The ancestral cults of roman Athens. Analysis of the sacred landscape south of the Olympieion between Augustus and the Antonines

The article aims to investigate the cults and sacred landscape of the Athens area between the right bank of the Ilissos and the Olympieion in the Early and Middle Imperial age. This place was a privileged observatory for the study of Classical and Hellenistic religious activities. Less attention was paid to the Roman period, for which research on episodic excavation activities and circumscribed contexts have been produced. The paper is structured as follows: 1. Examination of the cults between the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. 2. Formal description and functional hypothesis of the sacred buildings attested between 1st and 2nd century A.D. 3. Proposal for the definition of the sacred landscape of the area in the Early and Middle Imperial age.