Pilgrimage Made Portable: a Sensory Archaeology of the Monza-Bobbio Ampullae

Abstract

Studies of late antique holy land pilgrimage focus closely on textual evidence despite rich material remains, and where the latter are studied semiotic and exegetical interpretations are privileged. I propose a sensory methodology for reinstating the value of material evidence as equal to text, which allows for its materiality rather than reducing it to semiotic abstraction. By asking what objects do (what embodied experiences they prompt), rather than what they mean (what abstract ideas they refer to) we can assess more acutely how and why pilgrimage occurred. This article explores this methodology’s implications by applying it to a case study of the well-known Monza-Bobbio ampullae, arguing that they prompted multisensory pilgrimage experience for both pilgrims and non-pilgrims alike, which revealed the divine presence inherent in the loca sancta ‘on the move’. This occurred through a particular form of divine mimesis and a culturally-specific understanding of material- ity as infinite.