Reassessing Salona's Churches: Martyrium Evolution in Question

Abstract

Using the extramural basilicas at Salona as a testing ground, this article seeks to examine a central historiographical and methodological issue in early Christian archaeology: the narrative of evolutionary development of martyria sites from saint's tomb to monumental center of burial, worship, and pilgrimage. While the widely accepted model may accurately describe the steps of monumentalization at some cult places, it can also deceptively streamline much more complicated, and less predictable, site histories. At Salona, a site often held up as exemplifying the conventional pattern of martryium development, the archaeological evidence does not substantiate many of the model's central principles. Moreover, I suggest that adopting a more critical perspective on the model itself helps us to recognize other possible narratives of cult development suggested by the archaeological, epigraphic, and hagiographic evidence.