Forsaken Relics examines the intricate mechanisms of ritualistic appropriation of ruined and/or abandoned assets and artifacts. It explores how this process occurs in situations where there is legislation to regulate the appropriation of ownerless property, as well as in cases where such rules are either absent or contested, leading to disputes and conflicts. Every society has developed its unique ways of managing the re-appropriation of 'ownerless things', such as places and houses abandoned after conflicts, crises, or natural disasters, forsaken cemeteries, tombs, and forgotten goods. These practices often involve the use of ritualistic methods to mask the intent to appropriate abandoned artifacts. The book aims to stimulate comparative analysis of this topic in both ancient and modern societies, profiling the identity of the 'actors' of appropriation, examining the definition of abandonment, and exploring the ritual aspects such as inventorying material, dedication to ancestors, and prayers to gods that legitimize the re-appropriation of places and goods classified as abandoned. AUTHORS: Alessandro Buono is associate professor of Early Modern History at the University of Pisa since 2018. He obtained his PhD from the University of Florence. Since 2010 he has been primarily concerned with the history of inheritance rights in Italy and the Spanish Empire, the history of identity and identification of persons, and the comparative history of vacant inheritances and abandoned things. Gianluca Miniaci is Associate Professor in Egyptology at the University of Pisa, Honorary Researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, UCL - London, and Chercheur associe at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris. He is currently co-director of the archaeological mission at Zawyet Sultan (Menya, Egypt) and principal investigator for four large national projects. His main research interests focus on the social history of ancient Egypt, the dynamics of material culture in the Eastern Mediterranean between Egypt, the Levant, Aegean, and Nubia in the Middle Bronze Age, and the global and comparative history and archaeology. Anna Anguissola is Associate Professor in Classical Archaeology and the Director of the Plaster Casts and Antiquities Collections of the University of Pisa. Her principal research on Graeco-Roman visual material and literary culture has focused on architectural technologies, urban development, the construction of public and private space, the history and techniques of ancient sculpture, the relationship between Greek and Roman art, and the reception of classical art in later periods. 100 b/w illustrations
