The new conceptualization of molk-style rites shown in Chapter 7 led to shifts in how sanctuaries were structured and in the entailments these new structures had for the communities who used them. While past studies have focused on the movement from open-air stele fields to monumental sanctuaries as evidence of “Romanization” or the creation of “Romano-African” temple-types, this chapter argues that these new built temples instead participated in wider civic-style practices of benefaction and spectacle in ways that sought to foreground sacrificer-benefector figures. At the end of the second century CE, a number of stele-sanctuaries were rebuilt in monumental forms that privileged central altars, the spectacle of animal offering, and dining. This shift in the spatial dimension of worship afforded new possibilities of practice and social ordering that closely resemble those of the wider imperial world, creating a “sacrificial compromise” where local forms of authority were predicated on being central to the pageantry of sacrifice.

This chapter examines the religious role of Alexander as king and military commander in the Greek world and the territory of the Achaemenid empire. It explores how he used sanctuaries of the gods to develop his relationship with the Greek cities, as locations for the meetings of associations of Greek cities, and as sites for making dedications. It considers the honours offered to Alexander by the Greek cities, arguing that these were offered spontaneously, and were not a response to any request from Alexander. It discusses his use of diviners and other religious experts while on campaign. It considers the extent to which Alexander engaged with the religious practices and expectations of the territories he conquered, including in particular Egypt and Babylon. It discusses the evidence that Alexander consciously attempted to emulate Heracles and Dionysus, and suggests that this is unlikely to reflect any historical reality. It then explores the story of Alexander’s visit to the oracle of Ammon/Amun at the Siwah oasis, suggesting that while Alexander was aware of the significance of his pharaonic titulary, including the phrase ‘son of Amun’, this did not lead to claims of divine filiation beyond Egypt.

This chapter focuses on ancient Corinthia as an area that housed several sizeable Greek sanctuaries, including those of Poseidon at Isthmia, Hera at Perachora, and Demeter and Kore on the Acrocorinth. All of these sanctuaries have yielded extensive assemblages of items left by worshippers as votives dedicated to the ancient Greek gods and goddesses. The study of the similarities and differences of their votive deposits illuminates the uses of these sanctuaries within different local contexts. The quantitative look at dedicatory assemblages is combined with the qualitative look at individual objects or groups of objects to consider questions of the wealth and gender of those dedicating the votives as well as their geographical origin. The chapter shows that dedicatory assemblages can provide invaluable insights into the way in which the local constitutes itself in ever different ways at each of these sanctuaries. It also illustrates that material objects can point to both their practical uses as well as the thinking of those engaged in their circulation.

This chapter focuses on ancient Corinthia as an area that housed several sizeable Greek sanctuaries, including those of Poseidon at Isthmia, Hera at Perachora, and Demeter and Kore on the Acrocorinth. All of these sanctuaries have yielded extensive assemblages of items left by worshippers as votives dedicated to the ancient Greek gods and goddesses. The study of the similarities and differences of their votive deposits illuminates the uses of these sanctuaries within different local contexts. The quantitative look at dedicatory assemblages is combined with the qualitative look at individual objects or groups of objects to consider questions of the wealth and gender of those dedicating the votives as well as their geographical origin. The chapter shows that dedicatory assemblages can provide invaluable insights into the way in which the local constitutes itself in ever different ways at each of these sanctuaries. It also illustrates that material objects can point to both their practical uses as well as the thinking of those engaged in their circulation.

In this chapter, Kearns traces the novel politics and communities developing in the neighboring Vasilikos and Maroni river valleys, to the east of the town of Amathus. Their commonly described position as a marginal hinterland provides an opportunity to explore rural dynamics at multiple registers. Survey data and rescue excavations form an evidentiary dataset with which to interrogate the generative ties between clusters of settlements and Amathus that produced unruliness across variable and interconnected scales. One critical theme is continuity and impermanence, and the differentiated patterns of access, appropriation, and management taken up by groups returning to sites of prehistoric and protohistoric occupation. Another is social stratification, which entails the development of local autonomous figures, potential community leaders, or members with elevated status. These actors advanced special relationships with Amathusian authorities and local groups through the construction of gathering places such as cemeteries and shrines. The chapter situates these dynamics in habitation, non-quotidian activity, and land use within a framework of a small near-shore world entangling rural sites with maritime economies.

This chapter reconstructs the typical physical form of the rural sanctuaries of Roman Hieradoumia, as well as their landholdings and distinctive labour regimes. The exiguous evidence from excavations and surveys is set alongside a lengthy inscription from a sanctuary of Apollo Kisauloddenos that describes the sacred buildings and their associated furniture. The mechanisms by which these sanctuaries accumulated their large landholdings are discussed, with a focus on the evidence for semi-compulsory ‘tithes’ on secular land-transactions. Sacred woodlands and groves were a standard feature of sanctuaries’ landholdings, and poaching from these woodlands was very widespread. Although these sanctuaries had a small permanent staff of sacred officials, much of the rural labour on their estates was provided through the Hieradoumian institution of ‘sacred slavery’, under which villagers were expected to offer their labour as hierodouloi for a fixed term of service. Low-level resistance to this compulsory labour service was endemic, illustrating the structural tensions that existed between Hieradoumian villagers and the powerful sanctuaries of the region.

This chapter explores the different social contexts in which forms of money appear in the Iron Age Aegean world, and how these develop and converge in the emerging use of precious metal money before the spread of coinage. Early sanctuaries form such a context, where the deposition of metal votive offerings could reflect an increasing focus on organizing cult expenses. Another context is provided by compensation or wergeld payments, notable in the Homeric epics and a prominent focus of early written law. Next, emphasis is placed on the context of interregional and international trade. Through contacts with Levantine merchants Euboians adopted the use of precious metal money in the Geometric period, stimulating the active search for gold sources in the northern Aegean. From the mid-seventh century onwards, Greek efforts extended to the exploitation of silver sources, arguably stimulated by the opening up of contacts with 26th-dynasty Egypt. Preceding the production of silver coinage by more than half a century, silver trade with Egypt likely boosted the use of silver within the Aegean, which shortly after superseded gold as the preferred form of money.