The pilgrim's progress: Art, architecture and ritual movement at Sinai

Rethinking archaeologies of pilgrimage

“…Despite the diversity of archaeological studies of pilgrimage, most differ from what I propose here—few engage with relational ideas and theories (see next section), provide detailed descriptions of the relationships evident during pilgrimages (particularly with other-than-human phenomena), or discuss the affective experiences that stem from these relationships (but see Candy, 2009; Coleman and Elsner, 1994; Lymer, 2004; Van Dyke, 2007, 2013; Weismantel, 2013). An excellent non-archaeological example of the approach I envision is Van Vlack’s description of pilgrimage among the Southern Paiute of North America—the power, meanings, and importance of these pilgrimages comes from the relationships made not only between people, but also among special places and objects (Van Vlack, 2012).…”

“…In the first studies, published in the 1980s, scholars constructed pilgrimage fair models from ethnohistoric and colonial accounts and applied them to ancient Maya cities and the sites of Chaco Canyon and Poverty Point in North America (Freidel, 1981; Freidel and Sabloff, 1984; Hammond, 1983; Jackson, 1991; Judge, 1989; Kubler, 1985; Toll, 1985; Windes, 1987). Pilgrimage scholarship in archaeology has proliferated since these initial studies (Bradley, 1999; Candy, 2009; Coleman and Elsner, 1994; Drennen et al., 2017; Gray, 2001; Hammond and Bobo, 1994; Harbison, 1994; Kelly and Brown, 2012; Kristensen and Friese, 2017; Lepper, 2006; Locker, 2015; Lucero and Kinkella, 2015; Lymer, 2004; McCorriston, 2011, 2013; Mack, 2002; Malville and Malville, 2001; Oetelaar, 2012; Patel, 2005; Petersen, 1994; Plog and Watson, 2012; Ray, 1994; Scarre, 2001; Schachner, 2011; Sheets, 2011; Silverman, 1991, 1994; Skousen, 2016; Spivey et al., 2015; Stopford, 1994; Wells and Nelson, 2007). The goal of many of them is to identify the archaeological signatures of pilgrimage centers by envisioning what material remains pilgrimage activities might leave behind (see Silverman, 1994 for a good example).…”

Negotiation and experience: Space and place in religious pilgrimage

“…In the case of the Mt. Sinai pilgrimage, pilgrims were guided in the intellectual and spiritual awareness of their movement through the “textual topography of the landscape and buildings,” toward a culmination point which marked a theological transformation and the spiritual transformation of the pilgrim (Coleman and Elsner, 1994: 73, 77, 85). At the Marian Diocesan Sanctuary, the pilgrimage trajectory was short: road to church.…”

Introduction: Guiding the pilgrim

“…Not all places actively encourage resistance (Coleman and Elsner, 1998: 50) or allow themselves quite so readily to be as idiosyncratically interpreted and appropriated as Walsingham does. Through textual topographies (Coleman and Elsner, 1994: 77–78) and embodied theologies (Coleman and Elsner, 1994: 73), some places may perform more ideological work than others, thereby affecting visitors’ performances. This point is illustrated in Coleman and Elsner’s (1994) examination of the sixth century monastery of St Catherine at Mt Sinai, the material aspects of which encouraged pilgrims “to interpret the various sites […] through physical action” (Coleman and Elsner, 1994: 84).…”