This edited volume represents a significant contribution to the growing fields of Cognitive Science of Religion and Cognitive Historiography. Responding to Armin Geertz’s call to examine ancient religious experience through the lens of cognitive science (8), the authors explore how interdisciplinary methodologies can be combined to illuminate the dynamic and individualised dimensions of ritual experience and the cognitive processes through which such experiences are shaped and remembered. The book is organised into an introduction, five case studies, and conclusions. The introduction clearly outlines the volume’s central research questions and situates the discussion within relevant theoretical frameworks, thereby providing a strong conceptual foundation for the chapters that follow. A key strength of the volume is its range of case studies, spanning diverse regions and periods, that allows points of comparison to emerge despite their distinct contexts.

In ch. 1, Blanka Misic introduces the ‘Religious Learning Network’, a theoretical framework for examining how ritual knowledge was learned and transmitted. As she argues, interactions among persons, spaces, objects and events generate mnemonic associations that shape subjective ritual experience. She applies this model to the cult of Nutrices Augustae in Roman Pannonia, offering a nuanced reconstruction of their otherwise poorly attested rituals. Misic suggests that the sanctuary’s small size fostered sensory intensity and intimacy among participants, while embodied engagement with sacred objects reinforced memory formation. On the basis of votives depicting women bearing offerings and presenting children to a seated goddess holding a child, she further proposes that different participants (mothers, children, slaves, relatives) experienced the rituals in distinct ways. Particularly compelling is her argument that children acquired ritual knowledge through imitation and observation, foregrounding in this way the intergenerational dimensions of ritual practice. Her model proves a useful interpretive tool that might be further enriched by considering participants’ cognitive engagement with the goddesses’ iconography.

Ch. 2 presents another theoretically rich approach to rituals depicted on relief sculpture. Emma-Jayne Graham distinguishes two forms of religious knowledge: distal knowledge, shared within a community and transmitted through instruction, and proximal knowledge, which emerges through direct sensory engagement and remains open to variation. This framework enables a productive reinterpretation of the experience of the six Vestal Virgins depicted in the ‘small procession’ frieze of the Ara Pacis. Challenging the traditional view that Vestals were a homogeneous group defined by shared roles and civic identity, Graham proposes that their ritual experiences are individualised and dynamic. Central to this argument is her focus on ‘material agency’, understood as the ability of ritual objects to affect priestesses’ experience through their tactile qualities (weight, surface and shape). This perspective leads her to connect the different objects held by the priestesses to different stages of their career, proposing that each priestess’s experience varied not only individually but also over time. While necessarily interpretive, this approach offers a theoretically productive re-evaluation of Roman ritual, demonstrating that even highly regulated religious roles could accommodate personal and variable experiences.

In ch. 3, Vicky Jewell offers the first sustained examination of the role of colours in Mithraea, combining cognitive approaches with ancient philosophical theories. She observes that red, yellow, black and white dominate the decoration of Mithraic cult spaces. Exactly the same colours were bound up with the four fundamental elements of cosmos in ancient philosophical traditions. This observation leads her to the plausible suggestion that their visual display may have reinforced the idea of the Mithraeum as a microcosm of the universe governed by Mithras. However, she also assumes that it was unlikely for all worshippers to have a deep philosophical knowledge. To explain how these meanings were perceived, Jewell draws on cognitive science of religion, arguing that humans possess ‘symbolic competence’, the ability to interpret visual symbols without formal philosophical training. One of the most interesting aspects of her discussion is her proposal that ancient theories of vision as an active interaction between viewer and object may have framed the participants’ engagement with coloured images, as a ‘haptic’ experience that intensified the ritual encounter with the divine.

Ch. 4 stands in parallel to ch. 2 in several respects. Abigail Graham likewise centres her discussion on a procession, this time recorded in an inscription known as the Salutaris Foundation from Ephesus. She departs from the observation that traditional reconstructions of rituals rely on scripts about how ceremonies were supposed to be performed, thus failing to capture lived practice. Building on the principle of failure, as proposed by Angelos Chaniotis (119–20), the author argues for the necessity of considering additional factors, including weather conditions, urban constraints, the audience’s reactions, the participants-performers themselves, and the broader atmosphere. Applied to the Salutaris procession, this approach effectively examines prescriptive rules alongside hypothetical disruptions. Although this reconstruction remains largely speculative, it offers significant interpretive value. Methodologically, the inclusion of an ancient testimony from another procession recorded in An Ephesian Tale is particularly noteworthy, as it confirms experiential variability, showing that participants and audience attended not only to religious roles but also to sensory impressions, such as others’ physical appearance. Graham’s approach offers great insights into the dynamic nature of ritual experience, essentially complementing existing interpretations of the ritual.

Ch. 5 is the only chapter that explores a Christian ritual experience, based on fourth-century Egeria’s account of pilgrimage to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Steven Muir brings to the forefront the veneration of four sacred relics previously overlooked due to their questionable authenticity: the wood of the true cross, the inscription over Jesus’ head at crucifixion, the ring of Solomon and the horn used to anoint the kings of ancient Israel. For him, these objects carried significant symbolic value that enabled pilgrims to engage with biblical events of the past. Drawing on performance studies, he also conceptualises sacred objects as props within a ritual drama. He argues that embodied acts of kissing and gazing, combined with their symbolic significance, created a powerful ritual experience in which ‘the past becomes the present’ (169). His approach offers a reconciliation of cognitive and symbolic-religious interpretations of ritual, while opening avenues for further inquiry. I would suggest that considering the cross as carrier of the memory of Christ’s Passion and as vessel of divine grace would enrich the discussion on how the emotional engagement with a sacred object significantly influences lived experience.

In the Conclusion, the editors highlight several elements that unify the case studies, like the emphasis on sensory experience and the dynamic, individual character of ritual practices. By taking potential objections into account and addressing them effectively, they strengthen the coherence and methodological framework of their approach. I find particularly fruitful the comparison with contemporary religious experiences, such as participation in the Catholic mass, through which broader, potentially universal dimensions of ritual experience are brought to light.

Overall, the authors should be commended for engaging with cognitive approaches in a very clear and accessible manner, making them intelligible even to non-specialists. Their well-written case studies contribute meaningfully to the articulation of new research methodologies. In my view, the book can serve as a valuable source of inspiration not only for scholars of ancient rituals, but also for researchers of Classics and Late Antiquity who are interested in studying emotions, sensory experiences, memory, and other cognitive phenomena through the lens of cognitive science.