Wednesday, August 5, 2026

Microhistories Retold: Insects in the Premodern World

Microhistories Retold: Insects in the Premodern World
Edited by Przemysław Marciniak 
book: Microhistories Retold 

Insects provide a distinctive lens through which to explore premodern conceptions of the natural world. Often perceived as unchanging across time and space, they nevertheless elicited diverse emotional responses and fulfilled a wide range of symbolic, practical, and discursive functions in different cultures and historical contexts.
While animal studies have become well established in classical philology and medieval studies, small animals—and insects in particular—have received comparatively little scholarly attention. This volume addresses this gap. Emerging from a conference held at LMU Munich in 2022, it brings together contributions by specialists working on a broad spectrum of premodern cultural traditions. The essays examine how insects were perceived, conceptualized, and instrumentalized in literature, thought, and cultural practice.
Adopting an innovative approach grounded in what may be termed cultural entomology, the volume critically reflects on the historical semantics of insects.Its comparative perspective extends beyond classical antiquity to include other cultural spheres, notably China and Egypt.
Featuring contributions by both established scholars and early career researchers, the volume is aimed at classical philologists, Byzantinists, medievalists, historians of culture, and all those interested in the cultural history of insects in the premodern world.

eBook ISBN: 9783111426112
Hardcover ISBN: 9783111424729
Creative Commons
BY-NC-ND 4.0
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Manufacturer information:
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
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10785 Berlin
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  • Open Access

    Frontmatter

    I
  • Open Access

    Contents

    V
  • Open Access

    Editorial Note

    VII
  • Open Access

    List of Contributors

  • Open Access

    I Am a Multitude: Premodern Insects

    1
    Przemysław Marciniak
  • Open Access

    Up Close but from a Distance

    11
    Linda Evans
  • Open Access

    Insekt sein in der Welt Platons

    27
    Tatjana Aleknienė
  • Open Access

    “Yearning for gore”: Leeches and Love in Theocritus and Nicander

    39
    Phoebe Lakin
  • Open Access

    Ἐλέφαντα ἐκ μυίας ποιεῖν: On Lucian’s “Encomium of the Fly”

    59
    Thorsten Fögen
  • Open Access

    Calamitous Insects in Early Imperial China: Human Agency in the Lunheng 論衡 by Wang Chong 王充

    79
    Marco Pouget
  • Open Access

    Nullum est animal altero doctius: Insects in Seneca’s philosophical texts

    101
    Dominik Berrens
  • Open Access

    Lords and Flies – Emperors Interacting with Muscae

    115
    Moa Ekbom
  • Open Access

    Virgil’s Bees in the Late Antique Classroom

    131
    Frances Foster
  • Open Access

    Baptismal Cicadas: Insects in Asterios the Sophist’s Homily

    149
    Przemysław Marciniak
  • Open Access

    Insekten als Materia Medica

    157
    Isabel Grimm-Stadelmann
  • Open Access

    Peut-on parler d’« insecte » dans les textes médiévaux ?

    185
    Isabelle Draelants
  • Open Access

    Sulle tracce dello scarabeo

    225
    Lorenzo M. Ciolfi
  • Open Access

    A Sumptuous Insect: Extraction and Trade of Grain in the Setúbal Peninsula at the End of the Middle Ages

    251
    Ana Cláudia Silveira
  • Requires Authentication

    Index


 

 


 

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Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration Database

This website serves as a companion to Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration and as a repository for evidence illuminating ideologies and experiences of incarceration in the ancient Mediterranean basin during the period spanning roughly 300 BCE to 600 CE. The data presented here are intended to be useful to a wide variety of potential audiences, including ancient historians and researchers in critical prison studies.

Click here for a video tutorial on how to use the database features.

Data are categorized by type, comprising Documentary, Literary, Archaeological, and Visual evidence. For an explanation of each data type, see Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration p. ix. In Documentary and Literary records, “Publication” typically lists only theeditio princeps, with abbreviations according to the Checklist of Editions. When available, re-editions can be found by clicking the Trismegistos link on each record.

Records presented here are meant to be illustrative rather than exhaustive. On each topic more examples could be adduced, and we plan continually to add to the collection; we do not make any claims to comprehensive coverage, even with our narrow remit of extant evidence illuminating experiences or ideologies of incarceration in the ancient Mediterranean world. This database is also a work in progress, and it is nowhere near complete. It will be continuously updated and expanded throughout 2027, including the addition of new commentaries on sources. If you would like to contribute to the project, please email Mark Letteney. Feel free to email as well if you have a question about any one piece of evidence which does not have a commentary — responding will offer an inducement to write on the text, object, or space and incorporate it into the database. When commentaries are written by a team member other than Letteney or Larsen, author name(s) are indicated at the end of the record.

Ongoing financial support for the database is provided by the Department of Religion at Princeton University, which also supports improvements to the system and its data. A wide variety of funders contributed to the creation of this database. We would like to thank the University of Washington, the Carlsberg Foundation, the University of Copenhagen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Southern California, Princeton University, the Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Simpson Center for Humanities and the Carol Thomas Endowment at the University of Washington for their generous support in creating the initial version of this database.

Unless otherwise indicated, data collected here is shared under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 License. This means that you are free to share and adapt material for non-commercial purposes if you give appropriate credit to the Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration Database (including a link) and that any derivative use is also shared with these same license terms.

The database was engineered by Hallvard Indgjerd, and the code itself is Open Source, licensed under a GPL-3.0 License. Please feel free to download the source code on Github and adapt it for your own projects.

The database began as a collaboration between Matthew D. C. Larsen and Mark Letteney, and has grown considerably thanks to a tremendous team of researchers who lent their expertise at various points. Niels Bargfeldt, Rebecca Levitan, Evan Isak Levine, and Naomi Reiss contributed significantly to data collection and interpretation as part of the Materiality of Incarceration in Mediterranean Antiquity Project. We also received invaluable support from a number of talented and dedicated students, including Emi Brown, Liam Dulany, Krysta Fauria, Stine Askgaard Fredholm, Karen Bruntse Jacobsen, Line Maria Kristoffersen, Kirsten Ring Rossing, Maria Ovi, Sophie Stone, and Jared Swan.

Finally (with apologies) the fine print: This application uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous usage statistics (for the sole purpose of letting our patrons know that people are using the database and that they should continue to fund its upkeep), a secure session cookie when you sign in, and a small local browser cache to speed up data loading. We do not perform any advertising or behavioral profiling. By continuing to use the site you consent to this limited data use; you may clear the cache or cookies via your browser settings at any time. To opt out of Google Analytics you can install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on

 

 
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Open Access Journal: Ciceroniana On Line

 [First posted in AWOL March 2017, updated 5 August 2026]

Ciceroniana On Line
ISSN: 0009-6687
ISSN: 2532-5353 (online) 
Locandina del Congresso 
CICERONIANA ON LINE (COL) è pubblicata solo on line con cadenza semestrale (due numeri all’anno, eventualmente raggruppabili, sempre con segnatura 1-2) congiuntamente dalla SIAC (Société Internationale des Amis de Cicéron, (www.tulliana.eu) e dal CSC (Centro di Studi Ciceroniani di Roma) e ospita articoli concernenti Cicerone o il pensiero romano. 

Per quest'ultimo gli articoli devono trattare temi che nei contenuti o nelle condizioni della loro produzione abbiano un legame più o meno diretto con la filosofia a Roma o con il suo Fortleben. Articoli su Cicerone possono toccarne la figura storica, letteraria, filosofica e umana, le sue opere, le sue fonti e la sua fortuna. Tutte le discipline e tutte le metodologie di ricerca sono accolte: filologia, linguistica, storia letteraria, esegesi, retorica, Quellenforschung, filosofia, archeologia e storia dell’arte, storia, prosopografia, religione, psicologia, allusività, intertestualità, generi letterari, gender studies, antropologia, Fortleben, didattica, nuovi media e digitalizzazione e così via. 

COL, nata da una decisone comune del CSC (ultima conferma nella seduta della Giunta del 27 ottobre 2012) e della SIAC (decisione ratificata dall’Assemblea Generale il 15 gennaio 2010), si pone in continuità con Ciceroniana, Nuova serie, che dal 1973 al 2009 ha pubblicato a stampa gli atti dei primi 13 Colloquia internazionali del CSC. I numeri pregressi di Ciceroniana sono disponibili gratuitamente on line come parte integrante della collaborazione CSC-SIAC. La pubblicazione avviene grazie alla piattaforma Open Access dell’Università di Torino ed è ripresa nei siti web delle due istituzioni fondatrici.

La rivista è stata diretta per il triennio 2013-2015 da un Consiglio scientifico paritario nominato dalla SIAC e dal CSC. Il Consiglio è stato istituito originariamente dalle due società in dieci membri, Proff. M. De Nonno, P. Fedeli, L. Gamberale, G. Garbarino, G. Mazzoli (CSC); C. Guérin, C. Lévy, E. Malaspina, R. Pierini, F. Prost (SIAC); è facoltà del Consiglio decidere di aumentare la propria composizione; l’ingresso di nuovi membri nel Consiglio avviene per cooptazione. 
Nella riunione telematica del 17 maggio 2016 nel Consiglio sono stati cooptati i seguenti 7 membri per il triennio 2016-2018: Carmen Codoñer (Salamanca, Emerita); Catharine Edwards (University of London); Matthew Fox (Glasgow); Margaret Graver (Dartmouth College); Gesine Manuwald (University College, London); John Ramsey (Chicago, Emerito); Hiroyuki Takahashi (Kyoto).

Current Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1 (2026): CICERONIANA ON LINE 2026 X, 1

A Journal of Roman Thought
Peer-reviewed scientific review (ISSN 2532-5353)
A Review of the Société internationale des Amis de Cicéron
and  Centro di Studi Ciceroniani
New Series Volume X, 1, 2026

Published: 2026-06-30

Headlines

Papers

Reviews

Bibliographical Bulletin

Indexes

 

View All Issues


 See AWOL's full List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies

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Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Les lampes gréco-romaines du musée de Constanța

Publié le 4 août 2026 par Th. Castelli

Iconomu, C. (1967) : Opaițe greco-romane, Constanța [Les lampes gréco-romaines].

Une grande introduction présente les 33 types avant que le catalogue ne décrive 809 lampes et moules es collections du musée de Constanța. Quelques exemplaires sont en bronze.

244 figures en noir et blanc (photographies et dessins).

L’ouvrage en ligne : https://biblioteca-digitala.ro/?pub=10127-opaite-greco-romane


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Fragmentation in Greek Sanctuaries and Bronze Age Hoards: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Fragmentation in Greek Sanctuaries and Bronze Age Hoards: An Interdisciplinary Approach
Azzurra Scarci (Hrsg.), Holger Baitinger (Hrsg.) 

LEIZA Publications

Aus ganz Europa und dem Mittelmeerraum ist eine große Anzahl absichtlich fragmentierter Artefakte aus Hortfunden und aus rituellen Kontexten bekannt. Dieser Band untersucht auf der Grundlage neuester Forschungsergebnisse die kulturellen, rituellen und praktischen Beweggründe für das Phänomen der Fragmentierung, von der Kupferzeit in West-, Mittel- und Südosteuropa bis zur archaischen Periode in Griechenland. Der Band versammelt Beiträge führender internationaler Wissenschaftler aus den Bereichen Archäologie, Archäometallurgie und Konservierung und geht auf eine internationale Tagung zurück, die im November 2023 im Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie in Mainz stattgefunden hat.

Zitationsvorschlag

Scarci, Azzurra und Baitinger, Holger (Hrsg.): Fragmentation in Greek Sanctuaries and Bronze Age Hoards: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Heidelberg: Propylaeum, 2026 (LEIZA Publications, Band 11). https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.1736

Lizenz

Creative Commons License

Dieses Werk steht unter der Lizenz Creative Commons Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 4.0 International.

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.1736
ISBN 978-3-96929-495-6 (PDF)

Veröffentlicht

07.04.2026
 
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Seiten
PDF
Titelei
Table of Contents
Holger Baitinger, Azzurra Scarci
Preface
7-8
John Chapman, Bisserka Gaydarska
»The Mirror Spied Upon Us« (Borges)
The Agency of Fragments and Whole Objects in Archaeology and How to Study Them in the Landscape
9-26
Oliver Pilz
Sacrificial and Dedicatory Practice in Early Olympia
29-46
Holger Baitinger
»Die Zerstörung der älteren Bronzeweihgeschenke und die Zersplitterung der Fragmente hat schon in recht früher Zeit begonnen«
Fragmented Bronze Objects in Greek Sanctuaries and in European Scrap Hoards
47-61
Azzurra Scarci, Gerhard Stawinoga
Fragmentation as Ritual Practice?
New Insights from the Sanctuary of Olympia
63-85
Matthew G. Knight
Use and Abuse in Later Bronze Age Metalwork Hoards from Britain
89-107
János Gábor Tarbay
Variations on Use and Fragmentation »in the Late Bronze Age«
109-144
Botond Rezi
Fragmentation Patterns in the Eastern Carpathian Basin during the Bronze Age
145-182
Jan-Martin Skolaut
Fragmentation Patterns and the Late Bronze Age Deposition at Ingolstadt-Dünzlau
183-199
Christoph Huth
Patterns of Destruction among Late Bronze Age Metalwork Depositions in Central and North-Western Europe
201-217
Giancarlo Lago
Breaking Metals
Quantification and Interpretation of Bronze Fragmentation in Bronze Age Italy and Europe
221-233
Nicola Ialongo
The Banality of Fragments
Metal Fragmentation through the Ages and the »European Exception«
235-248
Estelle Gauthier, Jean-François Piningre
Not so Different!
A Comparative Study of Fragmentation in Bronze Age Hoards in the Region of Salins-les-Bains
251-268

 

 

 


 

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