Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

Abstract This general introduction serves as a preface to each author’s contribution, outlining certain common standards and methods. These include the range of meanings we use for specific terms and the answers to basic yet often contested interrogatives relating to the precinct (the who, what, when, and where) and the history of polemical debates within the discipline (the why and how). By providing this background context here, oft repeated at the beginning of any study of tophet precincts, each author can instead focus on specific data and on analysis within their specialization.