Early Christianity and the Ancient Coastline of Ephesos

Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman archaeological research in Greece and Turkey has traditionally been overwhelmingly weighted toward the excavation of monumental structures in urban centers. This work has in turn been the focus of attempts to use archaeological evidence to describe the context of early Christianity. The result has been a tendency to raise the social and economic status of the earliest Christians. Geomorphological research in Ephesos has developed the first detailed outline of the ancient coastline during a period of rapid alluvial deposition in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, identifying large expanses of new land near the harbor that became available for construction during the late Hellenistic period. Remote sensing in this area has indicated structures that may provide a more promising location than monumentalized city centers for the social classes from which the first Christian converts were drawn.
Educated in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Minnesota and the Eberhardt-Karls Universität, in Tübingen, Germany, Christine M. Thomas took a Ph.D. in the Study of Religion at Harvard University in 1995. After a junior fellowship with the Society of Fellows at Harvard (1993-96), she joined the Religious Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she is an Associate Professor. A veteran of annual archaeological campaigns in Turkey since 1991, she currently directs excavation projects in Ephesos and Metropolis near Smyrna (Izmir). She has written extensively on ancient Christian literature and on the religions of Asia Minor.

This talk is sponsored by the IHC Research Focus Group in Archaeology.