Summer School « Gods, rites and objects. Introduction to Roman religion through the prism of its materiality » – Rome, 8-12 September 2025

The Summer School Gods, rites and objects. Introduction to Roman religion through the prism of its materiality will focus on the materiality of Roman religion through cultic practices. Ritual dynamics aim to bring together groups and individuals on the one hand, and divinities on the other, in a wide variety of contexts (civic, urban, associative or domestic).
These rites are characterised by a material dimension. Roman cult practices are rooted in spaces and involve the presence of objects. Ritual places and objects will be studied as mediators and agents of dialogue between people and divinities. To what extent do they interact and contribute, through their form and materiality, to the construction and representation of gods and rites (gestures and movements)?
We want to focus on ‘affordances’, i.e. the characteristics of each object and place that determine the performance of rituals on it and/or through it. It is in the affordances that the agency of the object and place resides, because it is its mode of being (form and materiality) that directly influences ritual gestures and movements.
We also want to analyse the status of objects. Objects may have been created exclusively for religious purposes, or they may have had a secular (or everyday) use before being received into the religious sphere. So, we need to think about the status of books, statues, stones, plants, etc. in terms of their past (origin) or their future (memory). The agency of these objects is revealed above all in the psychological, affective and ritual reactions they provoke in individuals and communities.
The main aim of this Summer School is to make young researchers aware of the importance of material data (objects and places of worship) in their analyses. We will be organising workshops during which young researchers will present their research, as well as visits to museums to observe the objects themselves and to places of worship to better appreciate the topography of Rome.

Organisers
Giorgio Ferri (Sapienza Università di Roma), Francesca Prescendi Morresi (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris), Jörg Rüpke (Erfurt, Max Weber Kolleg, KFG “Religion and Urbanity”), Alessandro Saggioro (Sapienza Università di Roma).

Programme Summer School 2025_Gods rites and objects