Treasures of the Ferrell Collection
Treasures of the Ferrell Collection

Author: Jeffrey Spier

Publisher: Dr Ludwig Reichert

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783895007958

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This volume publishes over 200 works of art belonging to the American collector, James Ferrell. The focus of the collection is jewelry, engraved gems and cameos, medallions, and silver plate primarily of the late Roman and early Byzantine periods (3rd-7th centuries AD). Much of the material derives from imperial workshops and served as official gifts. The catalogue opens with a small selection of Hellenistic jewelry, including a group composed of a necklace, earrings, and rings probably of Ptolemaic origin. The second chapter is composed primarily of late Roman jewelry, gems and cameos, and other objects in precious metal, including necklaces, bracelets, rings, fibulae, and belts, most of which date between the third and fifth centuries AD. The third and fourth chapters are devoted to the jewelry and other objects of the sort found in Gothic tombs of the fifth and sixth centuries AD. Chapter Five presents an outstanding selection of Byzantine jewelry of the sixth and seventh century, including pendants, crosses, bracelets, earrings, and rings, many set with precious gems and pearls. The final chapter is devoted to Byzantine ecclesiastical silver of the sixth century AD. The publication will be of considerable interest to a variety of scholars, museums, and collectors. Historians of late antiquity will find many objects with important imperial associations. The rich selection of Byzantine jewelry and silver, including many pieces decorated with unusual iconography, will be of importance to Byzantinists. The Gothic objects include many pieces of particularly high quality. Jewelry historians and collectors will be delighted with the superb color photography.

Textiles and Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean
Textiles and Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean

Author: Cecilie Brøns

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2017-07-31

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1785706756

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Twenty-four experts from the fields of Ancient History, Semitic philology, Assyriology, Classical Archaeology, and Classical Philology come together in this volume to explore the role of textiles in ancient religion in Greece, Italy, The Levant and the Near East. Recent scholarship has illustrated how textiles played a large and very important role in the ancient Mediterranean sanctuaries. In Greece, the so-called temple inventories testify to the use of textiles as votive offerings, in particular to female divinities. Furthermore, in several cults, textiles were used to dress the images of different deities. Textiles played an important role in the dress of priests and priestesses, who often wore specific garments designated by particular colours. Clothing regulations in order to enter or participate in certain rituals from several Greek sanctuaries also testify to the importance of dress of ordinary visitors. Textiles were used for the furnishings of the temples, for example in the form of curtains, draperies, wall-hangings, sun-shields, and carpets. This illustrates how the sanctuaries were potential major consumers of textiles; nevertheless, this particular topic has so far not received much attention in modern scholarship. Furthermore, our knowledge of where the textiles consumed in the sanctuaries came from, where they were produced, and by who is extremely limited. Textiles and Cult in the Ancient Mediterranean examines the topics of textile production in sanctuaries, the use of textiles as votive offerings and ritual dress using epigraphy, literary sources, iconography and the archaeological material itself.

Graphic Signs of Authority in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, 300-900
Graphic Signs of Authority in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, 300-900

Author: Ildar H. Garipzanov

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 0198815018

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Graphic Signs Of Authority in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages offers a cultural history of the graphic monogrammatic tools from antiquity to the Middle Ages. It examines the sign of the cross, christograms, monograms, and other similar devices, and how they were used during a time of great socio-political and religious change.

The Wandering Holy Man
The Wandering Holy Man

Author:

Publisher: University of California Press

Published: 2020-06-09

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 0520304144

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Barsauma was a fifth-century Syrian ascetic, archimandrite, and leader of monks, notorious for his extreme asceticism and violent anti-Jewish campaigns across the Holy Land. Although Barsauma was a powerful and revered figure in the Eastern church, modern scholarship has widely dismissed him as a thug of peripheral interest. Until now, only the most salacious bits of the Life of Barsauma—a fascinating collection of miracles that Barsauma undertook across the Near East—had been translated. This pioneering study includes the first full translation of the Life and a series of studies by scholars employing a range of methods to illuminate the text from different angles and contexts. This is the authoritative source on this influential figure in the history of the church and his life, travels, and relations with other religious groups.

Gods, Objects, and Ritual Practice
Gods, Objects, and Ritual Practice

Author: Sandra Blakely

Publisher: Lockwood Press

Published: 2017-07-01

Total Pages: 371

ISBN-13: 1937040801

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Conversations about materiality have helped forge a common meeting ground for scholars seeking to integrate images, sites, texts and implements in their approach to religion in the ancient Mediterranean. The thirteen chapters in this volume explore the productivity of these approaches, with case studies from Israel, Athens, Rome, Sicily and North Africa. The results foreground the capacity of material approaches to cast light on the cultural creation of the sacred through the integration of rhetorical, material, and iconographic means. They open more nuanced pathways to the uses of text in the study of material evidence. They highlight the potential for material objects to bring political and ethnic boundaries into the sacred realm. And they emphasize the role of ongoing interpretation, debate, and multiple readings in the creation of the sacred, in both ancient contexts and scholarly discussion.

Pottery, Pavements, and Paradise
Pottery, Pavements, and Paradise

Author: Annewies van den Hoek

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2013-09-26

Total Pages: 604

ISBN-13: 9004256938

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These essays on late antiquity traverse a territory in which Christian and pagan imagery and practices compete, coexist, and intermingle. The iconography of the most significant late antique ceramic, African Red Slip Ware, is an important and relatively unexploited vehicle for documenting the diversity and interpenetration of late antique cultures. Literary texts and art in other media, particularly mosaics, provide imagery that complement and enhance the messages of the ceramics. Popular entertainments, pagan cults, mythic heroes, beasts, monsters, and biblical visions are themes dealt with on the patrician and popular levels. With interpretive supplements from these diverse realms, it is possible to achieve greater insight into the life, attitudes, and thought of Late Antiquity.

The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Art and Architecture
The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Art and Architecture

Author: Ellen C. Schwartz

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-11-19

Total Pages: 665

ISBN-13: 0197572200

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Byzantine art has been an underappreciated field, often treated as an adjunct to the arts of the medieval West, if considered at all. In illustrating the richness and diversity of art in the Byzantine world, this handbook will help establish the subject as a distinct field worthy of serious inquiry. Essays consider Byzantine art as art made in the eastern Mediterranean world, including the Balkans, Russia, the Near East and north Africa, between the years 330 and 1453. Much of this art was made for religious purposes, created to enhance and beautify the Orthodox liturgy and worship space, as well as to serve in a royal or domestic context. Discussions in this volume will consider both aspects of this artistic creation, across a wide swath of geography and a long span of time. The volume marries older, object-based considerations of themes and monuments which form the backbone of art history, to considerations drawing on many different methodologies-sociology, semiotics, anthropology, archaeology, reception theory, deconstruction theory, and so on-in an up-to-date synthesis of scholarship on Byzantine art and architecture. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Art and Architecture is a comprehensive overview of a particularly rich field of study, offering a window into the world of this fascinating and beautiful period of art.

Army of the Roman Emperors
Army of the Roman Emperors

Author: Thomas Fischer

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Published: 2019-11-19

Total Pages: 1105

ISBN-13: 1612008119

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An illustrated history exploring the Imperial Roman army’s many facets, including uniforms, weapons, buildings, and their duties. Compared to modern standard, the Roman army of the Imperial era was surprisingly small. However, when assessed in terms of their various tasks, they by far outstrip modern armies—acting not only as an armed power of the state in external and internal conflicts, but also carrying out functions nowadays performed by police, local government, customs, and tax authorities, as well as constructing roads, ships, and buildings. With this volume, Thomas Fischer presents a comprehensive and unique exploration of the Roman military of the Imperial era. With over 600 illustrations, the costumes, weapons and equipment of the Roman army are explored in detail using archaeological finds dating from the late Republic to Late Antiquity, and from all over the Roman Empire. The army’s buildings and fortifications are also featured. Finally, conflicts, border security, weaponry, and artifacts are all compared, offering a look at the development of the army through time. This work is intended for experts as well as to readers with a general interest in Roman history. It is also a treasure-trove for re-enactment groups, as it puts many common perceptions of the weaponry, equipment, and dress of the Roman army to the test.