Books by Caroline J . Tully
This volume came about based on the recognition that the rise and spread of Covid-19 has led cont... more This volume came about based on the recognition that the rise and spread of Covid-19 has led contemporary scholarship to consider the possibility that there will be an increasing acceleration of new and highly transmissible plagues, viruses and other diseases linked to the mass travel and trade that characterizes hyper-globalisation. As historians and archaeologists studying the civilisations of the most distant past, we felt that we had something to contribute to this conversation through providing a historical perspective, with the twin goals of relieving the social anxiety caused by pandemics and taking advantage of our present experiences to see how we might view our own research in a fresh, new light. Archaeologists and scholars of ancient history know that epidemic plagues and other environmental catastrophes are nothing new: disease and illness are clearly represented in the archaeological and historical record. The chapters in this volume focus on plague in antiquity, centred primarily on the ancient Near East. Chronologically, they span the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity, and regionally they cover Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Levant, Cyprus, Anatolia and the Indus valley. The contributors discuss a range of topics related to plague—its causes and transmission, environmental factors, responses and treatments, disruptions and social effects—drawing on ancient texts, modern sociology, archaeological evidence and cultural material remains. The variety of contributions demonstrates that rather than being anomalous, various forms of illness were normal, recurring and prevalent within the ancient world. The authors refer to the current Covid-19 pandemic, which was also inspiration in producing this work. This volume contributes to the contextualisation of plague, pestilence, disease and disability within wider and deeper human history.
A Century of James Frazer’s The Golden Bough Shaking the Tree, Breaking the Bough, 2025
This multidisciplinary volume examines the ongoing effects of James G. Frazer’s The Golden Bough ... more This multidisciplinary volume examines the ongoing effects of James G. Frazer’s The Golden Bough in modern Humanities and its wide-ranging influence across studies of ancient religions, literature, historiography, and reception studies.
The book begins by exploring the life and times of Frazer himself and the writing of The Golden Bough in its cultural milieu. It then goes on to cover a wide range of topics, including: ancient Near Eastern religion and culture; Minoan religion and in particular the origins of notions of Minoan matriarchy; Frazer’s influence on the study of Graeco-Roman religion and magic; Frazer’s influence on modern Pagan religions; and the effects of Frazer’s works in modern culture and scholarship generally. Chapters examine how modern academia and beyond continues to be influenced by the otherwise discredited theories in The Golden Bough, ideas such as Sacred Marriage and the incessant Fertility of Everything. The book demonstrates how scholarship within the Humanities as well as practitioners of alternative religions and the common public remain under the thrall of Frazer over one hundred years since the publication of the abridged edition of The Golden Bough, and what we must do to shake off that influence.
A Century of James Frazer’s The Golden Bough is of interest to scholars and students from a wide range of disciplines, including Ancient History, History of Religion, Comparative Religion, Classical Studies, Archaeology, Historiography, Anthropology, Folklore, and Reception Studies.
PhD Thesis by Caroline J . Tully
Tully, C. J. 2016. The Cultic Life of Trees: What Trees Say About People in the Prehistoric Aegean, Levant, Egypt and Cyprus
This thesis examines 43 images of Minoan tree cult as depicted in sphragistic jewellery, portable... more This thesis examines 43 images of Minoan tree cult as depicted in sphragistic jewellery, portable objects and wall paintings from Late Bronze Age Crete, mainland Greece and the Cyclades. The study also compares the Aegean images with evidence for sacred trees in the Middle and Late Bronze Age Levant, Egypt and Cyprus. The purpose of this research is the production of new interpretations of Minoan images of tree cult. Each of the chapters of the thesis looks at both archaeological and iconographic evidence for tree cult. The Aegean material is, in addition, examined more deeply through the lenses of modified Lacanian psychoanalytic modelling, “new” animism, ethnographic analogy, and a Neo-Marxist hermeneutics of suspicion. It is determined that Minoan images of tree cult depict elite figures performing their intimate association with the numinous landscape through the communicative method of envisioned and enacted epiphanic ritual. The tree in such images is a physiomorphic representation of a goddess type known in the wider eastern Mediterranean associated with effective rulership and with the additional qualities of fertility, nurturance, protection, regeneration, order and stability. The representation of this deity by elite human females in ritual performance functioned to enhance their self-representation as divinities and thus legitimise and concretise the position of elites within the hegemonic structure of Neopalatial Crete. These ideological visual messages were circulated to a wider audience through the reproduction and dispersal characteristic of the sphragistic process, resulting in Minoan elites literally stamping their authority on to the Cretan landscape and hence society.
Postgraduate Diploma Thesis by Caroline J . Tully
This thesis investigates the reception and appropriation of aspects of ancient Egyptian religion ... more This thesis investigates the reception and appropriation of aspects of ancient Egyptian religion by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an exclusive late-nineteenth century British alternative spirituality movement. Initially contextualising the Golden Dawn as standing outside the development of scholarly Egyptology, its direct relationship with the modern Pagan movement is subsequently explained and the implications thereof for contemporary archaeology are outlined. Specific case studies of four Golden Dawn members highlight the order’s imaginative method of obtaining knowledge about ancient Egypt and the erroneous conclusions arrived at thereby. The historically inaccurate, self-serving and misleading picture of ancient Egyptian religion promoted by the Golden Dawn, as well as its unscientific method of obtaining information about the past through revelation rather than reason, is shown to have been adopted by contemporary Pagans who subsequently attempt to impose their erroneous interpretations of the past on to archaeologists, museum curators and heritage workers, to the detriment of archaeology.
Journal Articles by Caroline J . Tully
Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 2023
'. The seven articles, three in the first of the two issues and four in the second, are revised a... more '. The seven articles, three in the first of the two issues and four in the second, are revised and expanded versions of the papers presented during those two conference sessions. We also include several book reviews that complement, expand on, and further enrich the discussion.
Feraferia, 'a love culture for wilderness', is a contemporary Pagan religion that celebrates huma... more Feraferia, 'a love culture for wilderness', is a contemporary Pagan religion that celebrates humans' erotic union with Nature. It was the brainchild of artist, Frederick Adams (1928-2008), who in 1956 had a vision of a universal goddess and subsequently devoted himself to the divine feminine as a 'Maiden Goddess of the Wilderness' called Korê. Formally incorporated in 1967, Feraferia became the second Pagan church in US history, and it is still active today. Herein I examine Feraferia through an ecocritical lens, with a particular focus on the role of trees, the anthropomorphisation of nature envisioned as a young female body, ecosexuality, and the construction of henges; circular structures aligned with local topography, used as seasonal and astronomical calendars wherein ritual magic and 'faerie enchantment' are employed in order to heal and revitalise the natural world. I demonstrate that Feraferia's enchanted approach to the world resonates with contemporary ecological activist thought, particularly ecofeminism and ecosexuality. I conclude that many of Feraferia's ecospiritual concepts have value today because they can heighten conscious awareness of human situatedness within the real physical world, both on our own planet as well as within the wider surrounding space of our part of the universe.
ToC of the special double issue on Contemporary Pagan Ecospiritualities
The Griffin Warrior Ring No. 2 is a gold Minoan-style engraved signet ring from Pylos dating to t... more The Griffin Warrior Ring No. 2 is a gold Minoan-style engraved signet ring from Pylos dating to the Late Helladic IIA (1580–1490 BCE). The ring’s bezel depicts a seascape with a columnar tree shrine flanked by palm trees situated on a rocky outcrop. Five elaborately dressed female figures stand on either side of the shrine. The tree shrine features a net pattern in the space between its stone or brick piers. It is proposed that this represents a fishing net and that the structure is a sea altar dedicated to an unnamed Minoan tree goddess. The ring’s hoop is decorated with cockle shells, further emphasising its marine theme. It will be argued that the iconography alludes to marine food resources, practical and luxury textile fibres, sea trade, transculturality and cult, and is testament to the importance of the sea in the Aegean Bronze Age. 
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Books by Caroline J . Tully
The book begins by exploring the life and times of Frazer himself and the writing of The Golden Bough in its cultural milieu. It then goes on to cover a wide range of topics, including: ancient Near Eastern religion and culture; Minoan religion and in particular the origins of notions of Minoan matriarchy; Frazer’s influence on the study of Graeco-Roman religion and magic; Frazer’s influence on modern Pagan religions; and the effects of Frazer’s works in modern culture and scholarship generally. Chapters examine how modern academia and beyond continues to be influenced by the otherwise discredited theories in The Golden Bough, ideas such as Sacred Marriage and the incessant Fertility of Everything. The book demonstrates how scholarship within the Humanities as well as practitioners of alternative religions and the common public remain under the thrall of Frazer over one hundred years since the publication of the abridged edition of The Golden Bough, and what we must do to shake off that influence.
A Century of James Frazer’s The Golden Bough is of interest to scholars and students from a wide range of disciplines, including Ancient History, History of Religion, Comparative Religion, Classical Studies, Archaeology, Historiography, Anthropology, Folklore, and Reception Studies.
PhD Thesis by Caroline J . Tully
Postgraduate Diploma Thesis by Caroline J . Tully
Journal Articles by Caroline J . Tully