Call for Papers

*Sacred Space and the Archaeology of Landscapes from Antiquity to the
Post-Medieval World*

Proposed Colloquium Session for the 2020 Annual Meeting of the
Archaeological Institute of America, Washington, DC, January 2-5, 2020

Organizers: Justin Mann and Darlene Brooks Hedstrom on behalf of the AIA
Medieval and Post- Medieval Archaeology Group



The proposed colloquium will examine how current archaeology has treated
the creation and maintenance of sacred spaces and landscapes in the broadly
defined Mediterranean region from antiquity to the post- medieval period.
Our understanding of sacred spaces has too often been delimited to the
identification and definition of religious architecture as the locus for
sacrality. The ensuing analysis, therefore, disconnects these culturally
important sites from their wider social and cultural contexts. As a result,
less work has been done to understand how concepts of the sacred connect
with and extend beyond the precincts of religious architecture or the
environmental setting of the religious built environment.

This panel seeks to engender a wider analysis of the archaeological record
of sacred spaces and landscapes. We seek papers that assess how
archaeological concepts of the sacred communicate with broader socio-
economic or environmental consequences. For example, potential papers may
relate to the continuity or discontinuity of religious practice, the
topography of the sacred, the economy of sacred landscapes, and the
ramifications of sacred space or landscapes on daily life and local
authority. We welcome papers from all periods of history, and those from
the Byzantine and post-medieval are particularly encouraged.



Interested scholars should submit for consideration an abstract of 300-400
words by Thursday, March 28 to the panel co-organizers: Justin Mann (
jam2bg@virginia.edu) and Darlene Brooks Hedstrom (
dbrookshedstrom@wittenberg.edu).