Bodies of Evidence Ancient Anatomical Votives Past, Present and Future

"...this volume accomplishes its goals well and paves the way for future studies on anatomical votives beyond the typological. The authors show that such dedications were not limited to the healing sanctuaries of Classical Greece and that their meanings went beyond simple equations between object and body."
- Debby Sneed, University of California, Los Angeles, USA, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2018

"The editors' introduction lays out the inherent problems, challenges, and questions related to this material, such as definitions and terminology, ancient contexts, medical significance, and meanings with the religious setting. This is an ambitious attempt to bring together many different types, times, and places of relevance, as well as to present 'deliberately diverse approaches' to the archaeological material. Also welcome are chapters that incorporate the appearance of anatomical votices in modern art or their role in modern collecting ... Several themes cut across the chapters, including gender, age, and social status, as well as physical appearance, sexuality, reproduction, and personhood.[...]Ultimately, this book contributes to pan-Mediterranean conversations about ancient religion, trade, and sea routes over a long period, and adds to an expanding corpus of studies devoted to individual deities."
- Tyler Jo Smith, University of Virginia, USA, Religious Studies Review 2017

"Although it is focused on Classical Antiquity strictly defined, the work will be of interest to Byzantinist-historians of medicine as it opens new perspectives for the analysis of an archeological genre all too often neglected."
-Touwaide, Byzantinische Zeitschrift issue 110 (= 2017/4).

"In short, the essays assembled in this volume offer a rich and rewarding assortment of perspectives from which to view the practice of dedicating the material representation of a body part at a sanctuary of later curating such an object in a collection focused on medical history or reimagining the fragmented human body in a work of art.;
- Rebecca Miller Ammerman, Colgate University

"The book offers a series of remarkably detailed studies on the sensory culture of ancient Rome. [...]for me, the book's central and most important contribution: we might be able to pretend a kind of neutrality, transparency, or objectivity when we offer a critical edition or reconstruct an ancient battle. But such pretense is utterly impossible when it comes to sensory history, for the simple reason that we have to use our own senses as part of the scholarly apparatus."
-Sean Gurd, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA, Greek and Roman Musical Studies