Shared Religious Sites in Late Antiquity
Negotiating Cultural and Ritual Identities in the Eastern Roman Empire
This book analyzes shared religious sites within the multireligious and multicultural context of the Roman Empire during Late Antiquity. It seeks to determine whether certain religious sites in the Eastern Roman Empire were attended by individuals or groups from diverse religious backgrounds, exploring the dynamics of this shared attendance. To facilitate comparison and model occupancy patterns, the contributions focus on the Eastern provinces from the 4th century onward, a pivotal period for the Empire's religious transformations. The collective work presents case studies that intertwine polemical discourses with legal documents, epigraphy, iconography, and archaeology, including architecture and artifacts. The series “ReLAB,” edited by Francesco Massa, examines the Roman Empire as a “religious laboratory,” an intellectual space for developing and experimenting with new religious concepts. Each volume emphasizes the religious interactions that characterized the multicultural and globalized landscape of the Roman Empire, particularly in Late Antiquity. “ReLAB” reflects part of the findings from the research project “Religious Competition in Late Antiquity: A Laboratory of New Categories, Taxonomies, and Methods,” funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and conducted at the University of Fribourg from 2019 to 2023.
