Cross Graffiti at Pagan Sanctuaries in Late Antiquity (20 min)

Presenters

Julia Judge Mulhall, Harvard University

Abstract

In Late Antiquity, Christian graffiti were a pervasive feature of the urban landscape. Crosses and other Christian symbols were scratched and scrawled onto the walls, fountains, and statuary of cities and Christian holy sites across the eastern Roman Empire. Scholars have often interpreted cross graffiti that appear in pagan sacred spaces as evidence of an effort to neutralize the lingering demonic presence in these areas, or as a statement of Christian triumphalism over a formerly pagan site. This paper proposes that a more careful examination of these graffiti allow for alternative interpretations beyond religious competition and displacement. Through studying cross graffiti in pagan sanctuaries comparatively with Christian, Jewish, and pagan graffiti in other contexts, and by using methods recently developed by scholars of ancient graffiti more generally, I aim to refine the criteria used for categorizing our interpretations of cross graffiti at pagan sites. To conduct this study I look comparatively at cross graffiti found at several pagan religious sites in the eastern Mediterranean, including Delphi, Sardis, Aphrodisias, and Dendara. I argue that an analysis of certain characteristics and contextual information about the graffiti can help us determine whether crosses were inscribed as part of a singular official act of deconsecration or as ongoing communal modes of expression, such as prayers analogous to those found at late antique Christian pilgrimage sites. This refined and expanded set of categories for these graffiti reveals a broader range of possible Christian interactions with pagan sacred spaces, and therefore expands and complicates our understanding of interreligious dynamics at these important sites in Late Antiquity.