Death in the Eastern Mediterranean (50-600 A.D.)

Born 1966; 1987 B.A. Sociology, Connecticut College; 1989 Master of Science Sociology, London School of Economics; 1993 M.A. History, Yale; 1999 Ph.D. History, Yale; since 1999 Scholar in the field of European History at the Greek Open University in Athens.

• 50-600. An Era without Eschatological Anxieties- The Serene Look of the Polytheists at the Hereafter - Resurrection of the Body: An Absurd Idea, an Inextricable Philosophical Problem, a Variously-Interpreted DogmaPhilosophers and Bishops as Physicians of the Soul- Pagan and Christian Arguments against the Practice of Ritual Lament - Rival but Similar Therapies of Grief: the Philosophical and Christian LogosThe Impact of Christianity on Monumental Commemoration- The Christianization of the Epigraphic Language - From Ancient to Christian 'Likeness': The Eclipse of the Sculpted Funerary Portrait in its Intellectual and Historical ContextPutrid Corpses and Fragrant Relics: Attitudes towards the Pollution of the Dead among Pagans, Jews and Christians- Intellectual and Emotional Origins of a Tactile Revolution - The Sacralization of DeathFunctions of the Funerary and Commemorative Rituals in the Eastern Mediterranean (50-600)- The Ideological Function of Ritual - The Honorific Function of Ritual - The Solidaristic and Affective Functions of Ritual - The Originality of the Christian Organization of Burial: The Use of Ritual as a Means of Forging a Separate Religious IdentityThe Burial of the Poor: Forces that Propel and Forces that Hinder the Development of a Christian 'Welfare State' in Late Antiquity- Theology, Heresy and Social Welfare - Structural Weaknesses of the Christian 'Welfare State'The 'Longue-Durée' Pleasures of Death - Feasting with the Dead- A Grave-Side Theatre