Regional Religious Networks in the Roman Empire

Project Information

RENE

Grant agreement ID: 892166

DOI

10.3030/892166

Project closed

EC signature date 1 April 2020

Start date 15 August 2020

End date 28 October 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 202 158,72

EU contribution

€ 202 158,72

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITETET I BERGEN
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RENE (Regional Religious Networks in the Roman Empire)

Reporting period: 2020-08-15 to 2022-08-14

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

RENE has revealed the important role of landscape (road networks and cities), and mobility of actors from different backgrounds (temple benefactors, like soldiers) in shaping major religious centres and religious and cultural transmissions (identified through gods of cult sites and their architecture). This has been possible through social network and spatial analyses of gods, temple benefactors, and cult sites’ architecture. RENE has demonstrated the validity of this new quantitative interdisciplinary approach by looking at two study areas in the Roman Empire (Hauran, southern Syria, and Lusitania, roughly Portugal). It has pushed forward the study of Roman religion, moving beyond scholarly debate focusing on the discourse between local and Roman cultures by considering religious identities as dynamic entities resulting from complex and multiple interactions between different social and political agents and deeply interconnected with the landscape. RENE has made datasets and results open access while disseminating them in conferences, through Twitter and an English/Norwegian educational video. Through a multidisciplinary quantitative analysis of cult sites and religion in the Roman period, RENE has unravelled the complexity of our cultures, arguing their diversity as a result of people's movement and the landscape they are embedded in. Through this study and providing a broad range of dissemination and accessibility of its results, RENE has promoted European Union Work Plan for Culture 2018-2022, stating that “Cultural heritage is the manifestation of cultural diversity”.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Open-access peer-reviewed articles
2022: Mazzilli F., Roman Soldiers in the Religious, Social, and Spatial Network of the Hauran, Mythos, https://doi.org/10.4000/mythos.5802
Work-in-progress, Mazzilli F., Cult Sites and Roman Road Network in the Hauran. In Fulminante F., Mazzilli F., Elgeboden-Faupel F. (eds.) Ancient Cultural Routes, Open Archaeology
Work-in-progress, Mazzilli F., Cult Sites and Landscape: A reassessment of sanctuary typology, Internet Archaeology
Open-access peer-reviewed edited book
Accepted (2023), Da Vela R., Franceschini M., Mazzilli F. (eds.) Networks as Resources for Ancient Communities. RessourcenKulturen Series. Tübingen University Press
Open-access peer-reviewed Special Issue
Work-in-progress, Fulminante F., Mazzilli F., Elgeboden-Faupel F. (eds.) Ancient Cultural Routes, Open Archaeology
Open-access peer-reviewed book chapters
Accepted (2023), Da Vela R., Franceschini M., Mazzilli F.Introduction. In Da Vela R., Franceschini M., Mazzilli F. (eds.) Networks as Resources for Ancient Communities. Tübingen University Press
Accepted (2023), Mazzilli F. A Decade of Religious Networks in the Pre-Roman and Roman periods: An assessment of their Methodology. In Da Vela R., Franceschini M., Mazzilli F.(eds.), Networks as Resources for Ancient Communities. Tübingen University Press
Organization
06/2022 Religious Networks in Antiquity, The Connected Past MSCA Workshop co-organised with T. Glomb, UiB (https://connectedpast.net/bergen-workshop-2022/)
09/2021 Ancient Cultural Routes: Past Transportation as a Two-way Interaction Between Society and Environment, Co-organised Session with T. Glomb, F. Fulminante, F. Faupel, European
Association Archaeologists, Kiel
08/2020 Networks as Resources for Ancient Communities, co-organised Session with R. Vela, M. Franceschini, European Association Archaeologists, Budapest
Invited conference papers
06/2022 Cult sites within the Roman road network: Hauran and Lusitania, Religious Networks in Antiquity, Paper for The Connected Past Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Workshop, UiB
06/2021 Naming Deities and Social-political agents in the Hauran; Paper for Naming Gods in the Graeco-Roman Syria Workshop, University of Toulouse
04/2021 Religious Networks in the Roman Empire: from Macro to Regional Scale; with T. Glomb for Humans and Materiality Research Group, UiB
10/2020 The Impact of the Elite and the Landscape on the Religious Life of the Hauran; Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern Studies Research Group, UiB
Conference papers
09/2021 Role of the Roman Army in Cult Sites in the Hauran (Southern Syria): a Regional Religious Network study in the Roman Empire, Connected Past Conference, University of Aarhus
09/2021 Regional Religious Networks and the Road Network in the Roman Empire; European Association of Archaeologists, University of Kiel
09/2021 Gods of places or of people? A study of rural cult sites at the edge of the Roman Empire; European Association of Archaeologists, University of Kiel
07/2021 Method(s) for Investigating Regional Religious Networks in the Roman Empire; Networks 2021, University of Washington
02/2021 Regional Religious Networks in the Hauran (southern Syria); Naming and Mapping the gods in the Ancient Mediterranean. Spaces, Mobilities, Imaginaries, University of Toulouse
10/2021 Introducing RENE, Regional Religious Networks in the Hauran; CAA Norway, University of Oslo
08/2020 Questioning and Revaluating Religious Network in Classical Antiquity; European Association of Archaeologists, Budapest
Dissemination to the general public and students
02/2023 Can we talk about cultural diversity and religious pluralism in the hinterland at the edge of the Roman empire? Educational video for high school students. To be published in ReligionsOraklene https://religionsoraklene.no/
09/2021 Religious Networks in Antiquity, case study Hauran, Guest Lecture, Religions in Antiquity module, UiB
04/2021 Religion in the urbanscape of the Roman Near East, Guest Lecture, The Archaeology of Urban Built Environment in the Roman World module, UiB
09/2020 RENE’s twitter account https://twitter.com/RENE_uib
current

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Through extensive dissemination and accessibility of its data and results, RENE succeeded in the aim of the project to promote cultural (religious) diversity shaped by the movement of people and connected with the landscape by undertaking an analytical and quantitative interdisciplinary approach to cult sites in the Roman period in Hauran, southern Syria, and Lusitania, roughly Portugal. All the data are freely available for further use.
The research results based on social network and spatial analyses of gods, temple benefactors, and cult sites’ architecture have moved the study of Roman religion forward. Whereas the scholarly debate focused on the discourse between local and Roman cultures and between the urban and rural worlds, RENE has discussed religious identities as dynamic entities resulting from a process of complex and multiple interactions between different social and political agents as well as deeply interconnected with the landscape.
RENE contributed to bridging the gap between classical studies (the study of Roman religion) and computational and quantitative methodologies. RENE introduced new quantitative ad computational methodologies to experts in religion in Roman Syria and Portugal, while it generated collaborations with international experts in network and landscape analysis. RENE has brought together experts on the application of network approaches in the study of ancient religions in the Religious Networks in Antiquity workshop at the University of Bergen, which I co-organised with the MSCA fellow Tomáš Glomb in June 2022. This was the first promising event for future directions of the application of network approaches to ancient religions.

RENE logo

Social Network Analysis of temple benefactors and gods in the Hauran (see article in Mythos)

Spatial Analysis (Proximal Point Analysis) of main deities of cult sites in the Hauran (see Mythos)

Social Network Analysis of temple benefactors in the Hauran (see article in Mythos)