Mosaic floor found under the Church of the Annunciation is believed to date to the fourth century.
Katherine of Alexandria: Decline of an Empire
April 27, 2015 By
According to hagiographers, (C)Katherine was a princess, the daughter of Roman governor named Constus. She was well educated, beautiful and highly intelligent. She converted to Christianity at the age of 13 or 14 and caught the eye of the Roman Emperor, Maxentius (278-318 AD).
Places to See: Notre Dame – Part I
November 17, 2014 By
Part I of my initial visit to stunning Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.
Unexpected Evidence concerning Gold Mining in Early Byzantium
November 9, 2014 By
One of the consequences of the decline of Roman imperial might was the shortage of slaves at state-run mines. Consequently, criminals were often sentenced to damnatio ad metallum. The need for gold especially soared when the gold solidus was introduced at the beginning of the fourth century.
Amending the Ascetic: Community and Character in the Old English Life of St. Mary of Egypt
August 12, 2014 By
Among the most eligible saints for such treatment, Mary of Egypt deserves particular consideration: her popularity is evidenced by over a hundred extant Greek manuscripts of her Life and her uniquely prominent position in the Lenten liturgical cycle in the Eastern Church.
The transition between late antiquity and the early medieval period in north Etruria (400-900 AD)
July 2, 2014 By
Traditionally, the idea that the Roman empire ‘declined and fell’ was considered a historical fact, not a matter for debate. The beginning of the ‘decline’ was usually dated to the 3rd or 4th century AD.
The soldier’s life: martial virtues and hegemonic masculinity in the early Byzantine Empire
April 13, 2014 By
This dissertation argues that martial virtues and images of the soldier’s life represented an essential aspect of early Byzantine masculine ideology. It contends that in many of the visual and literary sources from the fourth to the seventh centuries CE, conceptualisations of the soldier’s life and the ideal manly life were often the same.
Bright Beginnings: Jewish Christian Relations in the Holy Land, AD 400-700
February 11, 2014 By
This paper shows that Christian and Jewish relations in the Holy Land between the fourth and seventh centuries, according to the archaeological evidence, were characterized by peaceful co-existence.
Did a Megadrought force the Huns to invade Europe?
February 3, 2014 By
The worst megadrought in the last 2000 years hit Central Asia around 360 AD, new study finds
Medieval Thought and its Architectural Expression
February 2, 2014 By
This dissertation will study the correlation and influences between a series of underlying beliefs and how these find expression in the architecture and setting of place.
From Triumphant to Suffering Jesus: Visual and Literary Depictions of the Crucifixion, 300-1200
January 4, 2014 By
By the twelfth century in both literature and art the form of the suffering Christ was supplanting the form of the conquering Christ.
Bohemian Barbarians: Bohemia in Late Antiquity
April 15, 2013 By
The settlement of the Bohemian Basin passed through a very complicated development during Late Antiquity.
The Arian Controversy: Some Categories Reconsidered
September 23, 2012 By
The choice of categories to designate the two opposing sides in the fourth-century theological controversy is crucially important, for the categories color the whole interpretation of the controversy. Some of the categories used in the past are less than satisfactory. The pair “Arian” and “Nicene” is anachronistic, and perhaps too dogmatic.
The Gallic Aristocracy and the Roman Imperial government in the fifth century A.D.
September 23, 2012 By
The recovery, however, proved to be too superficial for the continuing prosperity of either Gaul or the Western Roman Empire. The problems of the imperial government continued with little relief. The government still had to drive out and keep out the barbarians…
Shedding Light on a Dark Age: Britain in the Forth and Fifth Centuries
August 17, 2012 By
This paper seeks to examine the fourth and fifth centuries in Britain in order to address the issue of collapse versus continuity after the end of the Roman state.
Pervenimus Edessam: The Origins of a Great Christian Centre Outside the Familiar Mediaeval World
July 17, 2012 By
This is the meeting place of the western and eastern worlds, for near here passed the movements between Palestine and Mesopotamia associated with Abraham, near here the Assyrians made their last stand after their capital fell in 610 B.C., and near here Crassus ill-advised attempt to press eastwards came to an end.
Fourth-century Hebrew inscription discovered in Portugal
June 5, 2012 By
Find is the oldest Jewish archaeological evidence discovered on the Iberian Peninsula
VAGANTES: Necessary Imperfection: The Body of Sainte Marie l’Egyptienne
March 30, 2012 By
This paper seeks to examine the role of the body and its relationship to the world around it in the “vie de sainte” of Marie l’Egyptienne, who is an excellent example of a female saint who begins life as a sinner and transforms her body into something holy. This presentation will focus on the version of Marie l’Egyptienne’s life written by Rutebeuf in the 13th century, but will also bring in elements of other versions and of the stories of other female saints who transform their bodies for comparison.
The Vulgate Genesis and St. Jerome’s Attitudes to Women
March 22, 2012 By
It is Jerome’s hostility to women (and his suspicion and fear of them) that is usually emphasized. Some of my examples show evidence of this bias. But some of my examples also show a great warmth and sensitivity on his part to the women concerned in the passages, and I am inclined to attribute to St. Jerome a much more sympathetic and affectionate nature than does David Wiesen…
A Late Antique Crossbow Fibula in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
October 23, 2011 By
A Late Antique Crossbow Fibula in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Deppert-Lippitz, Barbara Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 35 (2000) Abstract In 1995 The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired a gold brooch of a type generally known as the crossbow fibula (Figures 1, 2).’ At 11.9 centimeters in length (about 411/16 in.), with a weight of 78.4 grams, […]
The Making of Saint Martin
October 10, 2011 By
The Making of Saint Martin By Piotr Morawski, Gorjan Dimitrov, Henriette L E Rasmussen, Amalie Frese and Julie Jacobsen Thesis, Roskilde University, 2005 Introduction: The main character of interest in our project is Saint Martin of Tours: a Roman soldier, monk and finally bishop of Tours. Martin, as we learn from the sources, was born […]
UN-CAGING MEANING IN JOHN CAPGRAVE’S LIFE OF SAINT KATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA: BODIES AND BRIDES OF CHRIST
February 14, 2011 By
UN-CAGING MEANING IN JOHN CAPGRAVE’S LIFE OF SAINT KATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA: BODIES AND BRIDES OF CHRIST Geldenhuys, Katharine Leigh Phd Thesis (University of the Free State) Abstract Katherine of Alexandria, one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages, was acclaimed for her great learning. This investigation focuses on the fraught relationship between knowledge, the […]
Reasons for Political Instability in the Visigothic Kingdom in Iberia
February 13, 2011 By
Reasons for Political Instability in the Visigothic Kingdom in Iberia Bourassa, Gillian Washington College Review, Vol.15 (2007) Abstract Europe experienced significant changes during the fourth and fifth centuries of the Common Era, as the Roman Empire declined and several new kingdoms rose to prominence in the West as a result of the migrations of various Germanic […]
The Three Young Men in The Furnace and The Art of Ecphrasis in The Coptic Sermon By Theophilus of Alexandria
February 3, 2011 By
The Three Young Men in The Furnace and The Art of Ecphrasis in The Coptic Sermon By Theophilus of Alexandria Polański, Tomasz (Kraków) Studies in Ancient Art and Civilization, vol.10, Kraków (2007) Abstract The church interiors in the East in the period of the 4th-7th century were adorned with images of Christ, the apostles, prophets […]
Time and Eternity in Saint Augustine
January 7, 2011 By
Time and Eternity in Saint Augustine Costa, Marcos Roberto Nunes Mirabilia 11, Tempo e Eternidade na Idade Média, Jun-Dez (2010) Abstract Every Augustinian disputation regarding to time – eternity relation arises from the need of combating the Manicheans and, by indirection, all those ones that affirmed, asserted world eternity, that denied ex nihilo Jewish – Christian Creation […]
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