The Classical historian Herodotus described the Egyptians as the most religious of peoples. And, indeed, many people today find themselves wondering about the cross-overs between religious concepts in pharaonic, Christian, and Islamic outlooks. The author of the present book has…
In my previous two columns I explored some of the great religious buildings of Britain; these are primarily known for their medieval and later histories, and for their towering urban architecture. This month, I will move back in time to explore some of the great sites associated with the early church that have been visited by Current Archaeology over the decades.
The remains of a Coptic monastery have been discovered by an Egyptian mission at Wadi el-Natrun, in Beheira Governorate. The structure, which dates from the 4th to the 6th centuries AD, sheds light on the architectural planning of the first…
Through her TV work and writing, Professor Alice Roberts is a powerful and effective advocate for archaeology in the public realm. In Domination, she extends her coverage to explore Christianity in Late Antiquity, unpicking the intimate connection between the spread of…
Historically, the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland did not permit the burial in consecrated ground of stillborn babies and infants who died before they could be baptised (a rule that ended with the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s). Instead,…
Diarmaid MacCulloch, the eminently readable author of numerous books on ecclesiastical history, gave his bestselling work on the history of Christianity the provocative subtitle ‘The first three thousand years’, making the point that there is much in Christian ritual and iconography that is drawn from pre-Christian practice.
This past autumn a rare gold shilling – called a thrymsa – was found in a field near Norwich by a metal-detectorist. It represents a completely new type of coin, dated to the 7th century and containing both Christian and…
Excavations on the northern coast of the island of Muharraq have identified the first early Christian building ever found in Bahrain. Amy Brunskill spoke to project leader Timothy Insoll to find out more.
REVIEW BY MICHAEL TUNNICLIFFE Ancient Kellis was a site in the Dakhla Oasis that was occupied from Late Ptolemaic times to the end of the 4th century AD. Excavations have exposed houses, cemeteries, temples, and churches. Important documents were found…
REVIEW BY MICHAEL TUNNICLIFFE This work comprises 14 essays spanning the late Roman Period to the present day, focusing on the daily life of the Copts, who have always been a minority community. The aim is to understand daily concerns…
REVIEW BY HOWARD WILLIAMS A truly stupendous achievement of synthesis and evaluation, Life in Early Medieval Wales is a first for Welsh archaeology. Nancy Edwards’ concise prose draws on the experience of a lifetime spent teaching and researching early medieval…
Archaeologists and historians tend to approach the early medieval period through the lens of what was lost after the collapse of Roman rule. In her new book on life in Wales between c.AD 300 and 1050, Nancy Edwards shows us what survived from the centuries of Roman control – in particular Christianity and Latin literacy – and the ways in which these were used to create new identities in a formative period in the development of Wales, as Chris Catling discovers.
The latest on exhibitions, acquisitions, and key decisions.
Inscriptions alongside the paintings mention a city – likely Old Dongola – and King David, who is probably the royal figure depicted.
The text represents one of the earliest-known translations of the Gospels.
She is a goddess of poetry, medicine, and blacksmithing, but there is no mention of the fire that becomes associated with her sainted counterpart.
An exhibition at the Musée Saint-Raymond explores the Roman cult of Mithras. Gillis Kersting visited to find out more about this enigmatic religion.
A 'luxurious estate’ featuring painted wall frescoes and marble-paved halls was also unearthed within the vicinity.
These days, the rugged and beautiful Caucasus Mountains – which stretch almost 800 miles between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea – are sadly perhaps most closely associated with the vicious series of ethnic and territorial disputes that have flared up along Russia's troubled southeastern border since the break-up of the Soviet Union.
What is it? This cage cup, or vas diatretum, dates to the 4th century AD. The intricate, colourless glass bowl is 12.6cm tall and 15cm in diameter and has a flared rim. A Latin inscription in the central part of…
Excavations in Eritrea are revealing early Christian sites from the Kingdom of Aksum. What can these places of worship reveal about cultural connections in the 6th century AD? Gabriele Castiglia, Philippe Pergola, Stefano Bertoldi, Marco Ciliberti, Elie Essa Kas Hanna, Božana Maletic´, and Matteo Pola share the secrets of an extraordinary ecclesiastical complex.
Each of the bodies showed signs of serious injury and were buried with swords, maces, and arrows.
Which saint, who established the tradition of Western monasticism, is now the patron saint of Europe?
This book provides a brief history of Christianity in the eastern Peloponnese (including ancient sites in Corinth, such as Kenchreai and Lechaion, as well as Isthmia, Nemea, Sikyon, and Epidauros) and in Athens, from its beginnings but with a focus…
Inscriptions were also found on the walls of several buildings, with passages from biblical and early Christian texts written in Greek.
The team from the University of Exeter applied their formula to 1,366 domestic fowl skeletons found across Britain, ranging in date from the Iron Age through to the modern day.
The cross is ubiquitous in medieval Christian iconography. As it was on the cross that Jesus died, bringing believers salvation, it is a critical component of the religion. But, despite the ubiquity and apparent simplicity of the instantly recognisable form,…
Since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940s, the caves - which have preserved fragile objects like the scrolls – have been the target of looters.
The Irish archaeologist Barry Raftery (1944-2010) wrote: ‘Death represents the ultimate confrontation between the human and the supernatural worlds. The surviving burial remains and the associated funerary monuments thus provide us with the clearest and most tangible surviving evidence of religious beliefs and practices’. With this as her theme, Elizabeth O’Brien has studied every excavated Irish burial dating from the period c.200 BC to c.AD 800. She found great diversity and one common strand – burial in close proximity to ancestors or to people regarded as saints, as Chris Catling reports.
It used to be said that Christianity in Roman Britain was a short-lived phenomenon that sputtered out in the 5th century, needing the missionary efforts of St Columba, St Ninian, and St Augustine of Canterbury to revive it in the later 6th century. But there is now an increasing body of evidence that the religion continued to thrive as a force for learning, culture, and social organisation in the western parts of England and Wales, with links to Brittany and Ireland. Chris Catling goes in search of the latest thinking.
Over the past few years, the Ethiopian Heritage Fund has been scaling cliffs and mountains to study and conserve the remarkable rock-hewn painted churches of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, currently in the grips of conflict. Blair Priday, Stephen Rickerby, and Lisa Shekede guide us through their work.
In a small city on Italy’s Adriatic coast, faces of all-powerful emperors, empresses, and bishops gaze out from glittering mosaics. But why are these magnificent decorations here? Judith Herrin explores the history of Ravenna, a well-connected city and one-time capital of the Western Roman Empire.
Many a church guide claims that their present building sits on the site of a more ancient structure. But how accurate are these claims? Recently the Fishergate, Fulford, and Heslington Local History Society (FFH) – a community group with a long-standing and very active interest in their historic landscape – decided to try to find out whether this was true of the deconsecrated medieval church, dedicated to St Oswald, that sits on the east bank of the River Ouse, in the village of Fulford, some 2km south of York. Chris Catling reports.
Dalu Jones discovers what happened to the largest amphitheatre in the world after the brutal public fights and barbaric contests ceased.