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Visual data were collected inside the cultic place's boundaries (i.e., here, at the Sanctuary of Apollo Maleatas). Locations of data collection (pink points) were determined by place type (e.g., temple, open-air altar, pit, etc.), and they model where ancient observers would feasibly stand. Adjustments were occasionally made because of permit restrictions.
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Archaeologists have long acknowledged the significance of mountains in siting Greek cult. Mountains were where the gods preferred to make contact and there people constructed sanctuaries to inspire intervention. Greece is a land full of mountains, but we lack insight on the ancient Greeks’ view—what visible and topographic characteristics made part...
Citations
... Once meaningful viewing experiences, targets, and viewing points are defined, the archaeologist develops an analytical framework. Scholars working on visualscape often use geospatial tools (Bernardini et al., 2013;Landeschi, 2019;Llobera, 2001Llobera, , 2003Llobera, , 2004Llobera, , 2007aLlobera et al., 2010;Richards-Rissetto, 2017;Richards-Rissetto et al., 2023;Susmann, 2019Susmann, , 2020Susmann, , 2021. Next, they interpret the results. ...
... Next, they interpret the results. Archaeologists like Fábrega-Álvarez and Parcero-Oubiña (2019), Fitzjohn (2007), Fredrick and Vennarucci (2021), Given (2004), Rennell (2012), Seamon (2013), Susmann (2020), Van Dyke et al. (2016), and Zhao (2022) discuss how integrated phenomenological observation is a useful way to ground-truth digital results and also imagine the impact of difficult-to-measure factors like vegetation, daylight, and weather. Translating viewing experiences into static pixels is difficult; comparing results across different analyses is recommended (Susmann, 2019, p. 38, 43-44, 156;2020, pp. ...
Mount Akraia, located in the northeastern Greek Peloponnese, hosted an open-air worshiping site beginning in the tenth/ninth c BCE. The space gained popularity and was quickly transformed into a monumental sanctuary known as the Argive Heraion. The sanctuary is elevated and easy to spot from a distance; it provides unobstructed views of the surrounding region. The location is historically significant as well, overlying a Mycenaean cemetery and settlement. Ancient authors frame the Argive Heraion as a touchstone sacred landmark; contemporary scholars echo these descriptions. This article synthesizes the textual and material record, questioning which of the Argive Heraion’s visual characteristics captivated worshipers’ senses, and if worshipers’ perceptions shifted over time. My complete dataset spans the tenth–second c BCE and considers all other places where group worship happened in the Argive Plain. Using GIS and text analyses, I measure and compare an array of viewing experiences that were culturally meaningful for Greek worshipers. The resultant models compare the Argive Heraion’s visualscape over time, framed against the broader sacred landscape. I also look to the present day. Using contemporary tourist reviews, I unpack nuances that are missing in the archaeological and historical record. Personal histories shift what we see and how we see it.
... Archaeologists have uncovered physical evidence of these beliefs. With diverse analytical approaches, scholars have explored how on the sacred landscape, the ancient Greeks underscored the auras they perceived (Scully 1962;Williamson 1993;Driessen 2003;Goodison 2004;Moortel 2006;Barnett 2007;Hitchcock 2007;De Boer and Hale 2008;Faro 2008;Retallack 2008;Moortel 2011;Hannah 2013;Belis 2015;Susmann 2019Susmann , 2020. In these investigations, the Greek island of Crete has held special interest. ...
... These sorts of explorations are Scully's (1962) seminal volume The Earth, The Temple, and The Gods ambitiously traced potential threads of continuity between the Greek mainland and Crete. More recently, scholars like Mason (2007), Psychoyos and Karatzikos (2015) Susmann (2019, 2020 have explored how visibility and viewshed shaped sacred landscapes on mainland Greece. In this paper, I trace changing human views and interrogate how behavior, setting, and wider historical circumstance combined to create new ways of seeing older places. ...
This paper explores the reciprocal relationship between landscape, human attention, and time. It presents two sacred landscapes: Epidaurus and Nemea, located in the northeastern Greek Peloponnese. In both landscapes, worshipers created sanctuaries on prominent mountains. Eventually, their attention shifted downhill where they built larger, monumental sanctuaries on the flat ground. I trace each mountains’ role as a sacred landmark; I question what other social functions they had – if at all – after the new sanctuaries were built. I consider a wide range of evidence: beginning with a comparative example from Mount Fuji in Japan, and moving onto the archaeological excavation and survey data, ancient testimonials, and modern tourist reviews about the Greek sanctuaries. I also use Geographic Information Systems to quantify each Greek sanctuaries’ visual impact in comparison to the surrounding topography. Woven together, these data reveal generations of sacral continuity. The Sanctuary of Asklepios and the Sanctuary of Zeus encircled new sacred temenoi, but worshipers’ collective memory guided their pathways and vision; the mountains remained sacred landmarks.
This paper focuses on the little-known but important cave-sanctuary of Zar Trypa on Mount Ossa (modern Kissavos) in north-eastern Thessaly. In 1910, research conducted at the site uncovered remains of votives from the Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods, including a group of eight inscriptions dedicated to the Nymphs. Despite this remarkable epigraphic assemblage, the site was not investigated beyond a single excavation season and today is largely unknown. Consequently, the Zar Trypa cave and its finds have never featured prominently in the discussion of Thessalian religion or of Greek ‘natural’ sanctuaries. Combining archival studies, on-site observations and GIS-based methods of landscape archaeology, this paper sets out to re-assess the surviving archaeological evidence from the Zar Trypa cave, to examine the spatial setting of ritual activity at the site, and to place the cave in the context of Mount Ossa's natural environment and ancient settlement pattern. Drawing on the methodological framework of ‘lived religion’, this assessment not only contributes towards our understanding of ancient religious experiences at the Zar Trypa cave, but also addresses broader questions such as the significance and meaning of ‘sacred travel’ in pre-Christian antiquity.
La présente recherche vise à examiner l’emplacement des éléments qui font partie d’un système de fortification sur le territoire littoral et insulaire de l’Adriatique orientale attribué le plus souvent à l’époque de l’empereur byzantin Justinien I er . Les analyses réalisées par le biais d’un SIG permettent d’examiner la visibilité et l’intervisibilité – deux facteurs indispensables pour tout système de fortification et de signalisation – entre les forts connus, les forts supposés et les endroits désignés du toponyme Straža (« Garde ») suggérant l’emplacement d’un poste de guet. Les résultats d’analyse de visibilité sont présentés et interprétés dans le contexte de la communication entre les forts ainsi que dans le contexte de leur emplacement par rapport aux routes maritimes utilisées depuis l’Antiquité. Nous examinons également la capacité de communication visuelle au sein du système de fortification, qui pouvait être accomplie par le biais d’utilisation des signaux de feu et de fumée. La recherche consiste en une approche d’investigation non-invasive et vise à contribuer à la connaissance des systèmes de fortifications tardo-antique en Dalmatie.
