The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology

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.

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.