Print version record.

Introduction / Vasiliki G. Koutrafouri and Jeff Sanders -- Foreword : Introductory thoughts on the theme of "Ritual failure. Archaeological perspectives" / Timothy Insoll -- The passage of matter : Transformations of objects and ritual meanings in the Neolithic of the Near East / Marc Verhoeven -- The sky almost never falls on your head : why ritual rarely fails / Jeff Sanders -- Ritual failure in the business records of Mesopotamian temples / Michael Kozuh -- Ritual failure and the temple collapse of prehistoric Malta / Caroline Malone and Simon Stoddart -- From wells to pillars, and from pillars to ...? : Ritual systems transformation and collapse in the early prehistory of Cyprus / Vasiliki G. Koutrafouri -- When ancestors become Gods : The transformation of Cypriote ritual and religion in the Late Bronze Age / David Collard -- Colonial entanglements and cultic heterogeneity on Rome's Germanic frontier / Karim Mata -- The dead acrobat : Managing risk and Minoan iconography / Evangelos Kyriakidis -- Discussion: Defining moments / Richard Bradley.

'Ritual Failure' is a new concept in archaeology adopted from the discipline of anthropology. Resilient religious systems disappearing, strict believers and faithful practitioners not performing their rites, entire societies changing their customs: how does a religious ritual system transform, change or disappear, leaving only traces of its past glory? Do societies change and then their ritual? Or do customs change first, in turn provoking wider cultural shifts in society? Archaeology possesses the tools and methodologies to explore these questions over the long term; from the emergence of a s.