Vojtěch Kaše and Tomáš Glomb contributed to the discussion on the relationship between affluence on the rise of moralizing religions in Religion, Brain & Behavior through the commentary of the target article by Peter Turchin, Harvey Whitehouse et al.
This is one of the results of their Czech Science Foundation project affiliated with Masaryk University and the University of West Bohemia (The Cultural Evolution of Moralizing Religions in the Ancient Mediterranean: A Distant Reading Approach).
The article by Kaše and Glomb (Affluence, agricultural productivity and the rise of moralizing religion in the ancient Mediterranean, https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2065350 is a reaction to the target article by Peter Turchin, Harvey Whitehouse et al. "Explaining the rise of moralizing religions: a test of competing hypotheses using the Seshat Databank" (https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2065345).
Kaše and Glomb claim that the authors of the target article are oversimplifying their approach to history when they model trends in prosperity and affluence as continuously rising throughout the past. Kaše and Glomb demonstrate on quantitative epigraphic analysis and on existing scholarship that there were significant fluctuations in affluence in the context of the ancient Mediterranean.
Aleš Chalupa, Tomáš Glomb, and Juraj Sarkisjan published the article: Stations of the Publicum Portorium Illyrici are a Strong Predictor of the Mithraic Presence in the Danubian Provinces: Geographical Analysis of the Distribution of the Roman Cult of Mithras in Open Archaeology.
In this short text, Tereza looks back at the experience of attending summer schools focusing on quantitative methods and evaluates how beneficial it was for her research and self-development in the Study of religions.
