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Abstract
Looks at the material evidence for ritual practices involved in the buildings of the ancient Mediterranean. Utilizing literary and archaeological evidence, it analyzes each component of construction from the preparations of a site and its foundation to floors, walls, doors, and roofs. Apotropaic materials are most vitally connected to buildings, but one also finds evidence of aggressive ritual devices seeking to do harm. Acts of ritual protection are also involved in the transformation of buildings -- to cleanse and purify spaces.
Abstract
Discusses the use of images – statuary, figurines, paintings, and so on -- in a variety of ritual practices in the Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean worlds. The chapter surveys uses of images chronologically to show several themes: images used to “force” a god to accomplish something; images meant simply to receive or witnessing the performance of a ritual; and the nature and function of iconographic representation itself. The essential ritual function of images in ancient ritual offer an important context for uses of figurines and statuary in more private ritual contexts.