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.
The castration of most male animals seems to have been the rule in ancient Greece when rearing cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs; only very few adult males are needed for breeding purposes and flocks of bulls, rams, billy-goats and boars are difficult to keep, since they are too aggressive. Castrated males yield more and fattier meat, and, in the case of sheep, more wool. Still, sacred laws and sacrificial calendars stipulate the sacrifice of uncastrated victims, and vase-paintings frequently represent bulls, rams and billy-goats in ritual contexts. This paper will discuss the role of uncastrated male animals in Greek cult in the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods, both from a religious and an agricultural perspective. Of particular interest are the relations between the practical, economic reality and the theological perception of sacrifice. These issues will be explored using epigraphical, literary, iconographical and zooarchaeological evidence.
"The possibility of visiting the realms of the dead and yet returning alive is an idea that has fascinated people throughout time and across cultures. The European tradition goes back to Greek and Roman antiquity, represented by such famous round trips to Hades as those undertaken by Odysseus and Aeneas, but it is clear that the Graeco-Roman tradition had older Mesopotamian antecedents."--
In Homer, the practice of giving the gods cooked meat is evidenced by Eumaios’ sacrifice in Odyssey XIV, while at this and other sacrifices pieces of raw meat from the animal victim were placed on top of the thighbones, which were then burnt in the altar fire as a part of the god’s portion, a procedure labelled omothetein. In the Classical period, gifts of meat for the gods are well attested in the epigraphical evidence, in the form of trapezomata or theoxenia, but also in literary sources and iconography. This paper will discuss when the practice of meat offerings came into being and how it develops, what the gods may have been thought of actually receiving on these occasions and why meat was given. It will be argued that the gifts of meat for the gods may have arisen from the honouring of kings and exceptional individuals with choice portions of meat, and that their growing importance in cult can be linked to the significance of banquets in Archaic society as a means for expressing status and hierarchies, perhaps under the influence of Near Eastern ritual practices. The gods were never perceived as craving or eating the meat and the central concept of meat offerings was the bestowing of honour, time. Still, by offering the gods something, which both could and was consumed by man, the meat offerings may have created possibilities for a different and closer interaction between mortals and immortals, in particular by evoking a context of xenia.
Greek altars have received ample attention in scholarship as to their appearance, construction, and location within a sanctuary, as well as their importance as the central feature for the rituals allowing communication with the gods. The immediate surroundings of altars have not been considered to the same degree. This paper explores the context of Greek altars and some of the features located here, for example, rings for fastening animals, stone-lined pits, and remains of previous sacrifices. Of particular interest is the use of the top of the altar for ritual purposes in relation to the space surrounding the altar. A study of the wider contexts of altars, as to their use and the material remains found here, may provide a better understanding of the complex ritual reality of the ancient Greeks.
Round Trip to Hades in the Eastern Mediterranean Tradition explores how the theme of visiting the Underworld and returning alive has been treated, transmitted and transformed in the ancient Greek and Byzantine traditions. The journey was usually a descent (katabasis) into a dark and dull place, where forgetfulness and punishment reigned, but since ‘everyone’ as there, it was also a place that offered opportunities to meet people and socialize. Famous Classical round trips to Hades include those undertaken by Odysseus and Aeneas, but this pagan topic also caught the interest of Christian writers. The contributions of the present volume allow the reader to follow the passage from pagan to Christian representations of Hades–a passage that may seem surprisingly effortless.
"Jean-Pierre Vernant (1914-2007), philosophe et helléniste d'exception, a révolutionné la compréhension de la Grèce antique et la réflexion sur la place des cultures anciennes dans le monde contemporain. Plus de dix ans après sa disparition, le moment est venu de porter un regard distancié sur le parcours d'un homme qui a toujours entrelacé sa vie de chercheur et sa vie de citoyen. Car Vernant s'est nourri en permanence des débats de son époque pour faire de l'étude des anciens Grecs une force intellectuelle libératrice. Mais avec le temps, l'écart se creuse avec les conditions originelles de la création de son oeuvre. Le risque existe que la diversité de cette pensée ne soit réduite aux approximations d'une vulgate appauvrie. Les auteurs sollicités pour ce volume représentent des pays, des disciplines et des courants de pensée divers, de la science politique à l'archéologie, de la philologie à l'histoire de l'art ou l'histoire des religions. Ils mènent une réflexion qui entrecroise les considérations sur l'action de Vernant citoyen, l'analyse approfondie de son oeuvre et la mise en perspective de la réception de cette oeuvre dans différents pays et institutions. En se focalisant sur l'étude du religieux, sur le politique et la question de la cité, enfin sur le rayonnement international de Vernant, ils reconsidèrent une pensée multiforme, la replacent dans son contexte et montrent par quelles voies elle a exercé son influence, bref ressaisissent ce qui en fit l'originalité, la puissance; et le rayonnement."--Page 4 of cover.
Animal bones comprise the only category of evidence for Greek cult which is constantly significantly increasing. The use of ever more sophisticated excavation methods demonstrates the importance of the zooarchaeological material for the study of Greek religion and how such material can throw light on texts, inscriptions and images, as the animal bones constitute remains of actual ritual actions and not mere descriptions or representations. This paper outlines some areas where the zooarchaeological evidence may be of particular pertinence, for example, in elucidating the complex and idiosyncratic religious terminology of shares of sacrificial victims mentioned in sacred laws and sacrificial calendars, or in providing a context for a better understanding of the representations of animal parts on Attic vases. The role of meat within ancient Greek society, the choice of sacrificial victims and the handling of “non-sacrificable” animals such as game, dogs and equids within Greek cult can also be clarified by comparisons with the animal remains.
The denomination "school" in academic contexts carries with it a certain ambiguity. It can evoke a stimulating and innovative environment with a positive synergy between its members, but also a self-sufficient and almost complacent academic setting mainly concerned with preserving its own worldview. From this starting point, my contribution will reflect on the impact of the Ecole de Paris within the field of Anglophone research on Greek religion and especially on animal sacrifice. Focus lies on how has the concept of a "Paris school" been handled within the study of Greek religion and what position it occupies among scholars working in this field. Four overlapping positions can be distinguished: (1) naming and using the Paris school as a theoretical approach, (2) critiques, which is also a form of interaction, (3) naming and referring in passing without an in depth engagement, and (4) studies on Greek sacrifice which do not use the term or comment on the Paris school.
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.