17 X 2024: Verena Fugger (independent), The Power of Bones: on the Agency of Relics in the North Syrian Desert Steppe
Abstract
The phenomenon of the cult of martyrs appeared by the mid-4th century and henceforth experienced a rapid boom, both in the East and West of the late Roman Empire. Especially in the Roman province of Syria – which is in the focus of this talk – a dense network of Christian cults of saints and martyrs had developed, that slowly changed the local sacred landscape. One of Syria’s most important martyrs certainly was Sergios, the city patron of Resafa located in the North Syrian desert steppe. Resafa is of particular interest, when it comes to the impact of relics on urban contexts in late Antiquity. The relics of Sergios initiated a religious, political, and economic refinement of the remote place that finally resulted in the transformation of the former Roman Limes fortress into a Christian pilgrimage center of supra-regional fame. Based on archaeological, epigraphical, and textual sources, this talk will take a closer look on those transformative processes from the 4th to the 6th centuries. The following questions will be in the center of interest: firstly, how did the relics of Sergios influence the urban development and physical appearance of Resafa? And how did places of religious experience as well as rituals associated with the cult of the martyr simultaneously change? Secondly, what socio-religious effects in regard to processes of group-formation did the relics evoke in the Syrian border region and which role did visual image culture play in this?