Archaeologies of Gender and Violence

Uroš Matić and Bo Jensen have brought together a team of both young and senior researches from many different countries in this first volume that aims to explore the complex intersection between archaeology, gender and violence. Papers range from theoretical discussions on previous approaches to gender and violence and the ethical necessity to address these questions today, to case studies dealing on gender and violence from prehistoric to early medieval Europe, but also including studies on ancient Egypt, Persia and Peru. The contributors deal both with representations of violence and its gendered background in images and text, and with bioarchaeological evidence for violence and trauma with a gendered background. The volume is rich both in examples and approaches and includes opening and closing chapters by senior scholars in the field assessing the current state of work and addressing the scholarship to continue on the line of this volume.

"Many of the chapters approach their respective subject with both an eye to judging the ancient world as patently patriarchal yet bring little new theoretical scholarship to understanding the evidence under study."-- "American Journal Of Archaeology", "The effect here is a text that considers theoretical and direct inquiry to reframe how we read violence and gender in the past. The authors present a wide range of entry points in their archaeological research, including differential burial practices, interpretive gaze, ethnography, iconography, ritual analyses, traumatic lesions on the skeleton, and ancient texts."-- "Journal of Anthropological Research", "This is an important, enlightening and, in many ways, ground-breaking book on the intersection of sex and gender with violence in past societies... The introductory chapter is stellar, one of the best overviews of gender and violence that I have seen... In sum, this is a wonderfully satisfying book for those deeply embedded in gender and violence theory, as well as for newcomers to the field."-- "Antiquity"

Uroš Matić is a research associate of the Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, specializing in Egyptian archaeology, especially the topics of foreign relations, settlement archaeology, violence and gender. He holds a PhD from the Institute for Egyptology and Coptic Studies of the University of Muenster (Germany) since 2017. His most recent monographs include Body and Frames of War in New Kingdom Egypt. Violent Treatment of Enemies and Prisoners (2019), Ethnic Identities in the Land of the Pharaohs. Past and Present Approaches in Egyptology (2020) and Violence and Gender in Ancient Egypt (2021).