Search Results (127)

History attempts to make sense of disparate information by trying to create discourse that lays a series of events with crisp cause–effect relationships in a sequence. Epochal shifts, such as the change from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, are especially complex since they involve a large number of economic, political and even religious factors which occur over long periods and that might overlap and interact through reciprocal feedback mechanisms, making this cause–effects sequence difficult to establish. In this research we adopt a data-driven and well-established methodology to identify, with quantifiable statistical precision, the moment when this shift happened, and from there arrive at its possible causes. We will use historical coin hoard data to find out whether such a shift is detected in a peripheral part of the Roman Empire, the Iberian Peninsula. To do so, we will apply different changepoint analysis methods to a time series of trade links created from that data, and conduct a retrospective analysis based on that result, analyzing the structure of the trade networks before and after the link. Thus, we progress from identifying when the shift happened to identifying where it took place, which in turn allows us to get to investigate why it happened, namely, historical events that could have caused it. This methodology can be used to analyze epochal changes in several steps using time-stamped network data, possibly finding disregarded causes or cause–effect links that could have been overlooked by qualitative methods; in this case, we have applied it to a dataset of coin hoards either found in the Iberian Peninsula or including coins minted there, finding a changepoint in the early 5th century, which, through network analysis, has been linked to a loss of trade with the area of Britannia. Full article

This thesis examines the theological status of artificial intelligence-generated religious imagery through Byzantine icon theory, asking whether such images can participate in the material, devotional, and communal, definitions traditionally ascribed to icons. Situating AI within an intellectual lineage beginning with iconoclasm debates and then turning to Alan Turing’s “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”, this project places contemporary image generation models such as DALL·E and Midjourney in dialog with late antique and Byzantine debates on representation, likeness, and mediation. Drawing on St Theodore the Studite’s defense of icons as relational images grounded in the Incarnation, this thesis argues that AI-generated portraits cannot be understood as icons in a theological or art historical sense. Icons depend upon an embodied triad between maker, prototype, and worshiping community, sustained through liturgical practice, ascetic discipline, and intentional craft. Adding Aristotle’s account of deliberation further clarifies this distinction: algorithmic production lacks the ethical agency and purposive choice intrinsic to sacred image-making. While engaging the scholarship of Robin Cormack, Charles Barber, Bissera V. Petcheva, and many others, this study reasserts the Christological foundations of icon theory while situating AI imagery within contemporary political economies of data extraction, militarism, and environmental cost. AI may attempt to reproduce religious imagery, but it cannot generate objects of real veneration. Full article

This article explores the Qurʾānic transformation of poetic travel, situating it within the broader cultural and religious context of Late Antiquity. By examining the Qurʾān’s repeated injunctions to travel and observe the landscape, the study reveals how travel is reconfigured from a poetic act of nostalgic vision into a religious epistemic practice of witnessing divine truth. It compares pre-Islamic Arabic poetic traditions, particularly the qasīda, with Late Antique Christian pilgrimage practices to demonstrate how the Qurʾān synthesizes and reshapes these modes of journeying into a vision-centered theology of travel. Full article

This study presents the first integrated magnetic and electromagnetic (EMI) survey of the Pianabella Basilica (Ostia, Italy), combining high-resolution magnetic gradient measurements with EMI mapping. The site, characterized by late-antique Christian architecture and funerary structures, provides a complex environment for testing non-invasive geophysical techniques. Magnetic data were acquired using the MagEx system (v.1.2.2558), a new prototype based on Micro-Fabricated Atomic Magnetometer (MFAM) technology, marking its first field deployment in archaeological prospection. Simultaneously, EMI measurements using the CMD-Mini Explorer provided data on apparent conductivity and in-phase components across three depth levels (0.5–1.8 m). The magnetic gradient map successfully delineated the Basilica’s planimetric outline, revealing anomalies (~20 nT/m) corresponding to masonry and internal enclosures. A significant anomaly (50–60 nT/m) north of the Basilica suggests a basalt-paved Roman road leading toward Porta Laurentina. EMI results corroborated these findings, with low-conductivity zones outlining walls and in-phase responses highlighting reused Roman building materials. Despite significant urban noise from a nearby railway and fences, this integrated approach enhanced interpretability and reduced ambiguity. These findings demonstrate the efficacy of next-generation magnetic gradiometry and EMI for high-resolution archaeological investigations, providing a new methodological benchmark for cultural heritage prospection. Full article

This article argues that racism did not originate with the modern invention of race but crystallized out of a much older imperial grammar that had already learned how to naturalize domination through embodied difference. Long before race emerged as a named category, ancient and medieval empires developed durable ways of converting historically produced hierarchies into features of nature, the cosmos, and divine order. Through a comparative genealogy spanning early Mesopotamian epic, Near Eastern imperial inscriptions, Egyptian visual regimes, Greek philosophy and historiography, biblical scripture, South Asian metaphysics, late antique encyclopedism, and medieval Marian devotion, the article shows how inequality was repeatedly anchored in the body, in genealogy, in geography, and in moral psychology. Across these traditions, political authority is consistently masculinized, while subordination is feminized, animalized, or rendered reproductively vulnerable. Patriarchy and racialization thus emerge as co-constitutive imperial technologies rather than as separate or sequential phenomena. Modern racism did not invent hierarchy; it rendered an ancient logic portable, inheritable, and globally scalable by fastening domination to visible human difference. By situating race within a longue durée history of empire and male domination, the article reframes contemporary debates on racism as questions of imperial continuity rather than modern deviation. Full article

This article examines the purposes, origins, and authority of ‘secular education,’ or the seven liberal arts, in Cassiodorus’ Institutiones divinarum et saecularium litterarum. Whilst previous scholarship has argued that Cassiodorus traces the origins of the liberal arts to Holy Scripture and views their primary purpose as aiding biblical exegesis, closer analysis of Institutiones reveals a more complex picture. Some passages suggest that the liberal arts also derive, in part, from the order of the created universe, and that their principal purpose lies in the cultivation of virtues. These virtues, while grounded in the specific ends of the liberal arts, are ultimately directed toward the theoretical contemplation of God, echoing Aristotle’s hierarchy of sciences and virtues. Full article

Banded iron formations (BIFs) are marine chemical sedimentary rocks comprised of alternating siliceous- and iron-rich bands and deposited from Eoarchean to early Paleoproterozoic. Due to their geological antiquity, BIFs normally have been overprinted by postdepositional tectono-thermal events, leading to large uncertainties with respect to their depositional age and field occurrence. The studied Gongyiming BIF-type iron deposit, which is a typical example of its metamorphosed Archean counterparts, is preserved within the Guyang Greenstone Belt, the North China Craton (NCC). The formation age of this BIF and effects of postdepositional tectono-thermal events on this BIF have not yet been well determined, limiting our understanding of its geological implication and the current occurrence of its orebodies. In this study, we provided new geological and zircon U-Pb geochronological evidence for the Gongyiming BIF that supports a possibly early Neoarchean depositional age (>2.66 Ga). This finding not only helps to fill the early Neoarchean age gap in BIF records in China, but also supports the previously documented multi-stage crustal growth model for the NCC. Furthermore, a metamorphic age of ~2.50 Ga is recorded by the BIF-bearing plagioclase amphibolite and monzogranitic gneiss that intruded into the plagioclase amphibolite. This metamorphic age is consistent with the time for an extensively identified late Neoarchean tectonic event in the NCC. The identification of a 1.90 Ga old potassium feldspar granite within this BIF indicates the plausible influence of the regional late Paleoproterozoic tectono-thermal event. This event is likely to have caused the development of a large-scale scale dextral shearing in the Gongyiming mining area, which ultimately shaped the field occurrence of its No. 2 and No. 3 ore bodies. Collectively, a structurally controlled exploration model was established for the Gongyiming BIF-type iron deposit, which facilitates the understanding of its ore body reworking processes and guides further regional iron deposit exploration and prospecting efforts. Full article

Optic neuritis (ON) has been recognized since antiquity, but its modern clinical identity emerged only in the late 19th century and was definitively shaped by the Optic Neuritis Treatment Trial (ONTT). The ONTT established the natural history, visual prognosis, association with multiple sclerosis (MS), and therapeutic response to corticosteroids, building the foundation for contemporary ON management. Subsequent discoveries—most notably aquaporin-4 IgG-associated ON (AQP4-ON), myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated ON (MOG-ON), and double-negative ON—have fundamentally transformed this paradigm, shifting ON from a seemingly uniform demyelinating syndrome to a group of biologically distinct disorders. These subtypes differ in immunopathology, clinical course, MRI features, retinal injury patterns, CSF profiles, and long-term outcomes, making early and accurate differentiation essential. MRI provides key distinctions in lesion length, orbital tissue inflammation, bilateral involvement, and chiasmal or optic tract extension. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) offers complementary structural biomarkers, including severe early ganglion cell loss in AQP4-ON, relative preservation in MOG-ON, and variable patterns in double-negative ON. CSF analysis further refines diagnosis, with oligoclonal bands strongly supporting MS-ON. Together, these modalities enable precise early stratification and timely initiation of targeted immunotherapy, which is critical for preventing irreversible visual disability. Despite major advances, significant unmet needs persist. Access to high-resolution MRI, OCT, cell-based antibody assays, and evidence-based treatments remains limited in many regions, contributing to global disparities in outcomes. The understanding of the pathogenesis of double-negative optic neuritis, the identification of reliable biomarkers of relapse and visual recovery, and the determination of standardized cut-off values for multimodal diagnostic tools—including MRI, OCT, CSF analysis, and serological assays—remain unresolved challenges. Future research must expand biomarker discovery, refine imaging criteria, and ensure equitable global access to cutting-edge diagnostic platforms and therapeutic innovations. Four decades after the ONTT, ON remains a dynamic field of investigation, with ongoing advances holding the potential to transform care for patients worldwide. Together, these advances expose a fundamental tension between historically MS-centered diagnostic frameworks and the emerging biological heterogeneity of ON, a tension that underpins the structure and critical perspective of the present review. Full article

This study investigates 49 gold solidi issued between the 4th and 5th century AD to determine their chemical composition. The coins were first catalogued by recording mass, diameter, and thickness. All specimens underwent non-destructive µ-EDXRF analysis to identify main elements, followed by semi-quantitative fineness evaluation. To validate these results, six coins were randomly micro-sampled: material was dissolved in aqua regia and analysed by ICP-AES for gold quantification and ICP-MS for high precision trace element determination. The non-destructive analyses showed consistently high gold percentages, confirming authenticity and the extensive use of this noble metal during the studied period. Two distinct groups were identified based on the XRF Pt/Pd ratio, suggesting the use of gold from different sources. Comparison of μ-EDXRF and ICP-AES gold contents shows no statistically significant differences; however, this apparent agreement should be interpreted cautiously, as it mainly reflects the limited resolving power of ICP-AES at very high gold concentrations rather than definitive evidence for the absence of surface-related effects. Trace elements analysis detected low concentrations of Cu, Sn, and Pb suggesting the use of alluvial gold for minting. The presence and correlation of terrigenous elements (Al, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Zn, Sr) indicate soil as the burial site. Full article

This article examines the relationship between jihād and the protection of non-Muslim places of worship in early Islam. Drawing primarily on Qurʾānic verses 22:39–41 and the Covenants of the Prophet, it employs a synchronically comparative framework that analyzes a broad corpus of textual sources, seeking to reconstruct how the early Muslim worldview understood the justification for jihād. It also examines the norms governing conduct after conflict, particularly in relation to treaty-making. The article attempts to make sense of Q22:39–41 within the broader landscape of late antiquity, which was marked by religious persecution and the destruction of sanctuaries under Byzantine and Sasanian rule. The study highlights how clear rules of engagement were articulated in early Islam, including limits on violence and the consequences of treaty violation. It argues that the motivations behind the early conquests cannot be reduced to material interests but rather were guided by a theological and ideological vision linking conquest with the establishment of a just peace, one grounded in the protection of communities, faith, and places of worship through a covenantal paradigm. Full article

Archaeological surface features on desert pavements, including geoglyphs, are notoriously difficult to assess. Lacking temporally diagnostic artifacts, they may be impossible to place chronologically, limiting their inferential utility. Not surprisingly, controversies have developed in the North American desert west over certain of these features. We describe methods for chronometrically constraining the ages of desert pavement features using three approaches to rock varnish dating: varnish lamination (VML), lead-profile dating, and the cation ratio (CR) as an additional tool. Each of these techniques may be applied to rock varnished cobbles that have been upthrust into areas previously cleared of the original pavement through cultural or natural processes. We use these methods to resolve two archaeological issues: the age of the intaglios (geoglyphs) along the lower Colorado River corridor and whether the Topock (or ‘Mystic’) Maze is the product of Precontact Indigenous or late-nineteenth-century railroad construction. Ethnographic analysis allows us to contextualize these features and to consider two additional issues: the antiquity of the Yuman speakers’ cultural pattern in the lower Colorado River region and the function of the Topock Maze. Full article

John Cassian’s writings reveal an extensive education. In his works, he reflects on his own education, such as a case of mnemotechnical distraction, and also provides education for his readers. But it is also clear that he employs his own rhetorical education by using conscious rhetorical strategies. This third aspect is the focus of this article. In Late Antique higher education, the chreia was one of the basic rhetorical progymnasmata exercises. It could be elaborated through the so-called ergasia exercise. By providing examples from the first conference, it is shown how Cassian employs elaborated chreias presenting his own patterns of ergasia elements. In connection with this, Cassian’s view on the origin of thoughts as drawn from Origen and Evagrius is discussed. Reading model texts, especially the Bible, is seen as a transformative practice that shapes the reader’s heart. Though Cassian rejects classical content, replacing it with spiritual writings, he retains classical form. As a collection of Christian chreic texts, the Conferences could have functioned as model texts for monks and monastic students wanting not only to read, but also to compose their own monastic texts according to the rhetorical structures taught in traditional schools of rhetoric. Cassian thus emerges as a new kind of monastic rhetorician. Full article

This study focuses on an individual from the southeastern area of the Roman Suburbium in Late Antiquity (3rd–5th centuries CE), whose skeleton was found in a multiple burial alongside five others. Osteological and CT imaging analyses revealed a significant developmental defect in the left hip, characterized by a shallow, flattened acetabulum and a hypoplastic or aplastic femoral head, with no evidence of infection or postmortem alteration. This rare condition provides a compelling case study demonstrating the effectiveness of an integrated diagnostic approach combining traditional osteology with advanced imaging techniques. Despite prior research into orthopedic pathologies in Roman Imperial and Late Antique populations, no comparable cases have been documented, highlighting a notable gap in the bioarchaeological literature regarding congenital skeletal defects. This case contributes to a broader understanding of disability in ancient communities and raises important questions about social recognition and support for individuals with physical impairments in the past. However, limitations exist due to the absence of certain skeletal elements, which restricts a full assessment of compensatory biomechanical adaptations, such as load redistribution through the trunk or upper limbs. Nevertheless, the findings underscore the growing importance of refining diagnostic standards to better identify and interpret evidence of disability in historical populations. Full article

The life of Jerome of Stridon (d. 419/420), who was regarded as a father of the church and one of the most important authorities in the Middle Ages, has often been depicted as highly controversial: In modern reconstructions, Jerome is typically described as an outsider, constantly involved in controversies and frequently criticized and questioned by his contemporaries. This begs the question of how Jerome could have received such an esteemed reputation during the following centuries. While it has been acknowledged in previous scholarship that Jerome had an extensive reception in the Middle Ages, a comprehensive study of the transmission of his works in the first centuries after his death has not been undertaken. Likewise, the mechanisms involved in constructing an image of Jerome as an authority of exegesis and asceticism and as a defender of orthodoxy are yet to be studied. Combining philological and historical approaches, the present article seeks to contribute to Hieronymian scholarship by studying the reception of Jerome during his lifetime and during the first centuries after his death, taking into account two different but interrelated aspects of this reception: First, an analysis of manuscripts will answer questions concerning the transmission of Jerome’s texts. Secondly, the article will consider the earliest reception of Jerome’s works and how this was managed by Jerome himself, in collaboration with his friends and patrons, in addition to how he was commonly referred to and described during the first decades after his death. The article examines how these aspects of reception contributed to the creation of an image of Jerome, and an interpretation of his work that would become important in medieval Christianity. Full article

In 1844, Hermann Müller, a Catholic law professor from Würzburg, published a hefty volume on Nordic Greekdom and the Original History of North-Western Europe. The study claimed to hold definitive proof of the north-European origins of Hellenism, Abrahamic monotheism, and the entire human race. Germanic history was not German at all, Müller argued, but Celtic, and underneath it lay another hidden history of Nordic Greekdom, of which Southern Hellenism had been but a minor branch. Though it is today largely forgotten, Müller’s book elicited several responses upon publication and as late as the 1920s in Nazi literature. This article examines the reception of Nordic Greekdom as a striking example of the politicization of antiquity as an origin myth, arguing that the array of modern historicizations of antiquity and of Christianity’s place within it forms a ruptured and incoherent continuity of which ideologies as dissimilar as liberalism, Christian conservatism, and fascism—to name but a few—were all a part. Tracing this variety across ideological divides avoids overly rigid dichotomies such as the distinction between theological and racial antisemitism, while acknowledging the persistent, vast significance of Christianity within these discussions, whether as a living faith or as a discarded inheritance. Full article