Natalie Susmann

Brandeis University

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, monument...

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...

This dissertation presents a systematic study of the relationship between sanctuaries, visualscapes, and the changing cultural valence of landscape in ancient Greek culture. The ancient Greeks situated their deities within the natural word; godly encounters were particularly expected on mountains. Despite significant archaeological and textual data...

Digital research tools are ubiquitous for archaeologists, philologists, and historians, yet hands-on, introductory courses geared towards teaching undergraduates how to explore the past through these digital methods are rare. This dichotomy — where we as scholars produce mountains of geospatial scholarship, but few digital applications courses — co...

Ancient writers left detailed accounts about the Roman-period murex-dye market. These descriptions and recipes reveal what Romans preferred by way of ingredients, pigment extraction methods, and mixtures. These accounts also highlight how dyes were marketed and received by consumers. The best quality dyes are described as “true” purple (e.g. Tyrian...

(JSTOR Labs recently launched their new Juncture writing platform. JSTOR Labs invited a handful of scholars to write public outreach articles and showcase Juncture's capabilities. Access it here: https://www.juncture-digital.org/showcase/sensing-ancient-greek-processions/) Ancient Greeks celebrated their gods with lively processions. We have a ton...

Few sanctuaries command their landscape as successfully as the Argive Heraion. Yet no detailed study exists to help us understand precisely how the sanctuary’s situation and components interacted visually with the wider territory, and especially vis-à-vis the various settlements within its viewing range. In this paper, I present a series of digital...