Published by the Swedish Institute at Athens. Distributed by Eddy.se AB. All content is available with open access, use links below. The stuff of the gods. The material aspects of religion in ancient Greece Edited by Matthew Haysom, Maria Mili & Jenny Wallensten https://doi.org/10.30549/actaath-4-59 The “material turn” in the humanities and social sciences has brought about an expanded understanding of the material dimension of all cultural and social phenomena. In the Classics it has resulted in the breaking down of boundaries within the discipline and a growing interest in materiality within literature. In the study of religion cross-culturally new perspectives are emphasising religion as a material phenomenon and belief as a practice founded in the material world. This volume brings together experts in all aspects of Greek religion to consider its material dimensions. Chapters cover both themes traditionally approached by archaeologists, such as dedications and sacred space, and themes traditionally approached by philologists, such as the role of objects in divine power. They include a wide variety of themes ranging from the imminent material experience of religion for ancient Greek worshippers to the role of material culture in change and continuity over the long term. Chapter abstracts and author affiliations…

Published by the Swedish Institute at Athens. Distributed by Eddy.se AB. All content is available with open access, use links below. Bones, behaviour and belief. The zooarchaeological evidence as a source for ritual practice in ancient Greece and beyond Edited by Gunnel Ekroth & Jenny Wallensten https://doi.org/10.30549/actaath-4-55 Abstract The importance of the zooarchaeological evidence as a source for ritual practices in ancient Greece is gradually becoming widely recognized. Animal bones form the only category of evidence for Greek cult which is constantly significantly increasing, and they can complement and elucidate the information provided by texts, inscriptions and images. This volume brings together sixteen contributions exploring ritual practices and animal bones from different chronological and geographical perspectives, foremost ancient Greece in the historical period, but also in the Bronze Age and as early as the Neolithic period, as well as Anatolia, France and Scandinavia, providing new empirical evidence from a number of major sanctuaries and cult-places. On a methodological level, the complexity of identifying ritual activity from the zooarchaeological evidence is a recurrent theme, as is the prominence of local variation visible in the bone material, suggesting that the written sources and iconography may offer simplified or idealized versions of the…

Published by the Swedish Institute at Athens. Distributed by Eddy.se AB. Current approaches to religion in ancient Greece. Papers presented at a symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 17–19 April 2008 Edited by Matthew Haysom & Jenny Wallensten Abstract In recent years Greek religion has emerged as one of the main topics for the study of ancient Greek society as a whole. This flourishing interest is certainly due to the recognition of the centrality of religion to Greek culture: religious beliefs and practices were connected to almost every aspect of the Greek world. This volume brings together fourteen contributions from a group of upcoming international scholars, presented at a conference held in the Swedish Institute at Athens and the British School at Athens in 2008. The papers take a wide range of approaches: archaeological, epigraphic, iconographical, philological and historical. They demonstrate the diversity of the subject, covering such issues as nineteenth-century historiography, cult epithets, the pantheon, regionalism, polis religion, the performance of ritual, the use of music in ritual, the accessibility of sacred space, and the visual aspects of dedications. The contributions bring new theoretical perspectives, seek to better understand ritual, and highlight the variety of Greek religion. Contents…

Published by the Swedish Institute at Athens. Distributed by Astrom Editions. Ancient Greek hero cult. Proceedings of the Fifth International Seminar on Ancient Greek Cult, organized by the Department of Classical Archaeology and Ancient History, Göteborg University, 21–23 April 1995 Edited by Robin Hägg Abstract A collection of twelve papers, read at an international seminar in Göteborg, that deal with various phenomena of the ancient Greek hero cult, based on literary, iconographical and archaeological evidence. Among the special topics discussed are the hero cults in Early Iron Age Greece, the relationship between funerary ritual, the veneration of ancestors and the cult of heros, the Danaides of Argos as “ancestors”, the multilocality of heroes, patriotic heroes, the politics of the transferal of the bones of heros, the position of the Dioskouroi as Laconian heroes worshipped also in Attica, the origins of Greek hero cult in the context of overseas foundations, the heroon of Asclepius in Athens, the sacrificial rituals of Greek hero cults in Pausanias, the hero Melikertes-Palaimon at Isthmia, and the development of hero cults in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Contents Preface (p. 7) Alexander Mazarakis Ainian, ‘Reflections on hero cults in Early Iron Age Greece’, pp. 9–36 Robin…

Published by the Swedish Institute at Athens. Distributed by Astrom Editions. Ancient Greek cult practice from the archaeological evidence. Proceedings of the Fourth International Seminar on Ancient Greek Cult, organized by the Swedish Institute at Athens, 22–24 October 1993 Edited by Robin Hägg Abstract A collection of thirteen papers, read at an international seminar in Athens, that deal with various phenomena of Greek cult practice, analyzing the information gained from the archaeological evidence. Among the special topics discussed are cult practice in the acropolis sanctuary of Minoa on Amorgos, the sanctuaries in the Artemision of Ephesos, the role played by osteological analysis in the understanding of Greek sacrificial practice, the interpretation of animal bones and fire traces connected with ritual feasting in the Herakleion on Thasos, ritual and society in Early Iron Age Corinthia, small dedications from the Archaic temple of Poseidon at Isthmia, altars in Greek hero cults, the early history of the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis, a sacrificial area near the sanctuary of Apollo Daphnephoros at Eretria, terracotta plaques and other finds from the sanctuary of Demeter and the Dioscouri at Messene, the interpretation of sickles in Greek sanctuaries, changes in votive practice from Classical…

Published by the Swedish Institute at Athens. Distributed by Astrom Editions. Celebrations of death and divinity in the Bronze Age Argolid. Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 11–13 June, 1988 Edited by Robin Hägg & Gullög C. Nordquist Abstract Twenty-four papers on various aspects of burial customs and religious cult practice in the region Argolis (Greece) during the Bronze Age, read at an international conference in Athens; the papers are followed by transcripts of the discussions of the symposium. The papers are arranged in six groups, discussing (1) ceremonial practices in the Early and Middle Helladic periods, (2) mortuary customs, state formation and Mycenaean society, (3) burial rites in tumuli, tholoi and chamber tombs, (4) symbols and symbolism in Mycenaean celebrations, (5) Mycenaean cults and cult practices, and (6) religious aspects of the post-Bronze-Age period. Contents Preface (p. 7) Ceremonial practices in the Early and Middle Helladic periods Daniel J. Pullen, ‘Early Helladic burials at Asine and Early Bronze Age mortuary practices’, pp. 9–12 Miriam Caskey, ‘Thoughts on Early Bronze Age hearths’, pp. 13–21 Carol Zerner, ‘Ceramics and ceremony: Pottery and burials from Lerna in the Middle and early Late Bronze Ages’, pp. 23–34…