Ephemeral Rituals and Urban Timescapes: Family Ties and Object Biography at the Asklepieia of Epidauros and Pergamon

Sanctuaries for Asklepios, the Greek god of healing, were in some cases powerful urban microcosms that played important roles in establishing and maintaining socio-political hierarchies through material culture. This article focuses specifically on the representations of families at the Asklepieia of Epidauros and Pergamon during the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial period (c. 300 bc–ad 200) from the perspective of object agency. These sacred spaces were embedded with family narratives represented through material culture, from private to public dedications, decrees, and architecture, evoking sociopolitical messages to later audiences. As they accumulated over generations, they produced a timescape that would have been of vital importance to the preservation of the social structures of the city. Despite their locations outside the urban core, these Asklepieia served as important focal points in projecting urban cohesion and creating and maintaining social relations on an urban level.