Taking its start from an argument of H. S. Versnel, that Greek expressions of disbelief in the existence of the gods are evidence of the possibility of belief, this article reviews the evidence of such expressions, and of ascriptions of atheism in Greek sources, and suggests that there was a difference of type, not only of degree, between Greek ‘atheism’ and our understanding of the term today. Atheist discourse in Greek sources is characterized by frequent slippages: for example, between the charge of ‘existential atheism’ and the failure to give the gods due acknowledgement; between introducing new gods and disrespecting the old. Ascriptions of atheism to third parties are commonly based on inferences from an individual's actions, lifestyle or presumed disposition – which in turn are rooted in a network of theological assumptions. The phenomenon of ‘Greek atheism’ is, fundamentally, a scholarly mirage.

This article articulates a regional, diachronic approach to precontact central Andean tombs by interpreting differences in materiality and function as evidence for distinct religious traditions. I analyze a sample of 788 tombs from 30 sites in the Sacred Valley and adjacent tributary valleys (Cusco, Peru), built and used during the Late Intermediate and Inka periods (ca. AD 1000–1532). Combining primary and published datasets, this sample includes a wide variety of tombs that variably facilitated or impeded certain interactions and relationships between the living, the dead, and the environment. To understand this diversity, I develop a typology comprising six tomb types based on morphological traits, which exhibit overlapping distribution patterns at local and regional scales. In contrast to studies that emphasized commonality and timelessness in central Andean mortuary practices, these data attest to considerable diversity in belief and value systems during half a millennium. As such, this study challenges existing models and presents new interpretations of late precontact tombs, considering that central Andeans across time and space held divergent beliefs about life and death. Recognizing diversity in past and present Indigenous societies is required for an empirical and decolonial archaeology that rejects stereotypes of cultural homogeneity.

In the last twenty-five years there have been so many ‘turns’ in how the ancient world is approached that you could be forgiven for wondering whether research has tended to simply spin on the spot rather than move forwards in any decisive or meaningful direction. Amongst other things, and in no particular order, the discipline of archaeology, for instance, has undergone spatial, embodied, digital, mobility, ecological, material, symmetrical, relational, ontological, sensory, posthuman and cognitive turns. The specific theoretical and methodological concepts that underpin these directions can vary considerably, but collectively they reflect a shared concern to foreground the complexities of different types of matter in interpretations of past worlds. Many, although not all, also share interests in combining those material complexities with perspectives on experiences of embodiment and/or forms of ‘being-in-the-world’. Within ancient religious studies, a re-orientation towards the sensory, embodied and experiential is well evidenced across recent scholarship, where it is accompanied by a significant paradigm shift away from top-down models of so-called ‘polis’ or ‘civic’ religion, which stress the organising principles and socio-political aspects of religion, towards a focus on ancient rituals as ‘lived’. Both trends have simultaneously stimulated the need to pay close and critical attention to the role of materials in generating ancient religion not as a set of shared beliefs or practices, but as a collection of dynamic and situational lived experiences emerging from ancient people's mutually constitutive relationships with the world.

Time, place, and the rhythm of the seasons, essential constituents of ancient ritual, collaboratively shaped and channeled the experience of religious performance. Focusing on agricultural and civic time reckoning, this article investigates the orientations of the monuments at the extra-mural Sanctuary of the Thirteen Altars at Lavinium and their coordination with viticultural activities amid the shifting social and religious circumstances of the 6th and 5th c. BCE. The article will argue that the 6th- and 5th-c. altars were aligned in such a way as to face sunrise at a particular location on the horizon on two very particular days in the seasonal year. The altars at Lavinium, playing an important role in the emerging urban community's economic life, will be shown to be themselves a form of agentic seasonal timekeeping that closely determined the integration of local agricultural, religious, and economic practices.

This publication presents the results of the excavation in 1960 of a group of Minoan tombs on the lower slopes of Ailias, on the east side of the River Kairatos, in an area almost opposite the Temple Tomb at Knossos. One or two of these tombs were built in Middle Minoan times. Tomb I was used again for four burials in Late Minoan II–IIIA, the period when the other three tombs (II–IV) appear to have been exclusively used. The publication presents the excavation's ceramic and other small finds and offers a detailed study of the skeletal remains. Of special interest are the following aspects: (1) the excavation's careful documentation – particularly by the standards of the time – with considerable attention paid to stratigraphy and the production of section drawings; (2) the tombs’ architecture; (3) the use of wooden coffins; (4) the lack – to a large extent – of finds in association with the bodies buried in these tombs; and (5) the funerary sequence in one of the few locations in the Knossos valley where both Neopalatial as well as Final Palatial use is attested. The proximity to and (re)use of Neopalatial tombs during the Late Minoan II–IIIA period and the need of some members of the local society to associate themselves with pre-existing burial structures are discussed. This publication contributes to ongoing discussions on bone and object manipulation, plus the numbers of burials per tomb, while revisiting the ‘richness’ levels of the Knossian tombs. It also places emphasis on taphonomy, the transition from Late Minoan I to II, and the funeral experience. It is argued that burying the dead in a purposefully formed space (i.e., in a rock-cut tomb) may have constituted an action of particular social and/or religious importance even in burials lacking any significant quantities and/or a diverse range of objects. The most important ramifications stemming from this study are assessed at the end of the paper.

Who created literary texts in ancient Mesopotamia, and did the Mesopotamians have a concept of “literature” (→ 1)? A core witness is the song Innana B / nin me šara (NMS → 2). New translations and an inductive analysis of references to text, addressee, and speaker reveals NMS to be created by a priestess for a war ritual (→ 3). Instead of staking a claim to authorship, however, the song stresses a claim for priesthood (→ 4). New evidence shows why: the creators of ritual songs are gods, and En-ḫedu-ana is only allowed to create such a song when she herself acts as a priestess embodying a deity (→ 5 and 6). The last section will offer proof that NMS belongs to the category of literature, from both ancient and modern perspectives, and explain why it is also to be regarded as both a mythic and ritual text (→ 7).The analysis demonstrates the birth of literature through the goddess Nin-gal, embodied in En-ḫedu-ana.

This paper publishes the editio princeps of an Early Dynastic IIIb tablet from Nippur, which contains a unique yet fragmentary Sumerian narrative about the storm god Iškur’s captivity in the netherworld, from which he appears to be rescued by Fox. While the incomplete state of preservation prevents a reconstruction of the plot, individual motifs can be traced across the entire cuneiform corpus, allowing for a preliminary case study of continuity and change over more than two millennia of Mesopotamian mythological literature.

To my mother, Penelope.

This paper offers an overview of the published material of the Epirotic sanctuaries. The presentation will be limited to the geographical area of modern Epirus (prefectures of Arta, Ioannina, Preveza, and Thesprotia) and it will cover the period from the Early Iron Age (eighth century BC) to the beginning of the Roman conquest (second to early first century BC). Areas of ritual character in Epirus range from shrines to organized sanctuaries. It is not always easy to identify the deity/deities worshipped at the ritual places presented.

Given the varying degrees of importance that a holy place holds for different parties and the variety of laws used to regulate them, laws pertaining to holy places integrate a broad array of legal, political, social, religious, and economic interests. Acknowledging the difficulty of capturing a singular standard of protection merits examining different existing modalities to discern the means of protection for holy places.

A 2022 Israeli District Court case concerning ownership rights over a Russian Orthodox church in the Old City of Jerusalem shall provide the platform for scrutinizing the relevant laws and variety of interests at play for holy places in Israel, providing insights into the importance of accounting for divergent interests in the cultural heritage protection milieu. This article shall highlight the approaches used towards holy place protection in a difficult and complex context, Israel, to better understand heritage protection methods for unique or significant cultural sites in other regions.

Florence, Bibliotheca Riccardiana MS 996 is an interesting miscellany of late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century texts. Among the manuscript's curious content is Dominici Cerbonii Tifernatis TERtheus Magus (‘The Triple God Magus of Domenico Cerbonio from Città di Castello’, fols 7r–10v). Evenly written in a neat humanistic cursive, with rubrication for the titles and a single marginal note (interpreted here as a stage direction), these folios form an account, in Latin prose and verse, of a necromantic ritual performed by members of the Roman Academy in which the shades of Cicero and Virgil are conjured from the pagan underworld to admire the Renaissance city. It is tempting to take this pagan rite as proof of the charges of heresy levelled at members of the Academy for which they were arrested and imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo on the orders of Pope Paul II Barbo (r. 1464–71) during Lent, 1468. However, this paper argues that the texts are evidence of a dramatic performance with scenery (or at least a theatrical backdrop) staged by the members of the reformed Academy as part of their annual celebrations of the Palilia (or Parilia) on Rome's birthday 21 April c. 1501.

Western Anatolian ritual pits provide valuable insights into socio-cultural, economic and symbolic practices during the Early to Middle Bronze Age. Findings in feasting pits, such as carbonized seeds and animal bones, indicate a strong link between ritual and food. Standing stones, altars and carefully arranged artefacts suggest a symbolic and sacred dimension beyond mere ceremonies. The pits from this period contain carbonized seeds and fragments of wood, indicating the presence of small fires during certain rituals. Changing features in ritual pits from the Early to Middle Bronze Age reveal a dynamic relationship between spatial arrangements and religious practices. The study shows that in the first half of the second millennium bce several ritual activities known from different regions reached western Anatolia for the first time. Interregional trade involved not only goods, but also the dissemination of rituals over a wide geographical area. This cultural interaction reveals western Anatolia as a dynamic and influential centre in this historical period. By exploring the ritual practices of second-millennium bce western Anatolia, this paper presents new perspectives on the rituals of the region.

At Dura-Europos, homes were architecturally adapted across the late 2nd and 3rd c. CE by different religious groups to serve the needs of their communities. Although the Synagogue, Mithraeum, and Christian Building all began as domestic structures and share a similar architectural development, the origins of the latter have received unique attention through its classification as a domus ecclesiae or house church. This (hyper)focus on the structure's past use as a house does not do full justice to the archaeology of the building. Through an analysis of architectural adaptations, including before-and-after 3D reconstructions and daylight simulations, the authors show how the renovations significantly differentiated the Christian Building from its domestic antecedent and from Dura's houses more broadly. This approach is meant to shift attention away from more generalized, translocal, evolutionary models of Christian architectural development to micro-level archaeological analysis that situates structures within the spatial vernacular of their local contexts.