Gods' Collections

Projects > Gods’ Collections

Contributions are invited for a new project on Gods’ Collections.

Places of worship of all traditions – here for convenience all called ‘temples’ – have always accumulated collections. Today some temples have generated great art museums, while others just keep a few old things in a sacristy cupboard. This new project will look at why and how these collections have developed, how they have been looked after, and how understanding of them has changed over the millennia.

Gods’ Collections is a multi-stage project, with three main components:

(1) a website hosting essays, case-studies, interviews, films and more;

(2) a series of seminars and other events, starting in 2022; and

(3) an edited book, which has been offered to the Bloomsbury Studies in Material Religion series.

We are now inviting a first tranche of contributions, which will be published on the ‘Collections’ page of the Gods’ Collections website.

We suggest that contributions offer two things:

1. A description/analysis of one particular ‘temple’ accumulation, collection or museum.

2. A wider discussion of the development and role of collections in temples of that faith tradition/period.

Ideally, contributions will engage with some the points brought out in the website’s introductory essay: how and why the collection grew up in the temple, how it was seen, developed and treated by the temple, and how it was seen and treated by devotees and visitors.

Analysis of how attitudes changed, and thus how treatment (display, curation, care) of collections changed, would be particularly welcome.

Essays should be between 1500 and 3000 words in length, and can include photos, videos, and links to other websites and resources. We welcome essays on collections from any historical period, and any part of the world.

If you would like to join in the project, or if you have any comments or suggestions for its improvement, please email Crispin Paine (crispinpaine1@gmail.com) or Jessica Hughes (jessica.hughes@open.ac.uk)

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Sensory Studies in Antiquity

Projects > Sensory Studies in Antiquity

Founded in 2015 by Eleanor Betts and Jeff D. Veitch, Sensory Studies in Antiquity is an open forum for discussion and promotion of academic events relating to sensory studies of the ancient world, from prehistory to late antiquity, and across the Graeco-Roman world.

The research area of Sensory Studies includes a variety of academic disciplines across the humanities and sciences, and the Sensory Studies in Antiquity network seeks to facilitate and promote research carried out across these disciplines. We aim to bring together classicists, ancient historians and archaeologists working on various aspects of the senses, sensory experience and related fields. 

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The Mugello Valley Archaeological Project: Research at Poggio Colla and Albagino

Projects > Mugello Valley

Prof. Phil Perkins co-directs the Albagino Project with Prof. Gregory Warden (Franklin University Switzerland).

The 2018 fieldwork season investigated the archaeological context of an important group of bronze votive objects found near a dried up lake in the High Apennines at the site of Albagino (Bruscoli, Comune di Firenzuola).

The project website explains that “the discovery and publication of this group of bronzes is important because of their undisputed context that raises immediate questions about the ritual landscape of this small lake at the crest of Apennines, halfway between Florence and Bologna. Where were the figures made? How and why did they find their way to this particular place? What is their cultural meaning? There are countless questions that come to mind about the persons who made and deposited these objects as well as to the various meanings of those depositions, those gifts to the god(s) of the place. The Albagino project, through excavation and multi-disciplinary research, hopes to provide insight into some of these questions.”

See The Mugello Valley Archaeological Project website for more details and the latest project news.

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Artwork on this page by Leslie Pickel

The Votives Project: Offerings to the Gods from Antiquity to the Present

Projects > The Votives Project

Founded in 2014 by Emma-Jayne Graham and Jessica Hughes, The Votives Project is a network of people from different backgrounds who study, create or use votive offerings or other related ways of communicating with the divine. It aims to facilitate dialogue between academic disciplines, and between academics and religious ‘practitioners’, and in doing so to develop rich cross-cultural and multi-period understandings of votive material and contexts.

Visit the website at www.thevotivesproject.org

Photograph ON THIS PAGE REPRODUCED WITH THE KIND PERMISSION OF BARON THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA

Call for Proposals: Bloomsbury Studies in Material Religion

Projects > Bloomsbury Studies in Material Religion

Bloomsbury welcomes book proposals forBloomsbury Studies in Material Religion, edited by Birgit Meyer (University of Utrecht, the Netherlands), David Morgan (Duke University, USA), Crispin Paine (UCL, UK), S. Brent Plate (Hamilton College, USA), and Amy Whitehead (Bath Spa University, UK).

This is the first book series dedicated exclusively to studies in material religion. Within the field of lived religion, the series is concerned with the material things with which people do religion, and how these things – objects, buildings, landscapes – relate to people, their bodies, clothes, food, actions, thoughts and emotions. The series engages and advances theories in ‘sensuous’ and ‘experiential’ religion, as well as informing museum practices and influencing wider cultural understandings with relation to religious objects and performances. Books in the series are at the cutting edge of debates as well as developments in fields including religious studies, anthropology, museum studies, art history, and material culture studies.

Forthcoming titles:

Christianity and the Limits of Materiality, Minna Opas and Anna Haapalainen (University of Turku, Finland)

Materiality, Practice, and Performance at Sacred Sites in India and Pakistan, Navtej K. Purewal (SOAS, University of London, UK) and Virinder S. Kalra (University of Manchester, UK)

Food, Festival and Religion, Francesca Ciancimino Howell (Naropa University, USA)

Museums of World Religions, Charles Orzech (University of Glasgow, UK)

 Please send initial enquiries to Amy Whitehead, Managing Editor (a.whitehead@yahoo.com) or Lalle Pursglove, Senior Commissioning Editor (Lalle.Pursglove@bloomsbury.com).

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