The Bioarchaeology of Rituals

Project summary

This projects aims to investigate rituals across the ancient world through the study of bioarchaeological remains, mostly plants. Moving away from dichotomies, such as ritual versus profane, mundane or economic, the objective is to investigate rituals as ‘the materialisation of a form of group values, which result from a series of negotiations that bridge potentially conflicting interests and new realities’ (see Livarda and Madgwick 2018, p.1). Taking into account the context and the historicity of each assemblage new readings of past bioarchaeological remains are attempted. 

Under this research umbrella material from a series of projects are currently being investigated, including the funerary Bronze Age cave Cova des Pas in Minorca, Balearic Islands, Spain, and various sites in prehistoric Aegean. Other projects include the study of the biographies of date (Phoenix dactylifera) and pine (Pinus pinea) across the Roman world.

Publications

Livarda, A. and Kotzamani, G. An exploration of the social role of plants in rituals of prehistoric Aegean with reference to the site of Xeropolis, Lefkandi, Euboea. In Lemos, I. and Tsigarida, A. (eds.) Beyond the Polis: Ritual practices and the construction of social identity in Early Greece (12th-6th centuries B.C.). (accepted)

Livarda, A., Madgwick, R. and Riera Mora, S. (eds.) 2018. The Bioarchaeology of Ritual and Religion. Oxford: Oxbow.

Livarda, A., and Madgwick, R. 2018. Ritual and Religion: Bioarchaeological Perspectives. In Livarda, A., Madgwick, R. and Riera Mora, S. (eds.) The Bioarchaeology of Ritual and Religion, pp. 1–13. Oxford: Oxbow.

Kotzamani, G. and Livarda, A. 2017. Chapter 6. Archaeobotanical remains. In Smith, R.A.K., Dabney, M.K., Pappi, E., Triantaphyllou, S. and Wright, J.C. with contributions by Karkanas, P., Kotzamani, G., Livarda, A., MacKay, C., Ntinou, Roumpou, M., Stahl, A.M. and Tsartsidou, G. Ayia Sotira: A Mycenaean Chamber Tomb Cemetery in the Nemea Valley, Greece, pp. 139–145, Tables 39–49. Philadelphia: INSTAP Academic Press.

Smith, R.A.K., Dabney, M.K., Kotzamani, G., Livarda, A., Tsartsidou, G. and Wright, J.C. 2014. Plant Use in Mycenaean Mortuary Practice, pp. 265-269. In Touchais, G., Laffineur, R. and Rougemont, F. (eds.) PHYSIS L’Environnement Naturel et la Relation Home-Millieu dans le Monde Égéen Protohistorique. Aegaeum 37. Leuven, Liege: Peeters.

Livarda, A. 2013. Date, rituals and socio-cultural identity in the northwestern Roman provinces. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 32(1): 101-117.