SANCTUARY, CITY AND CONGREGATION: ATHANA LINDIA AND HER SANCTUARY IN CONTEXT

Call for papers

The sanctuary of Athana Lindia on the acropolis of Lindos was for centuries one of the most important and interactive public and sacred spaces on the island of Rhodes. As a central node in social, political, sacred, and economic networks its importance stretched across the island state and its main land possessions and, indeed, across the ancient Mediterranean. Material remains make it abundantly clear that the sanctuary - or at least the site - remained an important social node from the Late Geometric to Late Antique period – and beyond. The life of the sanctuary has left its durable imprint not only in the architecture, but also through the hundreds of inscriptions, votive offerings and (other) small finds, spanning a period of roughly a millennium. Athana Lindia’s sanctuary offers innumerable opportunities for reconsidering religious and social interactions within the built environment of the sanctuary: the layout of the sanctuary and its position in the landscape provide important material to the current discussions of sacred space and the sacred experience, including cultic perception, rituals, and practicality; as well as and zoning, structuring, and curating of the sacred- but also social and political space.

Recent years have seen a renewed interest in Rhodes, exploring the island state’s rich epigraphical and archaeological material. These studies provide a new and improved context for the reading of Athana Lindia’s sanctuary and for asking new and relevant questions about the sanctuary, its social and political uses, the institutions that supported and drew support from it, as well as its relationship with the wider Rhodian and Mediterranean worlds.

The aim of this conference is to bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers, archaeologists, epigraphers, historians and others, to contribute to a new history of and perspectives on the sanctuary of Athana Lindia. We are particularly interested in contributions that explore:

• the use and maintenance of a sacred space as a venue for cultic, civic, social, and cultural communication
• the institutional (civic as well as religious) framework that intersected in the sanctuary
• the experience of the sacred, of congregation, and of community
• the sanctuary as node in sacred, social, and economic networks
• the liminality, zoning, and curation of sacred space
• the sanctuary as a place of cultural reception and identity creation in antiquity
• the afterlife of the sanctuary as a continued presence, curated, reconstructed, and displayed

It is possible to apply for travel and/or accommodation grants.

Publication: It is the organizers’ intention of publishing a volume based on the papers delivered at the conference. We ask potential contributors to bear this ambition in mind when deciding to attend. The deadline for written contributions is 1 December 2026.

Organizers: Dr. Sanne Hoffmann, Director of the Danish Institute at Athens

Prof. Christian Ammitzbøll Thomsen, The National Museum of Denmark

Dr. Niels Bargfeldt, University of Copenhagen

Time: 7-8 May 2026

Venue: The Danish Institute at Athens.

Submission of abstracts

Titles and abstracts of up to 300 words for 20-minute talks should be submitted to: sanne.hoffmann@diathens.gr by 1 November 2025.