• January 9, 2026 | 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
• Continental 6, Ballroom Level

6D: Assessing the Sacred Significance of Figurative Terracottas (Colloquium)

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Sponsored by:
AIA Coroplastic Studies Interest Group

Organizers:
Rebecca Miller Ammerman, Colgate University, Alexandra Katherina Sofroniew, University of California, Davis, and Andrew Farinholt Ward, Fairfield University

Overview Statement:
The discovery of figurative terracottas within an archaeological site presents an array of interpretive challenges. The colloquium addresses varied conditions that lead to the inference that a terracotta held religious meaning. Case studies explore multiple questions. What methodological guidelines help determine if a terracotta was deposited as part of a sacred rite, fashioned to display imagery related to a specific cult, or meant to convey an explicit message of piety? What criteria must be met to ascribe a sacred quality to terracottas recovered in funerary, domestic, or secular contexts? Similar difficulties arise attributing a particular ritual or religious resonance to terracottas’ imagery. The anthropomorphic pantheon of the Graeco-Roman world bedevils interpretation. Did coroplasts who fashioned and worshippers who dedicated terracottas representing figures devoid of distinctively divine attributes see these votives as portraits of deities, mortals, or the dedicants themselves? How should interpreters tackle these ambiguities?

“Women and the City: Some Thoughts on the Significance of the Female Terracottas from Anavlochos, Crete” combines study of iconography and spatial distribution of 1200 Geometric to classical terracottas, arguing that the relief plaques and figurines represent dedicants (not deities) associated with rites of passage. “Hydriaphoroi at the Boundaries of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods” concludes that figurines of female water-bearers of the fifth and fourth century B.C.E. found between the city walls and Propylon of the Samothracian Sanctuary of the Great Gods reflect processions associated with a cult of Demeter separate from rites enacted within the Sanctuary of the Great Gods. Feminist and phenomenological methodologies guide the investigation of “Tanagra” figurines from different spatial and functional contexts at Olynthus in “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: On the Fungibility of ‘Tanagra’ Figurines” illustrating their shifting significance for different audiences. “Surrounded by Smoke: Reclining Terracotta Figurines in Pompeian Censers and Their Significance in Domestic Rituals” argues the reclining woman embellishing a censer from a domestic shrine at Boscoreale represents a deceased woman commemorated by burning incense. Comparing an assemblage from urban Edeta with those from a shrine and houses at the hillfort, Puntal dels Llops, “Iberian Figurative Terracottas: Landscape Perspectives, Contextual Analysis, and Sacred Significance,” addresses terracottas’ religious connotations and role in shaping identities within Iberian communities. Focusing on terracottas from a second-century C.E. sanctuary at Thinissut (Tunisia) within chains of production and semiotic systems, “Articulating Clay Cult in Roman Africa: Terracotta Statues, Production, and Worship” offers a richer understanding of Roman cult.