Recent incidents of extreme violence unleashed at some of the most celebrated archaeological si... more Recent incidents of extreme violence unleashed at some of the most celebrated archaeological sites of the ancient world have renewed our sensitivity toward iconoclasm. My contribution presents a parallel reading of two texts separated only by one generation: the account of Hypatia’s killing in 415 CE, as represented in Socrates’ History of the Church (7.15), and Rufinus’ narration of the iconoclastic demolition of the cult image of Serapis during the attack on the Alexandrian Serapeum (HE 11.23). I argue that several features in Socrates’ (and, much later, in John of Nikiu’s) account of Hypatia’s killing and Rufinus’ representation of the smashing of the cult image of Serapis, only a few years prior to Hypatia’s death, feature identical motifs. These motifs include not only the elements of dismemberment and subsequent burning but also the staging of the events as public spectacles. I propose that Socrates draws on literary motifs and on real‐life patterns of iconoclasm, and that Rufinus, when he refers to the cult image of Serapis as an “old man”, makes the iconoclastic act resemble the killing of a living person. My comparison engages two levels of analysis: first, the textual level of each narrative, which takes into account literary themes and stylistic devices; and second, the socio-historical and religious context of these events.
My interpretation challenges alternative scholarly perspectives, which relate Socrates’ narrative to Christian martyrologies or Ptolemaic accounts about the public exposure of well‐known females. The destruction of the cult image of Serapis illuminates the relevance of iconoclasm and the discourses surrounding such acts in Alexandria around 400 CE. I argue that highlighting the resemblance of Hypatia’s death to an act of iconoclasm leads to a deeper understanding of both incidents and their literary renderings.
A contribution to a collection of articles about the social and ethical status of labour in the N... more A contribution to a collection of articles about the social and ethical status of labour in the New Testament and its non-Christian environment, this chapter discusses the changing socio-economic status and social perception of morticians and funerary workers and their occupation in Roman and early Christian Egypt. A closer look at the Choachytes in Ptolemaic Thebes affords a wider diachronic perspective. This article also critically engages with the scholarly assumptions that the transition to Christianity entailed a positive change in the social perception of funerary workers. It illustrates how the social perception of necropolis workers oscillates between two extremes: on the one hand, their being indispensable and on the other, their civic exclusion. On the basis of selected sources, which I present as case studies (and which include, but are not limited to, P.Tor.Choach. 12; P.Vindob. G 2011; P.Grenf. II 73; Historia monachorum in Aegypto 10.3–24), I explore how the manifold and often deprecatory designations for their occupations mirror the social status and perception of funerary workers (section 3). Aspects of the workers’ legal status and capacity and their financial remuneration are considered (section 4). I discuss whether the location of their settlements at the very margins of towns and villages or even near or within the necropoleis is due to pragmatic considerations (F. Dunand), or whether it reflects allegations of impurity (J. Lennon) and improbity that are projected onto the group and which tend to build up and solidify into negative stereotypes (section 5). The Letter of Psenosiris (section 6) and a passage from the Historia monachorum (section 7) illustrate the transition from traditional to early Christian views on the necropolis workers.
This contribution to a conference centered on Pergamum’s “Red Basilica” explores selected sanctua... more This contribution to a conference centered on Pergamum’s “Red Basilica” explores selected sanctuaries in Roman Egypt that the scholarly literature usually attributes to Isis. A detailed and compact study of the sanctuaries’ chronology and topographical, architectural and ritual settings, this article reveals the great formal and functional variety of sanctuaries attributed to Isis in Roman imperial Egypt and proffers a critical examination of the criteria on which scholarly attributions to Isis are based. The cautionary remarks put forward as a result of my examination also pertain, but are not limited, to current interpretations of the conference’s touchstone, Pergamum’s “Red Basilica”, as a sanctuary of the “Egyptian” gods.
If you would like to receive an offprint (pdf-file) of this paper, please send me a message.
Thi... more If you would like to receive an offprint (pdf-file) of this paper, please send me a message.
This contribution engages with current debates on acculturation in challenging the assumption – which still informs much current scholarship – that images of ritual are ‘realistic’ representations of ritual practice. It starts with a detailed examination and semiotic analysis of two Etruscan representations of “Dionysiac” sacrifice and dating to the 5th century BCE, which have frequently been taken as “realistic” renderings of sacrifice to the Etruscan equivalent of Dionysus and as proof of Bacchic mysteries in central Italy. I show that these images, if studied within a broader iconographic and ritual context, contain elements that occur also in non-Etruscan imagery and textual sources. Therefore, these Etruscan images should be understood as testimonies relating to a discourse about Greek culture among the Etruscan elites as part of a process of native acculturation, rather than constituting a source for ritual and sacrifice as practised in Etruscan cities
On the basis of a detailed catalogue and bibliography (compiled independently of L. Bricault’s Re... more On the basis of a detailed catalogue and bibliography (compiled independently of L. Bricault’s Recueil des inscriptions concernant les cultes isiaques, and which the RICIS, published in 2005, drew upon for its chapter on the Germanic provinces), this contribution proffers an in-depth study of the epigraphic evidence for the cult of Isis in the Germanic provinces and of the safely identifiable sanctuaries of Isis in the region. The inscriptions are analysed according to chronological and topographical parameters with regard to the agents, the ritual action performed, the type of inscribed object and, where applicable, the semantics of the imagery accompanying the text. Methodological considerations focus on the question what kind of evidence must be present for a “cult of Isis” to be safely identifiable. The study also returns to the question of the chronology of the cults of Isis in Roman Germany: The early chronology proposed in the article ‘Signum in modum liburnae figuratum’ (written in 1999) unexpectedly received independent support by the salvage excavation of a sanctuary of Mater magna and Isis in Mayence (2000-2001), which the excavators date to the late 1st century CE. However, definite judgement on the chronological implications must be suspended until the final excavation report on the sanctuary and the inscriptions associated with it.
Numerous sanctuaries in ancient Italy and beyond have yielded small figurative votive objects mad... more Numerous sanctuaries in ancient Italy and beyond have yielded small figurative votive objects made of terracotta or bronze. Based on a model of symbolic communication adapted from the work of cultural anthropologist Victor Turner, my contribution explores what exactly can be said about the functions and uses of such objects in the context of ritual (symbolic) interaction, and seeks to reconstruct such ritual action. The study thus contributes to the wider question of the possibilities but also the limits in reconstructing ritual action from objects, a concern central to the study of material religion. Such considerations need to be based on intact and well-documented archaeological find contexts. Tarquinia’s port Gravisca, located on Etruria’s Tyrrhenian coast, offers such a context: There, some of the votive material deposited in the local sanctuaries has come to light in its original location and assembly. A close reading of this original setup combined with iconographic analysis allows me to challenge accepted opinions about seemingly fixed correlations between the votive image and the divinity to which the ritual was presumably addressed. The archaeological analysis of these votive objects – how they were strategically exposed to the view of visitors – with the application of a communication model allows for an exploration of the votives’ function as media of religious communication against the background of competition among sanctuaries.
If you would like to receive an offprint (pdf-file) of this paper, please send me a message.
Thi... more If you would like to receive an offprint (pdf-file) of this paper, please send me a message.
This article explores how the mummy portraits of Roman Egypt were misappropriated to lend a veneer of historical legitimacy to the so-called “race research” and misguided racial ideology in the Third Reich and beyond. The focus is on the instrumentalization of the mummy portraits as visual “evidence” to “prove” the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories expounded by Eugen Fischer (1874 – 1967), a professor of medicine, anthropology and eugenics and director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics in Berlin, and by Gerhard Kittel (1888 –1948), a professor of New Testament studies in Tübingen and editor of the standard work Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament. In my contribution, I pay particular attention to the rhetoric and visual means of persuasion employed by these authors in Das antike Weltjudentum, which appeared in 1943 as part of the series ‘Forschungen zur Judenfrage’. The article also shows that the ideological exploitation of the mummy portraits can be traced beyond Nazi Germany: In 1996, the volume on Das antike Weltjudentum received a reprint to cater to the interests of the so-called ‘Ludendorffer’, an extremist group subscribing to far-right and anti-Semitic ideologies and to Germanic neo-paganism.
This article on the cult of Isis among the Germani starts from a passage in Tacitus (Germania 9.1... more This article on the cult of Isis among the Germani starts from a passage in Tacitus (Germania 9.1), assembles the relevant epigraphic evidence for the Isis-cult in the region and suggests a specific archaeological interpretation of the boat-shaped Isis-symbol (cymbium) that Tacitus mentions. Before the background of this interpretation, Tacitus’ text documents the cult of Isis in Roman Germany before 100 CE, i.e. half a century earlier than had hitherto been assumed.
Recent incidents of extreme violence unleashed at some of the most celebrated archaeological si... more Recent incidents of extreme violence unleashed at some of the most celebrated archaeological sites of the ancient world have renewed our sensitivity toward iconoclasm. My contribution presents a parallel reading of two texts separated only by one generation: the account of Hypatia’s killing in 415 CE, as represented in Socrates’ History of the Church (7.15), and Rufinus’ narration of the iconoclastic demolition of the cult image of Serapis during the attack on the Alexandrian Serapeum (HE 11.23). I argue that several features in Socrates’ (and, much later, in John of Nikiu’s) account of Hypatia’s killing and Rufinus’ representation of the smashing of the cult image of Serapis, only a few years prior to Hypatia’s death, feature identical motifs. These motifs include not only the elements of dismemberment and subsequent burning but also the staging of the events as public spectacles. I propose that Socrates draws on literary motifs and on real‐life patterns of iconoclasm, and that Rufinus, when he refers to the cult image of Serapis as an “old man”, makes the iconoclastic act resemble the killing of a living person. My comparison engages two levels of analysis: first, the textual level of each narrative, which takes into account literary themes and stylistic devices; and second, the socio-historical and religious context of these events.
My interpretation challenges alternative scholarly perspectives, which relate Socrates’ narrative to Christian martyrologies or Ptolemaic accounts about the public exposure of well‐known females. The destruction of the cult image of Serapis illuminates the relevance of iconoclasm and the discourses surrounding such acts in Alexandria around 400 CE. I argue that highlighting the resemblance of Hypatia’s death to an act of iconoclasm leads to a deeper understanding of both incidents and their literary renderings.
A contribution to a collection of articles about the social and ethical status of labour in the N... more A contribution to a collection of articles about the social and ethical status of labour in the New Testament and its non-Christian environment, this chapter discusses the changing socio-economic status and social perception of morticians and funerary workers and their occupation in Roman and early Christian Egypt. A closer look at the Choachytes in Ptolemaic Thebes affords a wider diachronic perspective. This article also critically engages with the scholarly assumptions that the transition to Christianity entailed a positive change in the social perception of funerary workers. It illustrates how the social perception of necropolis workers oscillates between two extremes: on the one hand, their being indispensable and on the other, their civic exclusion. On the basis of selected sources, which I present as case studies (and which include, but are not limited to, P.Tor.Choach. 12; P.Vindob. G 2011; P.Grenf. II 73; Historia monachorum in Aegypto 10.3–24), I explore how the manifold and often deprecatory designations for their occupations mirror the social status and perception of funerary workers (section 3). Aspects of the workers’ legal status and capacity and their financial remuneration are considered (section 4). I discuss whether the location of their settlements at the very margins of towns and villages or even near or within the necropoleis is due to pragmatic considerations (F. Dunand), or whether it reflects allegations of impurity (J. Lennon) and improbity that are projected onto the group and which tend to build up and solidify into negative stereotypes (section 5). The Letter of Psenosiris (section 6) and a passage from the Historia monachorum (section 7) illustrate the transition from traditional to early Christian views on the necropolis workers.
This contribution to a conference centered on Pergamum’s “Red Basilica” explores selected sanctua... more This contribution to a conference centered on Pergamum’s “Red Basilica” explores selected sanctuaries in Roman Egypt that the scholarly literature usually attributes to Isis. A detailed and compact study of the sanctuaries’ chronology and topographical, architectural and ritual settings, this article reveals the great formal and functional variety of sanctuaries attributed to Isis in Roman imperial Egypt and proffers a critical examination of the criteria on which scholarly attributions to Isis are based. The cautionary remarks put forward as a result of my examination also pertain, but are not limited, to current interpretations of the conference’s touchstone, Pergamum’s “Red Basilica”, as a sanctuary of the “Egyptian” gods.
If you would like to receive an offprint (pdf-file) of this paper, please send me a message.
Thi... more If you would like to receive an offprint (pdf-file) of this paper, please send me a message.
This contribution engages with current debates on acculturation in challenging the assumption – which still informs much current scholarship – that images of ritual are ‘realistic’ representations of ritual practice. It starts with a detailed examination and semiotic analysis of two Etruscan representations of “Dionysiac” sacrifice and dating to the 5th century BCE, which have frequently been taken as “realistic” renderings of sacrifice to the Etruscan equivalent of Dionysus and as proof of Bacchic mysteries in central Italy. I show that these images, if studied within a broader iconographic and ritual context, contain elements that occur also in non-Etruscan imagery and textual sources. Therefore, these Etruscan images should be understood as testimonies relating to a discourse about Greek culture among the Etruscan elites as part of a process of native acculturation, rather than constituting a source for ritual and sacrifice as practised in Etruscan cities
On the basis of a detailed catalogue and bibliography (compiled independently of L. Bricault’s Re... more On the basis of a detailed catalogue and bibliography (compiled independently of L. Bricault’s Recueil des inscriptions concernant les cultes isiaques, and which the RICIS, published in 2005, drew upon for its chapter on the Germanic provinces), this contribution proffers an in-depth study of the epigraphic evidence for the cult of Isis in the Germanic provinces and of the safely identifiable sanctuaries of Isis in the region. The inscriptions are analysed according to chronological and topographical parameters with regard to the agents, the ritual action performed, the type of inscribed object and, where applicable, the semantics of the imagery accompanying the text. Methodological considerations focus on the question what kind of evidence must be present for a “cult of Isis” to be safely identifiable. The study also returns to the question of the chronology of the cults of Isis in Roman Germany: The early chronology proposed in the article ‘Signum in modum liburnae figuratum’ (written in 1999) unexpectedly received independent support by the salvage excavation of a sanctuary of Mater magna and Isis in Mayence (2000-2001), which the excavators date to the late 1st century CE. However, definite judgement on the chronological implications must be suspended until the final excavation report on the sanctuary and the inscriptions associated with it.
Numerous sanctuaries in ancient Italy and beyond have yielded small figurative votive objects mad... more Numerous sanctuaries in ancient Italy and beyond have yielded small figurative votive objects made of terracotta or bronze. Based on a model of symbolic communication adapted from the work of cultural anthropologist Victor Turner, my contribution explores what exactly can be said about the functions and uses of such objects in the context of ritual (symbolic) interaction, and seeks to reconstruct such ritual action. The study thus contributes to the wider question of the possibilities but also the limits in reconstructing ritual action from objects, a concern central to the study of material religion. Such considerations need to be based on intact and well-documented archaeological find contexts. Tarquinia’s port Gravisca, located on Etruria’s Tyrrhenian coast, offers such a context: There, some of the votive material deposited in the local sanctuaries has come to light in its original location and assembly. A close reading of this original setup combined with iconographic analysis allows me to challenge accepted opinions about seemingly fixed correlations between the votive image and the divinity to which the ritual was presumably addressed. The archaeological analysis of these votive objects – how they were strategically exposed to the view of visitors – with the application of a communication model allows for an exploration of the votives’ function as media of religious communication against the background of competition among sanctuaries.
If you would like to receive an offprint (pdf-file) of this paper, please send me a message.
Thi... more If you would like to receive an offprint (pdf-file) of this paper, please send me a message.
This article explores how the mummy portraits of Roman Egypt were misappropriated to lend a veneer of historical legitimacy to the so-called “race research” and misguided racial ideology in the Third Reich and beyond. The focus is on the instrumentalization of the mummy portraits as visual “evidence” to “prove” the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories expounded by Eugen Fischer (1874 – 1967), a professor of medicine, anthropology and eugenics and director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics in Berlin, and by Gerhard Kittel (1888 –1948), a professor of New Testament studies in Tübingen and editor of the standard work Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament. In my contribution, I pay particular attention to the rhetoric and visual means of persuasion employed by these authors in Das antike Weltjudentum, which appeared in 1943 as part of the series ‘Forschungen zur Judenfrage’. The article also shows that the ideological exploitation of the mummy portraits can be traced beyond Nazi Germany: In 1996, the volume on Das antike Weltjudentum received a reprint to cater to the interests of the so-called ‘Ludendorffer’, an extremist group subscribing to far-right and anti-Semitic ideologies and to Germanic neo-paganism.
This article on the cult of Isis among the Germani starts from a passage in Tacitus (Germania 9.1... more This article on the cult of Isis among the Germani starts from a passage in Tacitus (Germania 9.1), assembles the relevant epigraphic evidence for the Isis-cult in the region and suggests a specific archaeological interpretation of the boat-shaped Isis-symbol (cymbium) that Tacitus mentions. Before the background of this interpretation, Tacitus’ text documents the cult of Isis in Roman Germany before 100 CE, i.e. half a century earlier than had hitherto been assumed.
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Papers by Mareile Haase
My interpretation challenges alternative scholarly perspectives, which relate Socrates’ narrative to Christian martyrologies or Ptolemaic accounts about the public exposure of well‐known females. The destruction of the cult image of Serapis illuminates the relevance of iconoclasm and the discourses surrounding such acts in Alexandria around 400 CE. I argue that highlighting the resemblance of Hypatia’s death to an act of iconoclasm leads to a deeper understanding of both incidents and their literary renderings.
This contribution engages with current debates on acculturation in challenging the assumption – which still informs much current scholarship – that images of ritual are ‘realistic’ representations of ritual practice. It starts with a detailed examination and semiotic analysis of two Etruscan representations of “Dionysiac” sacrifice and dating to the 5th century BCE, which have frequently been taken as “realistic” renderings of sacrifice to the Etruscan equivalent of Dionysus and as proof of Bacchic mysteries in central Italy. I show that these images, if studied within a broader iconographic and ritual context, contain elements that occur also in non-Etruscan imagery and textual sources. Therefore, these Etruscan images should be understood as testimonies relating to a discourse about Greek culture among the Etruscan elites as part of a process of native acculturation, rather than constituting a source for ritual and sacrifice as practised in Etruscan cities
This article explores how the mummy portraits of Roman Egypt were misappropriated to lend a veneer of historical legitimacy to the so-called “race research” and misguided racial ideology in the Third Reich and beyond. The focus is on the instrumentalization of the mummy portraits as visual “evidence” to “prove” the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories expounded by Eugen Fischer (1874 – 1967), a professor of medicine, anthropology and eugenics and director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics in Berlin, and by Gerhard Kittel (1888 –1948), a professor of New Testament studies in Tübingen and editor of the standard work Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament. In my contribution, I pay particular attention to the rhetoric and visual means of persuasion employed by these authors in Das antike Weltjudentum, which appeared in 1943 as part of the series ‘Forschungen zur Judenfrage’. The article also shows that the ideological exploitation of the mummy portraits can be traced beyond Nazi Germany: In 1996, the volume on Das antike Weltjudentum received a reprint to cater to the interests of the so-called ‘Ludendorffer’, an extremist group subscribing to far-right and anti-Semitic ideologies and to Germanic neo-paganism.
My interpretation challenges alternative scholarly perspectives, which relate Socrates’ narrative to Christian martyrologies or Ptolemaic accounts about the public exposure of well‐known females. The destruction of the cult image of Serapis illuminates the relevance of iconoclasm and the discourses surrounding such acts in Alexandria around 400 CE. I argue that highlighting the resemblance of Hypatia’s death to an act of iconoclasm leads to a deeper understanding of both incidents and their literary renderings.
This contribution engages with current debates on acculturation in challenging the assumption – which still informs much current scholarship – that images of ritual are ‘realistic’ representations of ritual practice. It starts with a detailed examination and semiotic analysis of two Etruscan representations of “Dionysiac” sacrifice and dating to the 5th century BCE, which have frequently been taken as “realistic” renderings of sacrifice to the Etruscan equivalent of Dionysus and as proof of Bacchic mysteries in central Italy. I show that these images, if studied within a broader iconographic and ritual context, contain elements that occur also in non-Etruscan imagery and textual sources. Therefore, these Etruscan images should be understood as testimonies relating to a discourse about Greek culture among the Etruscan elites as part of a process of native acculturation, rather than constituting a source for ritual and sacrifice as practised in Etruscan cities
This article explores how the mummy portraits of Roman Egypt were misappropriated to lend a veneer of historical legitimacy to the so-called “race research” and misguided racial ideology in the Third Reich and beyond. The focus is on the instrumentalization of the mummy portraits as visual “evidence” to “prove” the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories expounded by Eugen Fischer (1874 – 1967), a professor of medicine, anthropology and eugenics and director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics in Berlin, and by Gerhard Kittel (1888 –1948), a professor of New Testament studies in Tübingen and editor of the standard work Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament. In my contribution, I pay particular attention to the rhetoric and visual means of persuasion employed by these authors in Das antike Weltjudentum, which appeared in 1943 as part of the series ‘Forschungen zur Judenfrage’. The article also shows that the ideological exploitation of the mummy portraits can be traced beyond Nazi Germany: In 1996, the volume on Das antike Weltjudentum received a reprint to cater to the interests of the so-called ‘Ludendorffer’, an extremist group subscribing to far-right and anti-Semitic ideologies and to Germanic neo-paganism.