This volume gathers brand new essays from some of the most respected scholars of ancient history, archaeology, and physical anthropology to create an engaging overview of the lives of women in antiquity. The book is divided into ten sections, nine focusing on a particular area, and also includes almost 200 images, maps, and charts. The sections cover Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, Cyprus, the Levant, the Aegean, Italy, and Western Europe, and include many lesser-known cultures such as the Celts, Iberia, Carthage, the Black Sea region, and Scandinavia. Women's experiences are explored, from ordinary daily life to religious ritual and practice, to motherhood, childbirth, sex, and building a career. Forensic evidence is also treated for the actual bodies of ancient women.
Women in Antiquity is edited by two experts in the field, and is an invaluable resource to students of the ancient world, gender studies, and women's roles throughout history.
"Women in Antiquity is an extremely useful compilation which is intended to be, without doubt, a reference book for all those with an interest in well-written ancient history spanning all its complexity, a must that cannot go missing from any library."
- Agnès Garcia-Ventura, Università degli Studi di Roma, Italy
"For Budin and Turfa, the 'Ancient World' takes off in the east in Mesopotamia, runs around both shores of the Mediterranean, and ends in Iberia in the west. In a sense, it covers the areas reached, ruled, or influenced by the Roman Empire ... What we have are 74 (!) crisp chapters, each written by a specialist, many of whom are sharing with us the results of their own latest research and excavations ... Summing up Women in Antiquity, I don't care how familiar you think you are with any of these cultures, there will be plenty new to learn."
- Judith Weingarten, review on 'Zenobia: Empress of the East' at http://judithweingarten.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/where-are-real-women-of-ancient-world.html
"This valuable collection of papers reveals the multifarious ways ancient women participated at all levels of their societies. Of particular value is, first, its inclusion of cultures usually overlooked in other collections of essays (the Celtic, Scandinavian, Hittite), second, its temporal spread from the early Bronze Age well into the Iron Age, and, third, its focus on archaeological realia, documents, inscriptions and the like, rather than on male-authored literature for male-audience consumption. This collection of papers is an essential library resource for programs in gender studies, ancient studies, and archaeology."
- Judith Lynn Sebesta, University of South Dakota (USA) in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review
