Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum (ThesCRA)

ThesCRA is a major multivolume reference on all known aspects of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman cults and rituals, covering the period from 1000 B.C to A.D. 400.

The first five volumes cover the dynamic elements and activities of ancient cults and rituals. Illustrated articles in English, French, Italian, and German treat such topics as processions, sacrifices, libations, dedications, purification, initiation, divination, prayer, asylum, oaths, maledictions, banquets, music, dance, and cult places, statues, and implements. Fifty-five authors discuss various life stages (birth, adolescence, marriage, and death), health, sustenance (agriculture, commerce, hunting, and fishing), craft production, economics, travel, public and private life, guilds, priesthoods, priestly colleges and other institutions, law, diplomacy, war, festivals, and religious links to neighboring societies. Volume VIII, to be published in spring 2012, and an index, scheduled for spring 2014, will completethis unique research tool. 

Antoine Hermary is secretary general of the Foundation for the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC) and professor of archaeology and Greek civilization at the Université de Provence, France.  Bertrand Jaeger is secretary of the Editorial Committee of the Foundation for the LIMC.