Religion and urban beginnings: Origins and retrospectives
DAI, via Sardegna 79/81, Roma, 8–10 October, 2025
Workshop co-organized by Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Rom – Centre for Urban Network Evolutions, Aarhus University – Research group “Religion and Urbanity”, Max-Weber-Kolleg, Erfurt University
Programme
Wednesday, 8 October
14.30 Welcome and introduction
15.00-19.00 Early Urbanism in Italy
Giovanna Bagnasco Gianni, Milano: Epithets and the Long-Term Formation of Religion at Tarquinia: Between Micro- and Macro-History
Coffee break 16.00-16.30h
Francesca Fulminante, Università Roma Tre: From family cult to state religion: the role of religion in early urban formation in Central Italy (Etruria and Latium, ca. 1050–500 BC)
Laura Michetti, Roma: Power and the sacred in southern Etruria: the example of Pyrgi
General discussion 18.30-19.00 h, chaired by Christopher H. Hallett, UC Berkeley
19.30 Dinner for all invited speakers
Thursday, 9 October
9.30-13.00 Gods in the City
Charlotte Potts, Oxford: Gods as collectors: Votives and Community Stabilisation in Pre-Roman Central Italy
Gabriele Cifani, Roma, Tor Vergata: The religious cityscape of the Early Republic and its social significance
Coffee break 11.30-12.00h
Vincenzo Timpano, Berlin: The (im)material dimension of early Roman religion: Ritual behaviour and cult buildings as agents of memory
13.00-14.00 Lunch in the Germanico
14.00-19.00 Doing beginnings in the Imperial Capital
John N. Hopkins, New York University: The Art of Forgetting and the Creation of New Sacred Landscapes in Rome, 4th-2nd c. BCE
Colleen Kron, Erfurt: Chronotopic Comentarii: Mapping Iterative Foundations in the Acta Arvalia
Coffee break 16.00-16.30h
Jörg Rüpke, Erfurt: Religious Factors Attributed to Early Urbanism
Mateusz Jakub Fafinski, Erfurt: (Re)founding Rome: Writing Roman monasteries into the urban origin story
General discussion 18.30-19.00 h, chaired by Christopher H. Hallett, UC Berkeley
Friday, 10 October
9.00-12.00 Looking back towards the beginnings
Annemarie Schantor, DAI/Giorgio Ferri, La Sapienza: The Lupercalia
Short coffee break 10.00-10.15 h
Final discussion chaired by Rubina Raja, Aarhus University