‎Gideon Shelach-Lavi, Joseph Maran, Uri Davidovich‎
‎Rituals, Memory, and Societal Dynamics: Contributions to Social Archaeology A Collection of Essays in Memory of Sharon Zuckerman‎

‎, Brepols - Harvey Miller, 2025 Paperback, pages: xiii + 301 pages, Size:216 x 280 mm, Illustrations:42 b/w, 28 col., 26 tables b/w, Language:English, *New. ISBN 9782503612928.‎

Reference : 67385

‎Thanks largely to the introduction of new methods of recovery and analysis, archaeology is increasingly treated as a science. Yet, it should continue to ask questions that are founded in the humanities. This is especially true of social archaeology, which forms the core of this volume. Being based on the notion that ?the social? permeates all areas of life, the chapters gathered here give priority to archaeological data and contexts, which in turn form the prerequisite for analyzing how, at particular times and places, people negotiated or reaffirmed the society around them. Case studies from the Levant and the Eastern Mediterranean sit alongside selected comparative cases from other parts of the world and assess issues such as the development of cultural characteristics of societies, societal continuity and collapse, religious beliefs and rituals, and the role of social memory, as well as interactions within and between societies. The volume is dedicated to the memory of our colleague and friend, Dr Sharon Zuckerman, who embraced the quest for ?the social? throughout her career. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations 1. Introduction Gideon Shelach-Lavi, Joseph Maran & Uri Davidovich I. Collapse and Social Memory 2. The Good Old Days? Collapse and the Forgetting of the Mycenaean Palatial Past Guy D. Middleton 3. Was There an Extraordinary Crisis in Thirteeenth- and Twelfth-Century BCE Southern Levant? Igor Kreimerman 4. The Mycenae Megaron Ruin as a Possible Focus of Social Memory Joseph Maran 5. ?Remnants of the City?s Distant and Glorious Past?: Conspicuous Production of Basalt Objects at Bronze Age Hazor Jennie Ebeling II. Resilience, Transformation, and Social Dynamics 6. Dealing with Disaster(s)? Minoan Resilience in the Wake of the Santorini Eruption Jan Driessen & Quentin Letesson 7. Innovation and Tradition in Livestock Culling: A Comparative Study of North Chinese and South Levantine Sites Yitzchak Jaffe & Nimrod Marom 8. Crisis and Transformation: Late Bronze Age Hazor and its Hinterland as a Test Case Shlomit Bechar & Ido Wachtel 9. Defining Identities in Middle and Late Bronze Age Canaan: Attempting a Non-essentialist Approach Aren M. Maeir & Gunnar Lehmann 10. Characterizing the Chalcoferric Period in the Southern Levant (c. 1100?900 BCE) Assaf Yasur-Landau III. Social Aspects of Ritual and Religious Practices 11. Uncovering Household Rituals: Analysing Underfloor Caching of Artefacts at Early Sedentary Villages in North China Gideon Shelach-Lavi and Ofer Marder 12. Rethinking Social Relations During the Dawenkou Period Anne P. Underhill 13. Concepts of and Approaches to Bronze Age ?Religion? in the Southern Levant Matthew Susnow 14. How Should We Read Ancient Mesopotamian Ritual Texts? Uri Gabbay IV. Possibilities and Limits of Archaeological Research 15. Archaeology, a Socio-critical Historical Science ? An Essay Marlies Heinz‎