Cognitive Aspects of Mithraic Rituals in Pannonia

Description du projet

Cultes et rituels religieux dans la Rome antique

Le culte de Mithra était très populaire en Pannonie, une province de l’Empire romain couvrant l’actuelle Hongrie occidentale, ainsi que certaines régions de l’Autriche et de plusieurs pays des Balkans. Ce culte était un groupe religieux romain marginal qui vénérait le dieu païen Mithra. Peu de recherches ont été menées sur la manière dont les pratiques rituelles étaient acquises, mises en œuvre, mémorisées, diffusées et modifiées entre les différentes communautés mithriaques de Pannonie. Les informations manquent permettant de comprendre comment les réseaux religieux mithriaques se sont établis. Le projet CAMRIP, financé par l’UE, comblera ces lacunes en analysant, comparant et rapprochant les données factuelles issues des communautés et des peuplements mithriaques de Pannonie. Il entend montrer que les pratiques rituelles des communautés mithriaques variaient d’une région à l’autre.

Objectif

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.