Description
- Abstract:
- This dissertation presents the first comprehensive study of the archaeological record of sacrifice and the site-specific character of the ritual in Republican Rome and Latium. The research focuses on the multiple altars at five sanctuaries, with dates spanning the Republican era – S.Omobono in Rome (6th-3rd century B.C.E.), the Thirteen Altars at Lavinium (6th-4th century), Area A at Fosso dell'Incastro at Ardea (4th-2nd century), the Sacred Area of the Republican Temples at Ostia (3rd-1st century), and Largo Argentina in Rome (3rd-1st century). The chief distinguishing characteristics at each of the five sites provide the organizational framework for five thematic chapters. Each chapter is informed by a different theoretical approach to the assembled data: memory (Lavinium); orientation (Ardea); negotiation of sacred space (Ostia); and economy of ritual (subdivided into two parts – votive deposits [Largo Argentina, with a particular focus on terracotta miniature altar votives] and faunal remains [S. Omobono]). In three main ways, the research presented in this dissertation reorients the study of sacrificial practice: by establishing the primacy of the sacred landscape in determining religious authority rather than assigning agency exclusively to individual action; by viewing religious activities as haptic manifestations of human behavior and as structured experiences in the material world, rather than as expressions of a doctrinal, belief-based mentality; and by considering Roman sacrifice as a local, site-specific ritual rather than a universal, unvarying practice.
- Notes:
- Thesis (Ph.D. -- Brown University (2014)
Access Conditions
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- In Copyright
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Citation
Moser, Claudia H.,
"Material Witnesses: The Altars of Republican Rome and Latium and the Memory of Sacrifice"
(2014).
Graduate Research Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0HX1B2F
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Graduate Research Theses and Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations for the Graduate Research department....