Mothering in Antiquity is a groundbreaking examination that redefines how motherhood and mothering are studied in the ancient world, integrating archaeological, textual, and religious evidence through the lens of contemporary maternal theory.
Bringing together a group of leading international scholars, the volume explores how mothering was experienced, represented, and ritualized across diverse ancient societies—from the Near East through Greece and Rome to Byzantium. Moving beyond text-centred and androcentric perspectives, it combines interdisciplinary approaches from history, archaeology, religious studies, and gender theory. Contributors engage with key concepts from maternal theory to bridge the gap between symbolic representations of motherhood and the lived realities of mothers in antiquity.
Mothering in Antiquity is an extensive, cross-cultural exploration of motherhood in the ancient world, suitable for students and scholars in Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology, Religious Studies, and Gender Studies.
Mothering in Antiquity is a groundbreaking examination that redefines how motherhood and mothering are studied in the ancient world, integrating archaeological, textual, and religious evidence through the lens of contemporary maternal theory.
Introduction. Bridging Motherhood as Institution and Mothering as
Practice; Studying Mothers, Motherhood and Mothering in Antiquity through a
Matricentric Epistemological Framework: An Introduction - Florence Pasche
Guignard and Giulia Pedrucci; Part I. Mothers in Biological and Medical
Contexts;
1. Becoming a Mother in Mesopotamia: Biological and Social Aspects
- Laura Battini;
2. Breastfeeding, Co-breastfeeding, and Weaning in the Greek
and Roman Worlds. Literary Sources and Archaeological Evidence in Dialogue -
Giulia Pedrucci and Carlo Cocozza;
3. Birth Control and Abortion in the
Graeco-Roman World, 500 BCE750 CE - Laurence Totelin;
4. Afterbirth and
Genius: Beliefs and Symbolism among the Romans and Other Peoples - Attilio
Mastrocinque;
5. Contraception and Birth Control through Rabbinic Eyes:
Ancient Competing Models of Mothering - Avraham Yoskovich; Part II. Mothers
in Archaeology: Material Evidence and Practices;
6. The Bio-archaeology of
Mothers: Approaches to Motherhood and Kinship in European Prehistory -
Katharina Rebay-Salisbury;
7. Mothers in Bone and Stone in the Bronze Age
Aegean - Stephanie L. Budin;
8. Representing Motherhood in Archaic Cyprus -
Emma de Koning;
9. Motherhood and Infancy in Latium Vetus during the Iron Age
within Pre-Roman Italy - Francesca Fulminante;
10. Invisible Motherhood in
Italy before the Roman Conquest - Massimiliano di Fazio;
11. Etruscan
Mothers: An Archaeological Perspective - Elisabetta Govi and Chiara
Pizzirani;
12. ativu sacnia atur: Seeking the Evidence of Mothering in
Ancient Etruria - Jean MacIntosh Turfa;
13. Mediating Religious Narratives
through Small Protecting Items: Archaeological Data from Votive and Funerary
Contexts in Archaic Sicily - Gabriella Sciortino;
14. Being a Mother:
Experiencing Mothering and Motherhood in the Phoenician-Punic World -
Meritxell Ferrer Martín and Mireia López-Bertran;
15. Between Archaeological
and Figurative Evidence of Mothering in Ancient Gaul and Beyond - Fabienne
Dugast; Part III. Mothers in Texts: Norms, Myths, Ideals;
16. Mothers in
Ancient Near Eastern Wisdom Literature - Annunziata Rositani;
17. The Mother
in Mesopotamian Narratives - Lorenzo Verderame;
18. Motherhood in the Hebrew
Bible - Marco Pavan;
19. Medea, the Murderous Mother - Augusto Cosentino;
20.
Between Physical and Spiritual Dimensions: Motherhood in Ancient Christianity
and Its Implications - Roberta Franchi;
21. Emmelia, Her Relationship to Her
Many Children, and the Idealised Representations by Gregory of Nyssa and
Gregory of Nazianzen (4th c. CE) - Ilaria L. E. Ramelli;
22. Spiritual
Mothers and Real Mothers: Motherhood in Syriac Sources between Practice and
Idealization - Claudia Tavolieri;
23. Motherhood in Christian Apocryphal
Literature - Gabriella Aragione;
24. Writing Motherhood in Early Islam:
Religious and Literary Texts - Roberta Denaro;
25. Islamic Perspectives on
Mothers as Norm Transgressors in Early Islamic Sources - Darai Saddik and
Jaouad Agudal; Part IV. Mothers in Political and Legal Contexts;
26.
Preserving the Patrimony: Mothers as Agents of Their Sons Legal Interests in
Babylonia - John P. Nielsen;
27. Materna Potestas: Maternal Agency and
Marriage Decisions in Roman Times - Cristina Soraci;
28. Maxentius and
Eutropia: An Interdisciplinary Case Study on an Early 4th-Century Syrian
Christian Motherhood - Diego Serra and Pedro David Conesa Navarro;
29.
Senecas Mothers: Parenting Strategies, Power, Myth, and Representation at
the End of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty - Rosa M.ª Marina Sáez;
30. From
Goddess to God: The Shift in Religious Authority and Its Impact on Motherhood
in Pre-Islamic and Early Islamic Times - Nina Käsehage; Part V. Mothers in
Social and Religious Contexts;
31. Mothers and Motherhood in the Ancient Near
East from Cuneiform Adoptions - Daniel Justel Vicente;
32. Tracing Maternal
Filiations in Middle Kingdom Stelae: Reaching the Afterlife through
Motherhood in Ancient Egypt - Beatriz Noria-Serrano;
33. Motherhood and
Child-Rearing in Ancient Israel - Kristine Henriksen Garroway;
34. Nurses,
Weavers, and Myths: Mothering Individuals as Primary Religious Enculturators
in the Ancient Southern Levant - Jonathon Riley;
35. Motherhood and Mothering
in Ancient Greek Religion - Matthew Dillon;
36. Mothers, Mother-Figures, and
Child Care in Roman Egypt - April Pudsey and Ville Vuolanto;
37. Motherhood
and Mothering Experiences in the Byzantine World - Despoina Ariantzi
Giulia Pedrucci is a postdoctoral fellow at Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovakia). Her research explores the religious dimensions of motherhood and mothering Antiquity. She has published, among other works, three monograph, nine edited volumes, and an article in Numen outlining a new subfield between motherhood and religious studies.
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