Product Description

Sacrifice, like death, is one of the great taboos of modern society. The notion that human sacrifice, 'murder most horrid' and even cannibalism could be considered a most holy act is almost inconceivable. This is the challenge of this original, but disturbing, book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #474719 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

About the Author
Miranda Green is Head of the Research Centre for the Study of Culture, Archaeology, Religions and Biogeography (SCARAB) at the University of wales College, Newport, where she holds a personal Chair in Archaeology. She is the author of twelve books, including 'Exploring the World of the Druids' and many specialist papers on the European Iron Age.

Customer Reviews

Human sacrifice: an excellent book on a difficult subject
The book focuses mainly in northern and western Europe and examines human sacrifice, on the basis of classical texts and archaeological evidence, although the author, in the Preface of the book, acknowledges the drawbacks of her sources.
The first chapter of the book gives an excellent introduction of the notion of sacrifice in general, by trying to define it in contrast with the modern western notion of the term and its altruistic connotations.
In the following chapters Miranda Green treats different aspects of human sacrifice by adopting the following structure: she presents the account of literature- mainly that of the classic texts and occasionally by referring to the Old Testament or to texts of other cultures- and then she presents the archaeological evidence which confirms it. The parallel examples from Greek, or Punic or even native American ritual behaviour or literary sources, are treated with caution and only as an effort to provide possible explanation of function and meaning of human sacrifice in Iron Age and Roman Europe.
In this context cases of animal sacrifice as substitutes for human beings, as well as cases of mutilated and dismembered human bodies are examined. There is detailed discussion on rites of fire and blood, skulduggery and death by asphyxiation. The notion of ‘sacred fire’ and reference to large-scale use of fire for ritual purposes in Iron Age sites is successfully associated with the ‘Wicker Man’ of Caesar. On the other hand, Green claims that the classical accounts of the occurrence of large-scale blood-sacrifice in Europe tend to exaggerate because of prejudice against their ‘northern barbarian neighbours’.
The book is very thought provoking. The reader gets an overall picture of the nature, frequency and function of human sacrifice in Europe, which is as clear and concrete as possible, given the scanty evidence. Human sacrifice is treated with the respect owed to a holy act of the past, but also with a scientific objectivity, which would condemn any derogatory remarks for this practice. The bibliographic references are abundant and easy to follow, and the bibliography contains many recent titles. Students of archaeology and anthropology with interest in ritual behaviour would find this work a very useful introduction to Iron Age and Roman Europe.
The book is very well presented, edited in a good-quality paper, with many illustrations. Especially, the insertion of numbers in the main text, which refer to the illustrations and the colour plates, is very useful. Miranda’s Green book successfully combines the excellent set-up of her former popular books with a serious scientific approach.

Wide-ranging but ultimately unsatisfying
On the surface, Dying for the Gods seems to be a well-researched, considered and thought-provoking study of human sacrifice in Iron Age Europe, taking as it does the most current archaelogical research at the time of writing and poring through texts and other material evidence (carvings, statues, burial goods) to discuss the various aspects of sacrifice, its underlying concepts and the role of water, fire and earth in the deaths of human beings for religious purposes, in itself a fascinating and worthwhile area of study.

There is indeed an amount of evidence to suggest that bog bodies and other burial finds of skulls and bones were the result of planned sacrifice, and I do not disagree with this view, but a lot of the "proof" Miranda Green uses is based on classical texts and discussions of similar practices in other cultures worldwide. We cannot deny that the Indian practice of suttee and Mexican blood sacrifice show that humans have put other humans to death for ritual purposes, but this does not go on to prove that such practices definitely occurred in Iron Age/pre-Roman Europe. Nor does quoting from well-known writings on the matter, the Biblical account of Abraham and Isaac for example, or references to Druid sacrifice in Caesar's Gallic wars provide concrete, irrefutable proof - I was concerned that Green was careful to remind the reader on numerous occasions that early Christian accounts of pagans sacrificing children and other innocents could be biased, yet failed to raise the issue of bias against Gaul and the British Druids in Caesar's writings; she pointed out that accounts of child sacrifice in Carthage seem to be supported by evidence in cemeteries and burial grounds but did not remind us that Rome and Carthage were ancient enemies.

Here too, giving examples of similar sacrifical events in Gaul recorded by Classical writers a hundred years after Caesar wrote of them as supporting evidence for said events also seems an odd approach: myths, stories and retelling of potentially biased reporting does not incontrovertible proof make.

I was pleased and fascinated by the number of photos, illustrations and colour plates included in the book, and the clear way they were indicated by number within the text, and referred to again later when relevant, and the wide range of entries in the index shows how wide the author cast her net to cover her subject. Many chapters were repetitive however: taking the same archaelogical sites, bodies, artefacts and textual accounts to underly first one point, then another, without clearly making any progress in definite interpretations of same seemed counter-intuitive - one more mention of the Massilian scapegoat and I would have been ready to toss the book aside!

If one assumes that sacrifice took place, and here's a bog body, and there are some skeletons, and these bones seem to suggest someone was killed in a ritual manner, the book fails to unveil any convincing arguments about what, when and why, using too few reliable sources spread across too many topics. An interesting read, and I shall certainly be chasing up various works listed in the bibliography, but I feel the book is as ambiguous as its subject matter.

Human sacrifice: an excellent book on a difficult subject
The book focuses mainly in northern and western Europe and examines human sacrifice, on the basis of classical texts and archaeological evidence, although the author, in the Preface of the book, acknowledges the drawbacks of her sources.
The first chapter of the book gives an excellent introduction of the notion of sacrifice in general, by trying to define it in contrast with the modern western notion of the term and its altruistic connotations.
In the following chapters Miranda Green treats different aspects of human sacrifice by adopting the following structure: she presents the account of literature- mainly that of the classic texts and occasionally by referring to the Old Testament or to texts of other cultures- and then she presents the archaeological evidence which confirms it. The parallel examples from Greek, or Punic or even native American ritual behaviour or literary sources, are treated with caution and only as an effort to provide possible explanation of function and meaning of human sacrifice in Iron Age and Roman Europe.
In this context cases of animal sacrifice as substitutes for human beings, as well as cases of mutilated and dismembered human bodies are examined. There is detailed discussion on rites of fire and blood, skulduggery and death by asphyxiation. The notion of ‘sacred fire’ and reference to large-scale use of fire for ritual purposes in Iron Age sites is successfully associated with the ‘Wicker Man’ of Caesar. On the other hand, Green claims that the classical accounts of the occurrence of large-scale blood-sacrifice in Europe tend to exaggerate because of prejudice against their ‘northern barbarian neighbours’.
The book is very thought provoking. The reader gets an overall picture of the nature, frequency and function of human sacrifice in Europe, which is as clear and concrete as possible, given the scanty evidence. Human sacrifice is treated with the respect owed to a holy act of the past, but also with a scientific objectivity, which would condemn any derogatory remarks for this practice. The bibliographic references are abundant and easy to follow, and the bibliography contains many recent titles. Students of archaeology and anthropology with interest in ritual behaviour would find this work a very useful introduction to Iron Age and Roman Europe.
The book is very well presented, edited in a good-quality paper, with many illustrations. Especially, the insertion of numbers in the main text, which refer to the illustrations and the colour plates, is very useful. Miranda’s Green book successfully combines the excellent set-up of her former popular books with a serious scientific approach.