About this Event
Another “face of God". The representation of the God-Altar in the Near-Eastern Roman Era between Onomastics and Archaeology
- Giuseppina Marano (University Toulouse)
This presentation aims to analyze an exemplary case of the cultural reworking and syncretism in the Ancient Near East. The focus will be the altar, the Bomos/mdbk', which means both the ritual act itself and the divine power to which it is dedicated, almost in the form of a synecdoche. The transversal presence in the oriental cultures of this cultural element (Greek, Aramaic, Nabataean, etc.) allows the creation of a chronological path whose point of arrival is the North Syrian cult of Zeus Bomos/Madbachos attested still in the 2nd and 3rd century CE.
This research starts with discussing the process of association of divine power to an object or a ritual object, passing through the notions of "aniconism" and "image ban", and then it lands to the case of the divinity-altar that pervades the Near Eastern cultural fabric and is performed in the most varied cultural contexts. Most of the sources which, with more or less certainty, attest to the existence of this process, whereby the altar represents the very image of the god, as well as his power, are concentrated in the Roman Era, although the aniconic phenomenon is much older.
Three case studies will be considered: Dushara-A'ra, the God-altar of Bostra associated with Dushara, the chef deity of the Nabataean pantheon; the case of Zeus-Altar present in the Northern Syria both in Greek and in Aramaic, and; finally, the case of a Zeus-hammana or Zeus of the hammana in Jerash, which is more complex to outline. The purpose of this presentation is to explore the divine representations of the Hellenistic Imperial Age in the Near East, which is not only the result of a process of osmosis and reworking of the ancient cultures, but also a new and peculiar cultural product, well distinct from the cultures of departure
Zoom link: https://asu.zoom.us/j/84338051793?pwd=dkMzYWxFeGNDZUJnVXl5cnlUUnNCdz09
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For any issues with registration, contact: Katherine A. Crawford (katherine.a.crawford@asu.edu)
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