This paper aims to examine models by which symbolism of light and lamp in
the Mediterranean region was manifested in the early Christian visual culture,
i.e. lamp representations from Central Balkans. Lamps with Early
Christian representations are considered in the context of transculturality
of Late Antiquity, as well as political and…[Read more]

Elements of Christian visual culture appeared in
various media in monumental and applied art during the late
antique period, from painted decoration in the catacombs,
through funerary monuments, to utilitarian objects such as
jewellery and lamps. The paper analyses the symbolic meaning
of fish and maritime motifs in the context of the late…[Read more]

On a number of pilgrimage objects from Late Antiquity, St Thecla, a highly revered saint, also known as Thecla the Protomartyr, is shown accompanied by St Menas, whose tomb in Egypt was the pilgrimage centre associated with healing miracles. The saintly couple appear in ad bestias compositions or in a simplified variant as two saints with a cross.…[Read more]

This paper represents a reevaluation of previous knowledge of the distinctive bronze lamp in the shape of a ship, discovered on the locality of
Mezul, near Smederevo in Serbia, as well as new interpretations based on written sources, analogies and iconographic interpretation. The lamp
is specific due to its shape and decoration, its inscription,…[Read more]

I offer an examination of the passage’s function in 1 Clement and potential reception
among the Corinthians. The latter part of this chapter imagines how the
Corinthian recipients of 1 Clement may have understood its brief scene of
violence against women and their purported overcoming of “being weak in
the body.” Building upon schol…[Read more]

Der Artikel beschäftigt sich mit dem wissenschaftlichen Konsens, dass Hermas im
Hirten des Hermas als freigelassener Sklave dargestellt wird. Nach einem Blick auf
biographische Einordnungen des Hermas bei verschiedenen frühchristlichen Autoren
wird auf Theodor Zahn als „Erfinder“ der biographischen Hypothese eingegangen,
dass Hermas ein Freig…[Read more]

This is pre-publication preview introduces the major questions, methods, and insights of my book When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis & the Reproduction of Species (UC Press, 2023).

In: Barnes, A. & Salerno, M. (Eds.). Symbols and Models in the Mediterranean: Perceiving through Cultures, (124-135). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

It is my modest goal in this essay to trace how Nock uses conversion to produce religion(s) and then to explore its similarities to and differences from an analogous construction of religion-through-conversion in late antiquity.