No Place Like Home: Ancient Near Eastern Houses and Households

No Place Like Home: Ancient Near Eastern Houses and Households is a collection of papers and invited contributions that explore the architecture, activities, and ritual spaces of ancient Near Eastern houses and households. The book is organized into three thematic sections, focusing on houses as records of social space, the active household, and ritual space at home.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 270 pages
Publication date: 06 October 2022
Publisher: Archaeopress

No Place Like Home: Ancient Near Eastern Houses and Households is the result of a series of six popular and well-attended ASOR conference sessions on Household Archaeology in the Ancient Near East. This collection presents a selection of papers, along with four invited contributions, organized into three thematic sections.

The first section, "Architecture as Archive of Social Space," explores how houses serve as records of the lives of their inhabitants, evolving and adapting to their needs. These chapters provide a background focus on how human behavior is shaped by the walls of one's own home, offering innovative approaches to understanding who lived in these homes. For instance, one chapter examines evidence for children in a house, while another surveys the experience of living in a military barracks.

The second section, "The Active Household," focuses on the evidence for how residents carried out household activities such as work and food preparation. Chapters in this section apply activity area research, delving into the social significance of the activities residents engaged in and the locations where they occurred. They explore the roles of women, children, and other household members in the daily life of these households.

The final section, "Ritual Space at Home," features studies on the house as a ritual space. These chapters explore the ways in which houses were used for religious and ceremonial purposes, including the construction and decoration of houses, the use of specific rooms or areas for rituals, and the significance of household objects in religious practices.

The 18 chapters in this book provide the latest research on houses and households spanning the Chalcolithic to the Roman periods and from Turkey to Egypt. They offer a comprehensive understanding of the diverse architectural, social, and cultural aspects of ancient Near Eastern households and their place within the broader context of ancient Near Eastern society.

This book is a valuable resource for scholars, students, and anyone interested in the history and archaeology of the ancient Near East. It provides a wealth of information and insights into the lives of ordinary people and their homes, shedding light on the complex and diverse ways in which people lived and interacted in this ancient world.

Dimension: 290 x 205 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781803271569