Rural Cult Centres in the Hauran: Part of the Broader Network of the Near East (100 BCAD 300)

Rural Cult Centres in the Hauran: Part of the broader network of the Near East (100 BC–AD 300) challenges earlier scholars’ emphasis on the role played by local identities and Romanisation in religion and religious architecture in the Roman Empire through the first comprehensive multidisciplinary analysis of rural cult centres in the Hauran (southern Syria) from the pre-Roman to the Roman period. The Hauran is an interesting and revealing area of study because it has been a geographical cross-point between different cultures over time. Inspired by recent theories on interconnectivity and globalisation, the monograph argues that cult centres, and the Hauran itself, are part of a human network at a macro level on the basis of analysis of archaeological, architectural, sculptural and epigraphic evidence and landscape. As a result of this multi-disciplinary approach, the text also re-assesses the social meaning of these sanctuaries, discusses the identity of the elite group that contributed financially to the building of sanctuaries, and attempts to reconstruct ritual and economic activities in cult centres. This book re-evaluates the significance of contacts between the elite of the Hauran and other cultures of the Near East in shaping cult sites; it includes a first catalogue of rural cult centres of the Hauran in the appendix.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chapter 2 - The geographical and historical background of the Hauran

Chapter 3 - Rural cult centres in their pre-provincial political context

Chapter 4 - ‘A religious cultural identity’ of the Hauran in the pre-provincial period

Chapter 5 - ‘A rural religious cultural identity’ of the Hauran in the provincial period

Chapter 6 - Rural cult centres as meeting places for their religious and economic function

Chapter 7 - Conclusion

Bibliography

Appendix

Gazetteer

Francesca Mazzilli is a Roman pottery specialist at the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, University of Cambridge (since March 2015). She holds a PhD in Archaeology at the University of Durham for her thesis Beyond Religion: Cultural Exchange and Economy in Syria. Over the last ten years she has worked as an archaeologist in England, Italy and Jordan. Her main research interests are Roman religion, architecture, landscape, theory and pottery. She has presented papers covering these topics in various international conferences in Europe. Together with Dies Van Der Linde she is currently co-editing a book entitled Dialectics of Religion in the Roman World. She has been a member of the Theoretical Roman Archaeological Conference (TRAC) standing committee and of the Theoretical Roman Archaeological Journal (TRAJ) editorial team since March 2017.