Studies by the author in experimental archaeology have been dealing with the (re-)production of the ancient Roman meal “puls” since 2012. This porridge puls was mainly prepared with wheat and other grains and it can be considered as the ancient Roman “national dish” par excellence, according to literary evidence. Concerning the recipes, puls is…[Read more]

Studies by the author in experimental archaeology have been dealing with the (re-)production of the ancient Roman meal “puls” since 2012. This porridge puls was mainly prepared with wheat and other grains and it can be considered as the ancient Roman “national dish” par excellence, according to literary evidence. Concerning the recipes, puls is…[Read more]

This essay examines what the paradigm of ‘globalization’ can tell us about the Achaemenid Persian Empire (c. 550-330 BCE).

This essay examines what the paradigm of ‘globalization’ can tell us about the Achaemenid Persian Empire (c. 550-330 BCE).

Mit den hier in aller Kürze vorgestellten geomagnetischen Prospektionen konnte das Bestehen archäologischer Hinterlassenschaften auf den untersuchten Flächen sowohl in Albersdorf als auch in Oberaustall in Oberösterreich bestätigt werden. So zeigen sich im Magnetogramm intensiv besiedelte Bereiche und klar abgrenzbare Gebäudereste. Deren Lage…[Read more]

The published history of a set of silver and gold objects acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1975 contains an unusual reference to a gold coin, supposedly found with the set but not purchased by the museum. The coin, which is both rare and well dated, ostensibly offers a date and location for the ancient deposition of the silver service.…[Read more]

Book review, Journal of Roman Studies

A brief report on my dissertation research.

A Ph.D. dissertation considering nearly 200 sarcophagi from the late ancient necropoleis of Jewish communities at Beth She’arim and Rome. This corpus captures a 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…[Read more]

A paper delivered at in the 2017 Colloquia of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Considers how a group of sarcophagi from the Jewish catacombs of Rome reflect on the subject of Jewish art and Jewish patrons in Late Antiquity.

What did it mean to ‘be Jewish’ in the Greco-Roman world? Jews, Greeks and Romans will explore the myriad ways that Jewish communities across the Mediterranean engaged with Greco-Roman culture and constructed their own ways of being Jewish. Using texts, artifacts and images–from rabbinic commentaries to Roman catacombs–we will investigate…[Read more]

Front-matter and conclusions to my Ph.D. Dissertation (2017). The project considers nearly 200 sarcophagi from the late ancient necropoleis of Jewish communities at Beth She’arim and Rome. This corpus captures a wide range of the possibilities open to Jewish patrons as they went about acquiring or commissioning a sarcophagus and sculptural…[Read more]

The lines between death and life were neither fixed nor finite to the peoples of the ancient Mediterranean. For most, death was a passageway into a new and uncertain existence. The dead were not so much extinguished as understood to be elsewhere, and many perceived the deceased to continue to exercise agency among the living. Even for those more…[Read more]

This chapter is an introduction to two of the major aspects of the study of Achaemenid Persian art, namely its definition, and the analysis of quotations of other artistic traditions. Achaemenid art is best defined as consisting of two categories of material. One is the art of the empire, i.e. art produced in furtherance of imperial goals. The…[Read more]

The vast territorial extent of the Achaemenid Empire is often assumed to have impeded connectivity and communication within the empire. This paper challenges the validity of this assumption. Two factors in particular favor this conclusion—the presence of an extensive road network and the high communication speed in the empire, made possible by t…[Read more]

This article is a reconsideration of the Second Persian Period in Egypt (c. 340-332 BCE) in light of Ptolemaic propaganda and the reliefs of the Tomb of Petosiris at Tuna el-Gebel.

Article exploring the status of mint workers from the Republic to the period of Late Antiquity.

The use of digital photogrammetric techniques to document archaeological layers and features has become increasingly common. Software such as PhotoScan uses multiple photographs of an object to model its geometry. In addition to providing more detailed topographical data than those acquired using a total station alone, such photomodeling offers…[Read more]

The use of digital photogrammetric techniques to document archaeological layers and features has become increasingly common. Software such as PhotoScan uses multiple photographs of an object to model its geometry. In addition to providing more detailed topographical data than those acquired using a total station alone, such photomodeling offers…[Read more]