Achim Lichtenberger

My research at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem focuses on pagan cults in Judaea in the Roman period from an archaeological perspective. Judaea underwent dramatic developments and disruptions in the first centuries CE and I am asking about the religious identities in this period. The main material I am working with sitems from a terracotta workshop in Beit Nattif, a village in Southern Judaea which produced very specific figurines: naked goddesses, horse-rider figurines and further animals, mainly doves. Although they stem from the Graeco-Roman period (around 300 CE), they are little influenced by Graeco-Roman stylistic and formal features. Such terracottas are evidence for private religion in households and graves and I am investigating the target groups of such objects. This has special relevance, since there is evidence that at least some of the objects from the workshop were produced for Jews. The research project contributes to the discussion of religious identities in the Roman and late-Roman periods and underlines that such identities often were quite ambiguous and a simple and exclusive designation of them as "Jewish", "pagan" or "Christian" does not describe ancient habits and identity constructions sufficiently.