Sanctuaries of Roman Dacia. A Catalogue of Sacralised Places in Shared and Secondary Spaces

Abstract

Sacral sites, known as sanctuaries in the traditional archaeological discourse, were omnipresent in the Roman Empire. Most of the studies till now have focused exclusively on the architectural features of a sanctuary, neglecting the lived aspects of religious communication in Dacia. This study wants to open new perspectives in studying the sanctuaries of Roman Dacia. As a first step of this attempt, the study will present the first comprehensive catalogue of public and shared sacral sites of Roman Dacia.
The first part of this paper presents the sacralised spaces of Roman Dacia in public and secondary (shared) spaces, focusing on the general and local specific aspects of Roman sanctuaries, their architectural features and economic investments. The large number of sanctuaries of Roman Dacia created and maintained between AD 106 and 271 are presented in this work as spaces of religious communication, local religious appropriation and places of embodiment and experience. The second part is the latest and hitherto most comprehensive catalogue of sanctuaries of Roman Dacia, presenting the archaeologically and epigraphically attested as well as presumed sanctuaries in alphabetical order of the settlements. By creating a catalogue of sanctuaries in public and shared spaces, this study is a prologue for a more detailed work, which will focus on the material evidence of lived ancient religion in Dacia and the role of spatial sacralisation in Roman religious communication in this so-called peripheral province of the Roman Empire.