au contraire évoluer au fil du temps, et définissent leur type d'interaction avec les puissances hégémoniques. Parfois aussi, elles n'hésitent pas à mettre en cause l'utilité de l'approche régionale. Enfin, la question de l'"ethnicité" n'est pas négligée. Ce volume intéressera les spécialistes de l'Asie Mineure, aussi bien que tous ceux qui s'intéressent à la conceptualisation de la notion de région dans le monde méditerranéen. Regions and regionalism have been staples of historical analysis for the Greek world for a very long time. What is meant by a region, however, is not always obvious. The contributions in this volume seek to address the question of defining regions and working out the implications of regionalism along different dimensions of analysis for Asia Minor in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Looking at culture, coinage, political institutions, the papers explore different markers of regional identity, consider ways in which these identities may remain stable or change over time, review the character of the interaction between regional entities and hegemonic powers, and challenge the usefulness in some cases of regional analysis. Questions of ethnicity are also addressed. This volume will be of interest to historians working in Asia Minor and...


The Lives of Ancient Villages

The Lives of Ancient Villages

Author: Peter Thonemann

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-11-17

Total Pages: 403

ISBN-13: 1009302051

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Our conception of the culture and values of the ancient Greco-Roman world is largely based on texts and material evidence left behind by a small and atypical group of city-dwellers. The people of the deep Mediterranean countryside seldom appear in the historical record from antiquity, and almost never as historical actors. This book is the first extended historical ethnography of an ancient village society, based on an extraordinarily rich body of funerary and propitiatory inscriptions from a remote upland region of Roman Asia Minor. Rural kinship structures and household forms are analysed in detail, as are the region's demography, religious life, gender relations, class structure, normative standards and values. Roman north-east Lydia is perhaps the only non-urban society in the Greco-Roman world whose culture can be described at so fine-grained a level of detail: a world of tight-knit families, egalitarian values, hard agricultural labour, village solidarity, honour, piety and love.


A Companion to the Hellenistic World

A Companion to the Hellenistic World

Author: Andrew Erskine

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2009-02-09

Total Pages: 624

ISBN-13: 1405154411

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Covering the period from the death of Alexander the Great to the celebrated defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at the hands of Augustus, this authoritative Companion explores the world that Alexander created but did not live to see. Comprises 29 original essays by leading international scholars. Essential reading for courses on Hellenistic history. Combines narrative and thematic approaches to the period. Draws on the very latest research. Covers a broad range of topics, spanning political, religious, social, economic and cultural history.


Economy of the Sacred in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor

Economy of the Sacred in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor

Author: Beate Dignas

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2002-12-12

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 0191581968

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This original study challenges the idea that sanctuaries in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor were fully institutionalized within the poleis that hosted them. Examining the forms of interaction between rulers, cities, and sanctuaries, the book proposes a triangular relationship in which the rulers often acted as mediators between differing interests of city and cult. A close analysis of the epigraphical evidence illustrates that neither the Hellenistic kings nor the representatives of Roman rule appropriated the property of the gods but actively supported the functioning of the sanctuaries and their revenues. The powerful role of the sanctuaries was to a large extent based on economic features, which the sanctuaries possessed precisely because of their religious character. Nevertheless, a study of the finances of the cults reveals frequent problems concerning the upkeep of cults and a particular need to guard the privileges and property of the gods. Their situation oscillated between glut and dearth. When the harmonious identity between city and cult was disturbed, those closely attached to the cult acted on behalf of their domain.


Christianizing Asia Minor

Christianizing Asia Minor

Author: Paul McKechnie

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-08

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1108481469

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Explores the growth of Christianity in inland Roman Asia, as cities and rural communities moved away from polytheistic Greco-Roman religion.