Citizenship and religion in the first-millennium bce Mediterranean: from Etruria to Iberia

Abstract

This short contribution summarises an impending research project that will be carried as part of the 2021–22 Distinguished Fellowship programme at the Max-Weber-Kolleg (University of Erfurt) within the research cluster Religion and Urbanity. The aim of the project is to contribute to a comparative understanding of first-millennium bce Mediterranean urbanism by focusing on citizenship, through the investigation of the archaeological record of ritual contexts in two selected regions: southern Tyrrhenian Etruria and southeastern Iberia. The project builds on recent research on comparative urbanism and the role of religion in urban life, from Greek history to interdisciplinary studies on religion. The particular focus will be to understand whether, and the extent to which, religion provided the conceptual and material space for expressing membership to the urban community or, in one word, citizenship.