ABSTRACT

This volume gathers brand new essays from some of the most respected scholars of ancient history, archaeology, and physical anthropology to create an engaging overview of the lives of women in antiquity. The book is divided into ten sections, nine focusing on a particular area, and also includes almost 200 images, maps, and charts. The sections cover Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, Cyprus, the Levant, the Aegean, Italy, and Western Europe, and include many lesser-known cultures such as the Celts, Iberia, Carthage, the Black Sea region, and Scandinavia. Women's experiences are explored, from ordinary daily life to religious ritual and practice, to motherhood, childbirth, sex, and building a career. Forensic evidence is also treated for the actual bodies of ancient women.

Women in Antiquity is edited by two experts in the field, and is an invaluable resource to students of the ancient world, gender studies, and women's roles throughout history.

part |170 pages

Mesopotamia

chapter |10 pages

Being mothers or acting (like) mothers?

Constructing motherhood in ancient Mesopotamia

chapter |24 pages

Women, gender and law at the dawn of history

The evidence of the cuneiform sources 1

chapter |13 pages

The female tavern-keeper in Mesopotamia

Some aspects of daily life *

chapter |19 pages

No reason to hide

Women in the Neo-Elamite and Persian Periods

part |92 pages

Cyprus

chapter |12 pages

Real Bones, Real Women, Real Lives

Bioarchaeology and osteobiographies of women in ancient Cyprus

chapter |19 pages

Women in the cities of Cyprus

Rulers and urban dwellers from the Late Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period

part |118 pages

The Levant and Carthage

chapter |12 pages

“Will womankind now be hunting?”

The work and economic lives of women at Late Bronze Age Ugarit

chapter |10 pages

Women in Philistia

The archaeological record of the Iron Age

chapter |12 pages

“Until I Come and Take You Away To A Land Like Your Own”

A gendered look at siege warfare and mass deportation

part |186 pages

The Aegean, Bronze Age and historical

chapter |12 pages

From the Caves of the Winds to Mycenae rich in gold

The faces of Minoan and Mycenaean women

chapter |22 pages

Minoan women

chapter |10 pages

I-je-re-ja, ka-ra-wi-po-ro, and Others . . .

Women in Mycenaean religion

chapter |12 pages

Beyond Penelope

Women and the role of textiles in Early Greece

chapter |13 pages

Women in Early Iron Age and Archaic Greece

A view from the grave

chapter |10 pages

Mothering in Ancient Athens

Class, identity, and experience

chapter |13 pages

Hellenistic Women and The Law

Agency, identity, and community

part |144 pages

Etruria and the Italian archipelago

chapter |20 pages

The Nuragic women

Facts and hypotheses

chapter |12 pages

Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa

An Etruscan aristocrat

chapter |14 pages

To give and to receive

The role of women in Etruscan sanctuaries

chapter |12 pages

Daunian women

Costume and actions commemorated in stone

part |82 pages

Rome

chapter |10 pages

Strained relations, gender differences, and domestic ideals

The significance of two Roman family festivals

chapter |17 pages

Roman women in the urban economy

Occupations, social connections, and gendered exclusions

chapter |10 pages

A demanding supply

Prostitutes in the Roman world

part |74 pages

At the edges

chapter |17 pages

Warrior women

The archaeology of Amazons

chapter |22 pages

Women in Iberian culture

Sixth–first centuries bce

chapter |19 pages

Viragos and virgins

Women in the Celtic world