Föreliggande volym är Uppsala universitets hyllning till dess förutvarande rektor (1989–1997) professor Stig Strömholm på dennes 80-årsdag. Stig Strömholm har innehaft professur vid universitetet i först allmän rättslära, därefter i civilrätt med internationell privaträtt. Han är en internationellt välkänd och högt skattad jurist med en mycket omfattande rättsvetenskaplig produktion. Vid sidan av denna sin profession har han även gjort sig känd och uppskattad som skönlitterär författare – bland annat har han utgivit 12 romaner, sex essäböcker och två novellsamlingar – och han har i många sammanhang varit en engagerad skribent i kultur- och samhällsfrågor, naturligt nog inte minst i sådana som gällt forskning och utbildning. Som förmedlare av europeisk – särskilt fransk – kultur och historia har han gjort och gör en mycket betydelsefull insats.
Bibliografin upptar inte mindre än 1 858 nummer. Den föregås av sex essäer av lika många renommerade författare. Syftet med dessa essäer är att närmare presentera Stig Strömholms författarskap inom några av de områden som hans skrivande gäller.
Stig Strömholms bibliografi 1942–2011 inordnar sig på ett värdigt sätt i en genre med rötter tillbaka ända till antiken.
The practice of magic was common in the Ancient Greek and Roman Worlds. Curse tablets, astrology, divination and demonology were all common practices within the Ancient religions, but whether or not we can draw a distinct line between magic and religion in regards to ancient practices is a much more complicated and much discussed question. This study will be concerned with curse tablets in Latin from the Roman world. The time period will be focused on the second to the fourth centuries A.D. The ancient curse tablets can be divided into five categories, depending on what subject they are dealing with. These categories are: litigation curses, competition curses, trade curses, erotic curses and prayers for justice. This study will be looking at ways to define the modern concept of magic and set up a number of criteria that will be applied to different types of curse tablets in order to investigate if or to what degree curse tablets can be said to be dealing with magic. It will also investigate if certain categories of curse tablets can be said to be more magical than others. The study shows that all categories except prayers for justice relates well with the modern criteria for magic.
This paper seeks, by means of close reading, to examine the Tabellae Sulis–a series of curse tablets against thieves, found in the sacred spring of the temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath–to explore their emotional content and societal context. The 32 studied tablets are concerned with the theft of minor sums of silver and various items of clothing, crimes most likely committed while the victim was soaking in the sacred spring. The tablets can be considered a sort of quasi-legal agreement between the victim and the goddess in question. The latter is granted partial ownership of the stolen object–or, in some cases, the thief themselves–and expected to punish said thief until they return the object in question to the temple where it was stolen. In terms of punishment, the tablets attack everything from the thief’s mind, motor functions and senses to their ability to reproduce and even their very lives. Most commonly they request that the thief pay the value of the stolen object in their own blood. On an emotional level, the tablets give expression to the anger of the victims and their hunger for vengeance. In this way, they can be considered to have served as an emotional control mechanism, a safe and generally accepted way to express and act on feelings that might otherwise have proven socially problematic.
The aim of this essay is to create an image of what the dwellings and indoor daily life may have looked like in the earliest period of the Greek Iron Age. The source material for the essay consists of remains of buildings, as well as loose finds, dated to the protogeometric period (1050–900 B.C.E.), from eight different places in mainland Greece. The theoretical basis for the essay is a view of a dwelling as a place where people are active and form routines. Quantitative and qualitative methods are applied in different parts of the essay. A mathematical method is also applied for one of the research questions. The essay gradually moves from a grounded approach of studying physical remains and noting patterns in construction, to a more abstract approach of attempting to picture routines and potential household sizes. The essay successfully produces results for the patterns of material and form, and possibly produces results regarding common activities and household sizes.
Today modern scholars only have few records left that discusses the plebeian women from the Roman society. One group that is known are females who appeared on the Roman stage as dancers and actresses. This paper serves to discuss those two groups. It will focus on the Roman authors attitudes towards female actresses and dancers during the 1 century BC from two points of views: terminology and descriptions. The study will prioritize text passages from three ancient Roman authors during the investigative time-period with focus on three women: Volumnia Cytheris, Dionysia, and Arbuscula. These women, could if successful, integrate the elite society and gain richness and reputation. They often had names and terminology that represented and identified them to a specific social class in the Roman society. These women’s lives, have mostly during the 21 centuries, been discussed and debated from different gender and class aspects with focus to increase our understanding about them. A discussion this paper tends to contribute to.
Stable isotope records from speleothems provide information on past climate changes, most particularly information that can be used to reconstruct past changes in precipitation and atmospheric circulation. These records are increasingly being used to provide "out-of-sample" evaluations of isotope-enabled climate models. SISAL (Speleothem Isotope Synthesis and Analysis) is an international working group of the Past Global Changes (PAGES) project. The working group aims to provide a comprehensive compilation of speleothem isotope records for climate reconstruction and model evaluation. The SISAL database contains data for individual speleothems, grouped by cave system. Stable isotopes of oxygen and carbon (delta O-18, delta C-13) measurements are referenced by distance from the top or bottom of the speleothem. Additional tables provide information on dating, including information on the dates used to construct the original age model and sufficient information to assess the quality of each data set and to erect a standardized chronology across different speleothems. The metadata table provides location information, information on the full range of measurements carried out on each speleothem and information on the cave system that is relevant to the interpretation of the records, as well as citations for both publications and archived data.
This thesis discusses the funerary expression of social status in Macedonia during the 4th century BCE. Specifically, this thesis aims to examine the royal and the noble status and the way this is expressed in death, by making a distinction between royals and nobles. The major questions of this research concern their differences and their similarities, as well as any potential indicators of each one. As part of the material, the thesis has employed four tombs to study that come from three cemeterial areas. The two first tombs are examined as royal tombs and are located in the ancient area of Aegae, located in the modern area of Vergina, while the other two tombs which are examined as noble tombs are located in the modern area of Hagios Athanasios and Derveni. By focusing on the wider cemeterial area, as well as on their architec-ture, their decoration, the grave goods and the human remains, the thesis is treating the archaeological assemblage as a holistic reflection of the social status of the de-ceased, assuming that wealthy tombs should be in accordance with the social ranking of the deceased. However, this thesis also takes into consideration other factors that might affect that funeral assemblage, such as the deceased’s or the family choices. But even despite this choice for planning to have a death as somebody wanted to, the thesis considers that having a wealthy tomb and burial mean that it was affordable and again in this case the funerary assemblage is an aspect by which the social status of the deceased can be illustrated. Finally, the thesis concludes by discussing that straight interpretations of what is considered to be of royal nature appear to be com-plicated and factors such as whoever wanted could have a prominent burial, blur the line between royals and nobles at death.
There is an old saying, that after Epaminondas nothing was ever the same again. In this thesis I will focus on three questions: "Epaminondas the man." Who was he? "Epaminondas the general." How did he change the technique of warfare that made it possible to beat the Spartans? "Epaminondas, founder of cities and wall-builder." How did he build the walls around the cities he initiated, that made them resist enemy attacks for many years to come?
While seeking the answers to yhese questions I will make a contextual analysis to get the historical background to all the phenomina involved.
This study examines the construction of masculinities in Theophrastus’ Characters and Menander’s comedies. As these works were written in early Hellenistic Athens during a period of great political and social changes, there is reason to assume that also the construction of gender changed. The aim of the study is to identify the hegemonic masculinity in the literary sources and see how it and other masculinities were constructed. This is carried out with the help of contemporary critical theories on men and masculinities, especially R. W. Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculinity and perspectives of intersectionality. The study argues that the use of contemporary theories helps to broaden the understanding of gender in antiquity.
With the use of Connell’s theory on hegemonic masculinity a complex picture of masculinities emerges that intersects several social constructions including age, financial and social belonging. The hegemonic masculinity that emerges is one of Athenian citizenship at the age of being a kyrios with an oikos that contained children. It is also a masculinity that is dependent on fulfilling or obtaining the three virtues of sophrosyne, autarkeia and philantropia. The hegemonic masculinity seems to be one of nostalgia, focusing on how the contemporaries of Theophrastus and Menander perceived the hegemonic masculinity of a past era when Athens was one of the great powers in the region without foreign domination and interference.
The study shows that, as in Connell’s theory, the hegemonic masculinity was one that no single male could obtain or maintain for any longer period of time. It is also the case that all gender relates in one way or another to the hegemonic masculinity.
Science has studied ancient litterateur and poetry for a long time. This paper has chosen to turn its eyes towards Virgil’s Aeneid as its focus. One of the central points and the theory of the paper is to explore the ways in which the time Virgil lived have affected how he wrote the Aeneid as well as the reason for writing. Another theory that has been raised is if Virgil's work was affected by the current political changes during his lifetime, especially since he had a friendly relationship with the emperor Augustus, and if thus the Aeneid was written as a possible use of propaganda. To find an answer to the theories I have looked and presented the similarities and differences in the why the heroes travelled to the underworld, the journey itself and interactions of the two heroes with others during their time going towards the underworld as well as during their time there. The main material were the two authors’ narratives of the underworld, specifically the sixth book of the Aeneid and the eleventh book of the Odyssey, set in relation to modern research on these topics. The texts have been approached by close reading to further understand Virgil’s text and choices, and how the political views have been incorporated into his work. By reading the works and comparing the two narratives following the three analytical points, consistently and multiple times, as well as modern research, it could be concluded that Virgil's rendering of the narrative was a product of his own time, especially visible in the significant number of references to the Roman Empire and its leaders.
The Mediterranean region and the Levant have returned some of the clearest evidence of a climatically dry period occurring around 4200 years ago. However, some regional evidence is controversial and contradictory, and issues remain regarding timing, progression, and regional articulation of this event. In this paper, we review the evidence from selected proxies (sea-surface temperature, precipitation, and temperature reconstructed from pollen, delta O-18 on speleothems, and delta O-18 on lacustrine carbonate) over the Mediterranean Basin to infer possible regional climate patterns during the interval between 4.3 and 3.8 ka. The values and limitations of these proxies are discussed, and their potential for furnishing information on seasonality is also explored. Despite the chronological uncertainties, which are the main limitations for disentangling details of the climatic conditions, the data suggest that winter over the Mediterranean involved drier conditions, in addition to already dry summers. However, some exceptions to this prevail - where wetter conditions seem to have persisted - suggesting regional heterogeneity in climate patterns. Temperature data, even if sparse, also suggest a cooling anomaly, even if this is not uniform. The most common paradigm to interpret the precipitation regime in the Mediterranean - a North Atlantic Oscillation-like pattern - is not completely satisfactory to interpret the selected data.
The report presents a summary and preliminary discussion on the work carried out by the Swedish Institute at ancient Kalaureia between 2015 and 2018 in Area L. The excavations were focused on this area with the hopes of gaining a better understanding of the settlement which was situated south of the Sanctuary of Poseidon in antiquity. The excavations show that a large building was constructed probably around the middle of the 4th century BC in the western part of Area L. The full outline and functional use of the building has not yet been fully established but the building seems to have been in use in several subsequent phases. The excavated remains further suggest that dining activities were carried out in the southern part of the building. A stone laid feature (Feature 3) excavated immediately to the east, together with charcoal deposits, also provide indications of cooking in the 3rd century BC at least. The feature was, however, covered by the 2nd century BC when a new wall was constructed which seems to connect the building with a broader structural complex to the south. During this period parts of Area L seem to have been used for olive oil production, identifiable through archaeobotanical remains, multiple pithoi, and a press installation excavated in the central part of Area L. In the Late Hellenistic to Early Roman phase (either in the 1st century BC or 1st century AD) much of the building complex was again covered by a new construction fill, raising the level of the building.
Research on ancient Greek rural settlement and agricultural economies often emphasises political agency as a driving force behind landscape change, with comparatively less attention directed to the potential effects of climate. This study analyses climate variability and the spatial configuration of land use in the north-eastern Peloponnese during the Late Hellenistic and Roman (c. 150 BC-AD 300) periods. A synthesis of archaeological field survey data combined with new palaeoclimatological data provides novel insight into how changing climate influenced land use. The authors argue that although climatic variability alone did not drive socio-economic change, drying conditions may have influenced the relocation of agricultural production.
The use of archaeological survey data for evaluation of landscape dynamics has commonly been concerned with the distribution of settlements and changes in number of recorded sites over time. Here we present a new quantitative approach to survey-based legacy data, which allows further assessments of the spatial configuration of possible land-use areas. Utilizing data from an intensive archaeological survey in the Berbati-Limnes area, Greece, we demonstrate how GIS-based kernel density estimations (KDE) can be used to produce cluster-based density surfaces that may be linked to past land-use strategies. By relating density surfaces to elevation and slope, it is also possible to quantify shifts in the use of specific environments on a regional scale, allowing us to model and visualize land-use dynamics over time. In this respect, the approach provides more multifaceted information to be drawn from archaeological legacy data, providing an extended platform for research on human-environment interactions.
The ancient city of Morgantina in Sicily was an important city during the Hellenistic age and probably member of a koinon (a union) under the leadership of Syracuse. Much research has been done on the city of Morgantina, but as far as I know, no study has had the aim to show what role Morgantina played in the Second Punic War. Therefore, this essay focuses on Morgantina during and after the Second Punic War (218–201 BCE). The main questions presented in this essay are what happened to the city after the war and what was the aftermath of the war? What happened to the people in the town and why were some houses abandoned and others not? To answer these questions archaeological evidence (numismatic material and buildings) as well as ancient historians’ narrations have been used (the historians used are Diodorus Siculus, Livy, Cicero and Strabo). The study argues that Morgantina might have been the last important free Greek town in Sicily (and possibly the very last) and that the city probably did not fight actively for either side, but might have provided Rome with grain and therefore taken Rome’s side.
Freedom from external control is one prerequisite for democracy. In the hellenistic period the Greek city-states are thought to have lost their independence due to the establishment of the hellenistic hegemonies, and thereby also lost their possibilities of democratic government and of pursuing a foreign policy of their own. This study shows that interstate relations among many of the Greek cities of coastal Asia Minor were active. Measures were taken to solve interstate conflicts and to strengthen ties of friendship among cities, but the cities did not refrain from claiming their rights vis-à-vis each other and even waging war; this would not have been possible during severe control. In the power struggle between the changing hegemons, the individual poleis had possibilities to manoeuvre fairly independently.
By systematizing and analyzing the frequency and contents of hellenistic decrees enacted by the council and demos of four East Greek city-states, the study shows that the latter were democratically ruled, and the issues decided on foremost concerned foreign relations. The empirical investigation concludes with an application of the criteria for democracy set up by Aristotle and the political scientist Robert Dahl, and all four city-states are shown to comply with most of the criteria. However, in the second half of the second century polis decrees gradually decrease, to cease altogether towards the end of the first century BC, and foreign matters also disappear from the agenda. A possible reason is the growing power of Rome and the establishment of the Roman province of Asia in 129 BC. Under a sole hegemon the poleis no longer had possibilities to set their own agenda.
Although quantitative isotope data from speleothems has been used to evaluate isotope-enabled model simulations, currently no consensus exists regarding the most appropriate methodology through which to achieve this. A number of modelling groups will be running isotope-enabled palaeoclimate simulations in the framework of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6, so it is timely to evaluate different approaches to using the speleothem data for data-model comparisons. Here, we illustrate this using 456 globally distributed speleothem delta O-18 records from an updated version of the Speleothem Isotopes Synthesis and Analysis (SISAL) database and palaeoclimate simulations generated using the ECHAM5-wiso isotope-enabled atmospheric circulation model. We show that the SISAL records reproduce the first-order spatial patterns of isotopic variability in the modern day, strongly supporting the application of this dataset for evaluating model-derived isotope variability into the past. However, the discontinuous nature of many speleothem records complicates the process of procuring large numbers of records if data-model comparisons are made using the traditional approach of comparing anomalies between a control period and a given palaeoclimate experiment. To circumvent this issue, we illustrate techniques through which the absolute isotope values during any time period could be used for model evaluation. Specifically, we show that speleothem isotope records allow an assessment of a model's ability to simulate spatial isotopic trends. Our analyses provide a protocol for using speleothem isotope data for model evaluation, including screening the observations to take into account the impact of speleothem mineralogy on delta O-18 values, the optimum period for the modern observational baseline and the selection of an appropriate time window for creating means of the isotope data for palaeo-time-slices.
Recent interest in modern climate change has stimulated extensive scientific study into past societal responses to climate variability. However, examining climate change and society as a historical narrative drawing upon politics, economics, and settlement patterns does not provide a direct link between climate and society. Given that most inhabitants of the premodern world engaged in agriculture and/or pastoralism, examining chronological correlations between climate and foodways, not as a historical narrative but as a longterm socioenvironmental process, has the potential to identify direct societal adaptations to a changing environment. From South Greece there is evidence for drier conditions at the end of the Late Bronze Age. Is the disappearance of writing, art, and many known settlements at the end of the Bronze Age an example of collapse in the face of inability to adapt to climate change? This is a difficult question to answer given the coarse resolution of many of our archaeological and climatic datasets. Settlement faunal records suggest that food production systems became increasingly homogenous in Late Bronze Age Greece, potentially due to an elite control over various production systems that promoted intensification of certain products. However, in the first millennium B.C.E., animal husbandry, specifically, and food production systems, more broadly, became more heterogenous, and a proportional increase in goats in areas with less rainfall was likely an adaptive response to the drier climate. This paper examines the adaptive relationship between foodways and climate and argues for a process driven approach when explaining social responses to ancient climate change.
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.
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.