Ancient Mediterranean Religions

The bronze crescent moon with Etruscan dedication to the lunar deity Tiur is a remarkable epigraphic document associated with Città della Pieve by virtue of its long collecting history, which sees it at the center of attention of exponents of the antiquarian and archeology world starting from the very early nineteenth century. Found halfway between Cetona and Chiusi, the inscribed crescent was purchased by Filippo Becchetti, bishop of Città della Pieve, who soon after donated it to cardinal Stefano Borgia; this gift, which thus will enrich the encyclopedic collection of the
cardinal at the twilight of his existence, represents an episode on the margins of eighteenth-century collecting. The bronze will only come into the Vatican collections in 1925, after it had even lost the memory of its location. In addition to the perspective of the history of the studies, the monument is now reconsidered starting from the new data emerged from the close examination and from the information supplied by archival documents, which also allow us to clarify the provenance context, in the light of recent acquisitions on the Etruscan religion and cult practices. The crescent, referable to a sanctuary, is confirmed as an extraordinary testimony for the archaic age on the astral cults in Etruria and on their connections with the chthonic and water ones. His relationship with the obelisk of Città della Pieve is also clarified, to which it has been related somehow, with notes on the subject of the reception in Etruria of this monumental class.

This bachelor’s thesis deals with Classical antiquity’s concepts about society, religion and woman’s place in these structures. The goal of this thesis is to investigate these concepts influence on woman’s status and role in the early Christian communities. The thesis gives the general description of the status of woman in Classical ancient religion, Judaism and Christianity; such as in Greco-Roman society popular concepts as private and public, religio and superstitio, blood as special fluid, as well as a manifestation of those concepts in Classical ancient religion and Christianity. Also, are investigated women’s ministries in early Christian communities and their historical transformation under the influence of Classical ancient religion.

The Collaborative Research Centre 1136 'Bildung und Religion' is pleased to
invite you to attend the conference 'Religion and Education in the Ancient
Greek World', organised by Tanja Scheer and Irene Salvo, to be held on
Wednesday the 25th and Thursday the 26th of October 2017 in the Historical Building of the Goettingen State and University Library (Paulinerkirche).

Further information here:
http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/571664.html.

Participation is free, but if you would like to attend please send an
e-mail by Friday the 20th of October to Irene Salvo, isalvo@uni-goettingen.de.

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

Der SFB 1136 „Bildung und Religion“ lädt herzlich Sie zur internationalen Tagung „Religion and Education in the Ancient Greek World“ ein, die vom 25. bis 26. Oktober 2017 in Göttingen stattfindet.

Weitere Informationen finden Sie hier: http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/571664.html.

Wenn Sie an der Tagung teilnehmen möchten, bitten wir Sie um eine kurze Rückmeldung bis Freitag, den 20.10.2017 (isalvo@uni-goettingen.de), um entsprechend planen zu können.

Росица Гичева-Меймари Нов български университет ЧАСТ І. 1. ОБРЕДНИ ЛИЦА, ОБЛЕКЛО И АТРИБУТИ. В: Маразов, И. (ред.) "МИФ-12" Обредът. Департамент "История на културата", Нов Български Университет, София, 2007, с. 153-186. ЧАСТ І.2. ОБРЕДНИ ДЕЙСТВИЯ, ХРАНА, ЗАБРАНИ, РОЛИ. В: сп. Българска етнология, 2009, №3, с. 46-66. Ив. Венедиков отбелязва, че за разлика от повечето български кукерски дружини, тракийските гърци нямат цар. Не всички персонажи в групата са с маски на лицата. Празникът се води от двама млади мъже -"Архикалогер" и "Втори Калогер" 3 . Някога водачите са избирани на четири години измежду първенците от женените мъже, а днес -от неженените. Според старите описания калогерите носят маски от овча кожа, покриващи лицата и главите. Съвременни описания и фотографии показват качулки от черна овча кожа, а пред лицата висят цели кожи в светли цветове от агне, козле, сърна или лисица. Някъде се подбират кожи на новородени, или дори на неродени козлета. Георгиос Визиинос разказва, че в края на ХІХ в. в района на Визие са носили островърха шапка от вълча или лисича кожа. Тогава, на раменете им са били наметнати кожи от коза или лисица, а днес -късо палто с качулка от черни овчи кожи. В старите описания са пропуснати звънците със средна големина висящи на опасания на кръста колан; червената женска кърпа, висяща на гърдите, провесена на връв зад врата; белите тесни панталони. Архикалогеросът носи лък за лира 4 , с който пръска околните с пепел от фуния (пепелта носи в торба на гърба). Вторият калогер държи дървен фалос.

19,11) Durch die Hände des Paulus tat Gott auch nicht alltägliche Wunder, (12) so dass man sogar die Schweißtücher und Gürtel, die seinen Körper berührt hatten, den Kranken auflegte, und die Krankheiten wichen von ihnen und die bösen Geister fuhren aus. (13) In der Gegend wirkten jüdische Exorzisten, von denen einige versuchten den Namen Jesu anzurufen, um Besessene zu heilen: »Ich beschwöre euch bei Jesus, den Paulus verkündet.« (14) Es waren die sieben Söhne eines gewissen Skevas, eines jüdischen Oberpriesters, die es taten. (15) Der böse Geist aber antwortete ihnen: »Ich kenne Jesus und weiß von Paulus, wer seid aber ihr?« (16) Dann fiel der Mann, in dem der böse Geist war, sie an und überwältigte sie alle. Er verprügelte sie so sehr, dass sie nackt und verwundet aus dem Haus flohen. (17) Dies wurde allen in Ephesus wohnenden Juden und Griechen bekannt. Furcht fiel auf sie alle und sie lobten den Namen des Herrn Jesus.

Classical Quarterly 71.1 (2021): 259-75. This article examines the Roman tradition that Numa once negotiated with Jupiter about human sacrifice. Complete versions of the myth survive in Ovid, Plutarch and Arnobius (citing Valerius Antias). Previous studies of this tradition have proposed four main interpretations of it, which have done important service in modern reconstructions of the character of Roman religion. These scholarly treatments raise several questions. First, are they actually supported by, or the most convincing way of reading, the surviving ancient sources? If so, have they been correctly attributed? Why might a specific ancient author present the myth of Numa and Jupiter in a manner which suggests one interpretation rather than another? What ideological and theological work does the story do for Ovid, for Plutarch and for Arnobius? Finally, can this myth, in whatever version, support the weight of the implications put on it for the character of Roman religion? This article seeks to enhance our understanding of this myth in its surviving versions, not just by analysing the evidence for each of the modern interpretations, but also by considering why ancient authors tell the myth of Numa and Jupiter the way they do. It is argued that their choices illustrate best not one meaning of the myth nor one Roman way of piety but the richness and diversity of religious reflection in antiquity. ***How does Cambridge Core Share work? Cambridge Core Share allows authors, readers and institutional subscribers to generate a URL for an online version of a journal article. Anyone who clicks on this link will be able to view a read-only, up-to-date copy of the published journal article.

The commercial level trading which emerged at the start of the Bronze Age was made possible by a common written language. That language was Akkadian in its syllabic (cuneiform) form, its phonetic form (Phaistos Disk and these Minoan Linear A tablets) and all the early alphabetic texts prior to the rise of Greek and Latin. These translated Minoan Linear A texts from Crete preserve a moment in time before being buried by an earthquake. At the time of the earthquake a severe drought was occurring which both increased the demand for temple services and caused a crisis of faith among the temples which began to blame one of the two possible spiritual power classes. The traditional fishing culture focused on spiritual motion powers while the newer agricultural culture focused on life-growth powers. The motion power class rituals were the "magical" rituals by their definition. The life-growth rituals centered around food and feasting. Prior to the drought both power classes were engaged equally by the temples but a split was now developing. The texts can be divided into three types: shipping tags, ritual item lists from various temples, and wall labels used in building construction. This paper supersedes the initial exploration paper on this subject (Olmsted July 2020) having a more complete sign assignment chart and lexicon. All texts are translated according to the scholar's standard.

Most students of Roman society labor, still, in the shadow of Mommsen' s Staatsrecht. Though its various inadequacies have long been recognized, the edifice that Mommsen built remains a comfortable, if complex, home base from which we venture out into the jungle of Roman social relations and religious life at our peril. There are, it is true, local guides, the same ones who directed Mommsen, but once they have left the paths laid out by legal rules, often we do not know where they are leading us. Munzer and Syme blazed prosopographical trails through the cultivated heart of the territory, and Gelzer and Wissowa cleared pockets in the vegetation, from which we can observe the social behavior and religious customs of the dominant species. But if we want to understand the mechanisms of power and the tools of social organization that linked those in the deep woods to the cultural center, we must, in a sense, learn the unwritten laws of the jungle that our informants live by but never bother to explain. The two books under review are provisional primers of this complex code. Each sets out to explore the ways in which an ancient institution that lay outside the formal state political structures served to distribute power and perpetuate the social order. In feeling their way across territory that has been traversed before but never adequately mapped, both employ, in addition to the traditional local experts, the theoretical guidance of sociology and cultural anthropology in order to acquire a better lay of the land. In this they exemplify a current and productive trend in the Anglo-American approach to the social history of the ancient world. Interdisciplinary perspective and a broad similarity of underlying theme are not all the two works have in common. Both are collections of essays that originated as seminar papers delivered during the middle and late 1980s, at Leicester and Nottingham Universities (Patronage in Ancient Society: hereafter, Patronage) and at the Institute of Classical Studies, London (Pagan Priests: hereafter, Priests); both, despite the claims implicit in their broadly inclusive titles, are largely concerned with the world of late Republican and early Imperial Rome; both

Dear Colleague,
We would like to thank you very sincerely for your presentation at the international symposium, entitled “Unguentarium. A terracotta vessel form and other related vessels in the Hellenistic, Roman and early Byzantine Mediterranean in Izmir, Turkey”. Between May 17 and 18, 2018 we have hosted c. 50 participants from 15 countries and 34 papers dealing with terracotta unguentaria were presented in these two days of symposium. We ask you to send us your paper, if it deals with terracotta unguentaria. The Editorial Board asks you kindly to provide an original, previously unpublished and scientific paper, dealing with unpublished materials from excavated or surveyed sites or from the museums with previously unpublished photos without copyright problems.

ASTARTE from EL CARAMBOLO. Who´s that girl?
This paper presents a review from the sculpture in bronze named «Astarté from El Carambolo». Currently, you can visit this phoenician goddess in Sevilla, the scultpure belongs to the stable collection from the Museo Archaeological. This object has served to build the iconographic studies about Astarté. The goddess is clearly identified as Astarté, the sculpture has an epigraphic inscription where the feets are laied on. Have been made a new iconographic study and the results have to be connected with the last research in the archaeological site between 2002 and 2005.
Resumen: El presente trabajo consiste en una revisión de la pieza escultórica realizada en bronce de la diosa oriental Astarté conservada en el Museo Arqueológico de Sevilla. La escultura, es una de las representaciones de la diosa que han contribuido a formar el corpus iconográfico de la misma ya que, está identificada claramente por la inscripción epigráfica que presenta en el escabel dónde reposan los pies de la diosa. Se ha realizado una nueva lectura iconográfica que debe ponerse en relación con las últimos datos conocidos a partir de las últimas excavaciones en el yacimiento de El Carambolo entre 2002 y 2005.

The religious geography of Hatay, the southernmost province of Turkey, is shaped through a tapestry of sanctuaries of shared religious heritage. This chapter features four of the most prominent sites that illustrate the religious significance of water, namely a waterfall in Harbiye attributed to the Greek myth of Apollo and Daphne; a rivulet ascribed to the water of life through the legend of St. George and al-Khidr, the Green One; a sacred well in the oldest Christian cave church in Antioch associated with St. Luke and a water pool linked to a visit of the Virgin Mary. By reconstructing the legends and rituals in conjunction with the geography and environment of these sacred springs and water wells, this essay demonstrates how devotion to both deities and saints is integrally tied to the materiality and sacredness of abundant water resources providing the basis for interreligious relations in this region.

Mainly we study the Iberian phase (fourth century BC) of one of the caves in the Sierra de los Hermanillos, identified as a sanctuary-cave, which is a new thing in Murcia, although these caves are well known in the surrounding areas of Alicante and Valencia.

A previous use of the cave is represented by Chalcolithic multiple burials, with objects such as fragments of plaster vessels.

Principalmente se estudia la fase ibérica (s. IV a.C.) de una de las cuevas de la Sierra de los Hermanillos, que se identifica como una cueva-santuario, lo que resulta novedoso en Murcia, aunque estas cuevas son bien conocidas en las zonas limítrofes de Alicante y Valencia.

Un uso previo de la cueva corresponde a enterramientos múltiples del Calcolítico, con objetos como fragmentos de vasos de yeso.

Mainly we study the Iberian phase (fourth century BC) of one of the caves in the Sierra de los Hermanillos, identified as a sanctuary-cave, which is a new thing in Murcia, although these caves are well known in the surrounding areas of Alicante and Valencia.

A previous use of the cave is represented by Chalcolithic multiple burials, with objects such as fragments of plaster vessels.

Principalmente se estudia la fase ibérica (s. IV a.C.) de una de las cuevas de la Sierra de los Hermanillos, que se identifica como una cueva-santuario, lo que resulta novedoso en Murcia, aunque estas cuevas son bien conocidas en las zonas limítrofes de Alicante y Valencia.

Un uso previo de la cueva corresponde a enterramientos múltiples del Calcolítico, con objetos como fragmentos de vasos de yeso.

"Estas páginas contienen una reflexión sobre un tema importante en el mundo antiguo: el aprovisionamiento de cereal al ejército romano. El hecho de que la base de la alimentación fuera el grano y su ausencia la causa más frecuente del descontento y de las sublevaciones en el seno del ejército motivó el desarrollo de férreos mecanismos de control y administración de los alimentos enviados a las tropas. Este trabajo ofrece información novedosa sobre este asunto y proporciona las claves para conocer mejor la dieta del soldado y las infraestructuras y construcciones asociadas al abastecimiento militar, desde la fase republicana al periodo bajoimperial.

Para el análisis del aprovisionamiento de cereal al ejército, el principal testimonio arqueológico que se conserva son los almacenes y graneros (horrea). El estudio detallado de estos edificios pretende servir de manual de referencia para el profesional que debe interpretar correctamente las estructuras descubiertas, ofreciendo información detallada sobre técnicas constructivas, dimensiones y otros datos de interés. En último término, permite reconstruir la apariencia de estas edificaciones y conocer la evolución de los sistemas empleados en su construcción, que se fueron adaptando a las necesidades del ejército en cada uno de los periodos durante los que se mantuvo vigente la hegemonía de Roma.

Esta obra muestra al público general y al profesional de la arqueología un aspecto esencial en la expansión y consolidación del Imperio Romano, pues el aprovisionamiento de cereal fue una de las claves económicas que permitió a los generales romanos mantener alta la moral de sus ejércitos con alimentos a los que estaban acostumbrados y se convirtió en el motor que impulsó el ánimo y el fervor de las tropas, consiguiendo así su eficacia en la batalla y su lealtad en tiempos de paz"

Book review:
http://www.pyrenae.com/home/index.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&task=category&id=20:ressenyes-43-2-2012&lang=es

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9191541&fulltextType=BR&fileId=S0068113X14000075


http://revistas.usal.es/index.php/0514-7336/article/view/9973"

http://www.sehepunkte.de/2013/02/21727.html"""

The Italian Mission in Gerasa has employed most of the human and financial resources for carrying out the conservation and the restoration of the sanctuary of Artemis, the most important religious complex built in the heart of the ancient town. All conservation work has been preceded by rigorous research aimed at understanding the specific context before any intervention. In the area of the sanctuary of Artemis, archaeological campaigns, surveys and cataloguing have all taken place over almost forty years. As a result, our knowledge of the various parts of the complex has greatly increased, however a wide-ranging study, correlating all the results into one historical narrative has yet to be completed.
In this paper, I deal with the problem of the incompleteness of the Antonine temple. This is a riddle often explained by economic issues that, on closer inspection, are not convincing. The new approach undertaken here, therefore, investigates the history of its construction through the study of the building sequence and re-considers the outcome in the broader context of the sanctuary and the rest of the town, using the evidence from several previous, fragmentary investigations.
The new picture presented from the archaeological evidence paints a generation of citizens and worshippers who embraced the project for enlarging the sanctuary, nevertheless under unconcealed pressure from the Roman government. We see changing decisions throughout the process and a background of conservatism.
📌 Ask the author (massimobrizzi26@gmail.com) for the complete paper.

Sanctuaries and religion were instrumental in forming the worldview of the ancient Cypriots, and one would expect that social power relations, meanings, and identities were expressed through the holistic concept of sacred landscapes. This contribution primarily discusses the change in the use and perception of sacred landscapes, which were originally constructed in the era of the Cypriot basileis (kings) but continued to function in a new political environment under the control of the Ptolemaic strategos (general). Furthermore, it proposes a contextualized methodology for approaching the study of sacred landscapes in Iron Age Cyprus, revealing new possibilities and their effects on our understanding of Cypriot social, cultural, and political histories and at the same time indicating the limits and the dangers of such a task. Drawing on ideas from theoretical/methodological studies of landscape archaeology and their relevant applications in other Mediterranean histories, this article explores how spatial order (i.e., the hierarchical arrangement of sites), as observed in sacred landscapes, is expected to articulate social order and to be linked with shifting relations of power and cultural influence in an ancient Cypriot context. It also suggests that a closer consideration of sacred landscapes and their complexities from a long-term perspective not only makes the transition from the Cypriot city-kingdoms to the Hellenistic period more comprehensible but also illuminates the political and sociocultural histories of both periods when they are studied in their own terms.

Archaeological Institute of America
Jstor link: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.3764/aja.117.1.0033?searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dpapantoniou%252C%2BGiorgos%26amp%3Bprq%3Damerican%2Bjournal%2Bof%2Barchaeology%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone%26amp%3Bhp%3D25%26amp%3Bacc%3Doff%26amp%3Bso%3Drel%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff&resultItemClick=true&Search=yes&searchText=papantoniou%252C&searchText=Giorgos&uid=3737848&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21105808080823

How can material artifacts help illuminate the religious lives of women in antiquity? In what ways do archaeological and art historical studies recover women’s religious perspectives and experiences that the literary record misses or underrepresents? The authors of the essays in this volume set out to answer such questions in fascinating, new case studies of women and ancient religions in the Near East and Mediterranean world. They cover a broad historical, geographic, and religious spectrum as they explore women’s lives from the time of ancient Egypt in the second millennium BCE into the early medieval period, from the Syrian Desert to Western Europe, in the religious traditions of Egypt, Canaan, Greece, Rome, ancient Israel, early Judaism, and early Christianity. Working at the intersections of religion, archaeology, art history, and women’s history, these authors make fresh contributions to interdisciplinary studies, and their essays will be of interest to students and scholars across these academic fields.

In a special thematic issue of Journal of Ancient Judaism edited by Jonathan Kaplan and Kelley Coblentz Bautch.

Modern commentators on the Vitae Prophetarum have tended to assume that every prophet’s burial in this text was considered monumental in scale. A close examination of the language used to describe each burial yields a different picture. The monumentality of tombs is scarcely emphasized. Instead, the prophets are buried in one of three ways: in a more-or-less monumental rock-cut tomb just outside Jerusalem, in a rock-cut tomb on the prophet’s own property, or in an indistinct field grave. This typology agrees with the emerging archaeological record of socioeconomic distinctions in burial practices. Whereas Jewish elites were buried in rock-cut tombs around Jerusalem or, more modestly, on their own estates, non-elites were interred in simple trench graves. This study demonstrates that the Vitae Prophetarum corroborates this relationship between burial types and socioeconomic distinctions, placing priestly elites and landowners in rock-cut tombs but the humbler prophets in trench graves.

The Book of the Archangels is a Christian magical text, traceable to the early Medieval period, but likely originating in late Antique Byzantium. This text was hitherto only published in its original Greek form, by R. Reitzenstein , and is here translated for the first time into English.

I recenti scavi della Missione archeologica a Mozia della Sapienza nella Zona C hanno individuato il primo stanziamento fenicio, con una serie di pozzi e l'Edificio C8, i cui resti fotografano i momenti iniziali di vita della colonia fenicia nel secondo quarto dell'VIII secolo a.C.

This article explores the relationship between power and cult, not in the age of the Cypriot city-kingdoms per se but rather in the context of a changing political landscape that eventually led to the abolition of the autonomous polities and the establishment of a new order by the Ptolemaic Empire. In particular, this contribution explores some of the Cypro-Classical kings' internal responses to the changing political map of the Mediterranean, suggesting a shift from eastern to western orientations and cultural and iconographic prototypes. Furthermore, it attempts to put Cyprus in a broader context of Hellenistic monarchies in the Mediterranean, considering the resulting transformations of the island's political geography and cultural identities. Finally, through the medium of sacred landscapes, this article explores the response of Cypriot populations (elite and non-elite) to Ptolemaic power and rule.

Introduction:
-Hathor in anthropomorphic form
-The Seven Hathor-Goddesses
-The Hathor-head
-Zoomorphic forms of Hathor
-Hathor in the form of 'menat'-necklace

Iconographic index:
I part: Hathor in anthropomorphic form
-Hathor in the breastfeeding scenes
-The Seven Hathor-Goddesses

II part: the Hathor-head

III part: Hathor in Her form of sacred cow
-Hathor as a cow-headed woman

IV part: Hathor in Her form of sacred female falcon
-Hathor as a human-headed female falcon

V part: Hathor as a lioness-headed woman

VI part: Hathor in Her form of sacred uraeus
-Hathor as a human-headed uraeus
-Hathor as a cow-headed uraeus
-Hathor as a lioness-headed uraeus

VII part: Hathor in Her form of human-headed 'menat'-necklace

Much like our world today, Late Antiquity (fourth-seventh centuries CE) is often seen as a period rife with religious violence, not least because the literary sources are full of stories of Christians attacking temples, statues and 'pagans'. However, using insights from Religious Studies, recent studies have demonstrated that the Late Antique sources disguise a much more intricate reality. The present volume builds on this recent cutting-edge scholarship on religious violence in Late Antiquity in order to come to more nuanced judgments about the nature of the violence. At the same time, the focus on Late Antiquity has taken away from the fact that the phenomenon was no less prevalent in the earlier Graeco-Roman world. This book is therefore the first to bring together scholars with expertise ranging from classical Athens to Late Antiquity to examine the phenomenon in all its complexity and diversity throughout Antiquity.

The God Ra: Iconography
(with all the forms and names from the "Litany of Ra")

Introduction:
-Ra as a falcon-headed man
-Anthropomorphic form of Ra
-Zoomorphic and combined forms of Ra
-The Sun with the forms of Ra

Iconographic index:

I part: Ra as a falcon-headed man

II part: Ra in anthropomorphic form
-Ra in His form of Divine Child

III part: Ra in His form of sacred falcon
-Ra as a human-headed falcon
-Ra as a ram-headed falcon

IV part: Ra in His form of sacred cat
-Ra as a cat-headed man

V part: Ra as a lion-headed man
-Ra in His form of hieracosphinx

VI part: Ra in His sacred forms of calf and bull

VII part: Ra in His forms of sacred baboon and baboon-headed man

VIII part: Ra in His form of sacred serpent

IX part: Ra as a crocodile-headed man
-Ra in His form of sacred crocodile

X part: Ra as a ram-headed man
-the "flesh of Ra" in the "Books of the Netherworld"
-Ra in His form of four-faced ram

XI part: the Sun with the forms of Ra

XII part: "The Litany of Ra":
-introduction
-the 'Prologue' of the "Great Litany"
-the forms of Ra in the "Great Litany"
-the forms of Ra in the "Little Litany"