SETTLEMENT PATTERNS AND SACRED AGENCIES FROM A DIACHRONIC PERSPECTIVE: THE ROLE OF SACRED PLACES
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 25/03/2021

Sacred places played different roles which can be understood only through a global diachronic landscape approach; pre-roman and Roman sanctuaries may still function during late antiquity and early middle ages, they can change place while maintaining their function or they can disappear leaving their sacred perception unchanged. The spatial and chronological framework must be related to the features of the ancient communities that inhabited those landscapes. The use of sacred places such as high grounds,  springs,  woods,  and  peaks  is  marked  by  the  continuity  or  re-use  of  sacred  places  despite  a  sometimes  unfavorable  settlement substrate. What are the agencies of sacred topographies during a specific chronological phase? What are the fea-tures that affect the continuity/discontinuity of those places? What are their relationships with human and natural geographies? Finally, How all these components work with each other in the construction of historical landscapes? This paper aims at answering these questions by analyzing the sacred topography from pre-roman to early medieval times in the Peligna Valley (Abruzzo, Central Italy), a mountain and high ground landscape characterized by river valleys and steep reliefs andinhabited from the Bronze Age to nowadays.


Author(s): Moderato, Marco (DISPUTER, University G. D’Annunzio of Chieti) - Casolino, Chiara (DISPUTER, University G. D’An-nunzio of Chieti; Scuola di Specializzazione in Beni Archeologici “Dinu Adamesteanu”, Università del Salento)