Cultic Space for Private Associations

In keeping with the theme of this volume, texts and architecture, this paper discusses the interplay between textual representations of space and architecture, beginning with instances in which we have both text and architecture, and then proceeding to cases in which architecture is missing but where sufficient textual signs exist to draw some conclusions about architecture. These two data sets allow for a construction of the complex history of these spaces and the associations that used them. The paper then turns to several examples where archaeological remains are either missing or incompletely known, but in which the extant epigraphy allows for some probable conclusions about the deployment of space. The paper concludes with some observations on the use of space by Christ groups, where archaeology is missing prior to the fourth century ce, and where textual signs are sparse or ambiguous.