Danger was a pervasive presence in the Graeco-Roman world. The scale of ancient threats ranged from city-state or empire-wide crises to deeply personal fears. Dangers such as the evil eye, interpersonal conflict, disease, war or natural disasters were continuously present or could strike at any moment. Navigating many communal and individual dangers was a daily concern of those living in the Graeco-Roman world. Religion was one of the most important ways in which people attempted to deal with perils, as it cemented relationships with the supernatural, which could help in circumventing or diminishing all kinds of threats. Modern scholars employ concepts such as uncertainty, risk, hope, and coping to investigate the role and function of religion in the ancient experience of dealing with danger.

This conference approaches the subject through the lens of materiality. Following the linguistic and spatial turns, the current material turn is fundamentally redirecting our perspective towards a more integrated understanding of the role of material presence and materiality in ancient societies. The material turn refers to a wide-ranging intellectual shift across various disciplines, foregrounding materiality and human–thing entanglement as central to comprehending human life, culture, and social processes. Applied to ancient contexts, it encourages a more holistic understanding of the function and meaning of objects (and material presence in a wider sense, such as the landscape). However, within the study of ancient religions questions of materiality are still secondary, with scholarly attention largely centered on textual evidence (including epigraphical sources). In contrast, archaeology has always prioritized objects, but the material turn has put them in a new perspective. This shift has given rise to arguments that objects function as active agents in processes of historical change, forcing archaeologists to rethink how and to what extent religious experiences, sensations and actions of people in the ancient world were delineated and enhanced by the artifacts they used in cultic contexts.

Historians, archaeologists and scholars of religion thus now have the possibility to combine their expertise to forge a new understanding of ancient religious life as it was experienced in the context of danger. Relevant data/corpora for this topic and approach include, for example, amulets, curse tablets, and herms. The material aspects of practices such as divination and offerings; and material approaches to concepts such as trauma landscapes, liminality, and apotropaism are certainly also of interest. While our primary focus is on traditional Graeco-Roman religions, we are also open to contributions on early Christianity and Judaism – preferably in their relationships to the Graeco-Roman religions.

Confirmed speakers

• David Frankfurter (Boston) — Keynote
• Jessica Lamont (Yale)
• Hannah Smagh (Penn State)
• Christel Veen (Nijmegen)
• Pelayo Huerta Segovia (ASCSA)
• Rebecca Van Hove (Groningen)
• Dafni Maikidou-Poutrino (Thessaloniki)
• Michiel van Veldhuizen (UNC Greensboro)

organizers

• Kim Beerden
• Patricia Kret
• Rafal Matuszewski
• Miguel John Versluys