Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology

(JIIA.it/JIIA.eu) Peer reviewed online journal.
Available at http://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiia/index
Editor: Dr. Antonella D’Ascoli
JIIA N.3/2016

  1. Issue 3 of JIIA (Section 1) will focus on the complex class of mythological beings belonging to the netherworld. Hybrid creatures, demons, benevolent or malevolent entities, autonomous or serving a divinity, residing in the humane or divine world, will be considered. The issue will take in account and religious and ritual spaces, as well as texts of the ancient world, both in the public and private domains of life, limited to the regions surrounding or in contact with the Mediterranean Sea:

Thematic issue: Hybrid, therioantropomorphic, liminal, and demon beings of antiquity
Possible aspects to explore:

  • Origin of such beings, and their role in mediating between human and supernatural world
  • Functions, activity areas, desired and actual effects, and context of hybrid beings (conceptual and physical place)
  • Visual representations and descriptions in texts, performances: iconography and textuality; symbology of their abnormal anatomy
  • Hybrid artefacts mediating between supernatural and natural worlds: masks, rhyta, figurines, etc.
  • Ritual dances and songs assuring contacts with liminal creatures
  • Connection with public, religious and political systems, and subdivision of such beings to suit such systems
  • Presence in cults (as part of established religion) or private rituals (magic and witchcraft)
  • Traditional representations and ritual disguises of human as animal body in indigenous societies
  • The human body transferred to metaphysical beings: which elements are preserved to maintain a recognizable interaction with the human world and which are substituted?
  • The embodiment of such beings through performance frequency and physical stimulation
  • Links among ancient ritual and religious systems, transfer of ideas, notable similarities among world-systems or comparisons of geographically or chronologically adjacent ones

2.  Section 2 will include papers on other themes but with the same geographical constraints, and relevant to antiquity. Authors are welcome to submit any proposal, but priority will be given to thematic papers.
JIIA is an online peer-reviewed journal, hosted by the Heidelberg University Library (Open Journal Systems dell’ Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg): http://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiia/index
Scientific Committee of ‘Journal of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Archaeology’ (in progress):

  • Marilina Betrò (Professore Ordinario di Egittologia – Università degli Studi di Pisa)
  • Antonio Corso (Lord Marks Charitable Trust – Benaki Museum -Archaeological Service of Serres (Amphipolis)
  • Martine Denoyelle (Conservateur en chef du Patrimoine Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art INHA)
  • Andrea Vianello (University of Oxford)
  • Matteo Vigo (Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen)
  • Antonella D’Ascoli (Editor of JIIA, independent researcher)

Please send abstracts of no more than 500 words to Dr. Antonella D’Ascoli jiia.dascoli@gmail.com by the end of May 2017.
Accepted papers (papers can be submitted preferably in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish) should not exceed 5,000 words with colour figures at 300 dpi (CMYK).
Bibliographical References and Notes:
http://www.ajaonline.org/submissions/references
Deadline for drafts is August 2017, final publication is expected by December 2017.