Excavating Pilgrimage: Archaeological Approaches to Sacred Travel and Movement in the Ancient World

Description

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 who 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 the wider catchment of pilgrimage sites, as well as the relationship between architecture, art and ritual. Contributions also tackle both methodological and theoretical issues related to the study of pilgrimage, sacred travel and other types of movement to, from and within sanctuaries through case studies stretching from the first millennium BC to the early medieval period. List of fi gures vii Notes on contributors x Preface xiii 1 Introduction: Archaeologies of pilgrimage 1 WIEBKE FRIESE AND TROELS MYRUP KRISTENSEN 2 Inter-cultural pilgrimage, identity, and the Axial Age in the ancient Near East 11 JOY MCCORRISTON 3 Collective mysteries and Greek pilgrimage: The cases of Eleusis, Thebes and Andania 28 INGE NIELSEN 4 Of piety, gender and ritual space: An archaeological approach to women’s sacred travel in Greece 47 WIEBKE FRIESE 5 The pilgrim’s passage into the sanctuary of the Great Gods, Samothrace 67 BONNA D. WESCOAT 6 Pilgrimage and procession in the Panhellenic festivals: Some observations on the Hellenistic Leukophryena in Magnesia-on-the-Meander 87 KRISTOPH JÜRGENS 7 Palimpsest and virtual presence: A reading of space and dedications at the Amphiareion at Oropos in the Hellenistic period 106 vi Contents 8 Roman healing pilgrimage north of the Alps 130 MARTIN GRÜNEWALD 9 Visiting the ancestors: Ritual movement in Rome’s urban borderland 152 SASKIA STEVENS 10 The pilgrim and the arch: Paths and passageways at Qal‘at Sem‘an, Sinai, Abu Mena, and Tebessa 166 ANN MARIE YASIN 11 Movement as sacred mimesis at Abu Mena and Qal’at Sem’an 187 HEATHER HUNTER-CRAWLEY 12 The allure of the saint: Late antique pilgrimage to the monastery of St Shenoute 203 LOUISE BLANKE 13 Excavating Meriamlik: Sacred space and economy in late antique pilgrimage 224 TROELS MYRUP KRISTENSEN 14 Pilgrimage and multi-religious worship: Palestinian Mamre in Late Antiquity 245 VLASTIMIL DRBAL Responses 15 Excavating pilgrimage 265 JAŚ ELSNER 16 Pilgrimage progress? 275 JAN N. BREMMER Index 285