Currents in Biblical Research 2015, Vol. 13(3) 388–439 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1476993X15583943 cbi.sagepub.com Sacrifice in the Ancient Mediterranean: Recent and Current Research Daniel Ullucci Rhodes College, USA Abstract This essay provides a summary and critical assessment of scholarship on sacrifice in the ancient Mediterranean over the last two decades. It focuses on Greek, Roman, Judean and Christian evidence from approximately the eighth century BCE to the fifth century CE. Significant attention is paid to theoretical models, which have deeply affected the study of sacrifice. Archeological evidence for sacrifice is considered. The following areas of current scholarly debate are addressed and assessed: (1) the reach and role of religious experts; (2) sacrifice as communication and failed sacrifice; (3) the notion of spiritualization; (4) metaphorical and symbolic uses of sacrifice; and (5) sacrifice and identity. Sacrifice is theorized not as a static category or ontological thing, but a nexus of competitive ritualizations and/or discursive claims, the boundaries of which were actively contested by ancient practitioners and cultural producers. Keywords Animal sacrifice, archeology, Burkert, cognitive theory, Girard, human sacrifice, offering, reciprocity, ritual, ritualization, sacrifice, spiritualization, supersessionist, Vernant Introduction I start with an appropriate note of trepidation at the prospect of encapsulat- ing scholarship on the sprawling field of sacrifice over the last few decades. Sacrifice has, for over a century, held an almost mesmeric power over the fields of Classics and Religious Studies. It has served as a locus for theorizing, theolo- gizing and polemicizing from the emergence of the fields to the present day. The purpose of this essay is, humbly, to lay out some of the recent arguments as well Corresponding author: Daniel Ullucci, Rhodes College, 2000 North Parkway, Memphis, TN 38112, USA. Email: ulluccid@rhodes.edu Article by guest on June 18, 2015 cbi.sagepub.com Downloaded from