The Archaeology of Mithraism: New Finds and Approaches to Mithras-Worship

Over the course of the second century CE, worship of the Persianate god

Mithras swept across the whole of the Roman Empire. With its distinctive

traces preserved in the material record-including cave-like sanctuaries

and images of Mithras stabbing a bull-the cult has long been examined to

reconstruct the thought-systems of Mithraism, its theology, through such

monumental trappings. This volume starts from the premise that, like

much religion in the Roman world, the cult of Mithras must be examined

through its practices, the ritual craft knowledge which enabled those

rites, and the social structures thus created. What did

Mithras-worshippers do? How do we explain the unity and diversity

of practices observed? Archaeology has the potential to answer these

questions and shed new light on Mithras-worship. Presenting new

discoveries, higher resolution archaeological data on finds and

assemblages, and re-evaluations of older discoveries, this volume charts

new paths forward in understanding one of the Roman Empire’s most

distinctive cults.