A Companion to the Archaeology of Religion in the Ancient World
Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World
1. Edition December 2019
520 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Further versions
A Companion to the Archaeology of Religion in the Ancient World presents a comprehensive overview of a wide range of topics relating to the practices, expressions, and interactions of religion in antiquity, primarily in the Greco-Roman world.
* Features readings that focus on religious experience and expression in the ancient world rather than solely on religious belief
* Places a strong emphasis on domestic and individual religious practice
* Represents the first time that the concept of "lived religion" is applied to the ancient history of religion and archaeology of religion
* Includes cutting-edge data taken from top contemporary researchers and theorists in the field
* Examines a large variety of themes and religious traditions across a wide geographical area and chronological span
* Written to appeal equally to archaeologists and historians of religion
Abbreviations xiv
1 Archaeology of Religion, Material Religion, and the Ancient World 1
Rubina Raja and Jörg Rüpke
Part I Archaeology of Ritual 27
2 The Archaeology of Ancient Sanctuaries 29
William Van Andringa
3 Ritual Activities, Processions and Pilgrimages 41
Thierry Luginbühl
4 Perpetuated Action 60
Lara Weiss
5 Public and Private 71
Robert Parker
Part II Embodiment 81
6 Amulets 83
Gideon Bohak
7 Dress and Ornaments 96
Laura Gawlinski
8 Dance 107
Frederick Naerebout
9 Gendered Agents and Embodied Religious Experience 120
Zsuzsanna Várhelyi
Part III Experiences 131
10 Polychromy and Jewish Visual Culture of Roman Antiquity 133
Steven Fine
11 Watching Rituals 144
Valérie Huet
12 Killing and Preparing Animals 155
Patrice Méniel
13 Communal Dining: Making Things Happen 167
Marleen Martens
14 WATER 181
Olivier de Cazanove
15 Temporary Deprivation: Rules and Meanings 194
Richard Gordon
Part IV Creating Spaces of Experiences 207
16 At Home 209
Kimberly Bowes
17 Gardens 220
Richard Neudecker
18 Religion and Tomb 235
Henner von Hesberg, Christiane Nowak and Ellen Thiermann
Part V Designing and Appropriating Sacred Space 251
19 Archaeology of Christian Initiation 253
Robin M. Jensen
20 Oracular Shrines as Places of Religious Experience 268
Julia Kindt
21 Buildings of Religious Communities 279
Inge Nielsen
22 Sanctuaries and Urban Spatial Settings in Roman Imperial Ostia 293
Marlis Arnhold
Part VI Sharing Public Space 305
23 Complex Sanctuaries in the Roman Period 307
Rubina Raja
24 Temples and Temple Interiors 320
Henner von Hesberg
25 Theater 333
Susanne Gödde
26 The Archaeology of Processions 349
Eftychia Stavrianopoulou
27 Urbanization and Memory 362
Christopher Smith
Part VII Expressiveness 377
28 Images 379
Sylvia Estienne
29 Instruments and Vessels 388
Anne Viola Siebert
30 Anatomical ex votos 397
Günther Schörner
31 Monumental Inscriptions 412
Wolfgang Spickermann
Part VIII Agents 425
32 Material Culture and Religious Identity in Late Antiquity 427
Eric Rebillard
33 Individual Choices and Individuality in the Archaeology of Ancient Religion 437
Jörg Rüpke
34 Material Culture and Imagined Communities in the Roman World 451
Eva Mol and Miguel John Versluys
Part IX Transformations 463
35 Ritual Traditions of Non-Mediterranean Europe 465
Greg Woolf
36 Tracing Religious Change in Roman Africa 478
Valentino Gasparini
Index 489
Rubina Raja is professor of Classical Archaeology at Aarhus University, Denmark. She studied Classical Archaeology in Copenhagen, Rome and Oxford and heads an excavation project in Jerash, Jordan. Among other things she works on the archaeology of religion in the Roman period and is involved as co???director of the ERC funded project "Lived ancient religion" at Erfurt University.
Jörg Rüpke is Fellow for History of Religion at the Max Weber Centre of the University of Erfurt. He has held positions in Classical Philology and Comparative Religion and is director of the ERC project "Lived ancient religion".
