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Scholarly study of ancient Greek sanctuaries has tended to focus on religion and ritual, monuments, deities, sacrifice, and topography. Logistics in Greek Sanctuaries takes a completely novel perspective by shifting the focus away from the religious sphere and monumental aspects of sanctuaries to practical activity and the experience of the human visitor. Close examination of the more mundane and everyday life and activity in Greek cult places, e.g., sanitation, water and food supply, accommodation, markets, managing crowds and behavior, workers, and finances, reveals relatively unexplored facets of ancient Greek sanctuaries and offers new paths of investigation for the future.

Scholarly study of ancient Greek sanctuaries has tended to focus on religion and ritual, monuments, deities, sacrifice, and topography. Logistics in Greek Sanctuaries takes a completely novel perspective by shifting the focus away from the religious sphere and monumental aspects of sanctuaries to practical activity and the experience of the human visitor. Close examination of the more mundane and everyday life and activity in Greek cult places, e.g., sanitation, water and food supply, accommodation, markets, managing crowds and behavior, workers, and finances, reveals relatively unexplored facets of ancient Greek sanctuaries and offers new paths of investigation for the future.

Greek gods had their allotted spaces where worship took place, designated temenos, "that which has been cut off", but even if such a plot was the property of the deity and circumscribed by particular rules, it was not exclusively frequented by the divine owner. Mortal visitors may have used a temenos just as intensively as a god did, but in a different manner, and humans were also the caretakers and administrators of the god’s property. This paper explores the temenos concept from the point of view of sanctuaries as set apart from gods but mainly used by men, and how immortal and mortal practices and manifestations were to be accommodated within this space. Two points will be addressed, the marking of boundaries for temene, and notions of purity and pollution when humans visited sanctuaries to worship the gods. It will be argued that a physical demarcation of the temenos was not a divine prerequisite and that the construction of a wall was a human responsibility depending on local cultic conditions. The caretaking of a temenos as divine property required particular rules at sacrifices, since human needs and desires were not always appropriate to the gods. Of particular interest are the handling of animals, the cooking and food consumption after sacrifices, the management of human waste as well as the impact of humans staying in temene.

Animal sacrifice fundamentally informed how the ancient Greeks defined themselves, their relation to the divine, and the structure of their society. Adopting an explicitly cross-disciplinary perspective, the present volume explores the practical execution and complex meaning of animal sacrifice within ancient Greek religion (c. 1000 BC–AD 200).

The objective is twofold. First, to clarify in detail the use and meaning of body parts of the animal within sacrificial ritual. This involves a comprehensive study of ancient Greek terminology in texts and inscriptions, representations on pottery and reliefs, and animal bones found in sanctuaries. Second, to encourage the use and integration of the full spectrum of ancient evidence in the exploration of Greek sacrificial rituals, which is a prerequisite for understanding the complex use and meaning of Greek animal sacrifice.

Twelve contributions by experts on the literary, epigraphical, iconographical, archaeological and zooarchaeological evidence for Greek animal sacrifice explore the treatment of legs, including feet and hoofs, tails, horns; heads, including tongues, brains, ears and snouts; internal organs; blood; as well as the handling of the entire body by burning it whole. Three further contributions address Hittite, Israelite and Etruscan animal sacrifice respectively, providing important contextualization for Greek ritual practices.

This paper offers a review of holocaustic rituals in written and material sources arguing that this type of sacrifice was rare. It further addresses if the animal was burned whole or if the carcass was flayed, emptied of blood and intestines, and sectioned before being placed onto the fire. Since the evidence suggests that holocausts did not necessarily mean the burning of an intact animal, the relation between holocausts and holocausts, sacrifices at which a larger part of the animal was burned, is also explored. Finally, the ancient evidence for holocausts is considered in the light of the results of the experimental cremation of a lamb and a pig performed at Uppsala in 2014. It is argued that a Greek holocaust may have aimed at burning the meat beyond human means of consumption rather than at a total annihilation of the carcass by fire, and that the long time it seems to have taken to perform a holocaust can be linked to the purpose of the ritual.

Greek altars have received ample attention in scholarship as to their appearance, construction, and location within a sanctuary, as well as their importance as the central feature for the rituals allowing communication with the gods. The immediate surroundings of altars have not been considered to the same degree. This paper explores the context of Greek altars and some of the features located here, for example, rings for fastening animals, stone-lined pits, and remains of previous sacrifices. Of particular interest is the use of the top of the altar for ritual purposes in relation to the space surrounding the altar. A study of the wider contexts of altars, as to their use and the material remains found here, may provide a better understanding of the complex ritual reality of the ancient Greeks.

Ancient Greek sacrifice can be viewed as an outdoor activity, centred on the burning on the altar of fat and bones from the sacrificial victim to create a rich, fragrant smoke, which the gods profited from by inhaling. Cakes and incense put in fire produced further pleasant smells. These actions call for the ritual taking place in the open, usually in front of the temple where most altars are located. However, altars and hearths are also found inside temples. The aim of this paper is to explore the indoor presence and use of such sacrificial installations, looking at archaeological and written evidence. What kinds of offerings were sacrificed inside temples and to what degree were they burnt? Installations for fire inside religious buildings have been the focus of discussion among scholars, in particular whether hearths in temples are to be seen as a legacy from the Early Iron Age or even Bronze Age, or as a practice corresponding to certain ritual needs in the historic period. Indoor hearths are also important for the interpretation of some early Greek buildings such as temples, hestiatoria or prytaneia. The practical implications of such installations are less well understood. 

Le sacrifice grec antique peut être perçu comme une activité de plein-air, centrée sur la combustion de la graisse et des os de la victime sacrificielle sur l’autel, afin de procurer une riche fumée odorante, dont les dieux se repaissent en l’inhalant. Gâteaux et encens jetés dans le feu produisaient d’autres bonnes odeurs. Ces actions impliquent que le rituel ait lieu à l’air libre, généralement devant le temple où la plupart des autels sont situés. Cependant, autels et foyers sont également attestés à l’intérieur de temples. L’objectif de cet article est d’explorer la matérialité et l’usage de tels aménagements sacrificiels, à partir de la documentation archéologique et textuelle. Quels genres d’offrandes étaient offertes en sacrifice à l’intérieur des temples ? et jusqu’à quel point ces offrandes étaient-elles brûlées ? Les dispositifs pour le feu aménagés au sein de bâtiments religieux ont fait l’objet de débats parmi les spécialistes, en particulier le fait de déterminer si les foyers dans les temples doivent être vus comme un héritage du Premier âge du fer ou même de l’Âge du bronze, ou comme une pratique relevant des besoins d’un rituel particulier à l’époque historique. La question des foyers intérieurs est également importante pour l’interprétation de certains premiers bâtiments grecs tels que les temples, les hestiatoria ou les prytanées. Les implications concrètes de ce genre d’aménagements sont moins bien connues.