Excavating Pilgrimage

This volume sheds new light on the significance and meaning of material culture for the study of pilgrimage in the ancient world, focusing in particular on Classical and Hellenistic Greece, the Roman Empire, and Late Antiquity. It thus discusses how archaeological evidence can be used to advance our understanding of ancient pilgrimage and ritual experience? The volume brings together a group of scholars that explore some of the rich archaeological evidence for sacred travel and movement, such as the material footprint of different activities undertaken by pilgrims, the spatial organization of sanctuaries, and wider catchment of pilgrimage sites.

"an important and welcome [volume]" - Alexander Meyer, University of Western Ontario, Canada, The Classical Review 2019

Autorentext

Troels Myrup Kristensen is Associate Professor of Classical Archaeology at Aarhus University, Denmark. He is the director of the Sapere Aude-project "The Emergence of Sacred Travel: Experience, Economy and Connectivity in Ancient Mediterranean Pilgrimage" (20132017), funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research. His research interests are pilgrimage, visual culture and cultural heritage. ****

Wiebke Friese was until recently Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of History and Classical Studies at Aarhus University, Denmark, as part of the project, "The Emergence of Sacred Travel: Experience, Economy and Connectivity in Ancient Mediterranean Pilgrimage" (20132017). She has published on oracle sanctuaries and Athenian women's festivals.

Inhalt

List of figures

Preface

Notes on contributors

1. Introduction: Archaeologies of pilgrimage
   Wiebke Friese and Troels Myrup Kristensen

2. Inter-cultural pilgrimage, identity, and the Axial Age in the ancient Near East
   Joy McCorriston

3. Collective mysteries and Greek pilgrimage: The cases of Eleusis, Thebes and Andania
   Inge Nielsen

4. Of piety, gender and ritual space: An archaeological approach to women's sacred travel in Greece
   Wiebke Friese

5. The pilgrim's passage into the sanctuary of the Great Gods, Samothrace
   Bonna Wescoat

6. Pilgrimage and procession in the Panhellenic festivals: Some observations on the Hellenistic Leukophryena in Magnesia-on-the-Meander
   Kristoph Jürgens

7. Palimpsest and virtual presence: A reading of space and dedications at the Amphiareion at Oropos in the Hellenistic period
   Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis

8. Roman healing pilgrimage north of the Alps
   Martin Grünewald

9. Visiting the ancestors: Ritual movement in Rome's urban borderland
   Saskia Stevens

10. The pilgrim and the arch: Paths and passageways at Qal'at Sem'an, Sinai, Abu Mina, and Tebessa
    Ann Marie Yasin

11. Movement as sacred mimesis at Abu Mena and Qal'at Sem'an
    Heather Hunter-Crawley

12. The allure of the saint: Late antique pilgrimage to the monastery of St Shenoute
    Louise Blanke

13. Excavating Meriamlik: Sacred space and economy in late antique pilgrimage
    Troels Myrup Kristensen

14. Pilgrimage and multi-religious worship: Palestinian Mamre in Late Antiquity
    Vlastimil Drbal

Responses

15. Excavating pilgrimage
    Jas' Elsner

16. Pilgrimage progress?
    Jan N. Bremmer

Index