Lucanian sanctuaries. History and evolution from the fourth century B.C. to the Augustan age

• Author / Creator

  Battiloro, Ilaria

• This work seeks to provide new insight into understanding how the Lucanian sanctuaries were conceived, built, and used during a chronological period which ranges from the fourth century B.C. to the first century A.D. Within this time, the end of the third century B.C. and the bloody events of the Hannibalic war represented a crucial turning point for the Lucanian communities, concomitant with more infiltration of the southern peninsula by Rome. The last two centuries B.C. are therefore generally neglected in literature as a period of decline.
  The basic line of thought of this research is that changes in function and form of sanctuaries reflect political, socio-economic and cultural transformations and development of those communities who built and frequented them. The function of the sanctuaries went well beyond the merely religious, for they also functioned as gathering, political and economic centers.
  The evidence used in this thesis was mainly archaeological, and therefore the analysis of the realia represents the starting point and grounds for historical reconstructions. Archaeological data are diachronically analyzed at different levels: topographic location and relationship of sanctuaries with inhabited settlements, architectural structure and spatial organization of the complexes, and systems of votive offerings.
  During the fourth and the third centuries B.C. the picture of the Lucanian sanctuaries appears at a first glance quite homogeneous, as the cultural expressions of the Lucanian communities derived from the same models. However, archaeological evidence does not support the theory regarding the existence of a collective sanctuary which belonged to the Lucanians as a whole ethnos, as has been hypothesised for the Rossano di Vaglio sanctuary.
  After the end of the third century B.C. archaeological evidence from the sites under scrutiny attests that the sanctuaries continued to be used, despite the abandonment of the surrounding inhabited settlements. Nevertheless, such continuity did not mean full frequentation of the sanctuaries, as the majority of them noticeably contracted. Thus the second century B.C. is greatly under-represented at the archaeological level, although in some cases a revival is attested during the first century B.C. In this scenario, the only sanctuary which experienced a phase of revitalization during both of the last two centuries B.C. was the Rossano di Vaglio complex, as it became the point of reference for a new, specifically Roman, territorial entity, the praefectura of Potentia. This analysis, therefore, is a further contribution to current studies concerning the transformations which occurred in Italy in conjunction with the rise of Roman power, the conquest of Italy, and the consequent diffusion of hegemonic culture.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Lucania
  • sanctuary
  • votive offerings
  • ritual
  • Romanization

• Graduation date

  Fall 2010

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3HP9T

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.