BETTER THAN MEN? WOMEN AND RELIGION IN ROMAN DALMATIA
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2021-02-17

The nature of available sources means that most of what we know about the religiosity of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire are the very public activities, which were mostly reserved to the wealthier and privileged echelons of society. Altars, votive tablets, statues and offerings were set up as a socially important act of piety, meant – among other reasons – to express the position of the dedicant, and requiring substantial funding. This in most cases meant that the dedicants were male. When combined with the fact that women were allegedly excluded from activities such as drinking wine or cutting raw meat – both needed in religious rituals – we see that women were almost left out of the public religion. As such, the study of the relatively fewer monuments and sources mentioning females active in the sphere of cult can contribute to a better understanding of the underrepresented phenomenon of individual religious belief in antiquity. The aim of this paper is an attempt to reconstruct the religious life of women who lived in Dalmatia The paper will present not only the choices that women made when engaging in religious life but also some important aspects of their private life. Through analysis of texts of inscriptions the most valuable insight will be reached into the beliefs of individuals and in what ways the “female religiosity” differed (if at all) from the dominant ancient male narrative.


Author(s): Mech, Anna (University of Warsaw)