Organizers: Prof. Dr. Monika Trümper (Freie Universität Berlin), Dr. Chiara Blasetti Fantauzzi (Freie Universität Berlin / Einstein Center Chronoi), Dr. Cinzia Pappi (Freie Universität Berlin / Einstein Center Chronoi)

Venue: Einstein Center Chronoi, Otto-von-Simson-Straße 7, 14195 Berlin

To participate please register at this address: sekretariat@chronoi.org

Abstract:

Sacred spaces are defined by each society according to their cultural processes, as well as by their political and social environment. They are characterized by location and temporality, combining both the perception of a sacred place, as a human built environment, and the temporality of ritual activities.

Ritually defined spaces are strictly related to temporal units, of different extension, related either to the developments of local cultic calendars or to wider socio-political contexts. Temporally fixed ritual performances involve both spatial shifts and coexistence or, sometimes, exclusion of sacred spaces, e.g. seasonal function of specific sacred spaces, such as extra-muros cultic places, palatial areas, combined with temporally limited or unlimited fruition of sacred spaces, e.g. persistence or change in the fruition of cultic centers, driven by changes of the cultural landscape.

Cultic places, e.g. single temples, palatial chapels, or templar complexes, combined with the

complexity of religious activities in which they are performed, served not only as places of

communication with gods, but also as places of social and political relevance, shaped mainly by the political developments and by several socio-economic factors. Investigations of such a complexity of aspects under the perspective of the long durée contributed to the development of several models of cultural resilience, defined not only by temporal continuity, expressed in different ways of appropriation and adaptation, but also marked by states of temporal or definitive abandonment. At the same time, the concept of temporality encompasses that of synchronicity and asynchronicity. The (a)synchronous fruition of sacred places by different ethnic groups, as reflected in cyclic ritual activities, votive offerings, and epigraphic evidence, as well as the (a)synchronous development of cultic mobility and spatial displacement of cults.

The workshop aims to focus on different aspects of temporality of sacred spaces and attempts to

compare a selection of case-studies from different contexts of the Mediterranean Area and the Middle East.

Program:

NOVEMBER 3, 2022

15:00 – 15:30

Opening

Chronoi Board

Workshop Organizers

Massimo Osanna

(Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage,

Director-General of Museums)

15:30 – 16:30

Cinzia Pappi (EC-Chronoi, FU Berlin)

“Shifting Panthea: Developments of Religious Spaces in Syria in the 2nd Millennium BCE”

Sophie Cluzan (Louvre Museum) and Camille Lecompte (CNRS)

"Walking in, Walking out. Sacred Places, Religious Mobilities and Temporalities in the Early Dynastic Kingdom of Mari (Syria)”

16:30 – 17:00

Coffee Break

17:00 – 18:00

Clemente Marconi (New York University)

“The Main Urban Sanctuary of Selinunte: An Archaeology of Ritual Complexity”

Ralph Maria Birk (EC-Chronoi, FU Berlin)

“The Opet Temple in Karnak: on the Margins of Time     and Space”

18:00 – 19:00

Discussion

NOVEMBER 4, 2022

9:30 – 11:00

Massimo Cultraro (CNR Catania)

“Natural Caves and the Construction of Sacred Landscapes in Sicily from Bronze Age to Roman Period”

Chiara Blasetti Fantauzzi (FU Berlin)

“Perception and Appropriation of the Past in the Sanctuary of Venus in Eryx/Sicily”

Chiara Portale (University of Palermo)

“Temporality and Meaning: Assessing the Sanctuaries of Solunto (Sicily)”

11:00 – 11:30

Coffee Break

11:30 – 12:30

Discussion

12:30 – 14:00

Lunch Break

14:00 – 15:00

Sabine Huy (University of Hamburg)

“The Multitemporality of Rituals and Sacred Spaces - The Case of the Ash Hills in Ancient Crimea”

Asja Müller (FU Berlin)

“The Hellenistic-Roman Sanctuary as a Museal Showcase? Experiencing Temporality through Practice in the Asklepieion of Pergamon”

15:00 – 15:30

Coffee Break

15:30 – 16:30

Annette Zgoll (University of Göttingen)

"Sacred Time Meets Sacred Space: The Consecration of Nintu´s Temple in Keš”

Miroslav Novak (University of Bern)

“Where did the Storm God of Gūzāna dwell? On the Resilience of Sacred Places in Times of Ethnic Upheaval in Iron Age Syro-Mesopotamia”

16:30 – 18:00

Discussion

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