Cognitive Aspects of Mithraic Rituals in Pannonia

Descrizione del progetto

Culti e riti religiosi nell’antica Roma

Il culto di Mitra era molto popolare in Pannonia, una provincia dell’Impero Romano situata nell’attuale Ungheria occidentale, e in parti dell’Austria e di diversi Paesi balcanici. Il culto consisteva in un gruppo religioso romano clandestino che venerava la divinità pagana Mitra. Non esiste una ricerca sul modo in cui le pratiche rituali venivano acquisite, eseguite, ricordate, diffuse e modificate tra le varie comunità mitraiche in Pannonia. Inoltre, si sa poco su come siano state create le reti religiose mitraiche. Il progetto CAMRIP, finanziato dall’UE, affronterà queste lacune analizzando, confrontando e contrapponendo le testimonianze delle comunità e degli insediamenti mitraici in tutta la Pannonia. L’obiettivo è dimostrare che le pratiche rituali della comunità mitraica variavano da un luogo all’altro.

Obiettivo

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.