Religious landscapes are like palimpsests, providing information about social, political, cultural and economic spheres. The construction of cult spaces reflects the beliefs of those who managed these sites and those who visited them. Shrines developed according to a complex network of interconnected factors that affected the activities that took place there. Sanctuaries were dynamic sites, far from static, where negotiation conditioned physical and symbolic interaction with the structures and other elements present. 

The case study for this talk will be Dion in Macedonia. Originally the main sacred centre of the Macedonian kingdom from the Late Archaic period to the Hellenistic period, following the Roman conquest in the 2nd century BCE it was later re-founded as the Colonia Iulia Augusta (Felix) Diensis under Augustus. Archaeological excavations of the settlement have revealed a significant religious area to the south of the asty, comprising at least five shrines dedicated to various deities and active over different time periods. The configuration of each temenos, the internal and external distribution of spaces, and its relationship with other elements of the territory — such as the Baphyras River and Mount Olympus — defined a variety of strategies to shape them. This session will therefore focus on how these sanctuaries evolved, and on how we can gain an overall perspective of the religious landscape of Dion, as well as identifying the specific peculiarities of each shrine.

This guest lecture is organized within the framework of the HIEROTOPOI project, which is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) 10.55776/PAT2141125.