Paradigm Lost , Paradigm Found? Larger Theoretical Assumptions Behind Roger Beck’s The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire (original) (raw)
Related papers
The archaeology of ancient cult: from foundation deposits to religion in Roman Mithraism
Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2019
In the past two decades, the “archaeology of religion” has moved from the margins of scholarship to the center, led by the growth of postprocessual archaeological hermeneutics. 1 Such theoretical frames – whether the materiality of religion, objects as agents, the entanglement of humans and objects, or “thing theory” – demonstrate the centrality of the physical world and its archaeological correlates to religion. They offer new ways of posing questions about the construction of meanings for worshippers through materials.2
This article deals with the still unresolved question of the origins of the Roman cult of Mithras. After a brief history of the scholarship dealing with this topic, individual mithraea, inscriptions, and passages in literary texts which have been dated to the earliest period of the cult’s existence are evaluated. On the basis of this re-evaluation, some provisional conclusions concerning the question of Mithraic origins are made, namely that (1) the earliest evidence comes from the period 75-125 CE but remains, until the second half of the 2nd century CE, relatively negligible; (2) the geographical distribution of early evidence does not allow for a clear identification of the geographical location from which the cult started to spread, which suggests that (3) the cult made effective use of Roman military infrastructure and trade routes and (4) was transmitted, at least initially, due to the high mobility of the first propagators. However, it must be acknowledged that, at present, we can neither conclusively identify its place of origin nor the people who initiated the cult. In addition it is impossible to describe the specific historical circumstances in which these formative processes should be placed.
Roman Mithraism: the Evidence of the Small Finds
Roman Mithraism. The Evidence of the Finds, 2004
The papers of the Tienen conference are to be seen in the light of the concern for methodological innovation. The title ‘Small Finds’ was intended as a pragmatic stimulus to this end, and as a deliberate contrast to earlier Mithraic conferences, whose orientation has been exclusively towards the history of religions. It also however marked the desire to pull the Mithraic finds of the NW provinces out from the shadow of the more dramatic and splendid sites in Italy, or, now, Syria, and highlight the distinctive contribution that the new archaeology can make to the re-construction of the cult in this region. The conference however also offered the opportunity of drawing attention to some very recently-discovered Mithraic temples – apart from Tienen itself, those at Bornheim-Sechtem near Bonn (C. Ulbert), in the grounds of the well-known villa at Orbe-Boscéaz, SW of Lac de Neuchâtel, Canton Vaud (T. Luginbühl et al.), and the temple in the Crypta Balbi in the southern Campus Martius in Rome (M. Ricci, L. Saguì)– it was unfortunately not possible to obtain reports about the two temples at Güglingen (SW of Heilbronn), or Künzing, or M.-A. Gaidon-Bunuel’s further work on the temple at Septeuil. We may add to this group the presentations of accounts of old excavations of mithraea (A. Hensen on ‘Lopodunum II’; M. Clauss & A. Hensen on the ‘Eiskeller’ at Bliesdalheim). The opening paper by A. Schatzmann, building on his admirable report on the ‘small finds’ from older excavations which can be used to reconstruct ritual action (to be published in the BAR International Series), calls attention to the fundamental issue of norm versus local peculiarity, and sketches the variety of different ways in which ‘small finds’ can add to our understanding of Mithraic ritual. This approach is picked up by L. Allason-Jones in her paper on the mithraea of Hadrian’s Wall. There follows a group of papers mainly devoted to the taphonomy and/or the ceramics of particular temples, and the inferences concerning ritual practice that can be drawn from them: Tienen (M. Martens, A. Lentacker et al.), Bornheim-Sechtem (J.-C. Wulfmeier), Orbe-Boscéaz (J. Monnier, Y. Mühlemann), Martigny (F. Wiblé, C. Olive), Crypta Balbi (J. de Grossi Mazzorin). A second group concentrates on different aspects of specialised Mithraic ceramics: incense-burners (J. Bird), the waste from the Rheinzabern potteries (M. Thomas), the reconstruction of the now well-known Wetterau-ware Schlangengefäß from the Ballplatz-Mainz (I. Huld-Zetsche), and the issue of the specific character of these snake-decorated vessels as represented by older finds from Carnuntum (V. Gassner). A final paper in this group tackles the finds from an analogous, non-Mithraic, complex in Apulum (C. Höpken). A third group can only be described as ‘miscellaneous’, since the papers approach the issue of small finds in unrelated, though defensible, ways (R. Gordon, G. Dorin Sicoe, M. Marquart, M. Weiß, E. Sauer, K. Sas). Finally, it was felt that it would be useful to add a fairly complete bibliography of publications on Mithraism since Roger Beck’s ‘Mithraism since Franz Cumont’ (1984), a list which itself indicates something of the shifts of interest which have occurred within the field over the past vicennium. (from Introduction of R. Gordon)
The Mystery of Mithras: Exploring the Heart of a Roman Cult
Musée royal de Mariemont, 2021
The exhibition “The Mystery of Mithras: Exploring the Heart of a Roman Cult” is being presented at the Musée royal de Mariemont from 20 November 2021 to 17 April 2022, then at the Musée Saint-Raymond de Toulouse from 14 May 2022 to 30 October 2022, and lastly at the Archäologisches Museum Frankfurt from 19 November 2022 to 15 April 2023. The catalogue prepared for these different venues pursues three main objectives: proposing, thanks to the contributions of some 75 international experts, a new synthesis for a complex and fascinating cult that reflects the remarkable advances in our knowledge in recent decades; promoting by means of high-quality illustrations numerous monuments, both famous and unknown, that represent so many pieces of the giant Mithraic puzzle; lastly, to restore Mithras to his proper place in the religious landscape of yesterday and the European culture of today. For ordering the catalogue: accueil@mariemont.be
Mithras in Etruria. Characteristics of a Mystery Cult in the Roman Regio VII
The Mysteries of Mithras and Other Mystic Cults in the Roman World, 2018
The aim of the article is to cast a light on the nature of the cult of Mithras in Central Italy, focusing on the administrative division of Roman Etruria. Indeed, the Regio VII has emerged as a privileged territory to explore different aspects of the cult, due to the great variety of its artefacts. Hence, a model of diffusion of the Mithraic marble religious artifacts across the region and through the Roman main viability is presented, highlighting its dependence on public officials, responsible for both spreading government-endorsed iconographies and managing the Imperial marble industry. Consequently, the active role played by the Imperial administration in promoting the Mithras worship in Etruria is discussed, as well as the cult diffusion among the lower classes and (by the Middle/Late Empire) the aristocratic élites. The last phases of the cult within the region are also explored, showing how the Mithraic spelaea were dismissed according to a variety of different modalities during the first decades of the 5th century AD, ranging from violent destruction to pacific abandonment of their structures.
Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 2018
Since M. J. Vermaseren’s visit to Romania and the publication of the second volume of his monumental corpus on Mithraic finds in 1960, the once-called “Mithraic Studies” has had numerous paradigmatic shifts and changed its major focus points. Besides the important changes in the theoretical background of the research, the archaeological material regarding the Mithraic finds of Dacia – one of the richest provinces in this kind of material – has also been enriched. Several new corpora focusing on the Mithraic finds of Dacia were published in the last decade. This article will present the latest currents in the study of the Roman cult of Mithras and will give an updated list of finds and several clarifications to the latest catalogue of Mithraic finds from the province
2008
ABSTRACT This paper analyses some of the special features in the social composition of those initiated into the Mithraic mysteries. It also examines how the relationship of the Mithraic Cult with the Roman political power was and how a god of Persian origin could establish this relationship. In the complex and assorted market represented by the religious scene present in the Greek-Roman world of the last Era, any study of what could be the offer made by any new religion to neophytes in trying to get hold of a share of the mentioned market becomes very interesting. That is particularly true if we attend to the fact that these new religions had beaten the initial barriers to entry into society and obstacles long established by the Roman local authorities on the religious practices that came from the East. Regardless of whether the general parameters of the religiousness had changed during the Greek period or not, we want to focus on the main characteristics of Mithraic Cult in order to study in-depth what an individual could find at this time of new religious offerings. Together with the salvation and eternal life promises inherent to other mystery practices developed in the East, it should be also recognized that a strong psychological component contained in the group of ritual practices
2016
1. Luciano ALBANESE luciano.albanese@uniroma1.it ―Porfirio, l‘Antro delle ninfe e i misteri di Mithra‖ The aim of this paper is to compare the Porphyry‘s lecture of tauroctony in The Cave of The Nymphs (borrowed from Eubulus and Pallas, maybe also Numenius?) with the mithraic archaelogical finds. 2. José David Mendoza ÁLVAREZ, luckyman76@hotmail.com , ―Mitras y otros cultos orientales en el anfiteatro de Itálica‖, /“Mithras and Other oriental Cults in the Amphitheater of Italica.‖ This research is part of our project Doctoral Thesis that discusses the amphitheater of Italica, which we intend to show the results for the cult practiced therein. Thus, we present a new hypothesis of possible rooms of religion distributed along the annular gallery under the podium. 3. Giovanna BASTIANELLI , gawain@virgilio.it. ―Mithras in Umbria‖ Many finds testify to the cult of Mithras in Regio VI, Umbria. These include inscriptions, two altars, two reliefs, and two Tauroctonies, which were either foun...