Diana Pavel is going to present a working paper on 'Influencing Religious Experience: the Etruscan Altar and Aspects of Accessibility and Visibility'

The current paper represents a draft of one of the chapters of my project thesis that focuses on providing an encompassing perspective regarding the two main aspects of accessibility and visibility concerning the presence of the altar.
The first part of the paper will focus on the use of the archaeological record in interpreting past religious experience and it will discuss how the characteristics of the altar manage to structure the audience and influence this (individual) religious experience.
The second part of the paper will present a number of study cases in order to properly investigate how the aspects of visibility and accessibility around the altar reflect the audience and how they might impact the self-world relations.