[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]
The book aims to investigate the material dynamics connected with the festivals staged in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. It brings together nine contributions from different authors, and an introduction and conclusion by its editor, Zahra Newby. The volume examines the spatial and chronological development of festivals, which flourished most of all during the second and third centuries CE, through the lens of material culture. It draws attention to the diverse choices that organizers, participants and spectators made over material culture, highlighting how it played a key role in constructing ancient festivals. These events also nurtured a feeling of belonging to a particular space, society, or culture; in other words, they contributed towards the definition of “identity”[1].
Chapter 2 by Sebastian Scharff delves into the question of how successful athletes portray themselves, through material evidence. Beginning in the late first century BCE, athletes sought to position themselves within a larger context by representing themselves as triumphant not only within their own city but also across the wider world (“the first of all people” or “the first of the inhabited world”) and by listing their multiple citizenships and underlining their noble origins. Finally, they also sought to demonstrate proximity to power, in particular that of the emperor through statues, letters, decrees etc. In this way, materiality fed into the perceived omnipresence of emperors, through which athletes showcased and defined their identity. In Chapter 3, Rocío Gordillo Hervás focuses on Hadrian’s reign as a moment of renewal and regulation of games. The author focuses on the synods’ role in the transmission of new imperial regulations. Three Hadrianic letters from Alexandria Troas, inscribed on a stele dated 133-134 CE, illustrate the diffusion of ecumenical contest regulations. While the city was excluded from Hadrian’s new calendar of festivals, the fact that the stele includes provisions for all civic games that took place during his reign leads the author to suggest that copies of Hadrian’s regulations were likely transcribed in all locations of the Empire where renowned games took place. Thus, the emperor was an omnipresent figure granting to communities or subgroups a tool for describing themselves.
Dario Calomino examines the rivalry between two cities of Bithynia, Nikaia and Nicomedia using numismatics as evidence for studying the proximity of these cities to the emperor and his family. In particular, Nikaia tried to offset its difference in status with Nicomedia by appropriating the favour of emperors and displaying its proximity to the imperial family on its coinage through iconography. These initial three chapters offer important glimpses into the active involvement of the emperor in civic events and how various social groups integrated imperial rhetoric into their everyday life. They open up a fresh perspective on the lived experience of ancient communities.
In Chapters 5 to 8, the impact that material culture had on collective memory during festivals is explored through the analysis of several dossiers of archaeological material. This memory was (re-)negotiated in light of past myths or the proximity of the respective communities to the imperial family.
Chapter 5 by Mairi Gkikaki addresses one coherent body of evidence. Tokens from Roman Imperial Athens, particularly those discovered in destruction layers resulting from the Herulian sack of the city in 267 CE, were related to festivals and in their iconography made reference to the mythical Athenian past. The author successfully explores the agency of these small objects, which were used as tickets to festivals: they connected the Athenian community to its historic past and also bridged the gaps between different subgroups within Athens (the civic elite and the citizenry, the sacred Gerousia and the ephebes). In addition, token designs, such as the types showing Theseus or Themistokles, inserted the Athenian past into a broader répertoire of emblems, reaching different and even incompatible groups (elite and clients, Athenians and Romans, etc.). This chapter shows that ancient communities negotiated their current identities by drawing on their past. In Chapter 6, Zahra Newby places the theatre and its monuments at the centre of the analysis. Through the lens of “cultural performances” of various natures (reliefs, coin imagery, statues, etc.), the chapter argues that the theatre exercised a spatial agency in the construction of social hierarchies and civic cohesion. The cases chosen are the porta regia reliefs from Hierapolis in Phrygia and Perge in Pamphylia. The fascinating analysis of both sets of reliefs underlines, at Perge, the involvement of the citizen body divided into subgroups and, at Hierapolis, the importance of collective groups and personifications (Andreia, Synodos, Dadouchos and Dolichos, for example). Each community approached the same space according to diverse social and cognitive strategies. Chapter 7 by Naomi Carless Unwin highlights the epigraphic “landscape” of Aphrodisias in Caria, considering the material culture produced within its Roman theatre. The mentality driving the epigraphic habit can be unveiled by studying the contexts in which inscriptions were located. The author’s ambitious goal is to reconstruct “the factors affecting the decision to engrave texts; how epigraphic activity was meant to interact with its civic setting, the extent to which it was generated in response to the display of other texts and how inscriptions could be employed to reinforce a sense of (civic) tradition” (p. 180). The theatre was “a meeting space for multiple civic celebrations, attracting the widest possible audience” (208) and that the epigraphic landscape was influenced by, and in turn influenced, the audience, who were seeking to participate in a communal display in terms of self-representation, civic identity and collective memory.
Chapter 8 by Paul Grigsby interrogates the role played by the Guilds of Artists or Technitai of Dionysos (especially those of the Isthmos and Nemea) in the agonistic development of Boiotia from the Hellenistic age to the Roman period. This is possible thanks to rich epigraphic evidence concerning the inauguration or restoration of ancient agones in several Boiotian poleis from the third century BCE onwards, in which the Guild was particularly active. The Trieterides of Thebes, the Mouseia at Thespiai and the Ptoia at Akraiphia provide valuable insights into how sub-civic groups contributed to the making of regional cultural identities. It provides a deep understanding of the power dynamics in which the festivals originated and were supported, as well as how they changed over time. Focusing on a specific subgroup enhances our comprehension of the morphology of ancient festivals. Managing their organization was a source of pride, empowerment, and both collective and individual ambition.
The final two chapters are connected to particular attitudes or emotions that determine the behaviour of human groups or individuals. In Chapter 9, Christina G. Williamson deals with the emotional impact that specific sacred architecture had on individuals when they entered and visited sanctuaries. While their monumental architecture made an impression on visitors when they arrived, several enclosed spaces developed within sanctuaries as the places in which actual decisions and social interaction took place. Furthermore, interior spaces framed by rectilinear porticoes or stoas fostered the creation and the sharing of common knowledge. They followed sightlines, which show how ritual spaces were aligned with human architecture and/or natural landscapes in the surrounding area. Three case studies (Magnesia and the festival of Artemis Leukophryene, Stratonikeia and the festival of Hecate at Lagina, and Pisidian Antioch and the festival of Men Askaenos) show that enclosed spaces naturally created physical isolation of the participants from the urban environment, e.g. during a ritual. This strategy of excluding/including was a key tool for navigating the festival atmosphere and re-imagining old religious cult sites as places for strengthening community ties. Similarly, Angelos Chaniotis provides a perceptive contribution on the materiality of light in religious rituals or celebrations (not least during festivals) that took place in various locations in the Roman East. He discusses the significance of artificial lighting (such as torches and lamps) during nocturnal celebrations. Night-time rituals had a primordial emotional effect on people and the use of artificial light fostered this “play of shadows”. As four case studies demonstrate (the mystery cult of an Oriental deity in Larisa, the festival of Zeus’ cult in the Idaean cave, the mystery cult in Abonou Teichos and the festival of the Daidala in Boiotia), light-associated materiality fuelled cognitive and emotional processes and provides an interesting glimpse into the lived experience of rituals.
Finally, a Conclusion by Zahra Newby serves as a summary of the main goals of each chapter by grouping them under the dominant issues discussed in the volume.
Different definitions of “materiality” lead to the diverse methodologies employed in this volume. Some authors approach “materiality” as evidence ready to be analyzed as a whole, shedding light on human groups or individuals, practices, and habits. In this sense, “materiality” consists of what is materially appreciable. However, several contributions approach “materiality” as having a proper agency. The making of objects and their physical setting, their emotional impact and their importance as tools for acquiring or displaying prestige provide diverse impressions of the role tangible artefacts could play. This variety makes the volume wide-ranging in terms of its approaches, but at the same time threatens the volume’s internal coherence.
Human agency is the key player of this volume, since emperors (and imperial families), political authorities, spectators and citizens leverage the space around them by shaping it and being shaped by it. In the words of the editor Zahra Newby, “material evidence constructed social connections, hierarchies, and identities” (p. 322). During the last two decades, the material turn and sensorial studies have drawn attention to several aspects of ancient cultures. This interesting volume follows in the footsteps of several other interesting books that have refreshed ancient Greek and Roman history by placing material evidence at the centre[2]. At the same time, it opens up new avenues for further studies on ancient festivals as moments of social construction and self-negotiation thanks to the connectivity between travellers and local communities they fostered.
Bibliography
Bodei R. (2009). La vita delle cose, Laterza: Bari.
Boschung D., and Bremmer J.N. (2015) (eds.). The Materiality of Magic, Wilhelm Fink: Padeborn.
Chaniotis A. (2015). “The Life of Statues of Gods in the Greek World”, Kernos 30, 91-112.
Laneri, N., and Steadman S.R. (2023) (eds.). The Bloomsbury Handbook of Material Religion in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Bloomsbury: London.
Petrovic A., Petrovic I., Thomas E. (2019) (eds). The Materiality of Text – Placement, Perception, and Presence of Inscribed Texts in Classical Antiquity, Brill: Leiden.
Roig Lanzillotta L., and Luis Brandao J., and Teixeira C., and Rodrigues A. (2022) (eds.). Roman Identity Between Ideal and Performance, Brepols: Turnhout.
Pongratz-Leisten B., and Sonik K. (2015) (eds.). The Materiality of Divine Agency, SANER 8, De Gruyter: Berlin.
Tilley, C. (2004). The Materiality of Stone: Explorations in Landscape Archaeology. Oxford: Berg.
Authors and Titles
- Introduction: The Material Worlds of Ancient Festivals, Zahra Newby
- Establishing a Channel of Communication: Roman Emperors and the Self-presentation of Greek Athletes in the Roman East, Sebastian Scharff
- Agonistic Legislation in Hadrian’s Time, Rocío Gordillo Hervás
- Greek Festival Culture and ‘Political’ Games at Nikaia in Bithynia, Dario Calomino
- Tokens from Roman Imperial Athens: The Power of Cultural Memory, Mairi Gkikaki
- Festivals and the Performance of Community and Status in the Theatres at Hierapolis and Perge, Zahra Newby
- An Epigraphic Stage: Inscriptions and the Moulding of Festival Space at Aphrodisias, Naomi Carless Unwin
- The Artists of Dionysos and the Festivals of Boiotia, Paul Grigsby
- Sacred Circles. Enclosed Sanctuaries and their Festival Communities in the Hellenistic World, Christina G. Williamson
- The Materiality of Light in Religious Celebrations and Rituals in the Roman East, Angelos Chaniotis
- Conclusions and Future Directions, Zahra Newby
Notes
[1] See Lanzillotta et alii 2022.
[2] Tilley 2004; Bodei 2009; Boschung and Bremmer 2015; Chaniotis 2015; Pongratz-Leisten and Sonik 2015; Petrovic et alii 2018; Laneri and Steadman, 2023.