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Hidden Spaces, Hidden Cultic Practices: The Underworld Topography of Ancient Rome
Lawless, Jennifer Anne
Lawless, Jennifer Anne
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Abstract
Ancient Rome’s visible topographical features contributed to the fabric of ancient Roman culture and identity. Though marginally studied, the underground topography of ancient Rome was equally important to the Romans. This study aims to both locate and plot topographical connectors within the city of Rome utilized to venerate chthonic gods more often than we are conventionally led to understand. Exploring the underground topography of ancient Rome will establish the relationship that everyday Romans had with these subterranean spaces. The primary link connecting the two realms were defixones, ancient curse tablets used to influence events supernaturally. The ancients navigated across the underworld through intercession and petition at topographical markers visible on the city’s surface. These markers, often dedicated to the upper world’s deities, reflected the ancients’ devotion and reliance on their gods, demonstrating that Roman religion weighed heavily on mapping the city. Defixones’ deposit locations are particularly imperative in building the topography of subterranean Rome as they reveal that the ancients routinely communicated with their underworld divinities through unofficially charted access points within the city that were more frequent than scholarship recognizes.
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Master of Arts in Art History -- John Cabot University, Spring 2022.
Date
2022
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Keywords
Roman Architecture, Buildings, City planning
Citation
Lawless, Jennifer Anne. "Hidden Spaces, Hidden Cultic Practices: The Underworld Topography of Ancient Rome". Master's Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2022.