Late Antique Period Research Articles

I porti nel Mediterraneo tardo-antico. Alcune riflessioni

What happened to the Mediterranean harbour installations after the Imperial period? How can we interpret that qualitative and, at least in part, quantitative, collapse which appears from a superficial analysis of the archaeological remains? Does the problem of the lack of visibility of the evidence for late antique harbour contexts – caused by both natural and anthropic phenomenona effecting their disappearance whether due to their lesser monumentaly, hence less striking construction techniques – exist? Is it possible, in the end, that the knowledge of harbour engineering, developed after the Augustan period, due especially to the use of concrete with pozzolana, was lost or no longer used? Having provided an overview of the results of recent investigations that have focused on a number of Mediterranean harbours built in the Late Antique period and the Late Antique phases of harbour contexts founded in the imperial period, this article wishes to go beyond the traditional approach, founded on the concept of the "decline" of the functionality and of the monumentality of the harbours, based often only on traditional sources. Taking into consideration obviously the deep technological and topographical differences of harbours in the two halves of the Mediterranean, and using, for comparison the insediative logic of harbours of the North European coastal landscape, we analyse the processes that occurred in the Mare Nostrum in a phenomenon marked by the physical remodeling of the harbours for reduced necessities, both of functional type and especially of ideological type. We intend thus to consider this shift as a sort of return to "normality" and the late antique period, here under special scrutiny, appears once again as a crucial moment where such landscapes are evident. In this period, indeed, we record opposite signs of behaviour, which range from the extreme of new harbour models closer to those of the ancient world to the return to a widespread, and almost total, use of the wood. However this recovery of the "normality" uses at least part of the now unnecessarily imperial installations and, in case of the foundation of new harbours, uses techniques and materials that are less monumental but no less functional than those of earlier times, at least with regard to their reduced needs. [Author]

Review of de Wet, C. 2015 Preaching Bondage: John Chrysostom and the Discourse of Slavery in Early Christianity

This first book of an exciting young South African scholar is based on his doctoral research, but bears only a pale resemblance to his doctoral dissertation. Rather, it constitutes a much more mature reflection on hissubject - the discourse of slavery in Late Antiquity - shaped by further engagement and discussion with a wide circle of scholars from a range of disciplines. Pitched as a project in cultural historiography, it asks large questions about the legacy of slavery, challenging current complacency byexposing largely unconscious and socially problematic discourses of domination that continue to persist into the present. This book may be about the period of Late Antiquity, but it draws a long trajectory from the Classical Greek and Roman past into Hellenistic Judaism, Early Christianity, the 'crisis of masculinity' of the 4th century, and well beyond.Similarly, while the focus is the discourse of a single late-fourth-century author, the Syrian priest John Chrysostom, subsequently bishop of the Eastern imperial capital, Constantinople, De Wet provides a model for the analysis of other late-ancient authors on the topic, as well as demonstrating the pervasiveness within Christian circles of the main threads of this particular writer's approach. In essence, the book offers a major contribution to the history of ideas in Western thought, delineating how a core set of ideas, transformed through a Christian lens, led to the passiveacceptance of the (gendered) oppression of other human beings. The implications of the study presented in these pages are extensive and this is a book to be read by scholars across a wide range of interests and disciplines.

A late antique ceramic workshop complex: evidence for workshop organisation at Sagalassos (southwest Turkey)

AbstractSites of ceramic production have been discovered throughout the area that was once the Roman Empire; as a result, it is becoming increasingly clear that this industry was, in the Roman and late antique worlds, organised in numerous ways. In consideration of the organisational diversity in ceramic production attested during the period, this article presents some of the findings from the excavations of a late antique complex of ceramic workshops at the site of Sagalassos in order to consider archaeological evidence in terms of, not only the organisation of the manufacturing process, but also structures of workshop decision-making. Several lines of archaeological evidence are outlined, and argue for a model of independent work units integrated into a larger organisational structure of decision-making, and possibly even ownership, across the complex. In addition, the motivation to invest in a multi-workshop complex during the late antique period at Sagalassos is contextualised within the wider history of local and regional economic development.

Barcino entre los siglos IV y VI d. C. Transformaciones y ascenso de una ciudad mediterránea durante la Antigüedad Tardía = Barcino between 4th-6th centuries AD. Transformations and growing of a mediterranean city during Late Antiquity

This paper is focused in late antique Barcino (Barcelona), between 4th to 6th centuries AD. Its aim is to update and summarize our knowledge about the city’s transformation processes in this temporal frame, as well as to offer a new graphical set in order to help to understand these dynamics. As concerns the method used, we have compiled and analyzed the latest information we have and digitally processed the graphical information in an overall approach. The acquired results concern a city that will gradually increase its political and economical power in the northeastern region of the Tarraconensis province as we go forward the late antique period. Accordingly, far from decay, it is a powerful city during Late Antiquity and, in some aspects, it will surpass Tarraco, the historical capital of the province.

A Late Antique Vegetation History of the Western Mediterranean in Context

AbstractFossil pollen records from 70 sites with reliable chronologies and high-resolution data in the western Mediterranean, were synthesised to document Late Holocene vegetation and climate change. The key elements of vegetation dynamics and landscape construction during Late Antiquity are clear in the light of the fossil pollen records. These are: fire events (natural or anthropogenically induced); grazing activities in high-mountain areas; agriculture; arboriculture; and human settlement in the lowlands. In terms of anthropogenic pressure, the differences recorded between highlands and lowlands suggest an imbalance in land use. Such practices were related to three main types of activities: wood exploitation and management, cultivation, and pastoralism. In lowland areas there seems to be some synchronism in vegetation dynamics during the late antique period, since most of the territories of the western Mediterranean had been deforested by the Early Roman period. However, in mountainous regions, pollen records document a clear asynchrony.

Memory, Tradition, and Christianization of the Peloponnese

This work examines the use of memory and tradition in the Christianization of the Peloponnese based on the evidence of the location and topography of churches. The different processes of conversion in the area have already been discussed, and the focus of this work is to show the extent of continuation of religious practice from the Roman to Late Antique periods. A diachronic analysis of the evidence for towns and sanctuaries from the fourth to seventh centuries is presented. It is argued that throughout the different Christianization processes memory and tradition were managed by the church in terms of its location, architecture, and rituals. It is likely that the church consciously maintained certain traditions of place, imagery, and action in order to retain and use memory traces from the established religious structures, which helped situate the Christian church as a central element of community life and identity. Therefore, it is contended that an essential element of the Christianization process was to maintain earlier memories and traditions not only to enable an efficiently unobtrusive conversion for its long-term success but also to ensure the maintenance of existing social structures, which in turn sustained the church. Additional figures can be found under this article’s abstract on AJA Online.

Ancient DNA in the Cantabrian fringe populations: A mtDNA study from Prehistory to Late Antiquity

The present mtDNA study on human remains of fourteen archaeological sites from Cantabria, Basque Country and Navarra provided a diachronic overview from Paleolithic–Mesolithic to Late Antiquity period of some communities settled in the Cantabrian fringe. Ancient DNA studies in European human remains indicated a genetic discontinuity between the hunter–gatherers and later populations. However, some of the mtDNA lineages found in the Cantabrian fringe in Paleolithic–Mesolithic times persist in present-day populations.The mtDNA variability observed in hunter–gatherers and farmers in Europe denoted a complex pattern for the Neolithic transition, occurring along several different routes into and across Europe. The mtDNA lineages found in the Cantabrian fringe indicated that the dispersion of Neolithic farmers had a different genetic impact in this area with respect to Central and Mediterranean regions of Europe. The differences in mtDNA variability were also apparent after the Neolithic, as shown by the genetic distance between the Chalcolithic populations from the Cantabrian fringe and the Bell Beaker Culture (BBC) populations of Central Europe.

Evergetism among the Bishops of Hispania between the Sixth and Seventh Centuries: A Dialogue between Archaeological and Documentary Sources

The role of the bishops of Hispania in the construction of churches in the late antique period has been highlighted by a traditional historiography which considered the religious unification under the Catholic creed by the Third Council of Toledo in the year 589 c.e. as the starting point of an active period of construction characterized by close collaboration between the church and the Visigothic monarchy. The principal objective of this paper is to call into question this hypothesis by presenting in an orderly fashion the documentary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence regarding the sixth and seventh centuries. Conclusions force to reconsider not only the role of the bishops, actually often recorded as responsible for consecration rather than for construction, but also of the private patronage and that of the church-monarchy alliance.

Religious Violence in Late Antique Egypt Reconsidered: The Cases of Alexandria, Panopolis and Philae

ABSTRACTThe period of Late Antiquity has long been perceived, and is still often perceived, through the lens of (Christian) literary works, which tell dramatic stories of violence against temples, statues and even ‘pagans’, and may give the impression that this was a period of widespread religious violence. Egypt, where such stories abound, has often been seen as a particularly good illustration of the pervasive nature of religious violence in the Late Antique world. This article takes a different view. By adopting a theoretical framework on religious violence from Religious Studies and including all the other sources available from Egypt—papyri, inscriptions and archaeological remains—it argues that events were often dramatised for ideological reasons and that, when seen against a general background of religious transformation, religious violence occurred only occasionally in specific local or regional circumstances. This point will be demonstrated by discussing three iconic events that have often been adduced as symptomatic of widespread violence in Late Antique Egypt: the destruction of the Serapeum at Alexandria in 391/392, the anti-‘pagan’ crusade of Abbot Shenoute in the region of Panopolis around 400, and the closure of the Isis temple at Philae in 535–537.

Religious Violence in Late Antique Egypt Reconsidered: The Cases of Alexandria, Panopolis and Philae

The period of Late Antiquity has long been perceived, and is still often perceived, through the lens of (Christian) literary works, which tell dramatic stories of violence against temples, statues and even ‘pagans’, and may give the impression that this was a period of widespread religious violence. Egypt, where such stories abound, has often been seen as a particularly good illustration of the pervasive nature of religious violence in the Late Antique world. This article takes a different view. By adopting a theoretical framework on religious violence from Religious Studies and including all the other sources available from Egypt—papyri, inscriptions and archaeological remains—it argues that events were often dramatized for ideological reasons and that, when seen against a general background of religious transformation, religious violence occurred only occasionally in specific local or regional circumstances. This point will be demonstrated by discussing three iconic events that have often been adduced as symptomatic of widespread violence in Late Antique Egypt: the destruction of the Serapeum at Alexandria in 391/392, the anti-‘pagan’ crusade of Abbot Shenoute in the region of Panopolis around 400, and the closure of the Isis temple at Philae in 535–537.

Rome's Christian Empress: Galla Placidia Rules at the Twilight of the Empire by Joyce E. Salisbury

BOOK REVIEWS 377 * * * * * Rome’s Christian Empress: Galla Placidia Rules at the Twilight of the Empire. By JOYCE E. SALISBURY. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015. Pp. 236. Hardcover, $34.95. ISBN 978-1-4214-1700-4. This compact volume offers a bibliography of Galla Placidia, one of the most powerful women of the Late Antique period. Although the women of this period are generally underserved in scholarship, this particular Empress has fared better than her contemporaries, most recently as the subject of Hagith Silvan’s 2011 monograph.13 Salisbury adds to this body of work in this eminently readable book, which, unlike prior scholarship, attempts to reconstruct her subject’s childhood aswell as her years inthe public spotlight. The book’s main goal is to place Galla Placidia in the larger socio-cultural context of her time period, demonstrating via primary sources the ways that Placidia was first shaped by, then shaped, the sociopolitical environment of the Late Antique Empire. Salisbury succeeds admirably considering the limited sources available to her, especiallyin hertreatmentofher subject’soft-neglected youth. Salisbury organizes her material chronologically and follows Silvan’s example in dividing her chapters into the important periods in Placidia’s life. The first two chapters naturally focus more on the major cultural events and players that shape young Placidia’s world than the subject herself, since actual sources on the her childhood are sparse. The first chapter (“The “Most Noble” Princess,” 379– 395) is devoted to Theodosius and ends with his death, while the next chapter (“Orphan Princess in Stilicho’s Shadow,” 395–408) explores the ways that the Romano-Vandal general Stilicho’s regency would have affected Placidia’s world on the grand and personal levels. The first two chapters present Galla Placidia as a persona growing and changing in response to her environment, but in chapter three the book changes course to show how the now adult princess begins to exert her agency as a potent political player. Chapter three (“Held Hostage by the Goths,” 408–412) focuses 13 Sivan, H. (2011). Galla Placidia: The last Roman empress. Oxford. Other past treatments of Galla Placidia include Sirago, V. A. (1996). Galla Placidia: La nobilissima (392–450). Milano: Jaca Book and Oost, S. I. (1968). Galla Placidia Augusta: A biographical essay. Chicago. 378 BOOK REVIEWS on the siege of Rome and its aftermath, when Placidia first gains influence over one of the important leaders of the period, Athaulf, the brother-in-law and successor of Alaric. Chapter four (“Queen of the Visigoths,” 411–416) deals with Placidia’s experiences asAthaulf’s wife in Spain. Finally, the last chapters see Placidia’s return to Ravenna as a widow with her own loyal faction of Visigoths (“Wife and Mother in Ravenna,” 416–424) and her rise to Empress of the West as the Regent of her young son, Valentinian III (“Empress of the Romans,” 424–437) and her time as the still powerful Dowager Empress (“The Empress Mother and Her Children,” 438–455). There is an Epilogue that summarizes the final years of the Western Empire and the legacy of Placidia’s artistic endeavors. This comprehensive volume does make some sacrifices for the sake of accessibility . Salisbury sometimes takes information at face value, rather than unpacking the sociocultural intricacies of this undeniably complicated historical period. Early in the book Salisbury seeks to explain the reasons that Placidia developed into a strong political player while her brothers both grew up to be puppet rulers. She presents the standard theory that eastern decadence in the form of conniving court eunuchs is to blame. This leads to an oversimplification of both court politicsand the livesofeunuch slavesin the Late Antique (19-20). Furthermore, many readers hoping to use this volume for research purposes will be frustrated with the scarcity of sources cited. That is not to say that the text is lacking in rigor, but that sources are downplayed in favor of readability. For example, Salisbury mentions that generic ‘people’ were impressed that Bishop Ambrose could read silently (42) when she could easily have cited Augustine on the topic (August. Conf. 6.3). The strength of this volume is its ability to interweave the major historical events...

Lugares Celestes del neoplatonismo medieval

Durante la historia de la cultura medieval, desde sus orígenes tardoantiguos hasta su entrada en el período del humanismo, el sistema del pensamiento neoplatónico cristaliza en distintas manifestaciones filosóficas, teológicas, artísticas y literarias. Uno de los grandes temas de esta estructura teórica es la referencia a un mundo astral, sideral o celeste, que aparece testimoniada en la epigrafía, el arte, la música o la poesía latina medieval. En este artículo se postulan Lugares Celestes como la Muerte, el Viaje, el Juicio y la Divinización en los que esta epistemología del tránsito a lo celeste encuentra sólidas bases históricas y hermenéuticas.

Identifying provenance

This article discusses an attempt to identify provenance details of textiles that came to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London through an association with the archaeologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie. This study revealed that Petrie is responsible, directly or indirectly, for over 500 Egyptian textile pieces held at the V&A. He donated and sold items to the Museum while others came via individuals who had personal or institutional associations with Petrie. The collection is mainly representative of the Late Antique period. Many of the textiles have little or no reliable provenance details while others came from known sites that were attributed to the object upon arrival at the V&A or through this study − sites including Meidum, Tarkhan, the Fayum, Hawara, Kahun, Tanis, Oxyrhynchus, Qarara, the Qau el-Kebir and Badari district, and Akhmim.

Veiling the Late Roman House

The period of late antiquity, c. ad 200–500, saw a dramatic increase in the social, political and religious significance of domestic textiles, as is revealed in references in literature and art, as well as in the finds of archaeological textiles in Roman Egypt. This paper explores the roles of textiles, particularly hangings and curtains, in such domestic settings in the late Roman period from a social perspective — how they served the increased concerns with privacy, visibility, mystery, boundaries and shifting gender relations that are amply attested in late Roman culture. I argue that, alongside more permanent forms of permeable boundaries, textiles were exploited for their unique inherent qualities in order to serve diverse needs in the late Roman house, and filled a central role in late Roman domestic life that was more far significant than their scant remains suggest today.

Archaeology and the Cult of Saints in the Early Middle Ages: Accessing the Sacred

In order to contextualise the development of S. Agnese in agone, this paper examines four other intramural churches of Rome dedicated to cults of martyrs : SS Giovanni e Paolo, S. Cecilia in Trastevere, S. Pudenziana and S. Felicita as well as chapels or oratories dedicated to martyrs in larger intra muros churches. At these sites, archaeology was invested with a sacred function during the late antique or early medieval period. The original functions of ancient structures were reconfigured by a new understanding of Christian history ; through the reading of Passiones, people identified these archaeological spaces as places associated with lives and deaths of martyrs. Such hagiographic invention could take place either at the time of the foundation of a church or a posteriori, as in the case of SS. Giovanni e Paolo or S. Cecilia in Trastevere.

The Testament of Job as an Example of Profeminine Patience Literature

Brent D. Shaw, in his very important and influential article “Body/Power/Identity: Passions of the Martyrs,” published in 1996, argues that a new means of self-identification emerges in the late antique period, often denoted by the Greek abstract noun hypomonē (ὑπoμovή, the “endurance of suffering”). The first- century pseudepigraphic text Testament of Job offers evidence for this revaluation of suffering, but Shaw goes on to discover “feminized rhetoric” in this work: a phrase that is too dismissive of the Testament’ s profeminine content. Feminine rhetoric, despite Shaw’s slighting of the idea, is a remarkably precocious feature of the Testament of Job ; moreover, the events surrounding the inheritance of Job’s three daughters at the end of this text, taken together, probably represent the most explicit example in biblical or apocryphal texts of engagement with what can only be described as feminine language. Not coincidentally, this text also directly fuses ideas of patience with feminine language, so that the Testament of Job and the early passio s that feature female protagonists demonstrate the generation of an important tradition (and the generation of a literary genre best called patience literature) in Western culture, where women become famous for patience and endurance just as men can gain honor through exhibiting the traditional manly virtues.

The <em>Testament of Job</em> as an Example of Profeminine Patience Literature

Brent D. Shaw, in his very important and influential article “Body/Power/Identity: Passions of the Martyrs,” published in 1996, argues that a new means of self-identification emerges in the late antique period, often denoted by the Greek abstract noun hypomonē (ὑπoμovή, the “endurance of suffering”). The first-century pseudepigraphic text Testament of Job offers evidence for this revaluation of suffering, but Shaw goes on to discover “feminized rhetoric” in this work: a phrase that is too dismissive of the Testament's profeminine content. Feminine rhetoric, despite Shaw's slighting of the idea, is a remarkably precocious feature of the Testament of Job; moreover, the events surrounding the inheritance of Job's three daughters at the end of this text, taken together, probably represent the most explicit example in biblical or apocryphal texts of engagement with what can only be described as feminine language. Not coincidentally, this text also directly fuses ideas of patience with feminine language, so that the Testament of Job and the early passios that feature female protagonists demonstrate the generation of an important tradition (and the generation of a literary genre best called patience literature) in Western culture, where women become famous for patience and endurance just as men can gain honor through exhibiting the traditional manly virtues.

'Lock up your valuables': Perceptions of sailors and sea-merchants in port cities of late antiquity and early Byzantium

The ongoing presence of sailors and sea-merchants in the major port cities of the late antique and early Byzantine periods made them an important and influential subculture. This paper looks at the range of perceptions of the maritime community that exist in late Roman and early Byzantine sources. Various secular and ecclesiastical attitudes are discussed and compared with relevant sections of the civil and maritime law codes. When sailors, sea-merchants, and other mariners are mentioned by their contemporaries, they are more often than not portrayed in an unfavourable light. The legislation suggests that the negative perception of these men does have some basis in reality, yet the traditional view of these men as unsavoury and dishonest characters needs to be questioned. This paper asks why the ancient sources perceived sailors and sea-merchants in the way that they did. It discusses the social stigma attached to these men, the potential moral threat that they posed, their superstitious nature, and their socially disruptive and subversive behaviour. This paper highlights the reasons why modern scholars have tended to overlook the presence of the maritime community and their sociological importance in major port cities of this period. It argues that the maritime crowd had an integral role in the shaping of the economy, society, and even the church during this period.

New discoveries of marble sculptures in the Sirmium imperial palace

In the course of archaeological excavations carried out in 2012 and 2013, in the northwestern section of the palatial complex in Sirmium (locality 85), many fragments of porphyry and marble sculptures were discovered. Worth mentioning among the marble sculptures is a female head with a lunular diadem that had, most probably, been made during the Antonine period. The head was used as spolia incorporated in the medieval wall. It was a fragment of a statue of some goddess, possibly Juno, Minerva or the deified empress Faustina the Younger, and erected in the area of the palatial complex during the Late Antique period.

The natural and cultural landscape of Naples (southern Italy) during the Graeco-Roman and Late Antique periods

The landscape around the Graeco-Roman town of Neapolis was reconstructed through morphostratigraphic methods and pollen analysis of the sediments filling the bay hosting the ancient harbor. This was discovered in 2004 thanks to excavations for two new lines of the Naples metro network; the harbor's sedimentary record spans the period between the late 4th century BC and the 6th century AD. The main changes occurring in the marine and terrestrial landscape surrounding the ancient town are highlighted through the reconstruction of a detailed geological cross section and four 3D palaeogeographic models. Pollen analysis suggested the presence of mixed oak woods on the slopes surrounding the town and of vegetable gardens around the harbor area. The tree crops mainly consisted of walnut, and to a lesser extent chestnut and grapevines. The horticultural varieties were dominated by Brassicaceae, most likely representing cabbage cultivation which was rather common in Roman times. Comparison with reference pollen material reinforces this hypothesis. During the 3rd century AD a drastic decrease in horticultural activity, in concurrence with an increase in wild vegetation and tree crops, suggest reduced maintenance due to a phase of abandonment. Historical data imply for the same period a phase of economic and social decline which involved the whole Empire. From the end of the 3rd century AD, the growth of a spit bar at the port entrance gave rise to the establishment of a lagoon and then to the final closure of the bay.