Cognitive Aspects of Mithraic Rituals in Pannonia

Descripción del proyecto

Cultos y rituales religiosos en la Antigua Roma

El culto a Mitra era muy popular en Panonia —una provincia del Imperio romano situada en la actual Hungría occidental— y en partes de Austria y varios países balcánicos. El culto era un grupo religioso romano clandestino que adoraba a la deidad pagana Mitra. Faltan investigaciones sobre cómo se adquirían, realizaban, recordaban, difundían y cambiaban las prácticas rituales entre las distintas comunidades mitraicas de Panonia. Además, se sabe poco sobre cómo se establecieron las redes religiosas mitraicas. El equipo del proyecto CAMRIP, financiado con fondos europeos, abordará estas lagunas analizando, comparando y contrastando pruebas procedentes de las comunidades y los asentamientos mitraicos de toda Panonia. Su objetivo es demostrar que las prácticas rituales de las comunidades mitraicas variaban de un lugar a otro.

Objetivo

Traditional scholarship focusing on the examination of archaeological material from the Roman province of Pannonia has ignored cognitive and sensory theoretical approaches, particularly when it comes to the study of Roman religion and ritual. Although the cult of Mithras was extremely popular in Roman Pannonia, we still know little about 1) how ritual practices were learned, performed, remembered, diffused and transformed between different Mithraic communities in Pannonia, and 2) how Mithraic religious networks were formed. My research project aims to bridge this gap in scholarship by applying interdisciplinary cognitive and sensory theoretical perspectives to the analysis of archaeological, epigraphic and iconographic evidence for the cult of Mithras from various Pannonian settlements, in order to investigate and answer 1) and 2). I hypothesize that the project will demonstrate that Mithraic communities throughout Pannonia exhibit localized variations of ritual practices, thereby challenging traditional interpretations of homogeneity of Mithraic ritual. The project will be developed as a series of case studies, where evidence from Mithraic communities and settlements across Pannonia will be analyzed, compared and contrasted. These case studies will be published in the form of peer-reviewed articles. The University of Vienna is the ideal place to conduct this research, firstly because of Vienna's archaeological heritage as an important Roman Pannonian settlement; secondly because of Vienna's museums, archives and libraries which hold Austro-Hungarian excavation reports and archaeological materials; and thirdly due to Vienna's strategic location on the Roman Danube frontier and its proximity to many other Pannonian archaeological sites. Most importantly, collaboration with Prof. Dr. Günther Schörner, a leading international scholar on Roman rituals and cognition, will enable me to broaden my research expertise and contribute to research output at UNIVIE.