COLONIAL RELIGION and INDIGENOUS SOCIETY in the ARCHAIC WEST MEDITERRANEAN: C. 750-400 BCE a DISSERTATION SUBMITTED to the DEPAR
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COLONIAL RELIGION AND INDIGENOUS SOCIETY IN THE ARCHAIC WEST MEDITERRANEAN: c. 750-400 BCE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS AND THE COMMITTEE ON GRADUATE STUDIES OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Lela Manning Urquhart March 2010 © 2010 by Lela Manning Urquhart. All Rights Reserved. Re-distributed by Stanford University under license with the author. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/ This dissertation is online at: http://purl.stanford.edu/fv818dt6086 ii I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Ian Morris, Primary Adviser I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Giovanna Ceserani I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Richard Martin I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Josiah Ober Approved for the Stanford University Committee on Graduate Studies. Patricia J. Gumport, Vice Provost Graduate Education This signature page was generated electronically upon submission of this dissertation in electronic format. An original signed hard copy of the signature page is on file in University Archives. iii Abstract This dissertation addresses the question of how indigenous socieites in the west Mediterrranean responded to colonial religion between 750 and 400 BCE and the role such responses played in the socio-political development of the Mediterranean basin. Focusing on the archaeological evidence from two case study regions in Sicily and Sardinia, it attempts to explain the appearance of new religious elements at indigenous sites after 750 BCE. Building on research on the role of religion in archaic Greek poleis, it argues that indigenous communities integrated aspects of colonial religious material culture and practice that supported high levels of social accessibility and collectivity in the community. These forms of religious expression were used to resolve “coordination problems” posed by the new political, economic, and demographic pressures of colonization. It concludes that certain forms of “colonial” religious expression, most of which had parallels in Greek colonies and were absent from Phoenician colonies, worked to the advantage of indigenous communities, particularly as they were drawn into broader cultural and socio-political networks developing across the Mediterranean. Chapter 1 introduces the scholarly background of the project, particularly as it relates to postcolonial theory and studies of ancient religion. It also lays out three hypotheses that are used as potential explanations for the patterns seen in the archaeological record of religious change. The first proposes that the changes were part of a widespread process of cultural diffusionism, while the second suggests that changes in indigenous religion were a function of the density of colonization. A third hypothesis proposes seeing the changes as the selective integration of particular features of colonial religion. The chapter also engages with the question of how to study “religion” archaeologically and lays out a methodological tool-kit for the investigation of religious change. This tool-kit centers on 13 material correlates that are then applied as a means of heuristically organizing and quantifying the archaeological evidence for religious development in the different case study regions. Chapter 2 delves into the historiography of the “Hellenization versus postcolonialism debate.” Postcolonial treatments of the ancient west Mediterranean have reacted against the “traditional” Hellenization model, arguing that the latter was heavily biased towards the perspective of (mostly Greek) colonizersl; they propose models of cultural change that instead iv stress fluidity, hybridity, and constructed meanings. Chapter 2 shows that, contrary to their representation in the postcolonial literature, treatments of religious change hold a unique position in the Hellenization historiography. It argues that even among the staunchest proponents of Hellenization, religion was construed as traditional, actively resistant to colonial influence, and sometimes influencing Greek colonial religion. It traces this historiographic trend back to a long- standing interest in indigenous culture amongst European scholars whose roots, it argues, can be seen as early as the sixteenth century. This exception in the historiography has been overlooked and, consequently, the archaeological record for religious developments during the Archaic and Classical periods has often been misread. ! Chapters 3 and 4 show that indigenous societies in Sicily (Ch. 3) and Sardinia (Ch. 4) experienced a dramatic change in the material expression of their religious beliefs after colonization (post-650 BCE). In Sicily, indigenous communities increasingly dedicated places for the worship of the gods. Between 650 and 550 BCE, the form that these places took went quickly from open-air ritual sites to built spaces, vacillating mainly between two architectural types, curvilinear “hut-shrines” and rectilinear bi- or tri-partite structures. Chapter 3 argues further that both the construction of spaces specially designed for ritual activity, and the proliferation of certain religious practices-- sacrifice, feasting, and the dedication of relatively modest votive goods--signal a major shift in the role of religious institutions within indigenous communities. It then shows that around 525 BCE, many of the older strongholds of indigenous ritual life and settlement started to decline while others grew tremendously. This pattern continued into the fifth century BCE, in a process that strongly resembles synoikism. Chapter 4 looks at how indigenous societies responded more specifically to Phoenician colonial religion; framed another way, it functions as a test of whether the presence of Greek colonists (and thus, Greek religion) was a necessary condition for particular types of religious development. Precolonial Sardinian religious organization shows an unusual level of internal consistency and visibility and appears to have been intricately tied up in the power structures of nuragic society. Chapter 4 shows that Sardinian indigenous religious sites were increasingly abandoned at roughly the same time that Phoenicians settled on the southern and western coasts of the island. Signs of the integration of Phoenician religious material culture or practices are v rare, and for the few indigenous sanctuaries that continued into the late Archaic and Classical periods, there is little concrete support for “Phoenicianization” or “Punicization.” Thus, where in Sicily there seems to have been an increase in the visibility of and investment towards religious behavior following the arrival of Greeks and Phoenicians, in Sardinia the opposite seems to have happened. Chapter 5 examines three Greek colonies in central-western Sicily--Himera, Selinus, and Akragas-- and shows that each engaged in an extensive intrastate competition of temple-building between 650 and 400 BCE. Investments in religious architecture were accompanied by a growing standardization in religious practice, particularly in sacrificial and votive behavior. The chapter argues that Greek religious evidence can be understood as the material expression of community solidarity and the promotion of collective potential and of relative social equilibrium and religious cohesion. It emphasizes, however, that smaller, more exclusive social groups were embedded in the polis (and its symbolic forms of self-representation). It concludes that collective efforts to monumentalize the sacred character of the cities belie significant fractures in the ritual communities of each city, as evidenced both by the number of sanctuaries and the variation in their material assemblages. ! Chapter 6 synthesizes the evidence from Phoenician sanctuaries in Sicily and Sardinia, showing that there are significant disparities within the two regions even while an underlying unity of religious concepts, practice, and symbolic iconography, particularly from the sixth century on, seems to have existed. In comparison to the Greek settlements, Phoenician settlements invested significantly less in religion, although individual citizens may have been equally or more wealthy than their Greek counterparts. Chapter 6 argues that Phoenician religious organization more strongly emphasized individual piety and that its material culture and practice heavily favored the more exclusive participation of wealthier and high-status citizens. Evidence for collective worship is less readily identifiable in the material record than at both Greek and indigenous communities. Moreover, when it is identifiable, it seems to reiterate the notion that inclusion in the “civic” body was determined by familial lineage and aristocratic status. The evidence presented in Chapters 3-6 shows that there were major changes in the religious organization of west Mediterranean societies at the end of the Iron Age. Chapter 7 vi returns