From December 2023 to August 2024 Csaba Szabó, PhD from the Centre of Roman Studies UBB Cluj-Napoca and the University of Szeged is spending his Joint Excellence in Science and Humanities fellowship under the supervision of Gabrielle Kremerat the OeAI in Vienna. His project on the »Glocalisation and urban religion: the case studies of Apulum and Carnuntum« aims to analyse, for the first time, three key aspects of Roman religion within two urban contexts in the Danubian provinces.
The project utilizes two extensively documented and affluent urban systems, namely Apulum and Carnuntum, as case studies. The topography of both urban systems comprises a dual city structure (canabae and the civilian town), a legionary fortress, and the governor's palace. Beyond the topographic specificities and similarities of these urban settlements, the material evidence of Roman religious practices discovered in these sites not only reflects significant global changes and transformations in the Roman world and religious communication in the Mediterranean and its outskirts but also gives rise to locally reinvented and appropriated religious traditions, termed here as religious glocalism. For the first time, the project proposes to analyse the epigraphic and figurative material of the two cities using a comparative method, with a focus on three major aspects: religious glocalism, urban religion, and lived religion. These aspects will encompass not only the primary spatial dimensions of religion but also a diverse range of groups and individuals from micro-, meso-, and macro-spaces of Apulum and Carnuntum. Additionally, the analysis will consider the intra- and extra-provincial clusters and networks within the Roman Empire.
The project will also create an updated version of the Digital Map of Apulum (Szabó 2016) and a catalogue on the Materiality of Roman Religion in Apulum (MRRA).
