nach Vereinbarung
Max-Weber-Kolleg für kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Studien
Steinplatz 2
99085 Erfurt
Universität Erfurt
Max-Weber-Kolleg für kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Studien
Postfach 90 02 21
99105 Erfurt
Turkey:
Gaziantep (2002-2006)
Adiyaman (2004-2005)
Ephesos (2004-2015)
Ainos (2013-2015)
Patara (2016-2017)
Greece:
Aigeira (2011-2013)
Mongolia:
Ulaanbaatar (09-10/2008)
China:
Hancheng, Province Shaanxi (10/2007)
Germany:
Cologne (2006-2008)
In this project I will investigate in a diachronic and comparative perspective the processes in which people entertaining or even propagating religious communication with ‘new gods’ were appropriating space, thus firmly localising religious practices. At different times throughout the period of investigation new religious addressees such as Mater Magna (Cybele), Isis and Serapis, Mithras, a variety of Syrian local high deities, but also diverse Zeuses or Ioves, Apollines or Iunones, Herculeses and Silvani were transferred into cities. Frequently, they were brought into city-space with a dense, socially and ethnically diverse population crammed into a limited physical space. In order to further the religious aspirations associated or created by these new arrivals, contested urban space had to be claimed in dialogue with owners, the city administration or just competing users and in keeping with the financial resources available.
This project will look into the mutual shaping of religious practices and city-space, e.g. acquisition of sites; restriction, alteration or invention of religious practices (for Rome for instance from praying and singing to the lavatio Matris at the Almo, the introduction of the taurobolium, the navigium Isidis or the inventio Osiridis); adaptation of religious behaviour to the constraints of the built city-scape; denomination of deities; affiliation with other deities; integration of narratives characteristic of the city into the mythology of the new deity. By selecting gods transferred from other areas or cities, these changes can be captured more conveniently. Architectural changes, such as modification of routes of access, have implications for religious practice as well as socialspatial interaction.
The analysis will be based on textual and archaeological evidence that shed light on spatial practices, such as temples, small shrines, altars, tomb monuments, and ‘small finds’ (e.g. votive objects). Literary and epigraphic evidence will be used to reconstruct social relationships. Starting with Rome a system of dynamic mapping will assemble contemporary evidence in generational time-layers (c. 25 years) in order to trace evolving interactions at single locations as well as across the networks.
Max-Weber-Kolleg für kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Studien
Universität Erfurt
Postfach 90 02 21
99105 Erfurt
Universität Erfurt (Campus)
Nordhäuser Str. 63
99089 Erfurt