Innholdsfortegnelse for AH 37 i Ancient History Magazine

As a dog owner (and of an older dog at that), this issue is one that is close to my heart. I’ve always loved animals and wanted to know how ancient people viewed their furry companions. There is this popular idea that in bygone days, animals, especially in the ancient world, were predominantly used for work, agriculture, religious rituals, and public spectacles. There is a perception that people didn’t care about animals in the ways we do now. While there weren’t ‘animal rights’ in ancient times, there is certainly evidence that animals were not only revered, but much loved by their owners. Ancient people did indeed keep pets. In this issue, we will explore the relationship between ancient peoples and animals and see that they weren’t so dissimilar to us…

CELEBRATING MILITARY VICTORY The most famous celebration of victory was the Roman triumph, where the victor celebrated his accomplishments in Rome and was regarded as the equal of the god Jupiter for the day wearing a crown of laurel and a gold-decorated, purple toga (the toga picta). He rode in a four-horse chariot starting in the Campus Martius (where Roman armies were traditionally mustered) and travelled slowly to dedicate his victory at the temple of Jupiter on the Capi-toline Hill. Spoils and prisoners were paraded, as was the victorious army and the senate. The entire city of Rome turned out to celebrate the victor, the vir triumphalis or triumphator. Triumphs were awarded to victorious generals in the Republic and could only be granted by a vote of the senate. The…

WHAT BRINGS US TOGETHER, WHAT SETS US APART The sheer range of topics that can be discussed refracted through the mirror of human/animal relationships in the past is enormous, encompassing in prehistory canonical issues such as the nature of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, the exploitation of natural resources, the origins of farming, and the domestication of animals. Animal images came to feature as signs and symbols in religious or ritual systems. As complex societies developed issues around status and diet, religious practice, foodways, and food taboos became interwoven, and before human slavery certain animal species became widely exploited as working creatures. Animals as status symbols The keeping of certain types of animals as pets and status symbols must have begun at an early date. Considering the history of collecting, observing, cataloguing,…

MAN’S UNLIKELY BEST FRIEND Writers in the first centuries AD were fascinated by animal anecdotes. Their texts reveal that a vast body of tales about remarkable animal behaviour was in circulation. Some of these are found in zoological treatises or texts that are now branded ‘paradoxography’, literature dedicated to incredible natural phenomena and bizarre animal behaviour. The same kinds of stories are, however, also (re)told in many other literary genres. For example, no philosopher or orator worth their salt would forget to cite precedents from the natural world in support of their particular position. The third-century philosopher Porphyry offers remarkable evidence for the intimate familiarity with animal stories among the Greco-Roman elite. During an elaborate argument that animals possess reason, he (in all seriousness) lists examples of their ability to…

CANINE TOMBSTONES AND EPITAPHS FROM THE ROMAN WORLD Historical references suggest that funerary monuments were being dedicated to dogs in Classical Greece, but the practice became more common in the Hellenistic period, and it continued to grow in popularity into the Roman period. Just like tombstones dedicated to humans, these memorials would have been placed in public contexts, in cemeteries and along roadsides, where passers-by would be invited to read the inscriptions and share in the act of mourning. The surviving examples range from the simple – a relief of the dog, often alongside an inscription giving its name – to the extensive, celebrating the best characteristics of the animal in question and documenting some of its habits when alive. Their form would rely on the preferences – likely and…

LINKING SCIENCE AND RELIGION IN ANCIENT EGYPT The problem is that scholars of the last century, many of them former scientists, have often viewed ancient science through our own lens, failing to consider this unity of science and religion. Herodotus once called the Egyptians “religious to excess”. Herodotus was not one to shy away from hyperbole, of course, but it is certainly wrong to try to disentangle the rich religious beliefs of the Egyptians from what we would call their ‘science’. Scholars have regularly criticized things such as calendars as flawed or inaccurate, when what may seem like a scientific flaw often had a very important (and deliberate) religious purpose. There was genius there. Here we will explore the ways in which the Egyptians gazed at the stars and wondered,…

READINGS: ANIMAL FRIENDS ANIMALS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD FROM A TO Z By Kenneth F. Kitchell Jr. London: Routledge, 2014 ISBN: 978-1138243125 Animals were integral to ancient commerce, war, love, literature, and art. Inside the city they were found as pets, pests, and parasites. Animals were herded and bred for profit and wild animals were hunted for pleasure and gain. Magicians, physicians, and lovers turned to animals and their parts for their crafts. Kitchell offers insight into this fascinating, if often overlooked, world from familiar to more exotic animals. THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF ANIMALS IN CLASSICAL THOUGHT AND LIFE By Gordon Lindsay Campbell Oxford: OUP, 2013 ISBN: 978-0199589425 The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life is the first comprehensive guide to animals in the ancient world, encompassing…

Discoveries at possible site of a Roman mausoleum Archaeologists working on the High Speed 2 (HS2) railway project in England have uncovered a set of rare Roman statue busts, which may have been part of an impressive mausoleum. In the final stages of the excavation at the site of the old St Mary’s Norman church in Stoke Mandeville, archaeologists were excavating a circular ditch around what was thought to be the foundations of an Anglo-Saxon tower. Digging deeper, they uncovered three stone busts. They are stylistically Roman. Two of them consist of a head and torso, which had been split apart before being buried, and the other was just the head. The two complete statues appear to be one female adult and one male adult, with an additional head of…

SURVIVING THE ATHENIAN COURTS & ASSEMBLY It may be surprising to note that in this direct or radical democracy, the audience were sometimes reluctant participants. The fifth-century BC comic writer, Aristophanes, describes a peasant farmer named Dicaeo-polis, impatiently waiting at the Pnyx for the Assembly to open. He is disappointed: “The Assembly’s scheduled for a regular dawn meeting, and here’s an empty Pnyx: everybody’s gossiping in the [agora] as up and down they dodge the [reddened] rope”. These ochre-stained ropes were used by a ‘police force’ of Scythian archers to encourage attendance, by herding stragglers from the marketplace to the Pnyx. Anyone observed with red stains on their clothing could be fined. What was Dicaeopolis planning to do at the Assembly? “Well, here I am, and darn well ready to…

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT CAT Before the cute, fluffy or grumpy companions (or internet sensations) that we know today, cats started out as principally a practical helper to early settlers. When ancient humans began stocking grains and keeping food for themselves, mice and other vermin began to show up – and with them came cats. Cats helped the ancients control vermin. This process likely began around 9,000 years ago in the Middle East, and over time cats became domesticated, or allowed themselves to become so. A study published in 2017, in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, suggests a possible domestication of around 7500 BC, based on the discovery of a cat buried alongside a human skeleton in Cyprus. At a later stage, a different species of cat…

FOILED BY A GAGGLE OF FEATHERED FRIENDS In mid-July 390 BC (the traditional date, more likely to have been 387), the Gallic invasion of Italy by the Senones led by Brennus had defeated the Romans easily at the Battle of Allia (Livy 5.37.7–38.10, Diodorus 14.114.1–7). The de-feated Romans fled to Veii, and only a few went back to Rome, where there was consternation. Many fled to neighbouring cities and only a few barricaded themselves on the Capitoline Hill (the remaining men of military age and the able-bodied senators with their wives and children, according to Livy 5.39.9). There they gathered all the wealth of the city (according to Diodorus). Allia was only 16 km from Rome and the Gauls marched on the city of Rome – on the same day…

GOING VEGETARIAN IN ANTIQUITY Today, we have access to almost every ingredient we desire. This is a great privilege that we mostly take for granted – though we acquired this accessibility fairly recently. In antiquity (and most of history), people ate ingredients that were in season, consumed foods from their own region, and bought products that their income allowed. Ingredients such as meat and fish were luxury goods. Ordinary people, therefore, had a predominantly vegetarian diet. This was not by choice or out of a sense of idealism, but out of necessity. Meat and fish were among the most expensive ingredients one could buy and were not everyday foods for everyone. While there was indeed conscious thought about whether or not to eat animals and animal products such as cheese,…

THE DIVERSE DUTIES OF CHINESE PEACE BRIDES The advent of peace brides and the marriage alliance followed quickly on the heels of China forging itself into an empire. The Chinese states had been at war for centuries during the Warring States period, until one, Qin, prevailed. After consolidating power, the Qin emperor embraced expansion and looked north to the Ordos Plateau, an oasis of rivers and arable land in an otherwise brutal and barren terrain to the northwest of Chinese lands. There lived the Xiongnu Empire, a confederation of nomadic pastoralist tribes who, despite being famed as mounted archers, could not repel the 215 BC Qin invasion and occupation, which drove them out. The Chinese colonization soon faltered. At the emperor’s death in 210 BC, the dynasty erupted into rebellion,…

The dolphin (Sean McGrath) • Franco, Cristiana. “Greek and Latin Words for Human-Animal Bonds: Metaphors and Taboos.” In Interactions between animals and humans in Graeco-Roman antiquity, edited by Thorsten Fögen and Thomas Edmund, 39-60. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017. • Smith, Steven. Man and Animal in Severan Rome: The Literary Imagination of Claudius Aelianus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. • Williams, Craig. “When a Dolphin Loves a Boy: Some Greco-Roman and Native American Love Stories.” Classical Antiquity 32, no. 1 (April 2013): 200-242. Fluffy, grumpy companions (Sean Mowbray) • Engels, Donald W. Classical Cats: The rise and fall of the ancient cat. London: Routledge, 2001. • Malek, Jaromir. The Cat in Ancient Egypt. London: British Museum Press, 1997. • Ottoni, Claudio, et al. “The Palaeogenetics of Cat Dispersal in the Ancient…

THE DARK SIDE OF PAPYROLOGY In my previous article, I outlined the wealth of information offered by ancient papyri. I concluded by saying that papyrology had a dirty secret: it is easy to produce an unrecognizable fake. Some forgers do their work to make money; others have ideological goals. The buyers may be tourists but also scholars hoping to make a name for themselves with a spectacular discovery. A notorious example is the “Gospel of the Wife of Jesus”, which was immediately recognized as fake. Between 2018 and 2019, dozens of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls (fortunately not the main ones) were recognized as forgeries. The large number of fakes is simple to explain. It is easy to manufacture something that is so deceptively real that it cannot be…

The Athenians probably had a justifiable reputation for being litigious. Democracy was exercised through the law courts where state officials and others could be held to account for their term in political office. These were jury courts (dikasteria), where jurors (dikastai) acted as judges. For this reason, speakers constantly appealed to the jurors, for they gave the final verdict, normally through a secret ballot. Law courts might convene between 150 and 200 days of the year. Citizens would volunteer to participate, receiving three obols – half the daily wage of a skilled craftsman. The elderly were reputed as being particularly attracted to this activity. The punishment for a guilty verdict would also be decided by the jury – that is, if the penalty was not already fixed. Anyone willing could…

HUNTERS, GUARDS, AND PETS Rather than having specific breed names, the ancient Egyptians primarily employed two words for domesticated canines: iuiu for ‘barking dog’ and tjezem for ‘barkless dog’. The term iuiu, which would have been pronounced like ‘yew-yew’, is onomatopoetic for the repetitive noises most dogs make. Tjezem is more commonly attested at least through the early Middle Kingdom. The features and potential modern identity of this canine remain a topic of debate in Egyptology, despite reasonably clear evidence of the dog’s nature and modern descendants. From ca. 4000 BC to 1600 BC, the most popular domesticated dog in Egypt and Lower Nubia was a prick-eared, curly-tailed animal with a deep chest, narrow waist, and relatively long limbs (resulting in a rather square overall shape). Tjezem: The barkless hound…

THE STEEDS OF GODS AND HEROES The noted Athenian commander and historian Xenophon wrote a treatise on the selection, care, and training of horses. In it he remarks, “The majesty of men themselves is best discovered in the graceful handling of such animals” (On Horsemanship 11.7). He continues, “A prancing horse is indeed a thing of beauty, a wonder and a marvel, riveting the gaze of all who see him, young alike and greybeards” (On Horsemanship 11.8). A well-trained steed might enable the commander of a cavalry squadron to win a victory. Yet a rider far from the battlefield could benefit too: By training him to adopt the very airs and graces which he naturally assumes when showing off to best advantage, you have got what you are aiming at…

Sometimes a thing is not what it seems at the table of Rome’s wealthiest. This beautiful vegetable dish is filled with minced brains. I made a vegetarian version of this recipe from the cookbook of Apicius and stuffed the gourd with chopped mushrooms. Alternatively, you could replace the mushrooms with 400 grams of minced pork meat and follow the recipe below. INGREDIENTS » 1 small gourd » 600 g chopped mushrooms » 2 eggs » 1 handful breadcrumbs » 3 tsp pepper » 1 tbsp dried lovage » 1 tbsp oregano » 1.5 tbsp fish sauce or 1.5 tsp soy sauce Sauce » 250 ml white wine » 100 ml sweet wine » 3 tbsp olive oil » 3 tsp pepper » 1.5 tbsp dried lovage » 1.5 tbsp fish…

TWELVE CAESARS: Images of power from the ancient world to the modern By Mary Beard ISBN: 978-0691222363 Princeton University Press (2021) – $35.00 www.press.princeton.edu The Caesars of Rome continue to beguile us. What is perplexing is why the first twelve – all deeply flawed and several unpleasant men even when alive – are the ones who hold a particular fascination today. Each man’s character, achievements, and abundant foibles are vividly recounted by Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars, which gives them a familiarity we do not have with other later emperors. Though focused on this ‘dirty dozen’, Mary Beard’s latest book is neither a new translation of Suetonius nor a commentary. Rather, Beard explains how images of these autocrats have influenced art, culture, and the representation of power over the last…