ARYS. Antigüedad: Religiones y Sociedades
ARYS. Antiquity: Religions and Societies is a journal co-edited by the "Julio Caro Baroja" Institute of Historiography at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and the ARYS Association. It is dedicated to the study of the complex interactions between religious phenomena and the social structures and dynamics of the ancient world. Its approach is situated at the interdisciplinary crossroads of the history of religions, cultural anthropology, historical sociology, archaeology, and classical studies. The journal pays special attention to how religious practices, beliefs, and representations shape—and are shaped by—the social, political, and economic frameworks of ancient societies. The journal's primary aim is to analyse religion not as an isolated system but as a fundamental component of both public and private life. ARYS promotes research that sheds light on the relational, performative, and material dimensions of religion in ancient contexts of the circum-Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds, as well as in regions historically connected to these, from the Bronze Age (ca. 3500 BCE) to the formation of Islam. The journal offers a rigorous and open space for exploring the multiple ways in which ancient religions were experienced, represented, and transformed in constant dialogue with the societies that practiced them. Each volume includes a monographic section with its own scholarly editor, a miscellaneous section, and a book review section. The journal ARYS. Antiquity: Religions and Societies is indexed in several prestigious repositories and included in recognised editorial evaluation systems, reflecting its established academic quality and international reach: Repositories in which it is indexed: ATLA RDB; CAPES (Brazil, ranked A3 in the field of History); Diamond Discovery Hub (DDH); DICE; DOAJ; Dulcinea; EBSCO Discovery Service; ERIH Plus; ESCI (Clarivate); Humanities Source Ultimate; Interclassica; L’Année Philologique; Latindex 2.0; MIAR; MLA; OpenAlex; REBIUN; REDIB; RESH. Editorial evaluation platforms where it has been assessed (2023): ANVUR (Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca, Italy, Category A); CARHUS Plus+ 2025 (B); CIRC (B); Dialnet (C1); FECYT (Quality Seal); SJR (Q2); Scopus (40th percentile). ARYS. Antiquity: Religions and Societies renewed its FECYT Quality Seal and certificate of excellence in 2024.
Asociación ARYS. Antigüedad: Religiones y Sociedades
Authors retain the copyright of their texts and all publishing rights without restrictions. Since 2021, the documents have been licensed under the Creative Commons 4.0: Attribution–Non-Commercial–No Derivative Works (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Previous documents are licensed under Creative Commons 3.0: Attribution–Non-Commercial–No Derivative Works (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Lista de revisores del número 22 (2024)
Copyright (c) 2025 Arysadmin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
New perspectives on Mediterranean religions in the first millennium BC
Dialogues on Archaeology and the History of Religions
Copyright (c) 2025 Bruno D'Andrea, Antonio Alvar Ezquerra, Sara Giardino https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Jaime Alvar Ezquerra, Elena Muñiz Grijalvo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Cult Spaces. Preliminary Thoughts on the Temple of Artemis at Amarynthos (Euboea, 8th-6th Centuries BCE)
The Sanctuary of Artemis Amarysia at Amarynthos was the most prominent extra-urban sanctuary of the ancient city of Eretria, on the island of Euboea. The precise location of the site has only recently been identified, and it has since been the focus of extensive excavations, with particular attention given in recent years to the temple area. A series of edifices were constructed there atop one another over a long period spanning from the end of the Bronze Age to the end of the Archaic period. What appears to be the first temple was erected at the end of the 8th century BCE and remained in use for about two centuries. This monumental building was divided into three rooms, each housing one or more fireplaces/altars. The article offers some preliminary thoughts on these specific architectural layout and associated facilities, which offer insights into the activities that took place inside the temple. While substantial evidence for animal sacrifice has been uncovered, it is not yet clear whether the fireplaces/altars were used for successive stages of the same sacrifice, or for distinct rituals performed on separate occasions. Furthermore, the question of the function of the rear room – possibly an adyton – is also discussed. The 8th-century temple at Amarynthos provides a valuable case study for understanding the organisation of sacred space and ritual practices at a time when religious architecture was developing in Greece.
Copyright (c) 2025 Samuel Verdan, Tamara v, Jérôme André https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Qui Caput Supponere Fontibus Clusinis Audent. Rereading the Inscribed Bronze Votive Heads from Bagno Grande at San Casciano dei Bagni
This short paper focuses on the dedication of bronze votive heads inside the sacred deposit discovered at Bagno Grande in San Casciano dei Bagni (Tuscani, Italy), in the ancient territory of the city-state of Cleusi/Clusium. Despite the fact that offering ex votos in the form of heads was extremely common in ancient Italy (especially between the 4th and the 1st centuries BCE), the stratified bronze heads inside the sacred thermo-mineral pool of Bagno Grande cannot be merely considered anatomical votives. Exceptional inscriptions on the neck of three heads, in Etruscan and in Latin, all referred to the Hot Spring. It is certainly not by chance that the heads were deposited, at the end of their cultural biography, inside the hot spring of Bagno Grande. The ritual of depositing bronze heads under the hot water of the Spring, in the form of dedications, indirectly echoed common medical and religious practices, thus confirming the importance of analysing the votive archaeological contexts among thermo-mineral springs.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jacopo Tabolli https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Kωμασία (“procession”) and its derivatives (such as κωμαστής, “one who carries images”) are words that appear in an entirely new way in Graeco-Roman Egypt. However, even if the κωμασία is related to processions, many other Greek words referring to the processional rite are also attested in Egypt, such as πομπή, πομπαγωγία ο ἐξοδεία, which is why there is still a debate about the specific meaning of κωμασία. Some authors claim that it was a ceremony held on the adventus or arrival of an important individual, whereas others believe that it was a procession where images of the gods were carried. Finally, other scholars emphasize its oracular aspect. From all of these definitions, I will focus on the κωμασία as a procession where the images of the gods were carried. The mobility of the statues of the gods in Egypt, around which some of its most important religious festivals were articulated (such as the Opet Festival, the Beautiful Feast of the Valley, among others), make us ponder about the originality of the term κωμασία and its derivatives. To try to clarify its meaning, in this paper I will analyze several aspects of the κωμασία and its derivatives: their etymology, their contextualization within the general context of processions in Egypt, the debate on its meaning as well as their diachronic evolution, where both Egyptian tradition and the progressive adoption of Graeco-Roman traits related to the cult of the gods and the rulers may have intervened.
Copyright (c) 2025 Esperanza Macarena Ródenas Perea https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Lieber, Laura S. (2023). Staging the Sacred. Theatricality and Performance in Late Ancient Liturgical Poetry. Oxford: Oxford University Press / Friesen, Courtney (2024). Acting Gods, Playing Heroes, and the Interaction between Judaism, Christianity, and Greek Drama in the Early Common Era. London & New York: Routledge.
Copyright (c) 2025 Donatella Tronca https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Ford, James C. (2024). Atheism at the Agora. A History of Unbelief in Ancient Greek Polytheism. London & New York: Routledge
Copyright (c) 2025 Ramón Soneira-Martínez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Copyright (c) 2025 Antón Alvar Nuño, Pedro Giménez de Aragón Sierra https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The contacts between the Celts and the Greek world during the Hellenistic were multifaceted: beyond sporadic invasions and raids, these populations more often traded and collaborated peacefully with the Greek-Macedonian states, sometimes even managing to integrate into their society. For instance, many Gallic mercenaries obtained grants of land to settle on at the end of their careers. While there is evidence of these military colonists in the territories of the Eastern Hellenistic kingdoms, the same cannot be said for Antigonid Macedonia, where evidence is scarce. This study aims to outline three possible cases in which Gallic mercenaries may have been settled as cleruchs by Macedonian rulers in Greek territory.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alessio Ciarini https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Religious Mobility, Connection, and Transformation of Sacred Spaces in Late Antiquity
This work is based on research conducted through the RHITA project, led by the DINORAMA group at the University of Malaga. In this project, various analyses of literary, archaeological, and epigraphic sources regarding rural worship spaces in Hispania from the 3rd to the 8th centuries were carried out. The quantitative and qualitative analysis determined the evolution of numerous sanctuaries and their adaptation to social and environmental needs. To illustrate these findings, two examples from Late Antique Gallaecia will be examined: Igrexa Vella de Santa Comba de Louro and Adro Vello. The aim of this analysis is to study the interrelationship of these sacred spaces with surrounding habitational or religious areas, population density, transformation and reuse of ancient structures into worship centers, as well as the foundational character and the role played by various social actors in these places. Despite the inherent difficulty of this type of analysis, due to the scarcity of data and the network theory approach, this research seeks to fill historical-archaeological gaps and determine the aspects in these two worship spaces.
Copyright (c) 2025 Daniel Pérez de la Vega https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Constitutio Antoniniana, the Temple to the Severans at Lepcis Magna, the cult of the god Luno at Carrhae and the Temple of Faustina on the slopes of Taurus are four significant moments of Caracalla’s religious policy and highlight the interreligious character of his choices.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alessandro Galimberti https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
New Archaeological and Bio-Archaeological Research in the Sanctuary of Tanit and Ba‘al Hammon in Carthage
New excavations conducted at the Tophet of Carthage in 2017 and 2018, and again in 2023, led to the discovery of several hundred urns. The precision of the stratigraphic observations, along with the relatively limited extent of later disturbances, allows for accurate dating. The recorded observations concern not only the relative positioning of the urns but also their arrangement within the pits and the surface conditions from which they were excavated. These circumstances provided an exceptional opportunity to study a significant corpus using the most current methods of archaeothanatology, applied to secondary cremation deposits, particularly concerning young children. This article presents a first assessment of two years of prior research work and six additional campaigns, which took the form of intensive training sessions. Innovative information has been obtained regarding the presence of remains from multiple individuals within the same urn, the cremation rituals, the partial direct clearing of funeral pyre residues, and the methods of depositing burned bones, both human and animal, into the urns.
Copyright (c) 2025 Henri Duday https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
From Slave to Free. Apeleutheroi in the Sanctuary of Heracles at the Kynosarges in Athens
In these pages we explore the role of freedmen and bastards in the sanctuary of Heracles, nothos par excellence, but also characterised as doulos, in the Kynosarges of Athens. We are exploring the possibility that this sanctuary was a place of manumission, and specifically, of the passage to the "complete liberation" of the apeleutheroi (thus becoming exeleutheroi) through private trials (dikai apostasiou), presided over by the polemarch. These processes would be particularly relevant in the context of the Peloponnesian War, a time of need for military troops, which would be reflected in Aristophanes' comedy of the Frogs. In it, Dionysus disguised as Herakles descends to Hades after consulting the hero in his sanctuary at Kynosarges, in a play that recalls the liberation of slaves in the Arginusas, and where changes of identity take place between Herakles and Dionysus and the slave and the master.
Copyright (c) 2025 Miriam Valdés Guía https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
A Prosopographical Research of Itinerant Religious People in the Late Antique Mediterranean
Already in Antiquity, but even more so in Late Antiquity, there was an intense phase of mobility and transformation of societies; by focusing on a good number of prosopographical data, it is possible to illustrate, at least partially, the historical evolutionary process of the Mediterranean area itself in its religious context. Between the 4th and 6th centuries CE, the ecclesiastical component (pilgrimages and itinerant sanctity) predominates in the Mediterranean. In most cases, religious people travelled because they were involved in embassies, which involved long and arduous journeys between the most important political and religious power places in the empire (in primis sedes regiae). Some of them aspired to advance their careers, others only wanted to reach loca sancta out of devotion and to meet prominent personalities of the Mediterranean religious scene (think of the attraction of personalities such as Bishop Basil in Caesarea Cappadocia or Jerome in Bethlehem). The movements are also fuelled by the circulation of relics, which received a particular impetus from the second half of the 4th century onwards, and if not pilgrimages, the migrations of saints and saintly figures are quite frequent; hagiographies often include narratives of sporadic journeys by sea and land. My paper will focus on a few representative cases of a larger prosopographical study that has not yet been published, to investigate above all the purposes of religious mobility, the categories of individuals most involved (considering also the female component), the means used for the journeys, the most travelled itineraries and thus the calendar and organisation established for undertaking journeys, missions or the like. Some case studies are presented below: Germanus presbyter; Abraham abbas; Iulia Eustochio y Rusticiana; Iovinianus monachus; Iohannes defensor; Bassus presbyter.
Copyright (c) 2025 Elena Gritti https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Religious Mobility and the Visualization of Myth
Religious mobility in the ancient world was a multifaceted and complex phenomenon. It involved the physical movement of people to religious regions for the purpose of sacrifice, initiation, or participation in rituals to venerate the deity being worshipped, as well as the transfer of a shared religious experience from one cult to another. This study aims to provide another perspective on the topic. Festivals and rituals were common in various cults of the ancient Greek world, providing a means to share ideas and religious experiences. The visualization of myths, through various symbols, sacrificial objects, and drómena, intensified the religious experience. The impact of symbols on sensation and how objects conveyed messages were important considerations. This article raises significant questions about whether religious mobility is substantial or symbolic. It explores the impact of space and symbols on sensation and the use of objects as a means of conveying messages.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sotiria Dimopoulou https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Journeys of the Theîos Anér, Apollonius of Tyana
This paper focuses on the analysis of the travels to exotic regions made byApollonius of Tyana and narrated in the fictionalized biography of this character, written by Philostratus of Lemnos between 217 and 220 AD. In this research, we are notso much interested in empirically documenting the veracity of such journeys as in theirexpression and meaning in the symbolic-religious universe of the Roman Empire.
Copyright (c) 2025 María José Hidalgo de la Vega https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Ferrer Albelda, Eduardo, Guija Rodríguez, Andrés Pablo & Sánchez Domínguez, Víctor (eds.) (2024). Apoteosis. De lo humano a lo divino. La figura del héroe. Sevilla: Editorial Universidad de Sevilla
Copyright (c) 2025 Noelia Cases Mora https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Vinzent, Markus (2024). Christ’s Torah. The Making of the New Testament in the Second Century. New York: Routledge
Copyright (c) 2025 Christopher Zoccali https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Kuin, Inger N.I. (2023). Lucian’s Laughing Gods. Religion, Philosophy, and Popular Culture in the Roman East. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press
Copyright (c) 2025 Elena Chepel https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The bearers of the emperor. Movement and Sacrality in Imperial Processions
The object of analysis in this work are the "imperial processions," that is, the ritual parades in which, among other things, images of the reigning emperor and other members of the imperial household, both living and deceased, were displayed. Our purpose is to contribute to clarifying what the procession, and more specifically the movement of the statues of the emperors, contributed to the ideological construction of the ruler's power. This article will particularly analyze the role of the "emperor’s bearers" (sebastophoroi), a new position identified in some cities of the Empire, in shaping the perception of imperial power. The movement of the statues or portraits of the emperors helped to cement the sacredness of the ruler but also, at the same time, reinforced the closeness and active intervention of the emperor in the governance of the cities of the empire. In our opinion, the figure of the sebastophoros was decisive within this process.
Copyright (c) 2025 Fernando Lozano Gómez, Elena Muñiz Grijalvo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Girard, Thibault (2023). Les representations de Mars Ultor sur les pierres gravées. Archaeopress Roman Archaeology 99. Oxford: Archaeopress
Copyright (c) 2025 Hannah Cornwell https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Fredriksen, Paula (2024). Ancient Christianities. The First Five Hundred Years. Princeton: Princeton University Press
Copyright (c) 2025 Rebecca I. Denova https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Mariotti, Giulio (2024). L’elezione, il dualismo, il tempo. Leggere 2 Tessalonicesi nel guidaismo del Secondo Tempio. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso
Copyright (c) 2025 Antonio Piñero https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Haeussler, Ralph, King, Anthony, Marco Simón, Francisco & Schörner, Günther (eds.) (2023). Religious Individualisation. Archaeological, Iconographic and Epigraphic Case Studies from the Roman World. Oxford: Oxbow Books
Copyright (c) 2025 Wolfgang Spickermann https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Martín Hernández, Raquel (ed.) (2022). The Iconography of Magic. Images of Power and the Power of Images in Ancient and Late Antique Magic. Lovaina: Peeters
Copyright (c) 2025 Antón Alvar Nuño https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Pantheon Across Generations Between Tradition and Religious Mobility
The aim of this paper is to analyse the religious pantheon of a family in the province of Dacia. In the villa rustica at Ciumăfaia, the owner - Aelius Iulius, veteranus ex centurione - erected six votive altars dedicated exclusively to Greco-Roman deities. Another altar in the same place was dedicated by Publius Aelius Maximus, son of the veteran Aelius Iulius, to a Germanic deity worshipped by the soldiers of the troops stationed in Germania Inferior or recruited in the area. This is a family with different religious preferences. While the father preferred the classical pantheon, the son's votive offerings differed from the family tradition, leading to the assumption that the familiarisation with the Germanic deities took place while he was performing militia equestris somewhere on the Rhine. The diversity of the family's religious pantheon opens up a discussion on the individual destiny of the dedicators in relation to the gods worshipped, more specifically the "inherited" and "borrowed" gods, in an attempt to define, from the particular to the general, some specific aspects of provincial religion.
Copyright (c) 2025 Irina Nemeti https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Leach, Nathan, Smith, Daniel Charles, Keddie, Teddy (eds.) (2023). Revelation and Material Religion in the Roman East. Essays in Honor of Steven J. Friesen. Abingdon & New York: Routledge
Copyright (c) 2025 Aleksandra Kubiak-Schneider https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Urciuoli, Emiliano R. (2024). Citifying Jesus. The Making of an Urban Religion in the Roman Empire. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck
Copyright (c) 2025 Nicola Denzey Lewis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Shevchenko, Tetiana (2023). Greek Religion in Tauric Chersonesos. Oxford: Archaeopress
Copyright (c) 2025 Vassilis Tsiolis https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0