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96
Some of the most complete and beautifully preserved ancient musical instruments
recovered by archaeologists have been discovered at cult sites.166 Unfortunately, it is
often impossible to determine with certainty whether the instruments were used in cult
ritual at the sites at which they were discovered. In many cases, their fine state of
preservation is the result of their deposition as votive offerings. The choice of a
particular instrument as a votive often had personal significance for the dedicant of the
object, reflecting actual employment as a musician or dedication to a god particularly
associated with music-making. However, the presence of the votives does not necessarily
indicate the use of actual instruments of that type at the cult site where they were
dedicated; thus, votives are of limited value in suggesting the actual sensory experience
of music at a particular sanctuary. In some instances, though, votive deposits of musical
instruments do bear directly on either the nature of music at the cult site where they were
deposited or on the career of an instrumentalist who can be identified from the evidence
as a cult musician. In those cases, it is sometimes possible to extrapolate information
about the role of music and musicians in cult.
Ample epigraphical evidence, though not tied to specific objects, attests to the
practice of depositing musical instruments inside the sacred bounds of cult sites, and to
the fact that the practice was common in the ancient world. Often, the votives were
offered at the end of the career of a successful musician. In many instances, the epigrams
that accompany these offerings (or serve in most cases as our only knowledge of the
166 Other excellent sources for well-preserved instruments include funerary contexts and sites of sudden
destruction and abandonment, such as Pompeii. Further research would be necessary to determine if any of
the instruments recovered at such sites were discovered in a cultic context. See Bèlis 1988 for a general
discussion of finds at Pompeii and Delos.
Object Description
| Title | Making sense of sacrifice: Sensory experience in Greco-Roman cult |
| Author | Weddle, Candace Cherie |
| Author email | candaceweddle@gmail.com; weddle@usc.edu |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Art History |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2011-03-04 |
| Date submitted | 2011 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2011-04-27 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Pollini, John |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Yasin, Ann Marie Bitel, Lisa |
| Abstract | Performing a sacrifice was one of the most sensorially full actions undertaken in the Greco-Roman world. The production and control of the correct movements, scents and sounds were prerequisites for summoning, communicating with and propitiating deities. Sacrifice was also ubiquitous, occurring on an almost continual basis as a range of sacrificial activities were celebrated publicly and privately in a variety of locations in urban areas. Cultivating a multi-sensory understanding of the full range of sensory elements that accompanied ancient cult rites – visual and auditory cues, things smelled, tasted and touched - provides a platform for achieving a more thorough knowledge of the meanings of the rites.; This dissertation examines the archaeological, literary and epigraphical evidence for the role of the senses in Greek and Roman sacrifice in order to analyze the social and ritual importance of the senses, the impact of sacrificial rituals within ancient urban spaces, and the sensory experience of the ancient worshiper. Given the ephemeral nature of much of the evidence for sensory elements of worship, as well as the subjectivity inherent in representations of sensory experience in literature and art, this dissertation argues for the necessity of crossing disciplinary boundaries in order to appreciate the sensory impact of ancient sacrifice. Therefore, in addition to utilizing traditional historical and art historical approaches, methodological tools from the field of anthropology and evidence from studies in the animal behavioral sciences and consumer sciences are employed. For example, I suggest that greater understanding of the experience of ancient sacrifice may be acquired through an autoethnographic investigation of modern religious sacrifice. To that end, I analyze my experience of the slaughter of large numbers of bovines during the Islamic Kurban Bayram sacrifices in Istanbul to make suggestions concerning certain elements of the sensory experience of ancient blood sacrifice. I focus not only on the sensory experience of humans participating in (or within range of) sacrifices, but also on that of the animal victims. Given the immense ritual importance of the behavior of sacrificial animals in antiquity, I suggest that it is possible to identify some sensory aspects of the sacrificial process that may have been intentionally manipulated in order to control the reactions of the victims as far as possible.; Particular attention is paid to mundane aspects of the process of sacrifice not often addressed in ancient literary sources or represented in art that would have resulted in notable sensory impacts on areas surrounding urban temples, for example the removal of sacrificial refuse. I conclude not only that these elements of sacrifice formed an important part of the sensory experience of Greco-Roman cult, but also that their effects were more far-reaching – in terms both of how great an area they affected and how long they lasted – than has previously been recognized. Using fresh interdisciplinary approaches to well-known examples of texts and images, this dissertation employs a more visceral approach to the study of the sensory experience of ancient sacrifice than is possible when considering textual and archaeological evidence alone. |
| Keyword | archaeology; autoethnography; cult; Greece; religion; Rome; sacrifice; senses |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Rome |
| Geographic subject (country) | Italy; Greece |
| Coverage date | circa -0600/0600 |
| Coverage era | Greco Roman |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3788 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Weddle, Candace Cherie |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Weddle-4363 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume48/etd-Weddle-4363.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 114 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 96 Some of the most complete and beautifully preserved ancient musical instruments recovered by archaeologists have been discovered at cult sites.166 Unfortunately, it is often impossible to determine with certainty whether the instruments were used in cult ritual at the sites at which they were discovered. In many cases, their fine state of preservation is the result of their deposition as votive offerings. The choice of a particular instrument as a votive often had personal significance for the dedicant of the object, reflecting actual employment as a musician or dedication to a god particularly associated with music-making. However, the presence of the votives does not necessarily indicate the use of actual instruments of that type at the cult site where they were dedicated; thus, votives are of limited value in suggesting the actual sensory experience of music at a particular sanctuary. In some instances, though, votive deposits of musical instruments do bear directly on either the nature of music at the cult site where they were deposited or on the career of an instrumentalist who can be identified from the evidence as a cult musician. In those cases, it is sometimes possible to extrapolate information about the role of music and musicians in cult. Ample epigraphical evidence, though not tied to specific objects, attests to the practice of depositing musical instruments inside the sacred bounds of cult sites, and to the fact that the practice was common in the ancient world. Often, the votives were offered at the end of the career of a successful musician. In many instances, the epigrams that accompany these offerings (or serve in most cases as our only knowledge of the 166 Other excellent sources for well-preserved instruments include funerary contexts and sites of sudden destruction and abandonment, such as Pompeii. Further research would be necessary to determine if any of the instruments recovered at such sites were discovered in a cultic context. See Bèlis 1988 for a general discussion of finds at Pompeii and Delos. |
