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Research Centre for Religious Studies Research Centres CRASIS: Culture, Religion and Society – Interdisciplinary Studies in the Ancient World Research and Teaching CRASIS Networks

Network Time and Temporalities

Time is perhaps one of the strongest, if also one of the most elusive, factors in determining identity as well as in decision-making processes. What role did time play in the perception of individual and communal identities in the pre-modern world? Why was 'the past' projected as such a vital part of the future? Where do we find reflections on the present? When did divine time, the power of the gods and their mythologies, intersect with human time? Which media (literature, epigraphy, material culture) were instrumental in shaping time, and in which spatial contexts? These are some of the questions that have been raised through this network so far.

In this CRASIS network, colleagues from Ancient History, Classics and Biblical Studies collaborate in order to generate conversations that broaden our horizon and allow for methodological and theoretical reflection on time and temporalities. We welcome colleagues from other disciplines, especially Archaeology. The network aims to bring scholars together at various career stages and from various disciplines in order to approach the question of time and temporalities from a broad perspective and to foster a ‘community’ of researchers working on the topic. This will help support individual research projects and can lead to a larger joint application for a research program, in acquisition of further PhD and postdoc positions.

Previous Meetings

12 February 2024

In this meeting Christina Williamson discussed a work-in-progress paper: 'Deep-time narratives and co-temporalities at urban sanctuaries in the Graeco-Roman world'

Abstract

Temporality, especially a sense of deep time, is arguably a critical factor towards the concept of ‘urbanity’ in ancient cities. Prestigious cities were those that could boast a deep past, steeped in myth and showing an enduring relation with the gods. Religion was thus at the center of these temporal narratives, with sanctuaries as prime timekeepers of their cities, regulating urban rhythms with their festivals, and retaining civic memory in their spaces. But how was this sense of deep time constituted? The local elite clearly governed monumental dedications at major civic shrines, but how did individuals or families, from various backgrounds, insert their own temporalities at shrines, and through which means? To examine this in higher relief, this paper develops the concept of ‘co-temporality’, extending Lévy’s use of ‘co-spatialité’ (2018)* in seeking overlap of intention and meaning across different stakeholders. This approach lets us both differentiate the various types and agencies of temporal narratives and understand their interdependency as an assemblage of deep time - the one constituting the other. Using the sanctuary of Asklepios at Pergamon as point of reference, the various temporal media -e.g. myth, ritual, dedicatory practices- are identified along with their agents and audiences. The accumulation of these sacred narratives, I argue, resulted in a thick sediment of temporal associations that fostered an authoritative sense of deep time at many different levels.
* Lévy, J. (2018) 'Introduction. Des espaces du droit', Revue Géographique de l’Est 58, 1-10.

11 March 2024

This session included a discussion of readings, focusing on the two articles below.

8 April 2024

In this meeting Felix Budelmann and Saskia Peels will discuss a joint paper (work-in-progress): 'The different temporalities of the theoxeny ritual'

Mini-abstract

Theoxeny rituals invite divine presence in a human space. In managing this challenge, they create complex temporalities. In our talk we explore some of those temporalities through a detailed reading of one inscription, CGRN 96.

10 June 2024

Albert Joosse will speak to us on: Temporality and myth in Late Neoplatonism


Abstract

How to talk about timeless reality? For the Neoplatonists of Late Antiquity, time is a derivative phenomenon that characterizes lower-order entities, not the fundamental components and causes of reality. These lower-order entities include human discourse. This creates a problem, because Neoplatonists are convinced that true discourse should be similar to what it refers to: how can a temporally bound account be true about atemporal realities? In this talk I explore how late Neoplatonists regard mythological discourse as an instrument to deal with this problem.

International Workshop - Religious Temporalities and the Ancient City 15–16 May 2025

Ancient cities brought together a plurality of time systems such as calendars, shared rhythms and routines, narratives of the past and future, mixing the quotidian with the profound in a spatio-temporal continuum. Religion is at the crossroads of many of these urban temporalities. Rituals regulated the days, months, and seasons of human time, with transregional ‘panhellenic’ festivals synchronizing cities across the Mediterranean. Yet festivals also had a transcendent capacity of lifting the individual out of the everyday, creating ‘atemporal’ spaces in the city, but especially ‘atemporal’ communities that extended beyond the boundaries of the living and the dead. Who belonged to these temporal communities? Where were their timescapes located, how did they shape urban space? Which religious temporalities outlined the contours of civic identity?

This workshop brings together scholars from across the world, and at different career stages, to focus on the role of religion and time in creating a multivalent sense of the city.

Keynote lecture

Prof dr Jörg Rüpke  (Max-Weber-Kolleg, Universität Erfurt): 'Time of the Gods, Time of Humans: Urban Timescapes'

Urban life in all its diversity involves a multitude of different time experiences and concepts of time, by different rhythms, timings, and tempos, necessitating coordination. Timekeeping is an urban development, and religious actors were often time specialists, while stressing the ambivalence of human time in view of the eternal.

Participants

The network currently consists of the following participants (in alphabetical order):

  • Arjen Bakker (Religion, Culture and Society)
  • Felix Budelmann (Classical Studies)
  • Kimberley Fowler (Religion, Culture and Society)
  • Rebecca Van Hove (Ancient History)
  • Albert Joosse (Classical Studies)
  • Onno van Nijf (Ancient History)
  • Christina Williamson (Ancient History)
  • Adam Wiznura (Ancient History)

Contact: Arjen Bakker (a.f.bakker@rug.nl) and Christina Williamson (c.g.williamson@rug.nl)

All our activities are open to RUG staff and students, and we also welcome colleagues and students from other institutions. If you are interested in becoming a member of the network, please contact us.

Last modified:16 October 2026 08.52 a.m.
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