ARCHIVE SECTIONS
INTRODUCTION
MISSION
Sparagmos Project is an independent digital humanities project dedicated to the religious traditions and ritual practices conventionally described as mysteries. The project initially focuses on the mystery religions of the ancient Mediterranean and aims to bring together material and visual evidence related to their cult practices within a carefully documented and academically grounded framework. Sparagmos Project is intended to serve students, educators, researchers and independent learners who have a scholarly interest in ancient mystery cults while also providing reliable sources to individuals who practice and identify with the contemporary revivals of ancient Mediterranean religions. Sparagmos however remains non-confessional in its methods and does not endorse any particular religious belief or practice.
SCOPE
α) Although envisioned as a long term project that will eventually develop into a comprehensive archive of mystery religions across the ancient Mediterranean, the initial phase of Sparagmos is currently being built with particular emphasis on Dionysian and Eleusinian mysteries and Orphic traditions. And thus currently geographically organised around Greece and western Anatolia.
β) Sparagmos acknowledges that chronological boundaries of cult practices may either vary or not be certain. However covers cult evidence from Bronze Age to Late Antiquity.
γ) Sparagmos documents epigraphic, papyrological, literary, iconographic, archaeological & material evidence of religious practices across the ancient Mediterranean.
δ) Sparagmos strictly does not seek to replace academic publications, critical editions or museum catalogues. Its primary focus is to be a reliable gateway to the already existing resources of its field of study.
Editorial Policy
Sparagmos distinguishes between primary sources, modern scholarly interpretations on ancient mystery religions & ritual practices, editorial contributions like explanatory notes, commentaries, summaries etc.
Sparagmos aims to serve comprehensive metadata: It identifies the date, provenance, location and publication history of each evidence record whenever the information is accessible. (Entries may be revised as new evidence, editions, or scholarship become available.)
Apart from Sparagmos’ own editorial contributions, transcriptions, translations, dates, restorations and identifications of each record are explicitly attributed to their original sources. If however any interpretation is disputed, Sparagmos presents the primary scholarly position but it does not treat any single reconstruction or interpretation as certain.
Sparagmos avoids unsupported speculation and unscholarly claims and ensures that all claims are traceable to a properly cited source.
Citation Policy
Each evidence record cites the source from which its information is derived such as its relevant primary publication, museum catalogue, archaeological report, critical edition or authoritative database. Whenever available, citations must include appropriate identifiers such as database identifiers, inventory numbers, papyrus/inscription numbers, permanent URLs and DOIs. Relevant authors, editors, translators, institutions, and source publications are identified whenever applicable and available.
Materials created by institutions or scholars outside Sparagmos are credited and used according to their stated copyright and licensing conditions. Such materials are included only when their use is permitted by an applicable licence, the permission of the rights holder, their public-domain status, or an applicable copyright exception. The inclusion of metadata or external references does not imply ownership of the referenced material by Sparagmos.
Where copyright restrictions prevent the reproduction of an image or text, Sparagmos provides only descriptive metadata and bibliographic references instead of the copyrighted material itself.
Ancient sources are cited according to their conventional scholarly reference systems such as book, chapter, section, fragment, line, inscription number, corpus number, inventory number whenever possible.
If an evidence source has multiple editions, Sparagmos identifies the edition on which its transcription, translation, or commentary is based.