Text and the material world

"Graeme Clarke's research into aspects of the ancient world spans two significant areas: the archaeology of Syria and studies in early Christianity and patristics. This volume, in Graeme's honour, comprises contributions from scholars from across the world whose work has overlapped in significant ways with his. The contributors take us in time from Bronze Age Cyprus through the classical period in Greece and the Hellenistic and Roman worlds, to the growth of Christianity and the work of the Church Fathers, and, finally, 14th century AD France (a medieval manuscript). Although some essays consider specific sites, such as a tomb at Lapithos in Cyprus, or specific objects, such as a drinking vessel produced in Attica, they raise broader questions regarding archaeological publication, the tracking of aesthetic preferences, ethnic identity, cultural relations and social practices in the ancient world. A cluster of essays takes as their subject Jebel Khalid, the wider region of the Euphrates, and the Roman East more generally; others, following Graeme's work on easrly Christianity and on Cyprian, take us to North Africa and, ultimately, into the troubled world of the later Roman empire."