Excavating Pilgrimage ─ Archaeological Approaches to Sacred Travel and Movement in the Ancient World

This volume places discussions of pilgrimage in the ancient Mediterranean world within the context of the rich archaeological record for different forms of sacred travel and movement. Its chronological range covers the period from Classical Greece to Late Antiquity but also takes in a selection of cross-cultural perspectives, including pilgrimage in the Near East and Egypt. Individual contributions explore archaeological evidence for travel and sacred movement, the material footprint of different activities undertaken by pilgrims, the spatial organization and wider catchment of pilgrimage sanctuaries, as well as the relationship between architecture, art and sacred calendars. They also tackle directly both methodological and theoretical issues related to the study of pilgrimage, sacred travel and other types of movement to, from and within sanctuaries through their chosen case studies. Last but not least they bring in new interdisciplinary approaches to pilgrimage in different cultures and settings.

Wiebke Friese was until recently Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of History and Classical Studies at Aarhus University as part of "The Emergence of Sacred Travel: Experience, Economy and Connectivity in Ancient Mediterranean Pilgrimage (2013-2017). She has published on oracle sanctuaries and Athenian women’s festivals.

Troels Myrup Kristensen is Associate Professor of Classical Archaeology at Aarhus University, Denmark. He is the director of the Sapere Aude-project "The Emergence of Sacred Travel: Experience, Economy and Connectivity in Ancient Mediterranean Pilgrimage" (2013-2017), funded by the Danish Council for Independent Research. His research interests are pilgrimage, visual culture and cultural heritage.