Archeology of cult and ritual practice.
Starting from an introduction on the main aspects of Greek religion (polytheism, anthropomorphism, continuity / discontinuity with the Mycenaean world, cult of heroes, etc.), the course will address some of the main aspects of archeology of cult:
- the ritual, as a concrete and founding manifestation of religious activity, whose various expressions, connected to the most diverse occasions, can be reconstructed through the study of literary and material testimonies and therefore of textual (literary and historical) and contextual (archaeological) data ;
- the construction typologies of cult and their functions: altar, temple, thesauròs, hestiatòrion, stoà, etc .;
- the votive offering as a ritual practice to establish a relationship with the divinity and an instrument for defining one's social status and the votive deposit as a coherent set of materials, of different typology and nature, result of an intentional action;
- sacrifice, as one of the most important expressions of Greek ritual practice that often leaves important direct and indirect archaeological evidence;
- the image of divinity, as a material manifestation of the divine between the notions of anàthema and àgalma;
- artisanal manufacturing for the sacred consumption: the votive terracottas;
- the funeral ritual: relevance in the cult practice, social significance and archaeological evidence

Texts:
• G. ROCCO, E. LIPPOLIS, Archeologia greca. Cultura, società, politica e produzione, Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2011, capitolo 4. L’identità religiosa, pp. 81-116 (with reference bibliography, pp. 524-526).
• P. SCHIRRIPA, Religione e società nella Grecia antica. Una guida, Roma (Carocci editore) 2007.