Goddesses of the Sacred Harbor: Maritime Cult, Navigation, and Identity Across the Ancient Mediterranean Sea

open_access
Open Access
Author:
Morrisson, S
Area of Honors:
Interdisciplinary in Anthropology and Classics & Ancient Mediterranean Studies
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Mathias Hanses, Thesis Supervisor
Laurel Nichole Pearson, Thesis Honors Advisor
Gonzalo Rubio, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Religion
Anthropology
Archaeology
Mediterranean
Greece
Egypt
Phoenicia
Carthage
Sailing
Sailors
Cult
History
Classics
Isis
Tanit
Aphrodite
Astarte
Maritime
Nautical
Abstract:
Increasing connectivity across the Mediterranean basin, from the Bronze Age through the Roman period, necessarily facilitated increasing contact between populations of professional seafarers. The shared experiences, concerns, and values of these sailors, and the consistent ways in which they engaged with the Mediterranean seascape, formed the basis of specialized religious practices, or maritime cults, within this occupational group. This led to the emergence of particular regional deities as venerated guardians of seafaring. The cults of these deities, which included Aphrodite, Isis, Astarte, and Tanit, were carried by their seafaring worshipers to port cities, harbors, and coastlines. Temples, votive offerings, inscriptions, and similar artifacts found from these sites, speak to the myriad ways in which seafarers expressed their religious affiliations in both local and foreign spaces. These various physical manifestations of maritime cult practice served to meet the practical and cultural needs of individual seafarers: along with providing practical reference points for those traversing dangerous waters, they allowed sailors to express their own identities in different ways, facilitating their engagement with and navigation through complex multicultural landscapes.