Subterranea Religio: Caves, Epigraphy and Ritual in Indo-European Hispania (SubTERRA)

• Timeframe: 2020–2023
• Funding institution: Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, State Programme for Knowledge-Building and Scientific and Technological Reinforcement of the R&D+i System (PID2019-107742GB-I00)
• Project leader: Silvia Alfayé, Associate Professor in the Department of Ancient Sciences, Humanities Faculty, Universidad de Zaragoza
• Members of the research group: Susana de Luis Mariño (MAN), Natalia Ayuso (UNIZAR), José Antonio Cuchí (UNIZAR), Alfonso Fanjul, Gonzalo Fontana (UNIZAR), Sergio García-Dils (UNED), María Cruz González (UPV), Enrique Gutiérrez-Cuenca, José Ángel Hierro, Santiago Martínez (Museo de Segovia), Ana Isabel Ortega (CENIEH), Paula Ortega, Rafael Bolado, Paula Arbeloa (UNIZAR), Cecilia D’Abrosca (UPV), Yulia Ustinova (BGU, Israel), Troels Myrup Kristensen (AU, Denmark), Marjeta Sasel-Kos (SASA, Slovenia)

The primary aim of this project is to conduct a cross-disciplinary study of underground religious expressions in Indo-European Hispania within the context of the polytheistic religions of antiquity over a long period of time, from the Iron Age to late antiquity. To this end, the intense cross-disciplinary research process will focus particularly on fieldwork, direct epigraphic and iconographic autopsies, spatial and geo-morphological analysis, and recording and mapping ritual spaces, texts, images and artefacts with cutting-edge technology.