Life and Death in Ancient Societies. Asia Minor in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Times

Life and Death in Ancient Societies is the result of an international conference held in Oct. 2013 at Oslo/Fredrikstad, Norway, in connection with a research project: Thanatos: dead bodies - live data. A study of funerary data from the Hellenistic-Roman-Byzantine town Hierapolis in Phrygia, Turkey (project no. 196827) financed by the Norwegian Research Council. It presents 22 papers on what information from dead bodies, graves and decoration can tell us about how people lived in ancient times and how death was celebrated. It is introduced by a survey article on modern burial archaeology in general, and Asia Minor in particular. It introduces new ways and methods in the study of the dead, and presents new cultural and scientific data and interpretations.