Rethinking the Concept of 'Healing Settlements': Water, Cults, Constructions and Contexts in the Ancient World

by Maddalena Bassani (Editor), Marion Bolder-Boos (Editor), Ugo Fusco (Editor)

Overview

'Rethinking the Concept of 'Healing Settlements': Water, Cults, Constructions and Contexts in the Ancient World' brings together papers dealing with therapeutic aspects connected to thermomineral sites both in Italy and in the Roman Provinces, as well as cultic issues surrounding health and healing. The first part of the book consists of contributions that are focused on the numerous problems concerning the exploitation of curative springs and the settlement patterns at spa sites in terms of topography, infrastructure, architecture, cult, society and economy, emphasizing the particularities accompanying the use of beneficial sources and comparing them to that of common freshwaters. The papers in the second part of the volume concentrate on religious aspects connected to health, fertility and healing, focussing especially on sites located at particular natural surroundings such as caves and water sources. Together, the contributions in this book give us an idea of the amount and quality of research currently being undertaken in different parts of the Roman world (and complemented by one paper on the Greek world) on the topic of health and healing associated with cults and salutiferous waters.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789690378
Publisher:	Archaeopress Publishing
Publication date:	01/31/2019
Series:	Archaeopress Roman Archaeology , #52
Pages:	186
Product dimensions:	8.03(w) x 11.42(h) x (d)

About the Author

Maddalena Bassani graduated with distinction in Classical Literature with archaeology specialization at Padua University. She is the author of approximately seventy publications and is a member of the editorial boards for Antenor Quaderni, Hesperia. Studi sulla Grecita d'Occidente and Venetia/Venezia. Quaderni adriatici di storia e archeologia lagunare. In 2014 she obtained the National Scientific Qualification to function as Associate Professor. Marion Bolder-Boos studied Classical Archaeology, Assyriology and Prehistory at the universities of Heidelberg and Cambridge, attaining her MA in 2005 and her Ph D in 2010 from Heidelberg University. She has participated in various excavations (Phylakopi in Greece, Magdalensberg in Austria and Carthage in Tunisia) and has publishing on a wide range of subjects, such as Roman sanctuaries and deities, Roman urbanism, history of archaeology, ancient colonisation and Phoenician and Punic archaeology. Since 2006 she has been Assistant Professor in Classical Archaeology at Technical University Darmstadt. Ugo Fusco has a BA in Classics and a MA in Classical Archaeology from Sapienza University of Rome, as well as a Ph D in Classical Archaeology from the University of Pisa. He has excavated in Italy (Volterra, Rome, Veii and Grumento) and abroad (in London), investigating urban and rural sites. He has worked on various themes including: Roman architecture, prosopography, Latin epigraphy, topography of the suburbs of Rome, Roman archaic history and cults relating to water and mystery. He recently expanded his interests to include Greek architecture, considering the subject of double temples in Greece.

Table of Contents

Preface - by Christopher Smith
Part I Thermo-Mineral Waters: From Italy to the Roman Provinces
Methodological Aspects - by Maddalena Bassani, Ugo Fusco
Shrines and Healing Waters in Ancient Italy. Buildings, Cults, Deities - by Maddalena Bassani
The Thermo-Mineral Springs at Veii (RM) and its Territory: New Discoveries and Old Excavations - by Ugo Fusco
Cult and Healing Water in Roman Gaul - by Matteo Marcato
Places of Worship and Healing Water in Roman Germaniae and Raetia - by Cecilia Zanetti
Healing by Water: Therapy and Religion in the Roman Spas of the Iberian Peninsula - by Sergio Carneiro and Silvia Gonzalez Soutelo
Preliminary Considerations on Thermal Spas in the Eastern Roman Provinces: The Case of Asia Minor - by Emanuela Borgia
Roman Healing Settlements in Bulgaria: Past Scholarship and Future Perspectives - by Mariya Avramova
Before the Hammam: The Ancient Spas of Roman North Africa - by Jens Koehler
Part II Cult Places and Healing
Cult Places and Healing: Some Preliminary Remarks - by Marion Bolder-Boos and Annalisa Calapa
Sacred Caves and 'Fertility Cults'. Some Considerations about Cave Sanctuaries in Etruria - by Annalisa Calapa
Hercules and Healing - by Marion Bolder-Boos
Lacus and Lucus: Lakes and Groves as Markers of Healing Cults in Central Italy - by Ingrid Edlund-Berry and Jean M. Turfa
Nomina Nuda Tenemus? The Epigraphical Records of Dedications in Two Healing Sanctuaries in Athens and in Oropos - by Maria Elena Gorrini
Results and Future Prospects - by Francesca Ghedini and Paola Zanovello

Editorial Reviews

'... this volume should be applauded for its attempt to begin seriously defining the religious aspects of Rome healing settlements-and thus initiating larger discussions in the fields of ancient religion and archaeology." Dylan Rogers (2020): Religious Studies Review, Volume 46, Number 2, 2020

From the Publisher

"...all of the contributions were well illustrated, with a good mix of colour and black-and-white images, and plans that usually (but not always) are of a high quality. Although the volume as a whole is targeted at specialists or researchers working in particular regions of the ancient Mediterranean world, the introductory chapters of each section do offer a helpful point of departure."

Bryn Mawr Classical Review