Dr. Ilaria Battiloro (Associate Professor, Classics and Visual and Material Culture Studies departments at Mount Allison University)

This talk offers an overview of the archaeological evidence for Lucanian sanctuaries and discusses how cult sites were conceived and used by people who built, frequented, and finally abandoned them. For this purpose, special emphasis is put on two aspects of the issue: spatial organization of cult places as reconstructed from architectural remains and distribution of archaeological finds, and the formalization of the ritual activities performed within the sanctuaries themselves, and their visibility through devotion forms (in primis votive offerings). By looking at this evidence, it is possible to comprehend how Lucanian cult sites were structured in the plurality of their functions, and whether recurring characteristics can be discerned