The “archaeology of cult” in anthropology and archaeology refers to the study of material evidence for religious and ritual practices in past societies. It focuses on how worship, offerings, sacred spaces, and symbolic artifacts can be identified archaeologically, even when written records are absent.

🌍 Definition

• Archaeology of Cult: A framework for interpreting ritual and religious behavior through material remains.
• Origin: Popularized by archaeologist Colin Renfrew, who defined it as the system of patterned actions in response to religious beliefs.
• Scope: Examines artifacts, architecture, and spatial arrangements that indicate ritual activity.

🔑 Archaeological Indicators of Cult

Renfrew and later scholars outlined key features that may signal cultic activity:

• Attention-focusing devices: Altars, shrines, or monumental architecture that direct participants’ focus.
• Boundary zones: Spaces marking transitions between sacred and profane (temple courtyards, cave entrances).
• Presence of deity: Figurines, idols, or iconography representing divine beings.
• Evidence of participation: Offerings, votive deposits, or traces of feasting.
• Mortuary practices: Burials with ritual goods, symbolic arrangements, or ceremonial structures.

📚 Importance in Anthropology

• Religion & Ritual: Provides material evidence for belief systems in societies without written texts.
• Cultural Identity: Cult practices reveal how communities defined sacred space and collective identity.
• Comparative Analysis: Allows cross-cultural study of ritual forms (e.g., temples in Malta, shrines in Greece, mortuary cults in Egypt).
• Interdisciplinary Insight: Connects archaeology with religious studies, anthropology, and art history.

In short: The archaeology of cult is the study of material evidence for ritual and religious practices, using indicators like shrines, offerings, and sacred architecture to reconstruct belief systems in past societies.

Sources: iResearchNet overview of Cults; Cult in Context: Reconsidering Ritual in Archaeology (Oxbow Books, 2007); The Archaeology of Cult and Religion (Biehl, Bertemes, Meller, 2001).