Connecting the Isiac Cults: Formal Modeling in the Hellenistic Mediterranean
Ebook
Why did Egyptian cults, especially those dedicated to the goddess Isis and god Sarapis, spread so successfully across the ancient Mediterranean after the death of Alexander the Great? How are we limited by the established methodological apparatus of historiography and which innovative methods from other disciplines can overcome these limits?
In this book, Tomáš Glomb shows that while the interplay of different factors such as the economy, climate, and politics created favorable conditions for the early spread of the Isiac cults, the use of innovative quantitative methods can shed new light and help disentangle the complex interplay of individual factors.
Using a combination of geospatial modeling, mathematical modeling, and network analysis, Glomb determines that, at least in the regions of the Hellenistic Aegean and western Asia Minor, the political channels created by the Ptolemaic dynasty were a dominant force in the local spread of the Isiac cults. An important contribution to the historiography of the ancient Mediterranean, this book answers the specific question of “how it happened” as well as, “how can we answer it beyond the limits of the established methodological apparatus in historiography.”
This book uses innovative modeling to analyse the spread of Egyptian cults across the ancient Mediterranean.
Innovative contribution to the scientific study of religion, drawing on geospatial modeling, mathematical modeling and network analysis
Uses two case studies of the spread of the Isiac cults in the Hellenistic Aegean and western Asia Minor
Contains extensive discussion of the relationship between the political activities of the Ptolemaic dynasty and the process of the spread of the Isiac cults.
Introduction
1. Development of the Isiac Cults
2. Spread of the Isiac Cults - An Overview
3. Case Study - Hellenistic Aegean
4. Case Study - West Coast of the Hellenistic Asia Minor
5. Political Activities of the Ptolemaic Dynasty and Their Impact on the Spread of the Isiac Cults Abroad - A Historical Pattern
6. Methodological Implications for the Historiography of Antiquity
Bibliography
Index
A convincing and very readable demonstration of how theories and methods from complexity science can enhance the study of the spread of ancient religions.
- Title: Connecting the Isiac Cults: Formal Modeling in the Hellenistic Mediterranean
- Author: Tomáš Glomb
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2022
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781350210714, 9781350210691, 1350210692, 1350210714
- Resource ID: LLS:9781350210714
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-04-09T06:25:43Z
Tomáš Glomb is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Masaryk University, the Czech Republic.