This project proposes an interdisciplinary study on the ways the ancient societies theorised and materialised peace in the religious discourse and how contemporary societies restored the heritage of peace in the museum space. It analyses a selection of case studies from five different historical contexts and geographical areas: ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, India; the Roman Empire; early Christianity between the Mediterranean and Asia. This project aims also to investigate how the ancient perspectives of peace have been embodied in the cultural heritage of modern societies through the musealisation of ancient symbols of peace. The purpose of this research is thus two-fold: firstly, it aims to reconstruct the semantics and narratives of peace in antiquity with a focus on religious strategies related to negotiations and material representation of peace; secondly, it intends to highlight the ways the ancient symbols of peace have been restored and reinterpreted, in building a heritage of peace that influences cultures nowadays. Finally, the project will examine the links between peace and religion through artefacts and bodies and analyse the conceptual and material development of their connection in the process of separation of objects from the cultural environment and of giving them a museal status. To do that, the research group will explore textual and iconographic sources of the past and investigate how these ancient documents still constitute a cultural tradition that today influences the narratives of peace as a political and religious issue. To this end, great attention will be paid to the processes of interpretation and dissemination of historical records, considering the social impact of their academic reading and heritagisation. Given its interdisciplinarity, this project will combine the philological and archaeological skills and the various expertises of the participants in the field of the history of religions, sociology, anthropology, and museology.
