John M. Fossey – författare

The Levant: Crossroads of Late Antiquity. History, Religion, and Archaeology / Le Levant: Carrefour de l'Antiquité tardive explores the monumental, religious, and social developments that took place in the Roman province of Syria during the 3rd through 6th centuries CE. Ellen Bradshaw Aitken and John M. Fossey bring together the work of twenty scholars of archaeology, art history, religious studies, and ancient history to examine this dynamic period of change in social, cultural, and religious life. Close attention to texts and material culture, including palaeo-Christian mosaics and churches, highlights the encounters of peoples and religions, as well as the rich exchange of ideas, practices, and traditions in the Levant. The essays bring fresh perspectives on “East” and “West” in antiquity and the diversity of ancient religious movements.

In Epigraphica Boeotica II John Fossey continues to treat results of his nearly 50 years of research into the archaeology and inscriptions of Ancient Boiotia (Epigraphica Boeotica I, Amsterdam, 1991). The first part of the volume discusses the relations between Boiotia and other parts of the Greek world as seen in acts of proxenia and agonistic victor lists. After a section on dedications both religious and civic, there follows a series of studies of ancient tombstones, many of them spolia used in more recent buildings, with prosopographic and onomastic commentary on the names contained in them. Discussion throughout features letter forms and one specific example of this is an epigramme by the Roman philhellene emperor Hadrianus. An unusual rupestral text concludes the volume.

This is the concluding volume presenting results of the author’s fieldwork spread over more than fifty years concerning the Archaeology and Topography of Ancient Boiotia that includes also discussions of the distribution within the topography of certain ancient cults, especially those of Artemis, Herakles and the Horseman Hero. Within the more purely topographic section there is much discussion of regional defense systems, all set against the history of the Boiotian League, especially its early coinage, its origins and its confrontation with Sparta and the pivotal battle of Leuktra.