What were they thinking of? Relief decorated pottery from Sagalassos : a cognitive approach

The use of images was a central point in ancient religious practice, as cult required the faculty of representing the divinity. Decorated pottery is one category of objects carrying such divine images. The reconstruction and understanding of the religious symbolic system for the Pisidian town of Sagalassos (SW-Turkey) from early imperial to early Byzantine times, through the medium of its relief decorated pottery, is the aim of this paper. Although such objects can rarely be used to prove cultic activity, they provide an impression of the religious symbolism that impregnated everyday life. The scenes chosen to figure on bowls and dishes were intentional statements and were therefor representative for the contemporary symbolic system. A consistent aspect of the Sagalassian decorated pottery is that its imagery throughout the centuries of production reflects wider ideological developments as well as local characteristics. Therefore, the decorated pottery manufactured and used in the town serves as a guide to its religious actuality.Talloen Peter, Poblome Jeroen. What were they thinking of? Relief decorated pottery from Sagalassos : a cognitive approach. In: Mélanges de l'École française de Rome. Antiquité, tome 117, n°1. 2005. Antiquité. pp. 55-81