Project description
Redefining our understanding of ancient socio-economic relations
How did ancient work structures shape society and the economy? This question remains underexplored, particularly in the context of the Southern Levant during the Persian Empire (539–331 BCE). Temples in this region, pivotal in labour taxation and forced labour, provide a critical yet underutilised perspective on ancient economic and social dynamics. Modern assumptions about socio-economic relations often overlook these ancient practices. In this context, the ERC-funded WORK-IT project addresses this gap by examining temples as focal points of Persian labour systems. Shifting focus from formal to informal taxation and from slavery to forced labour, WORK-IT uses Bourdieu’s field theory and diverse temple-related evidence to redefine our understanding of ancient socio-economic relations.
Objective
How does human work structure the economy and society? Temples in the Southern Levant during the Persian Empire (c. 539–331
BCE) provide a vital, underutilized historical vista for such questions. Persian involvement with labor taxation, forced labor, and
temple institutions makes temples cynosures for key ancient economic, social, and cultural practices of work. Focusing on taxation
and labor, WORK-IT drags analysis from formal to informal taxation (from official to social structures) and from slavery to forced labor
(from definition to wider social phenomena), seeking deeper social interrelations for both economic topics. Both interventions furnish
new fruitful perspectives on the dialectical interrelations between economy and society. Bourdieu's field theory brings powerful tools
for wider socio-economic implications that integrates practices with perceptions. WORK-IT will harness eight types of evidence for
temple institutions—building, gifts, taxes, tithes, produce, welfare, priesthoods, and dependents—using sources from the Southern
Levant, the Persian imperial heartland, and the wider Ancient Near East. Each source will be analyzed via informal taxation, forced
labor, and Bourdieusian field analysis to understand taxation, labor, and their interrelations within ancient weak states (pre-industrial,
pre-nation-state polities). These analyses will highlight flaws in modern socio-economic assumptions that have hampered scholarly
judgments of socio-economic relations in the Ancient Near East and thus in modern socio-economic narratives. WORK-IT will yield a
more sophisticated understanding of the social impact of ancient temple institutions, the unintended consequences of local-imperial
socio-economic interrelations, and a deeper historical perspective on pre-industrial societies. Ultimately, WORK-IT aims to re-integrate
the Ancient Near East into socio-economic theory, forging a longer durée, pre-industrial perspective on society and economics.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences law human rights human rights violations human trafficking
- social sciences sociology governance taxation
You need to log in or register to use this function
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-ADG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
00014 Helsinki
Finland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.