Rural Sanctuary Research Articles

The Social World of Early-Middle Bronze Age Cyprus: Rethinking the Vounous Bowl

The Vounous Bowl occupies a privileged position in discussions of prehistoric representations on Cyprus. It has most commonly been viewed as a sacred scene, or a religious ceremony conducted within a rural sanctuary, and several commentators have emphasized the funerary connotations of the scene, perhaps depicting idealized funerary ritual or an ancestor cult. Somewhat mundane interpretations of the bowl place it within a range of genre scenes, portraying daily life in a Bronze Age village. More recently it has been interpreted as the physical expression of emergent elite authority on Cyprus during the Bronze Age. This study explores the object as a form of social communication: through a detailed structural analysis of the Vounous Bowl it aims to develop a clearer understanding of the social world of Early-Middle Bronze Age Cyprus.

The Social World of Early-Middle Bronze Age Cyprus

The Vounous Bowl occupies a privileged position in discussions of prehistoric representations on Cyprus. It has most commonly been viewed as a sacred scene, or a religious ceremony conducted within a rural sanctuary, and several commentators have emphasized the funerary connotations of the scene, perhaps depicting idealized funerary ritual or an ancestor cult. Somewhat mundane interpretations of the bowl place it within a range of genre scenes, portraying daily life in a Bronze Age village. More recently it has been interpreted as the physical expression of emergent elite authority on Cyprus during the Bronze Age. This study explores the object as a form of social communication: through a detailed structural analysis of the Vounous Bowl it aims to develop a clearer understanding of the social world of Early-Middle Bronze Age Cyprus.

Book Review of Ἄρτεμις Βραυρωνία: Λατρευτικά ἀγάλματα καί ἀναθήματα ἀπό τά ἱερά τῆς θεᾶς στή Βραυρώνα καί τήν Ἀκρόπολη τῆς Ἀθήνας, by Giorgos Despinis

In fall 2011, the accidental discovery of a wonderfully preserved wooden peplophoros in a rich deposit at the Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia underscored once again for specialists and laymen alike that the investigation of the famous rural sanctuary on the east coast of Attica is far from over (see the official press release by the Greek Ministry of Culture from 3 October 2011; www.yppo.gr/2/g22.jsp?obj_id=47312). In the last few years, the systematic publication of the excavations initiated by Ioannis K. Papademetriou in the 1950s has witnessed a veritable resurgence (e.g., V.

The role of Italians in local economies of the late Roman Republic

Many Italians, i. e. people from Italy who did not possess Roman citizenship had access to land which they exploited commercially, both for growing agricultural products and for manufacture. They also played an important role in overseas commercial activities, in which they were protected by the Roman state against third parties. Their profits from this trade, and from wars fought in the Roman army, might have been considerable. At the same time many Italian towns and rural sanctuaries were expanded and monumentalized in the 2nd century BC. It is difficult to match individual traders and producers with the buildings erected in Italy ; nevertheless, it is clear that the most significant developments of public space took place in the areas from which many local inhabitants moved into the Mediterranean.

Les cultores dans la cité des Voconces de Die

Between the beginning of the first century and the years 269-272, 51 religious inscriptions of the city of Die mention the name, more or less preserved, of cultores. One, perhaps two, come from the community of Voconces : they are evidences of the official state religion of the city. The 49 others were carved by a private association of devotees and by individuals (9 women and 44 men). Mainly attested in urban or suburban area, the texts are also found in the countryside (rural sanctuaries…). The deities which are honored are varied (indigenous, Gallo-Roman, Roman, «Eastern » ), and the epigraphic material too (altars, plates…). The form of these religious texts and the denomination of the cultores (Roman citizens or Latin citizens) show they are highly romanized and latinized.

Arrival at Home

Radical faerie culture produces modern sexual minorities by mediating their racial and national relationship to histories of colonization. Radical faeries arose in the US by forming itinerant rural gatherings--and, over time, landed rural sanctuaries to host them--where they sought to liberate an authentic gay subjectivity grounded in indigenous cultural roots. I examine the formation of rural sanctuaries and gatherings as sources for gay liberation by investigating how they are structured as spaces of homecoming. Radical faeries who travel to gatherings and sanctuaries arrive at home--despite neither originating nor remaining at these sites--when they find in rural spaces and in tales of indigeneity a self-acceptance and shared nature that grants new belonging to settled land. I narrate key moments when practices of rural mobility and emplacement call gay men home to authentic subjectivity and radical community, by means of loving communion, multigenerational rural ties, indigenous spirituality, and a newly indigenized relationship to settled land. My argument arises from reflexive ethnographic interpretation of the quotidian practices of gatherings and sanctuaries. My ethnographic attention marks the integrity of radical faerie culture as a creative mediation of the racial, national, and colonial conditions of sexuality. My analysis calls queer studies to attend more deeply to the intersectionality and coloniality of sexual minority formations in settler societies, and to let ethnographic interpretation mark both how normative power relations condition sexualities and how sexual subjects creatively engage them.

La coroplastie d'Idalion à l'époque archaïque. Ateliers et diffusion

Due to extensive digging in the Dali area at the end of the 19th century A.D., many terracotta statues of the 'Idalion School' were acquired by European museums and prompted a strong interest for the coroplastic art of this ancient region. Those exquisite moulded masterpieces are not the sole expression of the coroplasts' capability, which is exemplified by the use of various techniques and the production of a large array of types. Their works demonstrate close stylistic links with those of the neighbouring kingdoms, as Amathous or Salamis, which reflects the geographical location of Idalion inland, on the roads leading from the copper deposits of the Troodos to the coastal sites. Besides, the originality of the coroplastic art of ancient Idalion enables one to study the diffusion of the terracottas in the island and thus to determine the cultural and political influence of the kingdom. The material retrieved from rural sanctuaries gives interesting clues concerning the probable extension of the kingdom's chora, which seems to have included a large part of the central area of Cyprus, from Meniko to the West to Athienou to the East, from the neighbourhood of Nicosia to the North to Pyrga to the South. It strongly suggests that Tamassos and Golgoi were not indépendant cities in the Archaic period, but secondary urban centers of the Idalion kingdom.

Aphrati and Kato Syme: Pottery, Continuity, and Cult in Late Archaic and Classical Crete

The analysis of ceramics from Aphrati sheds valuable new light on the history of this Cretan settlement and on its relationship with a nearby rural sanctuary at Kato Syme in the Late Archaic and Classical periods. It has long been held that Aphrati was deserted from ca. 600 to 400 B.C. A pottery deposit from the domestic quarter, however, now supports occupation of the city during this period. A ceramic classification system is presented and the morphological development and absolute chronology of several key shapes at Aphrati and Kato Syme are plotted. Historical implications of the ceramic evidence are also explored.

Multis enim notissima est sanctitas loci: Paulinus and the Gradual Rise of Nola as a Center of Christian Hospitality 1

Thanks to the network of hospitality created by Paulinus, Nola was transformed from a rural sanctuary to a prominent cultural and ascetic center in Italy, becoming a major stop on the route from East to West and from South to North, as well as to the imperial court. This paper, offered as a supplement to the recent works on Paulinus, presents the first prosopographical analysis and chronological list of the visitors. Previously ignored sources not only provide an insight into the different social classes and aims of Paulinus' guests, but also illuminate the role the monastery played in religious politics under Honorius.

Preliminary Comments on a Rural Cypro-Archaic Sanctuary in Polis-Peristeries

A Cypro-Archaic sanctuary in Polis-Peristeries discovered by the Princeton Cyprus Expedition preserves a wide range of material in primary archaeological contexts. Examined in relationship to previous studies of Iron Age sanctuaries on Cyprus and more general archaeological studies of cult spaces, the Polis-Peristeries site provides new and rich information about the ways in which ancient sanctuary spaces were used. Chronological and functional details distinguished among the four architectural phases within the temenos parallel patterns among deposits of waste materials found in a large bothros outside of the temenos area. Evidence for the segmentation of space, display and disposal of votives, consumption of food and drink, industrial activities, and large-scale storage at the site highlights the role of the Cypriot Iron Age sanctuary as a focus of wealth disposal and economic control in the community.

Rural Ritual in Bronze Age Crete: The Peak Sanctuary at Atsipadhes

The Minoan mountain peak sanctuary of Atsipadhes Korakias (Rethymnon, Crete) was excavated by the author in 1989. This article presents the first published account of that excavation and addresses its contribution to broader issues, methodological and interpretative, of Cretan Bronze Age religion. The spatial distribution of over 7500 finds was recorded, enabling the detailed reconstruction of the use and function of the sanctuary. This reconstruction is compared with other approaches to the identification of prehistoric cult places in Greece. Of the other excavated peak sanctuaries, the best known are élite sanctuaries associated with palatial centres; Atsipadhes Korakias is a poor, rural sanctuary, and offers a counterbalanced perspective on Minoan peak sanctuaries.

EARLY ROMAN TOWN DEVELOPMENT IN GALLIA BELGICA: A REVIEW of SOME PROBLEMS

Summary: The conventional Claudian date for urban development in Gallia Belgica should be re‐examined in the light of earlier occupation at some towns. Equally early were the rural sanctuaries, systematically developed as centres for the rural population. Monumental complexes such as the ‘double‐forum’may have evolved in the sanctuaries earlier than in the towns and possibly influenced the planning of the latter. Whilst the sanctuaries grew steadily throughout the first century, public building in the towns seem to have slowed down during its second half. A factor here may have been the enormous early development of the villas, especially in the Somme basin, diverting resources from urban building. the sanctuaries, more relevant to the rural population, were perhaps less affected.