The Archaeology of Ritual: The Sanctuary of Pan at Banias/Caesarea Philippi
From the third century B. C. through the fifth century A. D. a sanctuary to the Greek god Pan existed at the mouth of the Jordan River. At its founding, the sanctuary served as a rural shrine for the local pagan population; when it was abandoned, it had long been the city shrine of Caesarea Philippi...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
The University of Chicago Press
1999
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| In: |
Bulletin of ASOR
Year: 1999, Volume: 315, Pages: 27-45 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
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| Summary: | From the third century B. C. through the fifth century A. D. a sanctuary to the Greek god Pan existed at the mouth of the Jordan River. At its founding, the sanctuary served as a rural shrine for the local pagan population; when it was abandoned, it had long been the city shrine of Caesarea Philippi, whose population included Jews and Christians. While the cult's longevity is generally seen as reflecting the stability of local religious life, fundamental historical changes suggest that cult rituals must have changed over time. Abundant ceramic remains provide evidence for reconstructing those changes. In Hellenistic times, worshipers from nearby settlements brought local household pottery in which they made dedicatory meals, suggesting that they spent some time at the site. When the sanctuary became a civic shrine in the first century A. D., simpler dedications-such as lamps-became common. By the second century, impressive buildings and sculpture transformed the sanctuary into a formal site, and private rites seem to have been abandoned. Individual patronage resumed, however, in the third and fourth centuries, as indicated by the presence of several thousand lamp dedications. The cult's popularity at that period is impressive, although the character of the dedications indicates that worship was essentially passive. The sanctuary was abandoned by the mid-fifth century. No evidence exists for its purposeful destruction, although by that time the shrine housed a pagan cult in an increasingly Christian city. |
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| ISSN: | 2161-8062 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American Schools of Oriental Research, Bulletin of ASOR
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/1357531 |