Anna Anguissola

Gianluca Miniaci

Alessandro Buono

Uses case studies to examine the social context and cultural and political management of appropriating abandoned objects and assets. Forsaken Relics is the result of an interdisciplinary dialogue between history, archaeology, and ethnography on the topic of the appropriation of disputed goods and places. Scholars with diverse backgrounds convened to address this common challenge: how different societies in time and space managed to claim and re-appropriate alleged abandoned or ownerless goods or things in ruin. The volume includes a diverse range of case studies  from Neolithic sites in Eastern Europe to ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean, encompassing early modern and present-day Europe  reflecting on the ways in which actions can be used to legitimise appropriation, with a particular focus on ritual actions and practices. The objective of this book is to stimulate comparative analysis of this topic in both ancient and modern societies, by identifying the actors of appropriation, examining the definition of abandonment, and exploring the ritual aspects intrinsic in actions such as inventorying, dedication and communication to ancestors, and prayers to gods. Ritual actions, in the last instance, were designed to legitimise the reappropriation and resignification of places and goods classified as abandoned or in a state of ruin, and to recreate locality, kinship, and communities.

Practices and Rituals of Appropriating Abandoned Artifacts from Antiquity to Modern Times

Forsaken Relics

Presents theoretical and comparative approaches to the consideration of evidence for deliberate fragmentation and damaging of figurines across a range of societies and periods.

Damage and Mutilation of Ancient Figurines

Breaking Images

Massimo Bergamasco

Maria C. Betrò

Paolo Del Vesco

The Tomb of Huy (TT 14) : Preliminary Results

Seven Seasons at Dra Abu El-Naga

Stephen Quirke

Juan Carlos Moreno Garcìa

Andréas Stauder

This book provides an innovative analysis of the conditions of ancient Egyptian craftsmanship in the light of the archaeology of production, linguistic analysis, visual representation and ethnographic research. During the past decades, the "imaginative" figure of ancient Egyptian material producers has moved from "workers" to "artisans" and, most recently, to "artists." In a search for a fuller understanding of the pragmatics of material production in past societies, and moving away from a series of modern preconceptions, this volume aims to analyze the mechanisms of material production in Egypt during the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1550 BC); to approach the profile of ancient Egyptian craftsmen through their own words, images, and artifacts; and to trace possible modes of circulation of ideas among craftsmen in material production.

Voices, Images, and Objects of Material Producers 2000-1550 BC

The Arts of Making in Ancient Egypt

In 1895–96, William Matthew Flinders Petrie and James Edward Quibell discovered a shaft-tomb below the ‘Ramesseum’, the funerary temple of Ramses II at Thebes, Egypt. This is most famous for having the largest group of Middle Kingdom papyri – also known as the Ramesseum Papyri – found in a single spot together with a number of distinctive objects, such as carved ivory tusks and miniature figurines in various materials dated around XVIII century BC. Gianluca Miniaci attempts to thoroughly reconstruct the archaeological context of the tomb: the exact find spot (forgotten afterwards its discovery), its architecture, the identity of its owner(s) and recipient(s) of the assemblage of artifacts. A detailed analysis of the single artifacts – provided for the first with full color photographic records and drawings – and their network of relations gives new life to the Ramesseum assemblage after more than a century from its discovery.

The Middle Kingdom Ramesseum Papyri Tomb and its Archaeological Context

Gianluca Miniaci

Books

Your next favorite book is out there