Emporio in Chios Revisited: the Religious Landscape of an Early Iron Age Settlement in the Aegean

Abstract

This thesis re-assesses the value of legacy sites such as Emporio in Chios in the scholarship of Early Iron Age sanctuaries and religious practice through the synthesis of old and new data and the adoption of an approach shaped by recent scholarship.

The concept of a religious landscape forms an analytical frame, within which the research employs data from Emporio and the sanctuaries within its purview, including the Athena sanctuary, the Harbour sanctuary and the important extra-urban sanctuary at Kato Phana, to explore how the physical and cultural dimensions of the religious landscape of the settlement are constituted and interrelated.

Analysis of the material remains of the constituent sites is based on datasets from a number of excavations conducted between 1915 and 2006. The experience of ritual action in and between the sites of ritual action is investigated using methods of phenomenological and sensorial archaeology. The conceptual or religious landscape is modelled as a network of interaction.

Findings on the spatial organisation, material remains, and ritually experienced environment redefine the sites and their interconnections. The sanctuaries are demonstrated to be multivalent, fulfilling multiple purposes for local and visiting worshippers. Their deities are multivocal, expressing multiple roles and meanings. The relationships between the occupants of Emporio and the sanctuaries are reformulated through the mapping of material, cultural and ideological interconnections in the symbolic landscape at local, regional and broader scales.

The case study confirms the potential for re-examination of legacy sites to contribute to wider debates on the role of sanctuaries in the local horizons of ancient Greek religion, and in the broader horizons of regional cultural interconnections and maritime religious networks.