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Bones, behaviour and belief : The zooarchaeological evidence as a source for ritual practice in ancient Greece and beyond
- 2013
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Editorial collection (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The importance of the osteological 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 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 osteological 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 osteology needs to and should be integrated with other kinds of sources, the independent study of the bones in an unbiased manner is of utmost importance, as the bones can provide a different “reality” than that encountered in our other sources.
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| 2. |
- Carbon, Jan-Mathieu, et al.
(author)
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From snout to tail : Dividing animals and reconstructing ancient Greek sacrifice
- 2024
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In: From snout to tail. - Stockholm : Svenska institutet i Athen. - 9789179160692 ; , s. 9-20
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Animal sacrifice fundamentally informed how the ancient Greeks defined themselves, their relation to the divine, and the structure of their society. Adopting an explicitly cross-disciplinary perspective, the present volume explores the practical execution and complex meaning of animal sacrifice within ancient Greek religion (c. 1000 BC–AD 200).The objective is twofold. First, to clarify in detail the use and meaning of body parts of the animal within sacrificial ritual. This involves a comprehensive study of ancient Greek terminology in texts and inscriptions, representations on pottery and reliefs, and animal bones found in sanctuaries. Second, to encourage the use and integration of the full spectrum of ancient evidence in the exploration of Greek sacrificial rituals, which is a prerequisite for understanding the complex use and meaning of Greek animal sacrifice.Twelve contributions by experts on the literary, epigraphical, iconographical, archaeological and zooarchaeological evidence for Greek animal sacrifice explore the treatment of legs, including feet and hoofs, tails, horns; heads, including tongues, brains, ears and snouts; internal organs; blood; as well as the handling of the entire body by burning it whole. Three further contributions address Hittite, Israelite and Etruscan animal sacrifice respectively, providing important contextualization for Greek ritual practices.
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| 4. |
- Ekroth, Gunnel, Professor, 1963-
(author)
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A room of one's own? : Exploring the temenos concept as divine property
- 2024
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In: The stuff of the gods. - Stockholm : Svenska institutet i Athen. - 9789179160685 ; , s. 69-82
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Greek gods had their allotted spaces where worship took place, designated temenos, "that which has been cut off", but even if such a plot was the property of the deity and circumscribed by particular rules, it was not exclusively frequented by the divine owner. Mortal visitors may have used a temenos just as intensively as a god did, but in a different manner, and humans were also the caretakers and administrators of the god’s property. This paper explores the temenos concept from the point of view of sanctuaries as set apart from gods but mainly used by men, and how immortal and mortal practices and manifestations were to be accommodated within this space. Two points will be addressed, the marking of boundaries for temene, and notions of purity and pollution when humans visited sanctuaries to worship the gods. It will be argued that a physical demarcation of the temenos was not a divine prerequisite and that the construction of a wall was a human responsibility depending on local cultic conditions. The caretaking of a temenos as divine property required particular rules at sacrifices, since human needs and desires were not always appropriate to the gods. Of particular interest are the handling of animals, the cooking and food consumption after sacrifices, the management of human waste as well as the impact of humans staying in temene.
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| 5. |
- Ekroth, Gunnel, 1963-
(author)
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A view from the Greek side : Interpretations of animal bones as evidence for sacrifice and ritual consumption
- 2016
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In: Journal of Ancient Judaism. - : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co, KG. - 1869-3296 .- 2196-7954. ; 7:1, s. 35-50
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper addresses the animal bone material from ancient Qumran from the perspective of zooarchaeologial material recovered in ancient Greek cult contexts. The paper offers an overview of the importance of animal bones for the understanding of ancient Greek religion and sacrificial practices in particular, followed by an interpretation of the Qumran material taking its starting point in the bone material and the archaeological find contexts, including importance of the presence or absence of an altar at this site. The methodological implications of letting the written sources guide the interpretation of the archaeological material are explored and it is suggested that the Qumran bones are to be interpreted as remains of ritual meals following animal sacrifice while that the presence of also calcined bones supports the proposal that there was once an altar in area L130. Finally the similarities between Israelite and Greek sacrificial practices are touched upon, arguing for advantages of a continued and parallel study of these two sacrificial systems based on the zooarchaeological evidence.
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| 6. |
- Ekroth, Gunnel, 1963-
(author)
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Altars
- 2010
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In: Oxford Encyclopedia of ancient Greece and Rome. - New York : Oxford University Press. - 9780195170726 - 0195170725
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)
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| 7. |
- Ekroth, Gunnel, 1963-
(author)
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Animal sacrifice in antiquity
- 2014
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In: <em>The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Animals</em>. - Oxford : Oxford University Press. ; , s. 324-354
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Ekroth, Gunnel, Professor, 1963-
(author)
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Behind closed doors? Greek sacrificial rituals performed inside buildings in the Early Iron Age and the Archaic period : [Derrière des portes fermées ? Les rituels sacrificiels grecs perpétrés à l’intérieur d’édifices]
- 2021
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In: Around the hearth. - Berlin; Boston : Walter de Gruyter. - 9783110738278 - 9783110733662 - 9783110733761 ; , s. 12-39
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Ancient Greek sacrifice can be viewed as an outdoor activity, centred on the burning on the altar of fat and bones from the sacrificial victim to create a rich, fragrant smoke, which the gods profited from by inhaling. Cakes and incense put in fire produced further pleasant smells. These actions call for the ritual taking place in the open, usually in front of the temple where most altars are located. However, altars and hearths are also found inside temples. The aim of this paper is to explore the indoor presence and use of such sacrificial installations, looking at archaeological and written evidence. What kinds of offerings were sacrificed inside temples and to what degree were they burnt? Installations for fire inside religious buildings have been the focus of discussion among scholars, in particular whether hearths in temples are to be seen as a legacy from the Early Iron Age or even Bronze Age, or as a practice corresponding to certain ritual needs in the historic period. Indoor hearths are also important for the interpretation of some early Greek buildings such as temples, hestiatoria or prytaneia. The practical implications of such installations are less well understood.
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