The project achieved a study of old neglected and new archaeological and epigraphic evidence in the Thessalian Museums and established longstanding collaborations with current excavators. Archives (notebooks, catalogues of finds and photographic data) of old excavations kept in the local Departments of the Greek Ministry of Culture in Thessaly and others research institutions, as well as the Archives of Thessalian Epigraphy hosted at the University of Lyon, were consulted. Research centres (CSAD, LGPN, Beazley Archive) and research facilities (Bodleian University library, Institute of Archaeology, Digital Humanities) at Oxford facilitated the study and dissemination of research results.
A series of articles has been published and are in print by the Principal Investigator (PI) of the project. One article provided a comprehensive account of cults and rites of passage in Thessaly and demonstrated the concurrent institutional presence of age-classes in local societies. A second article, in collaboration with the project’s supervisor, offered a regional perspective on the issue of Underworld journeys in Antiquity by showing that Thessalian attitudes to death reveal a heightened interest in the safe journey to the Underworld or a blessed afterlife. Two more articles, in collaboration with the curators of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Magnesia, offered the first publication of inscribed funerary stelai from major Hellenistic Thessalian cities – Phthiotic Thebes, Demetrias and the site at Palia-Kastro Volou (presumably ancient Iolkos). They brought new and useful insights into the prosopography and mixed ethnic/cultural origin of the local population, as well as contemporary beliefs related to death and the afterlife. Finally, another article, in collaboration with the the Curator of Antiquities of Tenos in the Cyclades, presented new Hellenistic archaeological and epigraphic material kept in private collections on the island of Tenos.
A monograph on the early Hellenistic cults and sacred space of Thessaly, the first full study of religion and society in Thessaly under the Hellenistic kings, is in the final stage of preparation for publication.
THESUNKIN organised an international conference on ‘Religious Interactions in the Hellenistic World’ in order to discuss how and whether religious interactions helped achieve a successful operation of institutions in Hellenistic societies and whether they contributed to the cohesion of its peoples. The event brought together experts in Archaeology, Ancient History and Epigraphy, Religious Studies/Theology, and Oriental Studies from Oxford and other UK (London, Reading) and European academic institutions (Athens, Turin, Cassino, Lille, Toulouse, Utrecht, Groninger, Copenhagen). The PI discussed a new Thessalian mystery cult combining Greek and Semitic elements and stressed the role of Thessaly as an equal part of the Hellenistic World. The project’s webpage hosts the themes addressed during the event. The results will appear in an edited volume.
Four more papers on early Hellenistic cults and sacred space were presented by the PI in international conferences at the Universities of Oxford, Rome and Thessaly and received useful feedback from international audiences. They are in preparation for publication.
Outreach for schools and the wide public were organized at Oxford and Thessaly.
