Economics of Religion in the Mycenaean World

Economics of Religion in the Mycenaean World
Author: Lisa Maria Bendall
Publisher: Oxford University School of Ar
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2007
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

The Mycenaean Linear B tablets include numerous references to religion, such as details of offerings, banqueting foodstuffs or land-tenure relating to cult personnel. While contributing significantly to our understanding of early Greek religion, the documents are exclusively economic and administrative records and the limitations of such sources have long been recognised. Few attempts have been made, however, to analyse the purely economic information about religion we do have in Linear B. Such analysis is essential to understanding the place of religion in Mycenaean palace society. This book asks a simple but important question: What proportion of the resources available to the palaces was directed towards support for religion? Price approx.

Ancient Taxation

Ancient Taxation
Author: Jonathan Valk
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2021-08-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1479806196

"The studies collected in Ancient Taxation explore the extractive systems of eleven ancient states and societies from across the ancient world, ranging from Bronze Age China to Anglo-Saxon Britain. Together, the contributors explore the challenges of taxation in predominantly agro-pastoral societies, including basic tax strategy (taxing goods vs. labor, in kind vs. money taxes, direct vs. indirect, internal vs. external, etc.), assessment and collection (particularly over wide geographic areas or at large scale, e.g., by tax farming), compliance, and negotiating the cooperation of social, economic, and political elites or other critical social groups. By assembling such a broad range of studies, the book sheds new light on the commonalities and differences between ancient taxation systems, highlighting how studying taxes can shed light on the fiscal and institutional practices of antiquity. It also provides new impetus for comparative research, both between ancient societies and between ancient and modern extractive practices. This book will be of interest to those studying ancient history, economic history, the history of taxation, or comparative politics and economics"--

Trade and Civilisation

Trade and Civilisation
Author: Kristian Kristiansen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 567
Release: 2018-07-05
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1108425410

Provides the first global analysis of the relationship between trade and civilisation from the beginning of civilisation until the modern era.

The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean

The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean
Author: Eric H. Cline
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 968
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 019024075X

The Greek Bronze Age, roughly 3000 to 1000 BCE, witnessed the flourishing of the Minoan and Mycenean civilizations, the earliest expansion of trade in the Aegean and wider Mediterranean Sea, the development of artistic techniques in a variety of media, and the evolution of early Greek religious practices and mythology. The period also witnessed a violent conflict in Asia Minor between warring peoples in the region, a conflict commonly believed to be the historical basis for Homer's Trojan War. The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean provides a detailed survey of these fascinating aspects of the period, and many others, in sixty-six newly commissioned articles. Divided into four sections, the handbook begins with Background and Definitions, which contains articles establishing the discipline in its historical, geographical, and chronological settings and in its relation to other disciplines. The second section, Chronology and Geography, contains articles examining the Bronze Age Aegean by chronological period (Early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age). Each of the periods are further subdivided geographically, so that individual articles are concerned with Mainland Greece during the Early Bronze Age, Crete during the Early Bronze Age, the Cycladic Islands during the Early Bronze Age, and the same for the Middle Bronze Age, followed by the Late Bronze Age. The third section, Thematic and Specific Topics, includes articles examining thematic topics that cannot be done justice in a strictly chronological/geographical treatment, including religion, state and society, trade, warfare, pottery, writing, and burial customs, as well as specific events, such as the eruption of Santorini and the Trojan War. The fourth section, Specific Sites and Areas, contains articles examining the most important regions and sites in the Bronze Age Aegean, including Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, Knossos, Kommos, Rhodes, the northern Aegean, and the Uluburun shipwreck, as well as adjacent areas such as the Levant, Egypt, and the western Mediterranean. Containing new work by an international team of experts, The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean represents the most comprehensive, authoritative, and up-to-date single-volume survey of the field. It will be indispensable for scholars and advanced students alike.

Bones of Complexity

Bones of Complexity
Author: Haagen D. Klaus
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 511
Release: 2017-04-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0813052599

"Provides data and information that can be used for comparative analysis and as a foundation for further exploration. Inviting research from various geographic, cultural, and temporal locales from around the globe, the editors present a complex snapshot of the past."--Anne L. Grauer, editor of A Companion to Paleopathology "This cohesive collection of empirically based studies integrates biological and archaeological data in order to investigate social behavior and its linkages with human health. Relevant to anyone interested in the intersections of culture, health, and biology."--Jaime M. Ullinger, codirector, Quinnipiac University Bioanthropology Research Institute Drawing upon wide-ranging studies of prehistoric human remains from Europe, northern Africa, Asia, and the Americas, this groundbreaking volume unites physical anthropologists, archaeologists, and economists to explore how social structure can be reflected in the human skeleton. Contributors identify many ways in which social, political, and economic inequality have affected health, disease, metabolic insufficiency, growth, and diet. The volume makes a strong case for a broader integration of bioarchaeology with mortuary archaeology as its distinctive approaches offer new ways to look at power, resources, social organization, and the shape of human lives over time and across cultures. A volume in the series Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past: Local, Regional, and Global Perspectives, edited by Clark Spencer Larsen

Maritime Networks in the Mycenaean World

Maritime Networks in the Mycenaean World
Author: Thomas F. Tartaron
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2013-05-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1107067138

In this book, Thomas F. Tartaron presents a new and original reassessment of the maritime world of the Mycenaean Greeks of the Late Bronze Age. By all accounts a seafaring people, they enjoyed maritime connections with peoples as distant as Egypt and Sicily. These long-distance relations have been celebrated and much studied; by contrast, the vibrant worlds of local maritime interaction and exploitation of the sea have been virtually ignored. Dr Tartaron argues that local maritime networks, in the form of 'coastscapes' and 'small worlds', are far more representative of the true fabric of Mycenaean life. He offers a complete template of conceptual and methodological tools for recovering small worlds and the communities that inhabited them. Combining archaeological, geoarchaeological and anthropological approaches with ancient texts and network theory, he demonstrates the application of this scheme in several case studies. This book presents new perspectives and challenges for all archaeologists with interests in maritime connectivity.

Oil, Wine, and the Cultural Economy of Ancient Greece

Oil, Wine, and the Cultural Economy of Ancient Greece
Author: Catherine E. Pratt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2021-03-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1108875793

In this book, Catherine E. Pratt explores how oil and wine became increasingly entangled in Greek culture, from the Late Bronze Age to the Archaic period. Using ceramic, architectural, and archaeobotanical data, she argues that Bronze Age exchange practices initiated a strong network of dependency between oil and wine production, and the people who produced, exchanged, and used them. After the palatial collapse, these prehistoric connections intensified during the Iron Age and evolved into the large-scale industries of the Classical period. Pratt argues that oil and wine in pre-Classical Greece should be considered 'cultural commodities', products that become indispensable for proper social and economic exchanges well beyond economic advantage. Offering a detailed diachronic account of the changing roles of surplus oil and wine in the economies of pre-classical Greek societies, her book contributes to a broader understanding of the complex interconnections between agriculture, commerce, and culture in the ancient Mediterranean.

The Cattle of the Sun

The Cattle of the Sun
Author: Jeremy McInerney
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2010-05-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0691140073

Includes selections translated from the Ancient Greek.