Mediterranean Families in Antiquity

This comprehensive study of families in the Mediterranean world spans the Bronze Age through Late Antiquity, and looks at families and households in various ancient societies inhabiting the regions around the Mediterranean Sea in an attempt to break down artificial boundaries between academic disciplines.

List of Contributors vii Foreword and Acknowledgments xi Part I Introduction 1 1 A Mediterranean Family? A Comparative Approach to the Ancient World 3 Sabine R. Huebner Part II The Greek and Hellenistic World 27 2 Identifying Family Structures in Early Iron Age Crete 29 Leslie Preston Day 3 The Idea of Descent in Early Greek Kinship 44 Emily Varto 4 The Role of the Extended Family in Exacting Blood Revenge in Classical Athens 65 Fiona McHardy 5 Domestic Architecture in Ephesus from the Hellenistic Period to Late Antiquity 79 Helmut Schwaiger Part III The Roman World 93 6 Traces of the Unfamiliar: Epigraphic Evidence for Extended Families on the Margins in Roman Italy 95 Peter Keegan 7 Extended Families and Family Substitutes among Migrants in the Roman World 121 David Noy 8 Household Archaeology in Mediterranean Spain: Family Forms from Iberia to Hispania 137 Xurxo M. Ayán Vila 9 Egypt as Part of the Mediterranean? Domestic Space and Household Structures in Roman Egypt 154 Sabine R. Huebner 10 Towards an Archaeology of Household Relationships in Roman Egypt 174 Anna Lucille Boozer 11 Age Hierarchy and Social Networks among Urban Women in the Roman East 204 Mona Tokarek LaFosse 12 Family Forms and Conflicts in Roman North Africa 221 Kai Haase and Roland Steinacher Part IV Late Antiquity 241 13 Extended Family in the Experiences of Ausonius and Libanius 243 Geoffrey Nathan 14 Household and Family Dynamics in Late Antique Southern Gaul 258 Christian Laes and Ville Vuolanto Part V Outlook in Later Period of the Mediterranean 283 15 Missing Women in the Italian Middle Ages? Data and Interpretation 285 Irene Barbiera, Maria Castiglioni, and Gianpiero Dalla Zuanna 16 Family Forms in Later Periods of the Mediterranean 310 Matteo Manfredini Part VI Conclusion 325 17 Reassessing the Premodern Mediterranean Family 327 Geoffrey Nathan Index 338