CEDRR guest lecture "Mapping seismic gods in the ancient Mediterranean"

Centre for the Digital Research of Religion invites you to a guest lecture delivered by Dr. Sabine Neumann from the Marburg Center for the Ancient World (MCAW, University of Marburg) and Dr. Tomáš Glomb (CEDRR, Masaryk University).

The Mediterranean region is located in an active seismic zone. Destructive earthquakes were and are a threatening constant for its inhabitants. Re-occurring natural events have a significant impact on different areas of human life and lead to adaptions and resilience. One area that has received little scholarly attention is religious coping with earthquakes. Dr. Sabine Neumann and Dr. Tomáš Glomb aim to explore the religious coping strategies to earthquakes in antiquity by analyzing direct links between seismic hazards and divine agency in the ancient Mediterranean. It is particularly Poseidon, the god of the seas, who was in the minds of the ancients linked to earthquakes. He was able to create them as well as mitigate seismic shocks and save cities from destruction. His protective aspects in this regard are known from his epithets such as asphaleios (guaranteeing safety) or themeliouchos (ensuring foundations). In their talk, Dr. Neumann and Dr. Glomb take a twofold approach. First, they zoom in on a specific place - namely ancient Rhodes - to understand how ancient actors established security and developed resilience through religious practices. To do so, they also show how seismic phenomena shaped the local myths of the island state. Second, the research problem will be explored from a macro-spatial GIS perspective to evaluate whether the overall spatial distribution of such cults was impacted by seismic activity in the region. The results will shed light on the role that religious practices had in helping the people in the ancient Mediterranean to cope with earthquake disasters and to establish security for their future.

Room: B2.12 (also known as B2.113)

Time: 30.11.2022, 16:00 - 18:00

The event will be held physically but in case you are not able to participate directly, the lecture will be streamed on this Zoom link.