Seit dem Beginn christlicher Wallfahrt verlangten Pilger nach „gesegneten Andenken“. Während echte Reliquien einigen Wenigen vorbehalten blieben, konnte deren wunderwirkende Kraft nach Ansicht der Gläubigen durch Berührung beliebig übertragen werden. In frühbyzantinischer Zeit entwickelte sich daher in den großen Wallfahrtszentren eine regelrechte „Pilgerindustrie“, die solche durch Kontakt geheiligten „Andenken“ (Eulogien) als Massenware produzierte. Die umfangreichste Gruppe dieser „Pilgerandenken“ bilden die Menasampullen. Hunderte dieser mit Modeln hergestellten Tonfläschchen mit Darstellungen und Inschriften des heiligen Menas sind erhalten. Sie stammen aus Abu Mina, dem bedeutenden Wallfahrtsort des Märtyrers nahe Alexandria in Ägypten. Im vorliegenden Katalog werden 63 Ampullen des Berliner Museums zum ersten Mal zusammenhängend dokumentiert. Eine ausführliche Diskussion verschiedener Aspekte zum heiligen Menas, seiner Wallfahrtsstätte und den Ampullen stellt die Berliner Exemplare in einen größeren Kontext.

Das Werk ist die erste systematische Studie der illustrierten Homilien des wohl bedeutendsten byzantinischen Kirchenlehrers. Die bislang wenig oder gar nicht bekannten Manuskripte werden mittels neuer methodischer Ansätze präsentiert und in ihrem jeweiligen Entstehungskontext gewürdigt. Immer wieder eröffnet die Studie auch interessante Einblicke in die Organisation von Werkstätten der Buchproduktion. Im Mittelpunkt steht die stilistische und ikonographische Untersuchung der Miniaturen sowie die Analyse ihrer verschiedenartigen Textbezüge. Anhand zeitgenössischer Quellen werden auch die Benutzungsarten der Homiliare sowie der Rang des Johannes Chrysostomos und seiner Texte in Byzanz beschrieben.

This book represents the first detailed study of Byzantine churches on the island of Sardinia. The buildings are described and analyzed in detail both individually and as a group. Many of these churches are cruciform in plan and possess a dome. The book includes an analysis of this plan type as used in Early Christian and Byzantine ecclesiastical architecture from the fourth to the sixth centuries, concluding that the Sardinian churches are datable to the early Byzantine period. Numerous architectural drawings and color photographs illustrate the churches.

The analysis of archaeological textiles in order to write their ancient cultural history is still in its infancy. This study contributes to this process by cataloging more than 600 original pieces of headwear from the late Roman and early Byzantine periods, and evaluates them in terms of their location, date, sociological context, visual and written sources, as well as their precursors and successors. The majority of the analyzed pieces have so far remained unpublished, and many are for the first time being identified and reconstructed as head coverings. The book thus provides a material basis for costume historians, textile experts, archaeologists, sociologists, art historians, philologists, and museum curators.

This study for the first time provides a comprehensive analysis of early Christian reliquaries in the context of their meaning and various uses. Taking into account all documented provenances and written sources on the cult of relics, basic conditions of production of reliquaries, the individual user groups, and their influence on the design of the vessels are shown. Special focus is given to the question of the relationship between form and function of the relics. The study touches on foundations of many disciplines that deal with the early Christian cult of relics (art history, Christian archeology, history, theology, religious studies, etc.).

The unique architecture of the Hagia Sophia Church in Sofia, Bulgaria, gives it a prominent role not only in the history of the city, which assumed the name of the church, but also in the architectural history of the Balkan region and the Byzantine Empire. And yet, a critically urgent and thorough investigation of this monument has so far not taken place. With the full-scale study on the construction history of the Hagia Sophia Church, that gap is now closed in a convincing manner. Making use of a detailed architectural survey, the careful analysis of the findings, and the study of previous structures and the topography of the city, while also taking into account the cultural and geographical interrelationships and application of art historical and archaeological methods, a number of unanswered questions can now be clarified. First, the origin and the original appearance of the monument are determined, followed by a discussion on influences and donors. The result sheds new light on the architectural history of the location of the Hagia Sophia Church, and its importance in the context of Byzantine architecture. Previously unpublished plans, and carefully selected old and new photographs accompany the investigation.

It was thanks to the initiative of well-to-do donors that representative public buildings could be erected, decorated and renovated also during Graeco-Roman times. Who were these donors? What interests motivated them? A precise study of the furnishings of the monuments financed by them can provide answers to these questions. The basis of this work is the unusually large number of mosaic floors which were unearthed on both sides of the river Jordan. They decorated churches, synagogues and private houses and can be dated back to the time of the 6th to the 8th century AD. The figured representations and the abundantly available inscriptions bear witness to the undiminished meaning of the donor system in this region on the border of the Eastern Roman Empire. A systematic synopsis of these testimonies makes it possible to be able to determine basic aspects of the ”view of the world” of these local elite persons.

This study focusses on the Roman Senate and its relation to the Emperors, taking a long-term perspective. The starting point is the observation, that the senators as a body held their sessions continuously from the 1st to the 6th century in the Curia Iulia/Diocletiana, a highly symbolic place in Roman mythical history. Visual, archaeological, epigraphic, numismatic and literary findings and records provide evidence of the complexity of role-playing and entangled interactions, which dictated the cooperation between SPQR and Caesares Augusti Imperatores throughout the centuries. By situational adaptions and accumulations of exempla of the past the two protagonists managed to maintain a precarious, varying, but perpetuated balance of powers. The Senate of Rome and the Roman Emperors were mutually dependent and intrinsically linked, forming a specific, bipolar authority structure, which was essential for the self-concept of the Roman State.

This book deals with the apse as a showcase for images in the early Christian and early Byzantine periods. Two opposed traditions, harking back to early imperial times, nourished the invention of the Christian apse image: on the one hand there were statues in apses of pagan temples and imperial cult rooms which were venerated during cult ceremonies, on the other hand, there were apse mosaics in nymphaea where aquatic myths and figures celebrated the amenities of water. Christian apse mosaics originated within this context and in spite of the Old Testament prohibition of the image. Mosaics and frescoes in apses of cult rooms generated very particular effects, evoking in the viewer respect, admiration, awe and maybe even veneration. The capacity of the image to have an impact on the viewer could not be decreed by the Church, but this was an affair manifested more or less casually according to the inventive power of the artist. This book explores the interactions between the various image-media during the early Christian and early Byzantine periods; it particularly investigates the participation of the viewer and of the patron.

This catalogue is the first of three volumes presenting the (so far) unpublished part of the large collection of Late Antique to Early Islamic textiles from Egypt in the Museum für Byzantinische Kunst Berlin. Complete garments, cloth assemblages from burials, and rarities both in textile function and technique will be important objects for the further study of ancient textiles. A photo and a technical analysis accompany each of the 173 catalogue entries. The object description puts special emphasis on the function of the individual cloth. Introductory essays about origin, techniques, construction of garments, iconography and dating of the textiles, as well as an article about the dye analysis, summarize the various researches undertaken. Explanatory drawings, a glossary, a large bibliography and 16 colour plates make the catalogue pleasant to handle.