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195
with a light breeze. The weather had warmed in the preceding week, following on
several weeks of cold weather and almost continual moisture, including snow. My first
impression was that the site was much smaller than I had originally believed. The
presence of all of the animals, the trailer, the butchering tables, the people and the activity
had lent a false sense of size to the area.
By the time of my return, the refuse pit had been filled in with dirt and chunks of
concrete. Several feet of fill insulated its contents from the air and from scavenging
animals (Fig. 26). The usage and later covering of the refuse pit at once met the Islamic
requirement that the blood of the animals be introduced into the earth and provided for a
relatively hygienic disposal of the blood and other waste products. Despite this, the
smells of the animals did linger fairly strongly. It was not offensive, but was definitely
noticeable.
The strongest odor was manure, due in part to the fact that some of the waste the
animals produced while waiting their turn for slaughtering had not been cleared away.
However, when I walked to the area of the covered refuse pit, I could smell the slightly
metallic scent of blood. The odor was particularly strong closest to the concrete retaining
wall on the far side of the area, which had been coated in a considerable amount of blood
and other material at the time of the sacrifices. Although from its appearance it seemed
that the wall had been heavily cleaned following the sacrificial period, the smells of the
blood and waste products lingered more strongly there than elsewhere.
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 213 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 195 with a light breeze. The weather had warmed in the preceding week, following on several weeks of cold weather and almost continual moisture, including snow. My first impression was that the site was much smaller than I had originally believed. The presence of all of the animals, the trailer, the butchering tables, the people and the activity had lent a false sense of size to the area. By the time of my return, the refuse pit had been filled in with dirt and chunks of concrete. Several feet of fill insulated its contents from the air and from scavenging animals (Fig. 26). The usage and later covering of the refuse pit at once met the Islamic requirement that the blood of the animals be introduced into the earth and provided for a relatively hygienic disposal of the blood and other waste products. Despite this, the smells of the animals did linger fairly strongly. It was not offensive, but was definitely noticeable. The strongest odor was manure, due in part to the fact that some of the waste the animals produced while waiting their turn for slaughtering had not been cleared away. However, when I walked to the area of the covered refuse pit, I could smell the slightly metallic scent of blood. The odor was particularly strong closest to the concrete retaining wall on the far side of the area, which had been coated in a considerable amount of blood and other material at the time of the sacrifices. Although from its appearance it seemed that the wall had been heavily cleaned following the sacrificial period, the smells of the blood and waste products lingered more strongly there than elsewhere. |
