We are launching the first guest lecture of the HIEROTOPOI Lecture Series!! We are very excited about beginning the series with this marvellous scholar and his fascinating research on Dion. Do not miss it!! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

HIEROTOPOI@hierotopoi.bsky.social · 4d ago

🏛️ How did the natural landscape shape the sacred heart of the ancient Macedonian kingdom? Join us to kick off the #HierotopoiProject Lecture Series with Diego Chapinal-Heras (UAM, Spain)! 🗓️ Sept 14, 2026 📍 Hybrid (Vienna & Zoom) 🧵👇

🏛️ How did the natural landscape shape the sacred heart of the ancient Macedonian kingdom? Join us to kick off the #HierotopoiProject Lecture Series with Diego Chapinal-Heras (UAM, Spain)! 🗓️ Sept 14, 2026 📍 Hybrid (Vienna & Zoom) 🧵👇

Chapter 7 of the #HierotopoiLibrary is here, just in time for the August heat! 📚💧 Today we dive into the sacred waters of antiquity with Celeste Ray’s "Sacred Waters: A Cross-Cultural Compendium of Hallowed Springs and Holy Wells" (2020). Why was water so central to sacred spaces? 🧵👇

🏛️ A secret women's sanctuary 200m underground? At Cova de les Dones (Valencia), archaeologists discovered a Roman temple with 120 female inscriptions dedicated to a forgotten goddess: Malaci, the Lady. @oeai.bsky.social @fwf-at.bsky.social Let's explore this underground sacred space! 🧵👇

🎉 Celebrating a major publication! Two of our HIEROTOPOI team members, María Cruz Cardete del Olmo (Co-editor/Author) & David Sierra Rodríguez (Author), have contributed to the newly released 'Pobreza, marginación y exclusión en la Antigüedad clásica'. 🏛️📖

🎬 Did Nolan’s new film leave you wanting more of the Odyssey? Homer’s epic functioned as a map to real sacred spaces. Let's explore the physical locations where ancient societies actually worshipped Odysseus. 🧵👇 @oeai.bsky.social #Hierotopoi #Archaeology #TheOdyssey #Nolan

Chapter 6 of the #HierotopoiLibrary is here! 📚✨ Today we break down the wall between "Nature" and "Culture" with Tim Ingold’s revolutionary book: "The Perception of the Environment" (2000). How did ancient people truly inhabit their landscapes? 🧵👇

New on the #HierotopoiProject blog! 📝 "The Topographic Writing of Women’s Lives into the Sacred Landscape of the Argolid" How did the ancient polis regulate women's bodies through the natural environment? Let's dive in. 🧵👇 hierotopoi.hcommons.org/archives/448

🌍 Can religion and spirituality help us solve the climate crisis? Last May, our Project Leader Ramón Soneira-Martínez raised this issue at the Instituto Cervantes Berlin during the 'Religare' symposium. Listen to his question to the panel! 🧵👇

Time for Chapter 5 of the #HierotopoiLibrary! 📚✨ Today we dive into one of the most influential books in religious studies: Jonathan Z. Smith’s "To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual" (1987). What actually makes a space sacred? 🧵👇

Time for Chapter 5 of the #HierotopoiLibrary! 📚✨ Today we dive into one of the most influential books in religious studies: Jonathan Z. Smith’s "To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual" (1987). What actually makes a space sacred? 🧵👇

Meet the Team! 👋 Today we travel to the underground sanctuaries of Rome to introduce Dr. Nirvana Silnović, pictured here inside the Mitreo delle Pareti Dipinte in Ostia Antica. She is a core member of the #HierotopoiProject! 🧵👇

Meet the Team! 👋 Today we introduce Dr. David Sierra-Rodríguez, a core member of the #HierotopoiProject at the @oeai.bsky.social He specializes in the intersections of collective memory, religious landscapes, and gender in ancient Greece. 🧵👇

Chapter 4 of the #HierotopoiLibrary is here! 📚✨ Today we explore the geopolitical power of ancient religion with François de Polignac’s "Cults, Territory, and the Origins of the Greek City-State" (1995). How did sanctuaries create the polis? 🧵👇

When the philosopher Plutarch suffered the tragic loss of his daughter, he told his grieving wife he was not "born from oak or rock." 🌳🪨 But why did ancient Greeks turn to botany & geology to express human vulnerability? Read our new #Hierotopoi post! 👇 🔗 hierotopoi.hcommons.org/archives/425

The #HierotopoiLibrary continues! 📚✨ Today, we add a crucial social dimension to our study of sacred spaces with Susan Guettel Cole’s "Landscapes, Gender, and Ritual Space" (2004). Did gender dictate how ancient communities interacted with nature? 🧵👇

Time for chapter two of the #HierotopoiLibrary! 📚✨ Today we move from architecture to human experience with a monumental text: Christopher Tilley’s "A Phenomenology of Landscape" (1994). How do we experience sacred space? 🧵👇

Did ancient Greek philosophy only happen in the Agora? 🏛️ Not quite. In our latest #Hierotopoi blog post, we explore how sacred landscapes and pilgrimage routes were the true backdrops for some of antiquity's greatest thoughts. 🧵👇 hierotopoi.hcommons.org/archives/383

Philosophizing on the Move: Sacred Landscapes as the Backdrop of Ancient Thought – HIEROTOPOI

HIEROTOPOI

hierotopoi.hcommons.org

Let’s meet the researchers behind the #HierotopoiProject! 👋 We are starting with our Project Leader at the Austrian Archaeological Institute, Dr Ramón Soneira-Martínez. Ramón specializes in the Ancient History of Religions and the theoretical frameworks for studying relationally ancient unbelief 🧵👇

The #HierotopoiLibrary is officially open! 📚✨ Every fortnight, we share the theoretical foundations of the #HierotopoiProject. Today we start with the cornerstone of sacred landscape studies: Vincent Scully’s "The Earth, the Temple, and the Gods" (1962). 🧵👇

📢 Announcement! Ever wondered about the theoretical backbone of the #HierotopoiProject? Starting May 1st, we are launching the #HierotopoiLibrary! 📚 Every fortnight, we’ll highlight an essential text on sacred landscapes, ancient religion, and spatial theory. 🧵👇

Here we go! Stay tuned 😉

HIEROTOPOI@hierotopoi.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Our first official team meeting is underway, and we could not be more excited to share what we will be our future research. Watch the trailer below for a sneak peek into the next 3 years of our project! 📽️👇 ✨ Follow our progress in hierotopoi.hcommons.org www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCxq...

Our first official team meeting is underway, and we could not be more excited to share what we will be our future research. Watch the trailer below for a sneak peek into the next 3 years of our project! 📽️👇 ✨ Follow our progress in hierotopoi.hcommons.org www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCxq...

HIEROTOPOI - Project teaser

YouTube video by Ramón Soneira-Martínez

youtube.com

Hello #ScienceSky! 🏛️✨ We are excited to launch the Bluesky profile for the project HIEROTOPOI We study how ancient Mediterranean societies sacralised their landscapes hierotopoi.hcommons.org Looking forward to connecting with fellow archaeologists, historians, and enthusiasts! #AncientReligion