Late Antiquity | American Journal of Archaeology

Marble Distribution Patterns in the Early Byzantine Southwestern Levant: Quantitative and Spatial Approaches

website — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 20:27:15 +0000

This study applies a quantitative and spatial approach to Early Byzantine marble finds from the southwestern Levant, integrating data into a theoretical model of overland transport costs. While the largest proportion of marble finds is concentrated along the Mediterranean coast near seaports, where transport costs were lower, the most significant variation in different categories of finds occurs farther inland. This unexpected variation suggests that factors beyond transport costs, such as the cultural and religious significance of sites, also influenced the distribution of marble objects. Sites with religious importance, for example, appear to have played a key role in this pattern, highlighting the complex interplay between economic and cultural forces in the Early Byzantine period. This study is the first comprehensive quantitative and spatial analysis of marble finds from the Early Byzantine period, the results of which show the patterns of distribution of imported marbles and reveal factors impacting this trade.

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Dying in the Mines: Necropoleis and Funerary Practices During the Late Antique Period in the Smaragdos (Egyptian Eastern Desert)

website — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 15:22:10 +0000

This article documents the Late Antique necropoleis in the Smaragdos, a region known in antiquity for its emerald mines. The study analyzes the features of the necropoleis and tombs identified in them within the general context of the funerary practices of the desert communities that lived in the Eastern Desert between the fourth and the seventh centuries CE. Hundreds of these tombs have been identified along the wadis and in the surrounding hills. Unfortunately, it is extremely hard to find any undisturbed tombs, as they have almost all suffered from severe looting. Far better evidence has been recovered since the 19th century from the necropoleis in the Sudanese part of the Eastern Desert, although those have predominantly been royal and elite tombs. The present overview of burial areas and practices in the Smaragdos region of the Egyptian Eastern Desert is based on an archaeological survey conducted by the Sikait Project in the Wadi el-Gemal National Park from 2018 to 2024, which studied more than 800 graves in several necropoleis in this region, mainly from the Late Antique period. It offers one of the most extensive reviews ever conducted of funerary practices in this period in the Eastern Desert.

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Asserting Control Through Water in the Roman Period: The Evidence from Southern Jordan and the Case of Khirbet al-Khalde

website — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 22:46:53 +0000

This article examines water management and control by the Roman army in arid environments, with a focus on southern Jordan. It presents the results of an aqueduct survey at Khirbet al-Khalde (Wadi al-Yutm, Aqaba Governorate), situated 26 km to the northeast of modern Aqaba. The aqueduct, which is the best surviving example of its kind in the Wadi al-Yutm, connected the site’s small fort (castellum) to a spring located approximately 1 km to the southeast. The aqueduct is notable because of its steep incline, and its construction is further evidence for the complex water management systems that are found in this region. The article argues that the aqueduct at Khirbet al-Khalde facilitated the control asserted by the army over water points along the Via Nova Traiana and, by extension, over trade and movement along this frontier zone.

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Late Fifth-Century CE Wall Mosaics from the Tetrapylon Street in Aphrodisias: Evidence for a Wall Mosaic Habit in Late Antiquity

website — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 16:10:50 +0000

This article presents evidence for late fifth-century CE wall mosaics from Aphrodisias, provincial capital of Caria, in western Asia Minor. The mosaics formed part of the decoration of an upper-story gallery belonging to one or more luxurious private residences located alongside the Tetrapylon Street, the city’s main north–south avenue. They are therefore a rare example of Late Antique wall mosaics from a domestic context. We present the context in which the mosaic fragments were found, the motifs that can still be recognized, and some of the technical characteristics of these mosaics. Combined with other elements of decoration found in association with the mosaic fragments, we offer a reconstruction of the decorative program of the gallery. We then broaden our view to trace wall mosaics elsewhere at Aphrodisias and discuss waste attesting to glass tessera production. We argue that an itinerant wall mosaic workshop or workshops were active at Aphrodisias in the late fifth and early sixth century CE, when the city’s monuments and residences were undergoing renovations in the wake of an earthquake. We examine the possibility of a wall mosaic habit that was much more widespread than previously thought, extending beyond the ecclesiastical contexts with which it is conventionally associated.

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The First Koinon Temple of Roman Sardis: A Sanctuary from the First Century Through Late Antiquity

website — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 04:00:00 +0000

An artificial terrace in the center of the city of Sardis in western Asia Minor formed a focus of urban life from the Early Imperial period until the early Byzantine era. Following the earthquake of 17 CE, the terrace became a major sanctuary of the imperial cult belonging to the koinon of Asia. The lavishly ornamented octastyle temple and broad range of honorific monuments attest the importance of the sanctuary for the first three centuries CE. In the fourth century, the temple was largely demolished, and the sanctuary plaza converted to elite housing. This region was later enclosed by an impressive fortification wall built almost entirely out of spolia from the temple and sanctuary. The houses were destroyed by one or more earthquakes in the early seventh century, and while most of the area was apparently abandoned, traces of occupation cast light on this little-known period of Sardis’ history.

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The Late Roman Unfinished Chaîne opératoire: A New Approach to Inscribed Glass Openwork

website — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Fragments of incomplete material objects, too often relegated to storage, have the potential to help uncover production processes that had been believed lost or thought permanently obscured. Traditionally, study of the chaîne opératoire (operational sequence) has been limited to completed pieces, excluding in-process and discarded items. This omission creates a misleading narrative. Rather than a linear process, the manufacture of sculpted objects is a multistep, protracted endeavor. Through an examination of unfinished carving among Late Roman glass openwork vessels (also known as diatreta or “cage cups”), highlighting in particular inscribed glass openwork vessels that were in process, this discussion offers a new approach building on previous scholarship. Unfinished carving is a rich and varied category of material culture that can, and should, be regarded as a valuable and even crucial complement to completed pieces. This freshly conceived archaeology of Roman experiments, mistakes, and fragments helps shed new light on—and even resolve—long-standing debates concerning these renowned works. This article demonstrates that expanding the chaîne opératoire to include the unfinished can enrich our understanding of craft production in the Late Roman world.

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A Falcon Shrine at the Port of Berenike (Red Sea Coast, Egypt)

website — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 04:00:00 +0000

During excavations at the Hellenistic-Roman port of Berenike (on the Red Sea coast of Egypt) in the winter of 2019, work in the so-called Northern Complex documented a religious space from the Late Roman period. The excavation of a portion of this space recorded material that, together with the architecture, suggests a ritual function associated with a falcon cult. This study examines the features of this edifice and the interpretation of the religious materials found in it and proposes a possible relationship with the Blemmyan population who lived in Berenike between the fourth and sixth centuries CE.

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The Collecting History of an Early Christian Lead Vessel: From Carthage to the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition

website — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 04:00:00 +0000

This article is based on research into the archaeological collections exhibited at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1867. In the course of that research, various documents were found relating to an Early Christian lead vessel, discovered in Carthage and since disappeared, that attracted the attention of many scholars at the time. This article aims to trace the history of the vase from its discovery to its exhibition in Paris through illustrations and published and unpublished documents. Archival data are drawn on to offer a description of the lost vase’s iconography that is as complete as possible.

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Negotiating Infant Personhood in Death: Interpreting Atypical Burials in the Late Roman Infant and Child Cemetery at Poggio Gramignano (Italy)

website — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 04:00:00 +0000

The Late Antique (ca. 450 CE) infant cemetery uncovered at Poggio Gramignano near Lugnano in Teverina (Italy) has been interpreted as a catastrophic death assemblage associated with an acute epidemic of Plasmodium falciparum malaria and a resulting episode of increased infant mortality. Previous research has noted the unique mortuary ritual associated with these burials but has not adequately considered the social implications of the nonnormative burial of the infant and even fetal dead. This paper considers 10 newly uncovered burials of infants and one child from the cemetery, analyzed in situ using an archaeothanatological approach to separate postdepositional taphonomic change from the social and ritual dimensions of intentional funerary behavior. The mortuary treatment provided to these individuals suggests a possible fear of the dead, and more significantly, maternal grief and a desire for remembrance that contrasts with Roman cultural expectations surrounding the mourning of infants. The treatment of these individuals in death provides valuable and specific insight into the attitudes of this rural community’s shared stress surrounding unexplained illness, infant death, and traditional beliefs in an era of significant cultural and social transition.

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The Sixth-Century CE Shipwreck at Marzamemi

website — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 00:53:58 +0000

Between 2013 and 2019, collaborative survey and excavation were carried out on the sixth-century CE shipwreck at Marzamemi, in southeast Sicily, originally explored by Gerhard Kapitän in the 1960s. The vessel sank while carrying a primary cargo of nearly 100 tons of extensively prefabricated architectural materials, at least some intended for a church. New finds raise questions about the prevailing narrative of the wreck as emblematic of a stagnating Late Antique economy, revived only briefly by Justinian. Large but uneven numbers of worked stone elements complicate assumptions regarding their employment as a single set, while additional decorative materials suggest networks of artistry and agency that transcend a single journey. A smaller secondary cargo of amphoras, along with galley wares and other finds, reveals the extended commercial webs of this merchant vessel and its sailors. Considered together, the assemblage highlights the interdependence and blurring of boundaries between high-end and more mundane exchange. This report offers a new reading of the well-known Late Antique wreck and a more nuanced evaluation of the goods, people, and processes that tied together the Mediterranean during a transformative period toward the end of the Roman empire era.

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