CONTEXTUALIZING 'ORIENTAL' CULTS
»Contextualizing 'Oriental' Cults. New Lights on the Evidence between the Danube and the Adriatic«
There are numerous traces of so-called Oriental cults in the territory of the Roman provinces in Southeast Europe (Dalmatia, Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia, Thracia, Macedonia). Cults were appropriated differently from one place to the next, depending on the particular manner of transmission and the varied local circumstances. In the process of being inserted into new local societies and contexts, these cults often underwent adjustments and transformations. Certain values and meanings could be adopted, thus leading to specific provincial forms of traditional cults.
After the Skopje Symposium (»Romanising Oriental Gods«, 18–21 September 2013) the need to assemble once again became evident, in order to explore novel perspectives on this topic. The aim of the Symposium is to examine and debate further how the 'Oriental' cults manifested themselves in the respective regions, on the basis of particularities of epigraphic and material evidence. Attention will be given to the dissemination and development of these cults in various contexts – historical, political, topographic, civic, economic, military – in the aforementioned provinces.