Identities in Antiquity

Identities in Antiquity is a multi-disciplinary platform for the synthetic study of ancient identities, set in a more rounded and inclusive notion of antiquity. The volume showcases methodological and theoretical approaches to the study of ancient identities by scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds and career stages. In doing so, it promotes a more holistic approach to the study of ancient identities, facilitating comparisons between different periods and disciplines and generating new knowledge in the process. Chapters illustrating the intersecting, multifaceted, and mutable (or else highly immutable) nature of ancient identities address themes such as ethnicity, race, gender, mobility, religion, and elite and sub-elite identities - most notably that of the enslaved - in case studies spanning the ancient Mediterranean world and beyond, from the third millennium BCE until the early Middle Ages. The volume is suitable for students and scholars working on the Ancient Near East, the Graeco-Roman Worlds, Late Antiquity, and Byzantium, offering a valuable contribution to the study of past identities and the internal workings of ancient societies.

Joseph Skinner is Senior Lecturer in Ancient Greek History at Newcastle University. His publications include The Invention of Greek Ethnography: From Homer to Herodotus (New York, 2012), and (as co-editor) Ancient Ethnography: New Approaches (London, 2013) and Herodotus and the Long Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, 2020). Vicky Manolopoulou is Research Fellow in Environmental History at Ca'Foscari University, Venice. Her work centres on the intersection of landscape studies, environmental humanities, and the history of emotions, focusing on the Eastern Mediterranean during the first millennium. Key research interests include human environment interactions, emotions, ritual, and mnemonic landscapes. Christina Tsouparopoulou is Assistant Professor in Near Eastern Archaeology and History at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, Honorary Research Fellow at Durham University and Editor of Near Eastern Archaeology. Her work bridges the material, visual, and textual culture of the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean.

Acknowledgements List of illustrations List of Abbreviations Notes on contributors Introduction Joseph Skinner, Vicky Manolopoulou, and Christina Tsouparopoulou PART I Approaching ancient identities 1 Challenging essentialism: disentangling ancient and modern notions of ethnicity Johannes Siapkas 2 Elite identities: Greece and Egypt in comparative perspective Matthew Haysom 3 The identities of enslaved persons Kostas Vlassopoulos 4 Personal names and identity: a socio-onomastic approach to naming practices in the ancient world Andreas Gavrielatos 5 Religious identities in ancient cities Jörg Rüpke 6 Open dynamic stewardship: alternatives to understanding diversity and transformation Elena Isayev PART II The ancient Near East 7 Construction of gender identities in Mesopotamia Agnès Garcia-Ventura and Saana Svärd 8 Mercantile and religious identities in Anatolia in the Middle Bronze Age Yagmur Heffron and Nancy Highcock 9 The identities of enslaved persons in ancient Mesopotamia J. Nicholas Reid 10 Exilic communities in Babylonia Laurie Pearce 11 Ancient Judaism: nation, ethnicity, or religion? Erich S. Gruen PART III The Mediterranean world until the age of the successors 12 A community of practice perspective on craft production and culture change in the Bronze Age Cyclades Natalie Abell 13 Reconstructing Phoenician identities: a glass half-full Carolina López-Ruiz 14 Transcultural tokens of identity: the mechanics of crossing borders in the ancient Mediterranean Denise Demetriou 15 Classical Greek racism 294 Thomas Harrison 16 Race and the Athenian metic Rebecca Futo Kennedy 17 Greek local identity and Greek local history Daniel Tober PART IV The Roman world: from early republic to late empire 18 Roman aristocratic family identity in the Late Republic and Early Empire Gary D. Farney 19 Identities of enslaved persons in the Roman world Christer Bruun 20 Identity construction in Alexandria: Greeks, Jews and Romans Kimberley Czajkowski 21 Roman military identities Andrew Gardner PART V From Late Antiquity until the Early Middle Ages: Rome, Byzantium and others 22 Peripheral identities: ethnicity, Anglo-Saxons and the Stützarmfibeln James Gerrard 23 The identity of the Huns Hyun Jin Kim 24 Sacrifice, banquets, and drunken elephants: the problem of Christian identity in Libanius's Oration 30 Rebecca Stephens Falcasantos 25 The open secret of Byzantium's national identity Anthony Kaldellis 26 Demarcating Rome: the papal strategy of Othering and the re-invention of Greeks Clemens Gantner 27 The case of Manuel I Komnenos: articulating identity through gender, sexuality, and racialization Roland Betancourt Index