Browsing by Subject "Late Antiquity"
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Item Open Access Asceticism and the Other: Angels and Animals in the Egyptian Ascetic Tradition(2019) Becerra, DanielThe study of Christian asceticism in late antiquity has traditionally been anthropocentric, meaning there is a pervasive focus on ascetic practice as experienced and undertaken by humans in pursuit of a more holy self. More recent scholarly efforts have begun to examine the role non-human agents in this process, a methodological turn consonant with larger “Post-Humanist” trends in scholarship which seek to redefine humanity’s place in the world as merely one life form among many. To date, however, the majority of these works have been limited in scope and have dealt primarily with the ways in which non-humans, such as angels and animals, were participants in the ascetic lives of humans in various capacities (e.g. as companions, guardians, exemplars, food, etc.), to the neglect of how they were also portrayed as beneficiaries of their involvement.
This dissertation more fully situates non-humans within scholarly narratives of Christian asceticism by investigating the ways in which late ancient Christian authors implicated non-humans—specifically angels and animals—as beneficiaries of their involvement in the lives of human ascetics. I limit my analysis to literary works associated with the Egyptian ascetic tradition, meaning those which espouse ascetic ideals, inculcate ascetic practices, or model the ascetic lives of Christians living in Egypt during approximately the third through sixth centuries C.E. I make a historical argument which 1) articulates the most prominent discourses relating to non-human benefaction, 2) places these discourses within their social and theological contexts, and 3) attends to the possible reasons for their similarities and particularities across time and space. I argue that ascetic life was understood by some ancient Christians to provide a context in which both humans and non-humans could advance toward a more ideal state of being. By tracing how authors depict positive changes in the nature and circumstances of non-humans in ascetic contexts, a portrait of early Christian ascetic life emerges in which humans are neither the sole practitioners nor beneficiaries.
Item Open Access Embodied Objects: A Digital Exploration of Women, Space, and Power in the Monza Holy Land Ampullae(2020) Pinchbeck, Clara GarmisaDuring the Late Antique and Early Byzantine periods, women were fundamental to the expansion and development of the Christian religion. While many sources detailing the lives of these individuals have been lost, the objects owned by elite women may provide answers where text cannot. A collection of lead flasks belonging to Theodelinda (c. 570-627), a seventh century Lombard queen, present an opportunity to study how women exercised power through patronage.The Monza collection has been analyzed extensively as the remaining material culture of early Christian pilgrimage. Although the material, creation, and decoration allude to the Holy Land, the flasks have been housed in northern Italy since their acquisition by the Queen Theodelinda. Art historical and archaeological works have mostly sought to tie the visual traits of individual objects to their role in pilgrimage. Other aspects, such as the collection’s relation to space and role in patronage, are less apparent and therefore have been under investigated. Until we understand these facets, knowledge of the flasks and their owner, Theodelinda, will remain limited. This thesis aims to reconsider the spatial significance of the ampullae through Theodelinda’s perspective. Building from previous literature, the project combines analog and digital approaches to form new perspectives on the collection. Maps created with ESRI’s ArcGIS contextualize the ampullae within the larger spheres of seventh century Holy Land pilgrimage and medieval queenship. A model constructed from images of ampullae of the Aedicule in the Holy Sepulchre using SketchUp and Unity visualizes one way that the symbolic iconography may have been viewed by Theodelinda. Through this multi-dimensional, visual approach to space, a better understanding of the affordances of digital and analog methods may be achieved, as well as a greater comprehension of the power of the Monza Ampullae and, in turn, their owner, Theodelinda.
Item Open Access Remembering the Righteous: Sarcophagus Sculpture and Jewish Patrons in the Roman World(2017) Burrus, Sean PatrickSarcophagi belonging to Jewish patrons are an important source of evidence for reconstructing the variety of ways that ancient Jews interacted with visual culture in Late Antiquity. During this period, from the 2nd to 5th centuries C.E., the sarcophagus was the height of burial fashion across the Roman Mediterranean. Wealthy individuals across the late ancient world adopted sarcophagus burial not only to protect their bodily remains, but to visibly display and reinforce their social status, to demonstrate their cultural sophistication, and to memorialize and narrate their senses of self. In this regard, elite members of Jewish communities in Late Antiquity were no different (Chapter 2).
The following considers nearly 200 sarcophagi from the late ancient necropoleis of Jewish communities at Beth She'arim and Rome. This corpus captures the wide range of the possibilities open to Jewish patrons as they went about acquiring or commissioning a sarcophagus and sculptural program. The variety reflects not only the different geographic and cultural realities of diaspora and home, but also the immense diversity characteristic of the myriad visual and cultural resources of the Roman world. In order to make sense of this diversity, I contextualize the styles and motifs favored by Jewish patrons according to the cultural resources they engage, moving from local traditions of stone sculpture in Palestine (Chapter 3) to the influence of Roman portrait sculpture on Jewish patrons (Chapter 7).
I begin with local traditions of stone sculpture in Palestine in order to counter the dominant scholarly narrative that these sarcophagi primarily or even exclusively copy Roman models. I argue instead that many make extensive use of visual resources with a long history of use in Jewish contexts (Chapter 4). Moreover, the corpus of sarcophagi from Beth She'arim suggests that the preferences of sarcophagus patrons there were shaped by the provincial context of Roman Syria (Chapter 5). On the other hand, certain sarcophagi from both Beth She'arim and Rome reflect sarcophagus styles with pan-Mediterranean appeal (Chapter 6), and a small group of Jewish patrons in Rome even participated in the ‘portrait boom’ that began in the 3rd century by acquiring sarcophagi with portrait sculpture (Chapter 7).
The corpus of sarcophagi belonging to late ancient Jewish patrons demonstrates a significant degree of mastery of and willingness to engage the visual koine of the Roman world, as well as significant agency with respect to the adoption and appropriation of cultural resources. I argue that the majority of Jewish patrons at both Beth She'arim and Rome were familiar with ‘Roman’ visual culture first and foremost as it existed in their local environments and were comfortable with its usage. At the same time, I consider how different settings—diaspora and Roman provincial—could influence the choices made by sarcophagus patrons. I conclude that the use of sarcophagus burial by Jewish patrons was a highly variable mode of cultural interaction, representing an ongoing negotiation of Jewishness by different individuals from different communities in the context of enduring cultural (ex)change.
Item Open Access Sexing the Jew: Early Christian Constructions of Jewishness(2008-12-10) Drake, Susanna LaingMy dissertation analyzes early Christian representations of Jewish sexuality and explores how early Christian writers attacked opponents by depicting them as subjects of perverse or excessive sexual desires. Beginning with the New Testament, I examine how Paul employed sexual stereotypes to distinguish the community of believers in Christ from the wider Gentile world. In the decades after Paul, Greek writers such as Justin Martyr and the author of the Epistle of Barnabas turned accusations of sexual licentiousness and literalist interpretive practices against the Jews. Origen of Alexandria, moreover, utilized accusations of carnality, fleshliness, and sexual licentiousness to produce Jewish-Christian difference; he drew on dichotomies of "flesh" and "spirit" in Paul's letters to support his argument for the superiority of Christian "spiritual" exegesis over Jewish "carnal" exegesis. Examining the writings of major Christian writers such as Origen and John Chrysostom, I argue that Christian sexual slander against Jews intensified as Christian exegetes endeavored to claim Jewish scripture for Christian use in the third and fourth centuries. My research examines these literary constructions of Jewish sexuality in early Christian writings of Greek Fathers and illuminates how these constructions function in relation to the development of Christian biblical hermeneutics, the formation of Christian practices of self-mastery, and the expansion of Christian imperial power. By exploring how early Christian writers appealed to categories of gender and sexuality to produce Jewish-Christian difference, I aim to contribute to recent scholarship on the variety of strategies by which early Christians negotiated identity and defined Otherness.