Human Development in Sacred Landscapes

The conference was focused on the identification and interpretation of sacred areas principally – but not exclusively – in the ancient Greek world and in the study of Greek religious ideas or religious practice. For example: what did ancient Greece, from the Mesolithic onwards, look like, if it is possible to identify sacred areas on a landscape scale, like ancient Delos or modern Mount Athos, and if the sacred landscapes were differing from the countryside. Another paper offered a new understanding of the role of astronomical observations in the Delphic and Spartan landscapes, the performance of the religious sites in the Spartan sanctuary of Artemis Orthia and the operation of the Delphic oracle. Most of the contributions were directly connected with the cult of Apollo and the history and tradition of the famous sanctuary of Delphi. A different paper examined the treatment of Apollo's journey from Delos to Delphi described in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo. According to a further contributor the network formed by connections between sanctuaries was looser than political federation, but helps to explain why panhellenic sanctuaries were so central to the articulation of Greek identity.