BMCR 2009.03.42, Michael Wedde, Celebrations. Sanctuaries and the Vestiges

Michael Wedde (ed.), Celebrations. Sanctuaries and the Vestiges of Cult
Activity. Selected papers and discussions from the Tenth Anniversary
Symposium of the Norwegian Institute at Athens, 12-16 May 1999. Papers
from the Norwegian Institute at Athens, 6.  Bergen:  Norwegian
Institute at Athens, 2004.  Pp. 303.  ISBN 82-91626-23-5.  $87.50.

Reviewed by Naoise Mac Sweeney, Fitzwilliam College,  Cambridge UK
([email protected])
Word count:  1396 words
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To read a print-formatted version of this review, see
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Cult practice is a long-standing and perennially-popular area of study
for Aegean archaeologists and historians. It has often proved fertile
ground for the development of radical new ideas and for the testing of
new interdisciplinary approaches. In such a dynamic and fast-moving
field, research must be both innovative and insightful to stand out
above the crowd, and it is unfortunate that very few papers in this
edited volume from the Norwegian Institute at Athens do so.

The volume is compiled from papers presented a symposium held in May
1999, organised to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the establishment
of the Norwegian Institute at Athens. During the lag between
presentation and publication however, nine of the original twenty
papers given at the symposium were not submitted for inclusion in
Celebrations, leaving the volume with eleven papers of variable
quality. The book included six essays on the Bronze Age, four on
archaic and classical Greece, and (as has become a tradition in
Norwegian Institute publications) a final paper on the Norwegian Iron
Age. The book does not suffer, however, from this variety in
chronological (or even geographical) focus -- such variety has the
potential to present some illuminating comparisons. Rather, it is the
lack of rigorous editing, and the rather loose relationship between the
papers and the overall theme, which mean that the volume does not
really hang together as a complete whole.

Hielte-Stavropoulou opens the volume with her discussion of Middle
Helladic burials, arguing for a re-evaluation of Middle Bronze Age
tombs on the basis of their geographic location and relationships with
the surrounding landscape. However, Heilte-Stavropoulou fails to follow
through with her promising argument, and the papers ends in some
confusion, without any detailed analysis of material.

Morris and Peatfield's paper on altered states of consciousness and the
sensory experience of Minoan ritual is one of the highlights of the
book. Using iconographic evidence and ethnographic comparisons, they
make an intriguing case for shamanic trance playing a role in some
Minoan rituals. Although some of the ethnographic evidence is tenuous,
the paper does explore an important new direction in the study of
ancient cult. Several works have recently highlighted the role of
embodiment, performance and experience in religion, and this paper
makes an interesting and valuable contribution to the discussion.

In a completely different but also very interesting paper, Konsolaki
presents material from the recent excavations at Ayios Konstantinos in
Methana. Although the Linear B texts tell us that there were many rural
sanctuaries in Mycenaean times, few non-palatial sites have been
excavated to date, and Konsolaki's paper offers the reader useful
information about an important new ritual site. This is followed by an
especially weak paper by Whittaker von Hofsten on Mycenaean animal
sacrifice. The uncertainty of the final argument is not helped by the
poor use of cross-cultural comparisons or an eclectic selection of
evidence.

The issue of ritual and landscape, so tantalisingly mentioned in the
first paper, is taken up by Albers with reference to the Mycenaean
period. She argues that the Cult Centre at Mycenae and the sanctuary at
Phylakopi were both regional cult centres, drawing their congregations
from across the Argolid in the case of the former, and across the
Cyclades in the case of the latter. Such cultic centralisation, she
argues, suggests political centralisation as well. However, the
evidence offered for religious centralisation in itself is not
overwhelming, and furthermore the jump between the religious and
political spheres is not properly discussed. But perhaps most jarring
is that Albers makes her case so confidently and strongly, despite the
poverty of the evidence available.

Wedde's paper on glyptic art is the opposite, in this sense, to
Albers'. Wedde deals expertly with a fascinating body of material
(scenes from Minoan and Mycenaean sealstones), but stops short of
coming to any social or religious conclusions from his material. Wedde
focuses in particular on scenes which show processions and offerings,
presenting a detailed analysis of the variants of each type of scene
illustrated by useful line drawings. It is somewhat disappointing that
the rich evidence is only presented, rather than discussed, but it is
hoped that such discussions will find their way into other
publications.

The transition between the prehistoric and historic papers is made by
Voyatzis, who lays out the development of the sanctuary site of Athena
Alea at Tegea, taking in all periods from the first scant Mycenaean
remains to the monumental temple of the mature classical period. The
presentation is informative but brief, and serves to whet the appetite
for the past and forthcoming publications of the excavations. It is
especially appropriate that the excavations at Athena Alea were
conducted by the Norwegian Institute itself.

Handelman's paper on the City Dionysia considers the festival in terms
of its relationship to wider Athenian society. In it, Handelman debunks
the idea that rituals either serve to confirm the established social
structures or to transform social and cosmic relationships. The City
Dionysia, he argues, does both. Whilst the structure of the festival
itself would mostly have acted to uphold the social order, the dramas
staged during the festival would also have questioned and transformed
this social order. Despite being written in a somewhat confusing style,
the argument is essentially a good one. However, a more serious concern
is that Handelman sets up something of a straw man to knock down -- few
theoretically-aware scholars would ever suggest that rituals work in a
strict either/or fashion. Instead, most would argue that social acts
and social practices always serve both to create and express society at
the same time.

>From a polis festival to a Panhellenic one, the next paper discusses
pilgrimage and process at Olympia. Des Bouvrie suggests that the
experience of physically getting to Olympia was as important in the
manufacture of a Panhellenic spirit of unity as actually being there.
The formal procession from Elis and the secluded location of the
sanctuary are highlighted, and much discussion is given over to how the
particular gods and heroes honoured at Olympia would also have promoted
a Panhellenic ideal.

Thomassen rounds off the archaic and classical section of the volume
with a consideration of blood sacrifice in classical Greece. He
identifies two main approaches to blood sacrifice in classical
scholarship, as represented by the arguments of Burkert and those of
Vernant and the Paris school. Burkert's interpretation of animal
sacrifice was that it was a visceral, emotional act, with an emphasis
on primordial violence and the killing of the victim. Vernant, in
contrast, considered sacrifice as a means of transforming 'raw' nature
into 'cooked' culture, and stressed the preparation, cooking and eating
of the ritual meal. Thomassen's thoughtful and interesting piece
encourages us to eschew both extremes, instead viewing Greek animal
sacrifice as a complex process, in which all stages of the ritual
(including prayers, procession and garlanding) all have their place.

The final paper in the book is the now-traditional Iron Age Norway
contribution. Kristoffersen presents us with a concise and engaging
discussion of gendered grave goods in Migrations-period Norway, making
use of later Norse poetry as well as the archaeological material.
Krisoffersen notes the strict gender distinctions in the burial
assemblages, before going to discuss how typical female roles in life
are represented through the choice of grave goods.

Overall,  Celebrations  includes several strong papers which make
interesting contributions to our understanding of cult practice in the
ancient Aegean (and Norway). However, the weaker papers in the volume
are notable. The book would have benefited from sterner editing,
excluding papers which did not make the grade and tightening the
arguments of those which are carelessly or confusingly written. In
addition, there is little sense of an overarching theme which unites
the papers. 'Ritual' or 'cult' is a vague touchstone for such a varied
collection of papers, and each relates to the central theme in its own
individual way.

There is one idea, however, which runs through several of these papers,
and which could have been highlighted perhaps in the initial
introduction. How ritual is experienced is an idea explored explicitly
by Morris and Peatfield, Handelman, des Bouvrie and Thomassen, and this
would have been an interesting thread for the volume to follow.
Unfortunately, however, many of the threads in this book are left loose
and hanging, and are not woven together for offer readers a coherent
experience of their own.