Overview

This book is the first comprehensive work focusing on lived ancient religious communication in Roman Dacia. Testing for the first time the ‘Lived Ancient Religion’ approach in terms of a peripheral province from the Danubian area, this work looks at the role of ‘sacralised’ spaces, known commonly as sanctuaries in the religious communication of the province. The author analyses the role of space sacralisation, religious appropriation, embodiment and the social impact of religious communication in urban contexts (Apulum), military contexts (Porolissum and Mehadia), and numerous examples from rural (non-urban) environments (Ampelum, Germisara, Ad Mediam, and many others). The book concentrates not only on the creation and maintenance of sacralised spaces in public and secondary locations, but also on their role at the micro-level of objects, semi-micro level of spaces (settlements), and the macro-level of the province and the Danubian region as a whole. Innovatively as regards provincial archaeological research, this book emphasises the spatial aspects of lived ancient religion by analysing for the first time the sanctuaries as spaces of religious communication in Dacia. The work also contains a significant chapter on the so-called ‘small-group’ religions (the Bacchic, Mithraic and Dolichenian groups of the province), which are approached for the first time in detail. The study also gives the first comprehensive list of archaeologicallyepigraphically- attested, and presumed sacralised spaces within Dacia.

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9781789690811

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Reviews

...this book will render invaluable services to researchers interested in the history of Dacia or the Roman religion. --Bryn Mawr Classical Review

‘This is a valuable book, offering knowledge of Dacia and the religious life of the province and will certainly be useful to all those who are interested in the history of Dacia and Roman religion.’ [translated] – Ljubica Perinić (2019): HRČAK ‘Based on an in-depth knowledge of the historiography specific to Roman Dacia and its pitfalls and taking into account very recent discoveries, the work will render valuable services to researchers interested in the history of Dacia or the Roman religion.’ [translated] – Françoise Van Haeperen (2020): Bryn Mawr Classical Review   ‘The paper aims to create a dialogue between several disciplines, and in particular, the study of religious cults using as a case study different settlements in Dacia. It is one of the first steps of this kind and is a relevant study in this field. It offers a multitude of clear examples and explanations, which makes it possible to use this methodology on other sites in the Roman Empire.’ [translated] – Bianca Olteanu (2020): Cercetări Arheologice ‘…Sanctuaries in Roman Dacia opens a fresh insight into the materiality of religious practices in Roman Dacia and, on a more general level, highlights the value of sacral monuments as sources for the social and economic history of the Roman provinces.’ – Damjan Donev (2020): American Journal of Archaeology ‘Szabó’s book is an important contribution to the religious history of Roman Dacia. Readers interested in provincial religion will find here a wealth of relevant source material and a number of valuable observations. The book also shows how the detailed analysis of archaeological and epigraphic remains from a Roman province can be combined with the theoretically informed study of the history of ancient polytheism. It is to be hoped that many further studies will follow Szabó’s lead.' – Péter Kató (2021): Historical Studies on Central Europe

Author Information

CSABA SZABO (1987) is an assistant lecturer at the University of Lucian Blaga, Sibiu (Romania). After finishing his undergraduate studies in Cluj-Napoca in 2012, he studied at the University of Pécs and the Max Weber Kolleg, Erfurt as member of the Sanctuary Project. His current research is focusing on Roman religious communication and space sacralisation in the Danubian provinces, history of archaeology in Transyslvania, and public archaeology in Romania.

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