City and Sanctuary in Hellenistic Asia Minor. Constructing civic identity in the sacred landscape of Mylasa and Stratonikeia in Karia.

'In this research, Christina Williamson studies the phenomenon of major outlying sanctuaries which accompanied the second rise of the Greek polis in Asia Minor in the Hellenistic period. While such ?extra-urban? sanctuaries in the Archaic world are typically interpreted as frontier shrines marking critical borders of civic territory, Williamson argues that the situation in Hellenistic Asia Minor is much more complex, as the Greek polis model took hold in landscapes that were already highly socially articulated. Drawing on a wide range of archaeological and historical sources, she examines in detail the processes of transformation that took place at the shrines of Zeus Labraundos and Sinuri in the landscape of Mylasa, and Hekate at Lagina and Zeus at Panamara in the outer limits of Stratonikeia in Karia, as they were turned into major civic centers. Using theories taken from the cognitive, social and spatial sciences, Williamson contextualizes these transformations in light of their effect on society and interprets them with regard to polis formation. In doing so she shows that instead of their proximity to borders, it was their capacity to foster social cohesion, territorial integrity, and civic identity among hybrid and dispersed communities that made them so vital to rising poleis.' (ResearchGate).