This paper explores the potential of applying theories and methods from the so-called “New Mobilities Paradigm” to the study of ancient Mediterranean pilgrimage. The “New Mobilities Paradigm”, a term coined by Mimi Sheller and John Urry, has been developing since the mid-1990s – in particular within sociology and geography – and has considerable potential for providing new perspectives on the study of the ancient world, not least because of its emphasis on materiality, connections and flows. Using the site of Nemi in the Alban Hills as a case study, the paper explores how the paradigm may be useful to investigate the long-term trajectory of pilgrimage as well as the topography and landscapes of individual sanctuaries.

Troels Myrup Kristensen is associate professor of classical art and archaeology at Aarhus University, Denmark. His research interests include ancient Mediterranean pilgrimage, cultural heritage and visual culture, as reflected in recent publications, such as The Afterlife of Greek and Roman Sculpture. Late Antique Responses and Practices (2016), Excavating Pilgrimage: Archaeological Approaches to Sacred Travel and Movement in the Ancient World (2017), Ascending and Descending the Acropolis. Movement in Athenian Religion (2019) and Classical Heritage and European Identities: The Imagined Geographies of Danish Classicism (2019).