Reassembling Religion in Roman Italy

“This is a valuable book for introducing neo-materialist concepts that have been applied to other historical periods. Graham convincingly demonstrates that posthumanist principles help to make the case for how the more-than-human things formed an equally important part of religious experience as the human presence… [I]t is an important, easy read for both the student, who can be introduced clearly to some of the complex concepts involved in the new materialism, and the expert reader, who will find the content excellently structured, also with abundant basic and specialised bibliography.” - Bryn Mawr Classical Review

“True to its title, Reassembling Religion in Roman Italy brings together a novel assemblage of a variety of data types in close coordination with a range of materialist theoretical perspectives focused on assemblage theory, affordances and ‘thingliness’, to show just how we can advance the material-centred approach of lived religion that is so prevalent in current scholarship on Roman religion. While grounded in the evidence of ritual from central Italy in the mid to late Republican and early Imperial periods, the volume will surely serve as a model for future studies of religion that look beyond this geographical and chronological frame.” - The Classical Review

Emma-Jayne Graham is Senior Lecturer in Classical Studies at The Open University, UK. Her research focuses on aspects of material religion, the archaeology of Roman Italy, mortuary practices, and ancient disability. She is co-founder of The Votives Project.