This comprehensive study of families in the Mediterranean world spans the Bronze Age through Late Antiquity, and looks at families and households in various ancient societies inhabiting the regions around the Mediterranean Sea in an attempt to break down artificial boundaries between academic disciplines.

This comprehensive study of families in the Mediterranean world spans the Bronze Age through Late Antiquity, and looks at families and households in various ancient societies inhabiting the regions around the Mediterranean Sea in an attempt to break down artificial boundaries between academic disciplines.

List of Contributors viiForeword and Acknowledgments xiPart I Introduction 11 A Mediterranean Family? A Comparative Approach to the Ancient World 3Sabine R. HuebnerPart II The Greek and Hellenistic World 272 Identifying Family Structures in Early Iron Age Crete 29Leslie Preston Day3 The Idea of Descent in Early Greek Kinship 44Emily Varto4 The Role of the Extended Family in Exacting Blood Revenge in Classical Athens 65Fiona McHardy5 Domestic Architecture in Ephesus from the Hellenistic Period to Late Antiquity 79Helmut SchwaigerPart III The Roman World 936 Traces of the Unfamiliar: Epigraphic Evidence for Extended Families on the Margins in Roman Italy 95Peter Keegan7 Extended Families and Family Substitutes among Migrants in the Roman World 121David Noy8 Household Archaeology in Mediterranean Spain: Family Forms from Iberia to Hispania 137Xurxo M. Ayán Vila9 Egypt as Part of the Mediterranean? Domestic Space and Household Structures in Roman Egypt 154Sabine R. Huebner10 Towards an Archaeology of Household Relationships in Roman Egypt 174Anna Lucille Boozer11 Age Hierarchy and Social Networks among Urban Women in the Roman East 204Mona Tokarek LaFosse12 Family Forms and Conflicts in Roman North Africa 221Kai Haase and Roland SteinacherPart IV Late Antiquity 24113 Extended Family in the Experiences of Ausonius and Libanius 243Geoffrey Nathan14 Household and Family Dynamics in Late Antique Southern Gaul 258Christian Laes and Ville VuolantoPart V Outlook in Later Period of the Mediterranean 28315 Missing Women in the Italian Middle Ages? Data and Interpretation 285Irene Barbiera, Maria Castiglioni, and Gianpiero Dalla Zuanna16 Family Forms in Later Periods of the Mediterranean 310Matteo ManfrediniPart VI Conclusion 32517 Reassessing the Premodern Mediterranean Family 327Geoffrey NathanIndex 338