Ritual activation: altars, cult statues, and temples

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Imperial Cult ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Religious Architecture ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Ritual Space ◽  
And Function

Religious buildings, altars, and cult statues are often conceived of as complementary, if not indivisible, elements of Roman republican and imperial cult sites. The design and function of religious architecture have been ascribed to their interaction, with the result that it is not uncommon for one to be used to explain the presence of the others: buildings were constructed to shelter cult statues, which were aligned with external altars to provide sightlines between the gods and their worshippers. Together the three components shaped ritual space and made communication with the divine intelligible and tangible. Yet these three elements were not inherent parts of all ancient religious rituals and venues. There is no evidence of dedicated religious buildings, altars, or cult statues at the water sources that received some of the earliest votive deposits in central Italy, such as the spring at Campoverde, and the arrangement of accumulated votive offerings and statuettes in caves such as the closed deposit of the Caverna della Stipe similarly suggests that no image was accorded particular prominence or accompanied by a permanent altar. Proposals that some Iron Age residences hosted ritual meals do not theorize the complementary presence of cult statues and open-air altars, nor do suggestions that Greco- Roman temples developed from aristocratic banqueting halls. If the resulting impression of an era without cult statues and prominent altars is correct, then histories of religious architecture should consider the evidence for the introduction of such features and their influence on the form and function of relevant cult buildings. This chapter will accordingly examine the archaeological evidence for pre-republican altars and cult statues in Latium and Etruria. It will explore the problematic identification of these religious accessories, and identify the quantity and nature of those that can be connected with cult buildings. The significance of altars and cult statues as religious markers, or potential means of distinguishing cult buildings from other structures, will also be considered. Finally, it will evaluate the theory that the introduction of altars and anthropomorphic cult statues stimulated the construction of monumental temples.

Conclusions

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Religious Architecture ◽  
And Function

This book began by stating that histories of religious architecture can be accounts of both buildings and people. This particular history, focused on the archaeological evidence for the development of cult buildings in early central Italy, has reconsidered traditional narratives about the form and function of Etrusco-Italic religious architecture and proposed an alternative reconstruction of how their architects and audiences may have interacted with one another in Rome, Latium, and Etruria between the ninth and the sixth centuries BC. Comparison with the construction of monumental temples elsewhere also indicated that settlements including Rome, Satricum, Pyrgi, and Tarquinia can perhaps be considered part of a network of Archaic Mediterranean settlements with material, commercial, and religious connections, and that monumental architecture may have been a mechanism for successful social interaction. This study has therefore supported the suggestion that the physical and social fabric of ancient communities were closely linked, and that regional studies of Latium and Etruria may furthermore benefit from being set in Italic and Mediterranean contexts. This concluding chapter briefly recapitulates the arguments made in the main body of the book and the significance of each of those arguments for studies of ancient architecture and society. It also assesses how these findings relate to broader debates about Archaic Italy. Finally, it acknowledges the limitations of this analysis and highlights opportunities for future research. Part I of this book demonstrated that ancient religious architecture was a protean phenomenon. Three chapters analysed the ambiguous evidence for Iron Age sacred huts, the range of different buildings types associated with ritual activities in the seventh century BC, and the emergence of a separate architectural language for religious buildings during the Archaic period. Detailed analyses of foundations and roofs revealed that as changes in technology and society led to the widespread use of more permanent building materials, the physical fabric of central Italic settlements was also increasingly marked by the use of particular architectural forms and decorations to differentiate cult buildings from other structures, setting them apart in a form of architectural consecration.

Religious Architecture in Latium and Etruria, c. 900-500 BC

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Comprehensive Treatment ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Detailed History ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Religious Architecture ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of

Religious Architecture in Latium and Etruria, c. 900-500 BC presents the first comprehensive treatment of cult buildings in western central Italy from the Iron Age to the Archaic Period. By analysing the archaeological evidence for the form of early religious buildings and their role in ancient communities, it reconstructs a detailed history of early Latial and Etruscan religious architecture that brings together the buildings and the people who used them. The first part of the study examines the processes by which religious buildings changed from huts and shrines to monumental temples, and explores apparent differences between these processes in Latium and Etruria. The second part analyses the broader architectural, religious, and topographical contexts of the first Etrusco-Italic temples alongside possible rationales for their introduction. The result is a new and extensive account of when, where, and why monumental cult buildings became features of early central Italic society.

The first religious buildings: ‘sacred huts’

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Hot Springs ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Religious Activity ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
The Bronze Age

The votive assemblages that form the primary archaeological evidence for non-funerary cult in the Neolithic, Bronze, and early Iron Ages in central Italy indicate that there is a long tradition of religious activity in Latium and Etruria in which buildings played no discernible role. Data on votive deposits in western central Italy is admittedly uneven: although many early votive assemblages from Latium have been widely studied and published, there are few Etruscan comparanda; of the more than two hundred Etruscan votive assemblages currently known from all periods, relatively few date prior to the fourth century BC, while those in museum collections are often no longer entire and suffer from a lack of detailed provenance as well as an absence of excavations in the vicinity of the original find. Nevertheless, it is possible to recognize broad patterns in the form and location of cult sites prior to the Iron Age, and thus to sketch the broader context of prehistoric rituals that pre-dated the construction of the first religious buildings. In the Neolithic period (c.6000–3500 BC), funerary and non-funerary rituals appear to have been observed in underground spaces such as caves, crevices, and rock shelters, and there are also signs that cults developed around ‘abnormal water’ like stalagmites, stalactites, hot springs, and pools of still water. These characteristics remain visible in the evidence from the middle Bronze Age (c.1700–1300 BC). Finds from this period at the Sventatoio cave in Latium include vases containing traces of wheat, barley seed cakes, and parts of young animals including pigs, sheep, and oxen, as well as burned remains of at least three children. The openair veneration of underground phenomena is also implied by the discovery of ceramic fragments from all phases of the Bronze Age around a sulphurous spring near the Colonelle Lake at Tivoli. Other evidence of cult activities at prominent points in the landscape, such as mountain tops and rivers, suggests that rituals began to lose an underground orientation during the middle Bronze Age. By the late Bronze Age (c.1300–900 BC) natural caves no longer seem to have served ritual or funerary functions.

scholarly journals BUKIT SIGUNTANG: PERANANNYA DALAM AGAMA BUDDHA PADA MASA KERAJAAN SRIWIJAYA

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Retno Purwanti Nadeak
Keyword(s):  
Study Data ◽  
Community Center ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Place Of Origin ◽  
And Function ◽  
Religious Site

Siguntang hill is one of the sites from Sriwijaya Kingdom period located in Palembang. Based on the findings of artifacts since the early 20th century, the experts believe that Siguntang hill is a religious site, particularly for Buddhism. Nevertheless, evidence in the form of religious buildings (temple) has not been found. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to prove that this is a religious site which played an important role during the Sriwijaya era. The data were collected through excavation and literature study. Data analysis was performed with the identification of archaeological remains, then associated with form and function. The results of the study are statues, inscriptions, chinese ceramic fragmenst which describe Siguntang Hill is the site of religious or whorship center, a Buddhist pilgrim center and a community center of Sriwijaya. In later times, the Siguntang Hill has a role as a place of origin of Malay kings and place of oath.Bukit Siguntang merupakan salah satu situs masa Kerajaan Sriwijaya di Palembang. Berdasarkan temuan artefak sejak awal abad ke-20, para ahli berkeyakinan bahwa Situs Bukit Siguntang adalah situs keagamaan, khususnya Buddha. Namun demikian, bukti-bukti adanya bangunan keagamaan (candi) sampai saat ini belum ditemukan. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui peranan Bukit Siguntang pada masa Kerajaan Sriwijaya berdasarkan bukti-bukti yang ditemukan. Data dikumpulkan melalui kegiatan ekskavasi dan kajian pustaka. Analisis data dilakukan dengan identifikasi tinggalan arkeologi, kemudian dikaitkan dengan bentuk dan fungsinya. Hasil penelitian adalah arca, prasast, pecahan keramik Cina yang menggambarkan, bahwa Bukit Siguntang merupakan situs keagamaan atau pusat peribadatan, pusat penziarah agama Buddha dan pusat pertemuan masyarakat pada masa Kerajaan Sriwijaya. Pada masa kemudian,Bukit Siguntang memiliki peran sebagai tempat asal-usul raja-raja di Dunia Melayu dan tempat melakukan sumpah.

ԿՈՒՐԱՐԱՔՍՅԱՆ ՄԻՋԱԳԵՏՔԻ ԲՐՈՆԶ-ԵՐԿԱԹԵԴԱՐՅԱՆ ՈՒՍԱԳՈՏԻՆԵՐԸ

2021 ◽  
pp. 226-246
Author(s):  
Benik Vardanyan
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
The Social ◽  
Military Uniform ◽  
The One ◽  
And Function ◽  
Armenian Highland ◽  
The Military

An object type characterized as a shoulder strap was found in archaeological sites of the Armenian Highland and the South Caucasus. They served as a strap from which weapons (blade or sword) were mounted. Their purpose was to ensure quick accessibility to the weapon during combats. In ancient societies, shoulder straps symbolized the privileged status of the military aristocracy. The emergence and depiction of the straps on the inventory coincide with a transformation in the social landscape on the one hand and with the early state formation processes on the other hand. Social changes led to the formation of a militarized class of the privileged who, as part of their military uniform, possessed also the shoulder strap. This is evidenced by the multiple images of warrior-predecessors in the form of statuettes-standards and sculptures of the Bronze and Iron Age, as well as on bronze and clay vessels, which show the development of the form and function of the lash.

Too Weak Not to Lead: The Form and Function of 2 Cor 11.23b–33

1995 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott B. Andrews
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Literary Practice ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Pauline Epistles ◽  
And Function

Recently, several New Testament scholars have examined the lists of hardships found in the Pauline epistles and their relation to similar lists in other ancient writings. For example, in Cracks in an Earthen Vessel, John Fitzgerald interprets several ‘catalogues of hardships’ in the Corinthian correspondence based upon his study of the ancient, Greco-Roman literary practice of compiling lists of hardships. Fitzgerald seeks ‘a clarification of the forms and functions of peristasis catalogues in general and Paul's in particular’. Similarly, Martin Ebner seeks an understanding of the forms, motifs, and functions of hardship lists throughout Paul's writings as his subtitle (Untersuchungen zu Form, Motivik und Funktion der Peristasenkataloge bei Paulus) indicates. Yet while adding to the span of knowledge of peristasis catalogues, both Fitzgerald and Ebner have largely ignored important aspects of the form and function of hardship lists in some ancient writings. Furthermore, a crucial connection between the ancient, Greco-Roman use of peristasis catalogues and Paul's apostleship of weakness as exemplified in 2 Cor 11.23b–33 has been insufficiently analyzed.

Of Swords, Sandals, and Statues: The Myth of the Living Statue

2017 ◽  
pp. 137-155
Author(s):  
Vito Adriaensens
Keyword(s):  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Special Effects ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Literary Art ◽  
Roman Antiquity ◽  
And Function ◽  
Do So

As sculpture is the classical art par excellence, statues abound in films set in Greek or Roman antiquity. Moreover, many of the mythological tropes involving sculptures that have persisted on the silver screen have their origins in classical antiquity: the Ovidian account of a Cypriot sculptor named Pygmalion who falls in love with his ivory creation and sees it bestowed with life by Venus, Hephaistos’s deadly automatons, the petrifying gaze of the Medusa, and divine sculptural manifestation, or agalmatophany, for instance. This chapter investigates the myths of the living statue as they originated in Greek and Roman literary art histories and found their way to the screen. It will do so by tracing the art-historical form and function of classical statuary to the cinematic representation of living statues in a broad conception of antiquity. The cinematic genre in which mythic sculptures thrive is that of the sword-and-sandal or peplum film, where a Greco-Roman or ersatz classical context provides the perfect backdrop for spectacular special effects, muscular heroes, and fantastic mythological creatures.

scholarly journals Beccles Triple Post Alignment, Beccles Marshes, Suffolk: Excavation and Palaeoenvironmental Analyses of an Iron Age Wetland Site

2011 ◽  
Vol 77 ◽  
pp. 231-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin R. Gearey ◽  
Henry P. Chapman ◽  
Andrew J. Howard ◽  
Kristina Krawiec ◽  
Michael Bamforth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Single Phase ◽  
Lap Joints ◽  
Floodplain Vegetation ◽  
North West ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Wetland Site ◽  
Before And After ◽  
And Function ◽  
Floodplain Hydrology

This paper describes the results of two seasons of excavation and associated palaeoenvironmental analyses of a wetland site on Beccles Marshes, Beccles, Suffolk. The site has been identified as a triple post alignment of oak timbers (0.6–2.0 m long), over 100 m in length, and 3–4 m wide, running north-west to south-east towards the River Waveney. It was constructed in a single phase which has been dated dendrochronologically to 75 BC, although discrete brushwood features identified as possible short trackways have been dated by radiocarbon to both before and after the alignment was built. It is unclear if the posts ever supported a superstructure but notches (‘halving lap joints’) in some of the posts appear to have held timbers to support the posts and/or aid in their insertion. In addition, fragments of both Iron Age and Romano-British pottery were recovered. A substantial assemblage of worked wooden remains appears to reflect the construction of the post row itself and perhaps the on-site clearance of floodplain vegetation. This assemblage also contains waste material derived from the reduction splitting of timbers larger than the posts of the alignment, but which have not been recovered from the site. Environmental analyses indicate that the current landscape context of the site with respect to the River Waveney is probably similar to that which pertained in prehistory. The coleoptera (beetle) record illustrates a series of changes in the on-site vegetation in the period before, during and after the main phase of human activity which may be related to a range of factors including floodplain hydrology and anthropogenic utilisation of Beccles Marshes. The possible form and function of the site is discussed in relation to the later prehistoric period in Suffolk.

Fortifications and Economy in Prehistoric New Zealand

1971 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Bellwood
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
White Potato ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
European Contact ◽  
The North ◽  
New Information ◽  
And Function

The purpose of this paper is to give an account of the prehistoric fortifications (pa) of New Zealand, firstly by describing the cultural background as it is reconstructed by ethnographers for the period immediately preceding European contact, and then by presenting new information from two excavations which have yielded valuable results on the form and function of these sites.The New Zealand fortifications, which are mainly of the earthwork type with timber superstructures, have long been on record, and were first described by James Cook for the year 1769 (the initial discovery of New Zealand, by Tasman in 1642, was not accompanied by a landing). Recent surveys indicate that there are about 4,000 pa in New Zealand, most distributed in coastal situations in the North Island and northern South Island, and this distribution correlates with that of prehistoric populations living by simple horticulture and the exploitation of marine and forest resources. In the southerly parts of the South Island, where climate was not favourable for horticulture and where population density was slight, there appear to be no fully prehistoric fortifications. From 1769 onwards increasing European contact introduced pigs, the white potato, muskets, metals and other items which, in combination, gave rise to radically different technological and economic patterns. This paper is concerned solely with prehistoric Maori culture.Morphologically, New Zealand pa resemble the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age earthwork hillforts of north-western Europe, and many, by their size and strength, show clear evidence of engineering skill and the ability to organize large labour forces.

The decoration of early shrines and temples

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts
Keyword(s):  
Central Italy ◽  
Vernacular Architecture ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Careful Selection ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Religious Architecture ◽  
New Information ◽  
New System

An integral part of the transition from ‘huts’ to ‘houses’ in the seventh and early sixth century BC was the adoption of a new roofing system using wooden beams and terracotta tiles instead of traditional thatch. The two elements of the new system formed an integrated unit, with special tiles designed and positioned to protect the perishable wooden beams from rain, wind, and fire; many also carried painted and moulded decorations that have encouraged study of their iconography as well as function. The disappearance of wooden trusses and supporting mud-brick walls from the archaeological record means that thousands of these durable tiles and architectural terracottas now comprise the primary evidence for the size, form, and decoration of many early Etruscan and Latial superstructures. Excavations in the last seventy years have yielded new information about the distribution of the decorative elements of these roofs in Etruria and Latium, and in particular about the different types of buildings on which they appeared. It is clear that architectural terracottas were initially placed on a wide variety of buildings, unlike their Greek counterparts, but gradually became the preserve of religious architecture. This chapter will examine the nature and location of these roofs, their imagery, and explanations for their increasingly limited use. As such it will offer a detailed analysis of the process by which terracottas became a means of differentiating religious buildings from vernacular architecture during the sixth century BC. Tile production appears to have begun in central Italy by the middle of the seventh century BC and can be associated with significant changes in society and economy. With an approximate weight of 60 kilograms per square metre for tiles and up to 85 kilograms per square metre for the supporting roof beams, the downward and outward pressure of tiled roofs had to be countered with strong, preferably stonebased, walls following rectangular or square plans, the careful selection of timbers to span greater distances, and specialized craftsmen to make, fit, and repair the roofs. All of these factors imply more sedentary communities than hut architecture, growing technical infrastructure, and an ability and readiness to invest in the greater capital expense of a tiled roof.

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