The Archaeology Of Religion In The Greek And Roman World

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Religion

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people's relationship to transcendent or supernatural powers

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Ritual

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The term ‘ritual’ has served as a catch-all phrase to categorize any object or aspect of material culture which is not fully understood. Not to be confused with routine, which is not tied to religion at all. Rituals tend to have tremendous significance.
E.G. Washing your dog every thursday is routine, vs Washing your dog with certain soaps and special meaning attached to those fragrances with the dog.

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Cult

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a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object.

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Secular

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Non-Religious

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Timothy Insoll

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- pioneering scholar in the field of arch. of religion.
- Most scholarly works on subject of arch. omitted religion entirely or lacked significant understanding up until 2000s.
- Archaeology of religion: framework which all other aspects of archaeology, past or present, can fit into.

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Anthropology

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Anthropology is the study of various aspects of humans within past and present societies.

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Archaeology

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- Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture.
- Archaeology relies on repetitivepractices to understand all aspects ancient cultures.
" Religion is one of many embodiedpractices that can be repetitive and discernible in thearchaeological record "

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Deposit

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- Any of the various processes by which artifacts move from active use to an archaeological context, such as loss, disposal, abandonment, burial, etc. It is the laying, placing, or throwing down of any material.

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Belief

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- An acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists.

- trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something.

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Practice

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- Carry out or perform (a particular activity, method, or custom) habitually or regularly.

- Often attributed to religion (i.e. practicing religion)

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Stratigraphy

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The layering of deposits in an archaeological site. Cultural evidence and natural sediments become buried over time. The layer on the bottom is the oldest; the layer on top is the youngest.

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Material Culture

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- Material culture is the physical evidence of a culture in the objects and architecture they make, or have made.
- All material evidence which can be attributed to culture, past or present.

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(Archaeological) Context

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Archaeological context is used as a term referring to the remains of an individual stratigraphic event. Contexts, therefore, are events in time which have been preserved in the archaeological record.

- Repetitive action and archaeological context allow us to determine when an everyday object becomes a religious or ritual objects by its spatial setting
- Archaeology cannot ever fully reveal personal belief or personal experience BUT “material remains” can be seen as “consequences of actions.

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Prehistory

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- Time period which lacked many written sources
- Material objects (indicating practices, culture, religion) were used to identify religion (through material culture)

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Colin Renfrew

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- Hugely influential in Graeco-Roman Religious field- Aegian Pre-historian.
- Creator of the Anatolian Hypothesis
- Bridge between anthropology and classical archaeology.
- Don't need to rely on written words (classical archaeology) to find stuff (look at artifacts)

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Classical Antiquity

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- Classical antiquity / Classical Age is a term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world.

- Many written sources exist to verify this age.

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Neolithic

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The Neolithic Period (7000-3200 BCE)

- From Hunter-gathering to subsistence farming
- Migration westward from the Middle East
- Neolithic "package": farming, herding, stone tools (either for farming or killing), pottery, houses/settlements

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Aegean

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Relating to the region comprising the Aegean Sea and its coasts and islands.

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Bronze Age

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- The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of bronze, proto-writing, and other early features of urban civilization.

- Smelting copper alloy with other metals to make bronze.

- Peak sanctuaries (based on associated artifacts)

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Cyclades

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- The Cyclades is a group of Greek islands, southeast of the mainland in the Aegean Sea.
- It centers on uninhabited Delos, considered the birthplace of Apollo, and home to some of Greece’s most important archaeological ruins.

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Minoan

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- Preceding Mycenaean.

- An Aegean Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and other Aegean islands and flourished from approximately 3650 to 1400 BCE.

- Peak sanctuaries! Horns of Consecration

- The Minoans were famous for the magnificent palaces they built like Knossos.

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Mycenaean

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- The Mycenaeans are the first Greeks.

- The Mycenaean civilization thrived between 1650 and 1200 BC.

- The Mycenaeans defeated the Minoans, acquiring the city of Troy in the process, according to Homer's Illiad.

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Neo Nikomedeia

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A Neolithic shrine?-
- Houses grouped around a larger structure (special building with special purpose?)

- Material within the structure (greenstone axes, flint blades, clay roundels and figurines)

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Alepotrypa Cave

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- Means "foxhole" story about man and dog, chases fox, finds human bone, cave uncovered.

- Ksagounaki Promontory

- Experts believe inspired the Greek legend of Hades

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Cycladic Figurines

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- Vast majority LOOTED (no provenance), placed improperly and not corresponding to its original location.
- Function largely unknown (maybe for a burial?)

- From places like Dhaskalia Kavos

- Typical FAF: Folded Arms Figurines

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Dhaskalio Kavos

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- Largest archeological site in the Cyclades

- Many cycladic figurines found along with marble objects.

- Extensively looted in 50's and 60's.

- Colin Renfrew headed this project.

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Peak Sanctuary

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- No architecture at most sites
- Not necessarily at the highest point
- Date from Early Minoan through Middle Minoan (by Late Minoan most gone)
- Terracota dedications (people, animals) most common find (Atsipades 5000+)
- Horns of Consecration (vessel- riton? carrying water) with detailed carvings on it describing (what is believed to be) Minoan Peak Sanctuaries.

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Knossos

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- King Minos & Labyrinth

- Contrast open, theatral spaces
- Note: Horns of Consecration- Grandstand Fresco (painted plaster)

- Throne Room

- Knossos: Throne with basin on ground, a Lustral Basin in the corner. Considered to be the most religious room of the palace.

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Horns of Consecration

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- Very important symbol in Minoan Iconography, appear at the top of Minoan Peak Sanctuaries.

-Represent the Horns of sacrificial oxen.

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Double Axe

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- Would always be accompanied by female divinities.

- Symbol of the arche of creation.

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Aghia Triada Sarcophagus

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- Late bronze age, limestone sarcophagus.
- Most concrete information on pre-homeric thysiastikes ceremony. Noble Burial ceremonies under Mycenaean rule.

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Akrotiri

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- Minoan Bronze Age Settlement on Santorini, Greece.

- Volcanic eruption, buried with ash, many frescos and artifacts.

- Linear A

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Grave Circle A

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- 16th Century Royal Cemetery.

- 6 shaft graves, 19 bodies. Gold Death Masks

- Death Mask of Agamemnon- not the case.

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Mycenae

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- Archaeological site in Greece.

- Major centre in Greece, military stronghold.

- Fortified hill surrounded by estates and strongholds.

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Griffin Warrior

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- Man buried with bronze armor & weapons along with gold and silver cups, treasure and more.
- Stone seals
- Largely intact skeleton found at the bottom.
- Shedding light on emergence of Mycenaean civilization.

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Linear B

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- Syllabic Script

- Syllabary: tablets useful for understanding dieties and the links they have to the manuscripts.

- Michael Ventris 1953

- Earliest attested form of Greek.

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Greek "Dark" Ages

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- From LHIIIC through the 8th Century

- No documentation to show what's happening.

- Linear A and B Disappear, illiterate society.

- Archaeology is used more than ever to try and decipher what happened and what the culture was like.

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Lefkandi

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- Located on island of Ubeia
- Used as an example to show religious activity during time period.
- Four Horses; warrior cremation urn with female inhumation.
-Prestige goods; Iron knife, ivory handle, bronze ampheru.
- Lefkandi Centaur (made of pottery- a refined work form in Athens)

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Heroon

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- was a shrine dedicated to an ancient Greek or Roman hero and used for the commemoration or cult worship of the hero

- It was often erected over his or her supposed tomb or cenotaph.

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Kalapodi

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- Village where a sanctuary to Apollo was discovered.

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Polis

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- means city in Greek. (City-State)

- A combination of multiple aspects of greek society including Sanctuaries, Acropoli, Walls, Culture!

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Inter-Urban Sanctuary

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- Located away from powerful Polis, not likely to be politically driven.
- Olympia and Delphi are examples.

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Extra-Urban Sanctuary

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- Located inside towns. Usually politicized.

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Pan-Hellenic Sanctuary

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- One of the few shared Greek Sanctuaries

- Olympia, Delphi and Isthmia were seen as the seat of the Panhellenic festivals.

- Crossroads for people & ideas.

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Altar

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- Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship.

- I don't know.

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Sacred Space

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- Considerable resources generally put into the sacred architecture; intricate design.

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Votive Offering

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Votive offerings were made either to fulfill a vow made to God for deliverance, or a thing left to a Church in gratitude for some favor that was granted.
Today votives can be lit votive candles, offered flowers, statues, vestments, and monetary donations.

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Sanctuary at Zeus of Olympia

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- Games founded in 776

- Controlled by 'Elis' A polis 30km away.

- Altis; sacred grove.

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Dreros

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- Post Minoan archaeological site.

- Communcal cistern dug containing archaic inscriptions- Law of Dreros.

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Cult Statue

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- Pausanias says originally made of wood.
- Were worshiped in an anthropomorphic form and were, as such, earthly substitutes or humanized manifestations of the presence of a deity.

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Bronze Votive Offerings

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- Given at Pan-hellenic sanctuaries
- Generally symbolized wealth.

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Temple Models

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- Pediments
- Friezes
- Metopes
- Doric Temples

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Sanctuary to Hera on Samos

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- 100 footer

- First free-standing Ionic temple

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Hekatompedon

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- 100 footer, unknown how else to call them.
- Many pediments describing different events and features, too rich and vague to describe these buildings as anything except how long they were; 100 feet.
- Predecessor to Parthenon
- Sanctuary to Hera on Samos

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Archaic Period

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Monumentalization

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Doric Order

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- Order of Greek architecture
- Metopes on the Friese, different scenes with a general storyline

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Ionic Order

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- Order of Greek Architecture
- Continuous Friese, Parthenon is a great example! One big story.

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Temple of Apollo at Thermon

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Metopes

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Superstructure

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Temple to Artemis at Corcyra/Corfu

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Pronaos

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Cella/Naos

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Opisthodamos

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Peristyle

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Pseudo-Dipteral

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