Miranda Aldhouse‐Green
Biographic Data
| ID | 4976786 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Miranda Aldhouse‐Green |
| GIVEN NAMES | Miranda |
| FAMILY NAME | Aldhouse‐Green |
| SIGNATURE | GREEN M A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cardiff University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 15 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 13 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
John Waddell. 2023. Pagan Ireland
Connective Tissue
There is a mounting body of evidence for somatic exchange in burial practices within later British prehistory. The title of the present paper was sparked by a recent article in The Times (Tuesday 1 September 2020), which contained a description of human bone curation and body mingling clearly present in certain Bronze Age funerary depositional rituals. The practice of mixing up bodies has been identified at several broadly coeval sites, a prime e…
Formal Religion
The presence of any kind of ‘formal’ religion in the European Iron Age is debatable but, as the period progressed, persistent patterns of religious expression began to emerge over wide areas of non-Mediterranean Europe. By the time of Roman intervention, religion began to become codified and personified, and the local deities named in written text and inscriptions, attest to a formalization of cults and gods. Some deities apparently had influence…
Caesar's Druids
Ancient chroniclers, including Julius Caesar himself, made the Druids and their sacred rituals infamous throughout the Western world. This book shows the Druids' day-to-day lives, which were far less lurid and much more significant than is commonly thought. Exploring the various roles that Druids played in British and Gallic society during the first centuries bc and ad—not just as priests but as judges, healers, scientists, and power brokers—it a…
Caesar's Druids
Noble Savages and Barbarous Enemies
This chapter explains the Classical world people, who considered themselves more civilized than their neighbours, entertaining perceptions of others that ranged from the wild barbarian to the Noble Savage. Julius Caesar's respectful account of the Druids is the most detailed description of their position and functions within their communities; he was clearly struck by the amount of power and influence the Druids wielded there. The victimization o…
Gender Matters
This chapter explains that many of the Classical writers who mention Druids are silent on the matter of Druidesses, although persistent references to Gallic female priests are contained within the texts. The exclusivity of female involvement with the cult of Demeter is explicable in terms of the fertility connection, but in ancient Greek society, women also played central roles in other aspects of cult and religious festivals. The Larzac plaque r…
Druids Underground
This chapter argues that the Classical texts will only inadvertently provide insights into subversion of or counter-thrusts against religious romanitas, and that it is archaeological evidence to which we must turn in our search for alternative movements after the inclusion of Gaul and Britain as provinces of the Roman Empire. The Druids' alleged prediction of Rome's collapse as a global power took place within the context of a serious Gallic revo…
Witchcraft and Deep Time-a debate at Harvard
Archaeology, consistently warned off religion by wise old heads, here rushes deeper into the thicket to tackle the thorny topic of ancient witchcraft. The occasion was a seminar at Harvard organised by Stephen Mitchell and Neil Price to mark the twentieth anniversary of Carlo Ginzburg's influential book on the connections between witches and shamanism - and by implication the possible connections with prehistoric ritual and belief. Archaeology wa…
A Dea Nutrix Figurine from a Romano-British Cemetery at Baldock, Hertfordshire
An unusually complex fourth-century infant grave excavated in Baldock in 1988 produced a complete Dea Nutrix figurine. Whilst not uncommon as site finds, Deae Nutrices are less frequently encountered as grave gifts in Britain than in Gaul. The reasons for its inclusion as a grave gift are explored, as are wider questions of Romano-British burial practice in the town, the significance of Dea Nutrix as a deity, and the nature of funerary ritual. An…
Crowning Glories
In most societies, the presentation of human hair makes statements about projections of self, belonging, and difference. Drawing upon analogies from living traditions where hair makes an important contribution to symbolic grammars of personhood, this paper seeks to explore the evidence for symbolism associated with head and body hair in later European prehistory. This evidence is wide ranging, and includes the (exceptional) survival of hair in th…
Chaining and shaming
This paper seeks to address issues relating to physical restraint, disempowerment and the symbolisms of humiliation, particularly within the contexts of warfare and conquest in Iron Age and Roman Britain and Europe, although the enormous topic of ancient slavery per se is beyond the scope of the present study. The enquiry is based upon evidence from iconography, human remains, the physical paraphernalia of restraint and, for the latest Iron Age o…
An Archaeology of Images
Using archaeology and social anthropology, and more than 100 original line drawings and photographs, An Archaeology of Images takes a fresh look at how ancient images of both people and animals were used in the Iron Age and Roman societies of Europe, 600 BC to AD 400 and investigates the various meanings with which images may have been imbued. \n \nThe book challenges the usual interpretation of statues, reliefs and figurines as passive things to…
Chaining and shaming
This paper seeks to address issues relating to physical restraint, disempowerment and the symbolisms of humiliation, particularly within the contexts of warfare and conquest in Iron Age and Roman Britain and Europe, although the enormous topic of ancient slavery per se is beyond the scope of the present study. The enquiry is based upon evidence from iconography, human remains, the physical paraphernalia of restraint and, for the latest Iron Age o…
Crowning Glories
In most societies, the presentation of human hair makes statements about projections of self, belonging, and difference. Drawing upon analogies from living traditions where hair makes an important contribution to symbolic grammars of personhood, this paper seeks to explore the evidence for symbolism associated with head and body hair in later European prehistory. This evidence is wide ranging, and includes the (exceptional) survival of hair in th…
Witchcraft and Deep Time-a debate at Harvard
Archaeology, consistently warned off religion by wise old heads, here rushes deeper into the thicket to tackle the thorny topic of ancient witchcraft. The occasion was a seminar at Harvard organised by Stephen Mitchell and Neil Price to mark the twentieth anniversary of Carlo Ginzburg's influential book on the connections between witches and shamanism - and by implication the possible connections with prehistoric ritual and belief. Archaeology wa…
A Dea Nutrix Figurine from a Romano-British Cemetery at Baldock, Hertfordshire
An unusually complex fourth-century infant grave excavated in Baldock in 1988 produced a complete Dea Nutrix figurine. Whilst not uncommon as site finds, Deae Nutrices are less frequently encountered as grave gifts in Britain than in Gaul. The reasons for its inclusion as a grave gift are explored, as are wider questions of Romano-British burial practice in the town, the significance of Dea Nutrix as a deity, and the nature of funerary ritual. An…
Crowning Glories
In most societies, the presentation of human hair makes statements about projections of self, belonging, and difference. Drawing upon analogies from living traditions where hair makes an important contribution to symbolic grammars of personhood, this paper seeks to explore the evidence for symbolism associated with head and body hair in later European prehistory. This evidence is wide ranging, and includes the (exceptional) survival of hair in th…
Chaining and shaming
This paper seeks to address issues relating to physical restraint, disempowerment and the symbolisms of humiliation, particularly within the contexts of warfare and conquest in Iron Age and Roman Britain and Europe, although the enormous topic of ancient slavery per se is beyond the scope of the present study. The enquiry is based upon evidence from iconography, human remains, the physical paraphernalia of restraint and, for the latest Iron Age o…
An Archaeology of Images
Using archaeology and social anthropology, and more than 100 original line drawings and photographs, An Archaeology of Images takes a fresh look at how ancient images of both people and animals were used in the Iron Age and Roman societies of Europe, 600 BC to AD 400 and investigates the various meanings with which images may have been imbued. \n \nThe book challenges the usual interpretation of statues, reliefs and figurines as passive things to…
A Dea Nutrix Figurine from a Romano-British Cemetery at Baldock, Hertfordshire
An unusually complex fourth-century infant grave excavated in Baldock in 1988 produced a complete Dea Nutrix figurine. Whilst not uncommon as site finds, Deae Nutrices are less frequently encountered as grave gifts in Britain than in Gaul. The reasons for its inclusion as a grave gift are explored, as are wider questions of Romano-British burial practice in the town, the significance of Dea Nutrix as a deity, and the nature of funerary ritual. An…
Caesar's Druids
Ancient chroniclers, including Julius Caesar himself, made the Druids and their sacred rituals infamous throughout the Western world. This book shows the Druids' day-to-day lives, which were far less lurid and much more significant than is commonly thought. Exploring the various roles that Druids played in British and Gallic society during the first centuries bc and ad—not just as priests but as judges, healers, scientists, and power brokers—it a…
Caesar's Druids
Noble Savages and Barbarous Enemies
This chapter explains the Classical world people, who considered themselves more civilized than their neighbours, entertaining perceptions of others that ranged from the wild barbarian to the Noble Savage. Julius Caesar's respectful account of the Druids is the most detailed description of their position and functions within their communities; he was clearly struck by the amount of power and influence the Druids wielded there. The victimization o…
Gender Matters
This chapter explains that many of the Classical writers who mention Druids are silent on the matter of Druidesses, although persistent references to Gallic female priests are contained within the texts. The exclusivity of female involvement with the cult of Demeter is explicable in terms of the fertility connection, but in ancient Greek society, women also played central roles in other aspects of cult and religious festivals. The Larzac plaque r…
Druids Underground
This chapter argues that the Classical texts will only inadvertently provide insights into subversion of or counter-thrusts against religious romanitas, and that it is archaeological evidence to which we must turn in our search for alternative movements after the inclusion of Gaul and Britain as provinces of the Roman Empire. The Druids' alleged prediction of Rome's collapse as a global power took place within the context of a serious Gallic revo…
Witchcraft and Deep Time-a debate at Harvard
Archaeology, consistently warned off religion by wise old heads, here rushes deeper into the thicket to tackle the thorny topic of ancient witchcraft. The occasion was a seminar at Harvard organised by Stephen Mitchell and Neil Price to mark the twentieth anniversary of Carlo Ginzburg's influential book on the connections between witches and shamanism - and by implication the possible connections with prehistoric ritual and belief. Archaeology wa…
Formal Religion
The presence of any kind of ‘formal’ religion in the European Iron Age is debatable but, as the period progressed, persistent patterns of religious expression began to emerge over wide areas of non-Mediterranean Europe. By the time of Roman intervention, religion began to become codified and personified, and the local deities named in written text and inscriptions, attest to a formalization of cults and gods. Some deities apparently had influence…
Connective Tissue
There is a mounting body of evidence for somatic exchange in burial practices within later British prehistory. The title of the present paper was sparked by a recent article in The Times (Tuesday 1 September 2020), which contained a description of human bone curation and body mingling clearly present in certain Bronze Age funerary depositional rituals. The practice of mixing up bodies has been identified at several broadly coeval sites, a prime e…
John Waddell. 2023. Pagan Ireland
History (12 works) · Art (10 works) · Archaeology (8 works) · Classical Antiquity Studies (6 works) · Classics (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices (6 works) · Sociology (6 works)