Williamson, Christina

English

ARTS repository - University of Groningen

University of GroningenJ.Poblome, D. Malfitana and J. Lund (eds), HEROM. Journal of Hellenistic and RomanMaterial Culture, Vol. 1, 2012Williamson, ChristinaPublished in:Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewIMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite fromit. Please check the document version below.Document VersionPublisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordPublication date:2014Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research databaseCitation for published version (APA):Williamson, C. (2014). J.Poblome, D. Malfitana and J. Lund (eds), HEROM. Journal of Hellenistic andRoman Material Culture, Vol. 1, 2012. Bryn Mawr Classical Review. http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2014/2014-05-27.htmlCopyrightOther than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of theauthor(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons).The publication may also be distributed here under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license.More information can be found on the University of Groningen website: https://www.rug.nl/library/open-access/self-archiving-pure/taverne-amendment.Take-down policyIf you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediatelyand investigate your claim.Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons thenumber of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum.Download date: 24-12-20258/29/2014 Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2014.05.27http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2014/2014-05-27.html 1/5BMCR 2014.05.27 on the BMCR blogBryn Mawr Classical Review 2014.05.27Jeroen Poblome, Daniele Malfitana, John Lund (ed.), HEROM.Journal on Hellenistic and Roman Material Culture, vol. 1.  Leuven:  Leuven University Press, 2012.  Pp. 275.  ISBN OnlineISSN: 2294-4281; Print ISSN: 2294-4273.  €30,00.   Reviewed by Christina Williamson, University of Groningen(c.g.williamson@rug.nl)[The authors and titles are listed below.]‘Scherben brengen Glück’ is the title of the wry editorial statement for this maidenvolume of HEROM, and not without reason as this signifies the break with itspredecessor, FACTA: A Journal of Roman Material Culture Studies. Financialconstraints forced the editors to seek a new publishing house, yet they turnednecessity into opportunity to “make a good product even better” with three majorchanges. In the first place, the Hellenistic world is now included, encouraging morecross-chronological dialogue regarding the material culture of the post-classicalworld. In the second place, the format is principally digital, allowing for thepublication of larger data sets as well as full-colour images, but at the cost of thequality of the print version. Thirdly, and most important, the journal is nowpositioned within a much broader academic scope, engaging with wider issues ofsocial relevance from a theorizing standpoint.These aims are not immediately apparent in all of the contributions, however, andthe first, non-thematic article, John Richard Green’s study on Roman bronze lamps,would have been more at home in FACTA. Green’s lamps bear depictions ofDionysiac masks and he relates them to the growing popularity of pantomime inRoman theaters, touching on their social contexts, although this could be exploredin more depth. His catalogue of 93 specimens provides a rare overview of thematerial with 26 photos; the quality of these could be better (no. 25 is blurred).Furthermore, a map of their distribution would support Green’s argument for theirlate introduction into Greece and the Ionian coast. Nonetheless, his soundiconographic approach make this a worthwhile contribution, despite being the oddman out in this issue.The rest of the volume is taken up by the main theme of Roman and early Christianpilgrimage, introduced by guest editor Troels Myrup Kristensen, director of theproject ‘The Emergence of Sacred Travel: Experience, economy, and connectivityin Ancient Mediterranean Pilgrimage’ at Aarhus University.1 While the title of this8/29/2014 Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2014.05.27http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2014/2014-05-27.html 2/5project reflects current debates over the terms ‘pilgrimage’ and ‘sacred travel’ inantiquity,2 Kristensen stresses that the real importance lies in a long termperspective of the phenomenon, in which continuity and change may be morereadily discerned. The lens of material culture is crucial in this regard, with artifactsat all scales, from mobile pilgrim flasks and votives, to constructed space at placesof pilgrimage, and even the manipulation of landscape to stage the pilgrimageexperience, e.g. the wondrous visual approach to the shrine of Aya Tekla, nearmodern Silifke in southeast Turkey. Experience, economy, and connectivity are themain avenues of enquiry of the Danish project and are clearly reflected in the sixcontributions here.The first of these is Philip Kiernan’s study on places of pilgrimage during thetransition from pagan to Christian practices in the Roman west, a refreshinggeographical focus. He examines four sites: two sanctuaries of Apollo, one atNettleton (UK), and another at Hochscheid (Germany); a spring shrine to thenymph Sequana at Fontes Sequanae (France); and the complex at Thun-Allmendingen (Switzerland), dedicated to a number of Roman and local deities.Kiernan has a welcome holistic approach, as he integrates epigraphic andiconographical data, including representations of pilgrims themselves at FontesSequanae, with architecture, landscape and location. Common to all four casestudies is their isolation, which would be instrumental in creating a ‘shared socialidentity’,3 but may also be related to their role as healing sanctuaries, as heobserves. The transition towards Christianity was remarkably smooth, and a case inpoint for the Danish project’s longue durée approach to the topic.Kristensen frames his discussion of textiles and tattoos within the transformationwhich an individual sought through pilgrimage. ‘Souvenirs’ from the sacredjourney, which could also include ephemeral items such as holy water, should beviewed as enduring symbols of this personal transformation, part of the pilgrim’snew ‘social skin’.4 Against this background, Kristensen discusses the problematicissue of textiles and tattoos as material culture from Christian pilgrimages in Egypt,interpreting the use of illustrative textiles as a continuation of Greco-Roman idealsregarding sacred clothing, while tattoos on the other hand represent a consciousinversion of social values, associated as they were with human bondage. Althoughthe evidence is ruefully scant, he manages to draw this phenomenon in from themargins of research and include it within the wider perspective of pilgrimage andits material culture.A specific class of pilgrim artifacts is found in the collections of metal ampullaediscovered at Monza and Bibbio in Northern Italy. With their stamped depictionsfrom the life of Christ, these have largely been studied from an iconographicalperspective. Heather Hunter-Crawley, however, argues that in order to fullyinterpret them, one should focus on what they do, rather than what they signify.This is where sensory archaeology and the theory of affordance come in.5 Hunter-Crawley’s provocative interpretation is compelling, although she does go intoconsiderable detail denouncing previous theoretical approaches as Cartesiandualistic, while her redefinition of ‘cultural phenomenology’ could be moredeveloped. Nonetheless, her synthetic approach shows how these objects, and themimesis of experience which they evoked, created a window to the Holy Land andgave an immediate sense of ‘being there’ to their beholder, whether pilgrim or laterbystander.8/29/2014 Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2014.05.27http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2014/2014-05-27.html 3/5Given its strategic location and the extent of its Christian structures in lateantiquity, it is difficult to imagine that the ancient sanctuary of Zeus at Labraundawas not of the target of pilgrimage, or rather sacred movement, as Jesper Blidargues. Blid guides the reader through time as he carefully discusses the changes tothe site, with excellent illustrations. 6 Labraunda was a major religious center,promoted in the Late Classical period by the Hekatomnids, satraps of Karia, whoconnected the mountain shrine to the more populated areas to the north (Alinda)and south (Mylasa) by means of a paved road. It is this sacred way which continuedto be vital to the site roughly a millennium later, as the shrine alternatively becamea roadside emporium and a Christian complex in the fifth and sixth centuries. Blidobserves that the churches were built below the temenos and very near the road,using extant architecture but practically obscuring the ancient shrine from viewwith “a ‘curtain’ of Christian churches” (p.171).Churches were more physically intertwined with antiquities in southern Greece, asAmelia Robertson Brown observes. Despite the biblical fame of Patras, Athens andCorinth, this area was not a popular destination before the nineteenth century, asfew relics were left and the area was too unstable. Travel accounts such as that ofthe Englishman Saewulf, who in 1102 visited Patras and Corinth, and perhapsAthens, en route to the Holy Land, are therefore precious. Brown interprets suchtexts together with the archaeological material in order to comprehend the effortmade by locals to attract pilgrims. Stories were spun and antiquities were layeredwith new Christian identities, e.g. the Parthenon was dedicated to the Virgin Mary,while memories of St. Paul were perpetuated through legend and architecture. AtCorinth, local martyrs were given superregional status, and great basilicas wereerected in places where they would be noticed by land and by sea. Pilgrimage couldbe lucrative, if only the pilgrims would come.Ephesus, on the other hand, has long been a locus sanctus, but which monumentscan actually be linked with pilgrimage in the Byzantine era is Andreas Pülz’essential question. The basilica-tomb of St. John is a prime example, testified byboth literary and material evidence as a place of pilgrimage. Legend has it that thesaint, protector of the city after driving Artemis away, did not die but simply ‘fellasleep’, hence the regular puffs of dust emanating from the vents below his altar.Pülz reconstructs a veritable ‘dust industry’ of supply and demand with this‘manna’, believed to have healing powers, collected in ampoules which are foundacross the Mediterranean and Black Sea areas; interestingly, St. John is depicted ononly a few of them. Other sites at Ephesus, such as the so-called St. Luke’s Tomb,lack material evidence of pilgrimage although there may be literary testimonies, aswith the Cave of the Seven Sleepers. Sites connected to Mary, including thepopular House of Mary (Meryemana), did not attract pilgrims until the nineteenthcentury and were connected to the Greek community at Şirince.Ann Marie Yasin wraps up this issue with an excellent response, in which shestresses the intrinsic nature of objects to religion. Yasin poignantly illustrates thisby way of modern analogy with sacred tourists at the Ephesian Meryemana, theirintimate interactions with wayside images of Maria en route to the site, the objectsof ritual devotion, and the replicas back in the United States. This reflects threerecurring themes which she discerns in this volume: that of the bodily experience ofthe pilgrim; the interconnectedness of sacred topographies, both between majorplaces and at the intra-urban scale; and the economic context of the sites and the8/29/2014 Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2014.05.27http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2014/2014-05-27.html 4/5objects. As Yasin observes, although we need to qualify what we mean by‘pilgrimage’, we must not lose sight of the overall aim to understand what it wasthat drove the desire for divine intervention, motivated multitudes to actions wellbeyond the sphere of their daily lives, and forever transformed the world, “theeffects of which are still very much with us today” (p.274).This volume certainly suits well with the ambitions of HEROM, offering a wideperspective on the things, places, and connections that allowed pilgrimage tohappen. Although some contributions are more steeped in theory than others, theyall leave one with insights into sacred travel, but also wondering about the motivesof the sacred traveler. According to the editors, “this journal wishes to focus evenmore on that one issue that matters most in archaeological terms: people” (p.18).They are well aware that there is a long path ahead of them. HEROM 1 is a goodstep in the right direction.Table of ContentsJeroen Poblome, Daniele Malfitana and John Lund: Scherben bringen Glück.HEROM's Editorial StatementJohn Richard Green: Roman Bronze Lamps with Masks: Dionysos, Pantomime andMediterranean Popular CultureThematic section on ‘The Material Culture of Roman and Early ChristianPilgrimage'Troels Myrup Kristensen: The Material Culture of Roman and Early ChristianPilgrimage: An IntroductionPhilip Kiernan: Pagan Pilgrimage in Rome's Western ProvincesTroels Myrup Kristensen: Textiles, Tattoos and the Representation of Pilgrimage inthe Roman and Early Christian PeriodsHeather Hunter-Crawley: Pilgrimage made Portable: A Sensory Archaeology of theMonza-Bobbio AmpullaeJesper Blid: Sacred Movement to Labraunda - An Archaeological PerspectiveAmelia Robertson Brown: Medieval Pilgrimage to Corinth and Southern GreeceAndreas Pülz: Archaeological Evidence of Christian Pilgrimage in EphesusAnn Marie Yasin: Response: Materializing the Study of Late Antique PilgrimageNotes:1.   See The Emergence of Sacred Travel. 2.   E.g. Matthew Dillon, Pilgrims and Pilgrimage in Ancient Greece, London,1997; Jas Elsner and Ian Rutherford, Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and EarlyChristian Antiquity. Seeing the Gods, Oxford, 2005. 3.   Victor Turner, "Pilgrimages as Social Processes," in V. Turner (ed.) Dramas,Fields, and Metaphors. Symbolic Action in Human Society, Ithaca, NY, 1974, 166-230. 4.   Terence Turner, "The Social Skin," in C.B. Burroughs and J.D. Ehrenreich(eds) Reading the Social Body, Iowa City, 1993, 15-39. 5.   Hunter-Crawley draws on Carl Knappett, Thinking through Material Culture.An Interdisciplinary Perspective, Philadelphia, 2005. The concept was developedby James J. Gibson in "The theory of affordances," published in R. Shaw and J.8/29/2014 Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2014.05.27http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2014/2014-05-27.html 5/5Bransford (eds) Perceiving, acting, and knowing. Toward an ecologicalpsychology, Hillsdale, NJ, 1977, 67-82. 6.   Note: Fig. 7 is the well-house on the central terrace, rather than the tetraconch.Read comments on this review or add a comment on the BMCR blogHome ReadLatest ArchivesBMCRBlogAboutBMCRReview forBMCR CommentariesSupportBMCRBMCR, Bryn Mawr College, 101 N. Merion Ave., Bryn Mawr, PA 19010

J.Poblome, D. Malfitana and J. Lund (eds), HEROM. Journal of Hellenistic and Roman Material Culture, Vol. 1, 2012

https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/13708703/Bryn_Mawr_Classical_Review_2014.05.pdf

J.Poblome, D. Malfitana and J. Lund (eds), HEROM. Journal of Hellenistic and Roman Material Culture, Vol. 1, 2012

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

ARTS repository - University of Groningen