The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology

by David K. Pettegrew, William R. Caraher, Thomas W. Davis

Overview

The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology brings together expert work by leading scholars of the archaeology of Early Christianity and the Roman world in the Mediterranean and surrounding regions. The thirty-four contributions to this volume survey Christian material culture and ground the history, culture, and society of the first seven centuries of Christianity in archaeological method, theory, and research. The essays emphasize the link between archaeological fieldwork, methods, and regional and national traditions in constructing our knowledge of the Early Church and Christian communities within the context of the ancient Mediterranean, Near East, and Europe.

Three sweeping introductory essays provide historical perspectives on the archaeology of the Early Christian world. These are followed by a series of topical treatments that focus on monuments and environments ranging from Christian churches to catacombs, martyria, and baths, as well as classes of objects of religious significance such as ceramics, lamps, and icons. Finally, the volume locates the archaeology of the Early Christian world in fifteen regional studies stretching from Britain to Persia, highlighting the unique historical contexts that have shaped scholarly discussion across time and space. The thorough, carefully-researched essays offer the most intensive, state-of-the-art treatment of recent research into the archaeology of Early Christianity available.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197625316
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/11/2022
Series:	Oxford Handbooks
Pages:	736
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 6.70(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

David K. Pettegrew is a scholar of the ancient Mediterranean and Early Christian world. He has participated in and directed archaeological research programs in the United States, Greece, and Cyprus, and authored articles and books on Greek, Roman, and Late Antique cities and landscapes.

William R. Caraher is an associate professor of history at the University of North Dakota. His interests include the archaeology of Late Antique and Early Christian worlds and the archaeology of contemporary America.

Thomas W. Davis is an archaeologist with more than three decades of field experience in Cyprus, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, and the United States. A specialist in the New Testament world of Paul, he served as Director of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) in Nicosia, Cyprus.

Table of Contents

1. The Archaeology of Early Christianity: The History, Methods, and State of a Field
William R. Caraher and David K. Pettegrew

PART I. THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ANCIENT CHRISTIANITY
2. Archaeology of the Gospels
James F. Strange
3. New Testament Archaeology beyond the Gospels
Thomas W. Davis

PART II. SACRED SPACE AND MORTUARY CONTEXTS
4. The Catacombs
Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai
5. Martyria
David L. Eastman
6. Burials and Human Remains in Early Christian Context
Sherry C. Fox and Paraskevi Tritsaroli
7. Churches
Charles Stewart
8. The Archaeology of Early Monastic Communities
Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom
9. Baptisteries in Ancient Sites and Rites
H. Richard Rutherford
10. Baths, Christianity, and Bathing Culture in Late Antiquity
Dallas DeForest

PART III. ART AND ARTIFACTS IN CONTEXT
11. The Art of the Catacombs
Fabrizio Bisconti
12. Visual Rhetoric of Early Christian Reliquaries
Galit Noga-Banai
13. An Anarchéologie of Icons
Gleen Peers
14. Spolia, its Viewers, and the 'Victory of Christianity'
Jon Michael Frey
15. Early Christian Mosaics in Context
Karen C. Britt
16. Pottery
R. Scott Moore
17. Lamps
Maria Parani
18. Statues
Troels Myrup Kristensen
19. Amulets and the Ritual Efficacy of Christian Symbols
Rangar H. Cline

PART IV. CHRISTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY IN REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE
20. Christian Archaeology in Palestine: the Roman and Byzantine Periods
Joan E. Taylor
21. Jordan
Robert Schick
22. Syria
Emma Loosley
23. The Church of the East until the 8th century
Stefan R. Hauser
24. Armenia
Christina Maranci
25. The Holy Island: An Archaeology of Early Christian Cyprus
Jody Michael Gordon and William R. Caraher
26. Asia Minor
Peter Talloen
27. Community, Church and Conversion in the prefecture of Illyricum and the Cyclades
Rebecca Sweetman
28. The Early Christian Archaeology of the Balkans
William Bowden
29. The Archaeology of Early Italian Churches in Context, AD 313-569
Alexandra Chavarría
30. The Christianization of Gaul: Buildings and Territories
Bastien Lefebvre
31. Britain and Ireland, AD 100-700
David Petts
32. Constructing Christian Landscapes in the Iberian Peninsula: The Archaeological Evidence (4th-6th centuries)
Alexandra Chavarría
33. Incorporating Christian communities in North Africa. Churches as bodies of communal history
Susan T. Stevens
34. Archaeology of Early Christianity in Egypt
Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom

Index

Editorial Reviews

"Oxford remains at the vanguard of well-researched topical summaries. Pettegrew, Caraher, and Davis are to be commended for offering an impressive range of interdisciplinary voices and expanding both the thematic and geographical horizons of archaeological investigations into Christian origins." — Church History

"With thirty-four essays and dozens of images and illustrations, this is an outstanding resource, both for scholars in the field and for use by teachers hoping to cast light on the oft-overlooked material culture of the New Testament and the early church." — Religious Studies Review

"This book is a timely and well-crafted contribution to the field of early Christian studies.... This handbook succeeds in showing the best of the field as it is today — a rigorous, holistic field that employs cutting-edge theory and methods.... The handbook will serve well as a primary entry point for students, scholars, and the general public interested in the field. It succeeds in presenting the archaeology of Late Antique Christianity as it is today, a field that has gotten past early problems in aims and methods and is now firmly rooted in 21st-century archaeology. The volume reflects an exciting moment of experimentation and broadening horizons." — American Journal of Archaeology

"Presenting a lush harvest of several decades of archaeological exploration of materials documenting the Christian faith, this Oxford Handbook offers fascinating snapshots of the lived reality of early Christianity.... The editors are to be congratulated for having assembled a highly readable collection that demonstrates both the good use to which the handbook-genre can be put as well as — and more importantly — the vitality and significance of the study of material remains that are relics of the lives of Christians in the long first half millennium CE." — Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"remains a tremendous reference for those interested in the field — and also interested in Christian origins and church history ... [it] will serve as a benchmark survey for years to come." — Jamin Andreas Hübner, Reading Religion

"This book will be a useful reference work for scholars and students of various backgrounds." — J. H. F. Dijkstra, Journal of Ecclesiastical History

From the Publisher