num_pages: 188
description: This volume features a group of select peer-reviewed papers by an international group of authors, both younger and senior academics and researchers. It has its origins in a conference held at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, which aimed to bring up the frequently-neglected popular cult and other ritual practices in prehistoric and ancient Greece and the eastern Mediterranean. The topics covered by the chapters of the volume include the interplay between elite and popular ritual at cemeteries and peak sanctuaries just before and right after the establishment of the first palaces in Minoan Crete; the use of conical cups in Minoan ritual; the wide sharing of religious and other metaphysical beliefs as expressed in the wall-paintings of Akrotiri on the island of Thera; the significance of open-air sanctuaries, figurines and other informal cult and ritual paraphernalia in the Aegean, Cyprus and the Levant from the late bronze age to the archaic period; the role of figurines and caves in popular cult in the classical period; the practice of cursing in ancient Athens; and the popular element of sports games in ancient Greece.Table of ContentsPopular religion and introductory notes – by Giorgos VavouranakisRitual, multitude and social structure in Minoan Crete – by Giorgos VavouranakisWhat relationship with the First palace of Phaistos? The funerary complexes of Kamilari and Ayia Triada in the Protopalatial period – by Ilaria CaloiMass and elite in Minoan peak sanctuaries – by Matthew HaysomInverting vases in Bronze Age Where? When? Why? – by Santo PriviteraA Minoan ‘chytros’? Unexpected archaeological evidence for the possible pre-historic origin of an ancient Greek ceremonial practice – by Lefteris PlatonMetamorphoses and hybridity in the wall-paintings at Akrotiri, Thera – by Annette Højen Sørensen, Walter L. Friedrich and Kirsten Molly SøholmApproaches to popular religion in Late Bronze Age Greece – by Helène WhittakerThe Mycenaean figurines revisited – by Nagia Polychronakou SgouritsaMount Lykaion (Arkadia) and Mount Oros (Aegina): two cases of Late Bronze Age sacred ‘high places’ – by Eleni SalavouraThe ‘Minoan Goddess with Upraised Arms’ today – by Theodore C. EliopoulosRe-positioning ‘rural’ sanctuaries within the Cypro-Archaic some considerations – by Anastasia LeriouPopular religion in ancient Judah during the 8th and 7th centuries BC. The case of the female pillar figurines – by Valia PapanastasopoulouRepresentations of the demon-god Bes in Rhodes and Samos during the 7th and 6th centuries BC and their influence on popular religious Bes and the ‘fat-bellied demons’ – by Electra ApostolaOf curses and public and private ritual in Classical Xypete – by Jessica L. Lamont and Georgia BoundourakiCursing rituals as part of household a fourth century BC inscribed bowl from Salamis – by Yannis ChairetakisRepresentations of masked a comparative study and an interpretative approach to their cult-use and meaning – by Maria G. SpathiDetecting the cult of a border sanctuary on the Messenian slopes of Mount Taygetos – by Socrates KoursoumisPopular religion and the beginnings of the Olympic Games – by Panos Valavanis
language: English
title: Popular Religion and Ritual in prehistoric and ancient Greece and the eastern Mediterranean
publisher: Archaeopress Archaeology