Announcements

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AIA Colloquium on “Assessing the Sacred Significance of Figurative Terracottas”

The discovery of figurative terracottas within an archaeological site presents an array of interpretive challenges. The AIA Colloquium addresses the varied conditions that might lead to the inference that a terracotta was invested with religious meaning. What methodological guidelines would help determine, for instance, if a terracotta was deposited as part of a sacred rite, or fashioned to display imagery related to a specific cult, or meant to convey an explicit message of piety? 

Ritual, religious or mundane, is expressed by the repeated performance of consistently structured actions which may involve the use of material objects. In the archaeological record, the recovery of numerous figurative terracottas, especially within the grounds of a known sanctuary, appears to reflect this patterned behavior. The terracottas are accordingly interpreted as votive offerings which worshippers dedicated to the deity who presided over the cult. But does the repetitive presence of terracotta figurines necessarily signal a ritual of religious character in every setting? What other criteria need to be met to ascribe a sacred quality to terracottas recovered in funerary, domestic, mercantile, or otherwise secular contexts? Furthermore, for those terracottas found within a sacred precinct, how might their stratigraphic location, whether in primary, secondary, or tertiary deposition, affect the interpretation of their role (or evolving roles) within the activities of the cult? 

Similar challenges arise attributing a particular ritual or religious resonances to the imagery of figurative terracottas. The anthropomorphic pantheon of the Graeco-Roman world bedevils interpretation. Did the coroplasts who fashioned and the worshippers who dedicated terracottas representing male and female figures that are devoid of distinctively divine attributes see these votive images as portraits of deities, of mortals, or perhaps even of the dedicants themselves? If they were intended to represent divinities, did the generic portrayals allow the figurines to serve as offerings appropriate to a wide range of deities? How should interpreters tackle these ambiguities? Going further, one might ask if votive terracottas should even be used to address questions about the identity of a cult patron. And if so, under what circumstances? To what degree has scholarship undervalued or overlooked the varied identities of the dedicant, the context, and the viewer(s) in allowing a polysemic response to specific iconographies and motifs? 

Hermeneutic questions also arise when interrogating assemblages. Figurative terracottas were exhibited alongside other physical manifestations of cult practice, including additional votive gifts of wood, ivory, metal, stone, and textile. What distinctions may be observed between the assorted components of such a bewildering forest of varied images and objects? As a visual metaphor, did a figurative terracotta express, for instance, a message that was discernably different from these other physical memorials of individual or collective piety? Was the message that was communicated to the deity, to the dedicant, and to the visitor the same? And how might the modern interpreter decode it? 

We invite papers that explore any of these or other questions regarding how the study of figurative terracottas may reveal their role in the performance of religious rites. Methodological and theoretical concerns in the interpretation of the coroplastic evidence for the practice of cult and the larger belief systems underpinning those practices may be addressed. Case studies that exemplify rigorous approaches to the problems posed by terracottas for understanding their sacred significance are welcome. 

Interested scholars should submit an abstract in English of no more than 300 words to Rebecca Miller Ammerman (rammerman@colgate.edu) by April 1, 2025. The subject of your email should be “AIA/CSIG 2026”. The abstract should follow the AIA guidelines found below and at https://www.archaeological.org/programs/professionals/annual-meeting/call-for-papers/.