Dame Janet L. Nelson (28 March 1942 – 14 October 2024) by Alice Rio (All Souls College, University of Oxford) doi.org/10.1093/past...

📢 Congratulations to Julia Hillner for her contribution to an article in SPIEGEL Geschichte on slavery & prostitution in the Roman Empire! (Article in German, subscriber access only) 🔗To the Article: buff.ly/DGw3EZDin: Spiegel GESCHICHTE 5/25 'Roms Kampf um German @unibonn.bsky.social @dfg.de

15,000+ searchable charters from the early Middle Ages...

Jobs for recently-minted PhDs in my department! Come join an excellent place to do interdisciplinary research spanning a vast chunk of space and time!

The Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies is hiring three postdoctoral researchers. We investigate the causes and mechanisms that contribute to the persistence of strong asymmetrical dependencies across historical and contemporary contexts. Pre-modern perspectives are very welcome!

To all those who couldn't join us at this time - we hope this workshop will result in something tangible, so keep your eyes open 😊.

We had an entire day of stimulating discussions yesterday at the 'Elite Women and Systems of Dependency in Late Antiquity' workshop organised by Grace Stafford and yours truly. We are grateful to @dependencybonn.de for providing funding and assistance for this event.

This was a fantastic, engaging workshop throughout. Our thanks to Aleksander and Grace for putting it together!

Link seemed to be cut off, so here it is again: www.ucpress.edu/books/gender...

The digital version of God, Slavery, and Early Christianity is officially out! If you're interested in ancient Mediterranean slavery's effects on Christian thought and practice, this is for you. www.cambridge.org/core/books/g...

My institution, the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, is currently advertising five nine-month fellowships to support the writing of a PhD funding proposal. Deadline 1 October. Any questions, do get in touch (my email is on my webpage :) www.dependency.uni-bonn.de/images/about...

Joining Humanities Commons? If so, please consider becoming a member of the 'History of Slavery and Unfreedom Group': hcommons.org/groups/histo...

New pod! Mike interviews Tina Shepardson about A Memory of Violence: Syriac Christianity and the Radicalization of Religious Difference in Late Antiquity. Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/n... Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0HyD...

Ancient scribes had to practice their signature just like we do. We even have papyri illustrating a scribe named Petaus who over and over wrote the formula for a proper signature: Name + Title + “I have submitted.” ✍️ P. Petaus 121. Inv. No. 328 Cologne. 182-187 CE www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/ifa...

NEW ISSUE OUT NOW Journal of Late Antiquity Volume 18, Number 2, Fall 2025 #S2O #OpenAccess via @ProjectMUSE tinyurl.com/58uf6c74#S2O#OpenAccessCONTRIBUTORS Sabine R. Huebner Marion Kruse J.-Michel Reaux Colvin Maria Pavlou Chengzuo Yao Gail Tatham Andrew Paul Wood Gabriele Castiglia Seth M. Stadel and more!

New on the blog - "Female Slavery in the Third and Fourth Centuries CE" Guest post by Molly Dumbrell. Molly uses papyri and other sources to illuminate the condition of enslaved women in the Late Roman period. Link: www.dosseproject.com/female-slave...

Was Islamic or Sasanian law the greater influence upon Christian slaveholding practices in 7th-8th century Iran? How did Bishops in the Church of East adapt and Christianise non-Christian regulations to forge the identity of their community? Read Seth's article to find out!

We are very pleased to share that Seth M. Stadel, a DoSSE project alumnus, has published a new article in the Journal of Late Antiquity, entitled 'The Legal Constructions of Christian Slavery in Fars at the End of Late Antiquity'! Read it, Open Access, here: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

Excited to announce my book that is forthcoming in January. I’m looking forward to sharing more soon. Let me know if your faculty, students, or community would be interested in a talk or class. Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt | Princeton University Press. Description at: bit.ly/PerrySlavery

Interesting new article from Danny Grabe, in Early Medieval Europe, on child slavery in hagiographical sources: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

We are happy to share that the new publication "Justice and Righteousness in the Old Testament: Reflecting on Slavery in the Hebrew Bible" by Ulrich Berges is now available through open access. For more info: ow.ly/6Psq50W3c3P @unibonn.bsky.social @dfg.de @degruyterbrill.bsky.social

New on the blog: 'The Life, Work and Death of Child Slaves in the Late Roman World' A guest post by Eniko Toth This is the next of our contributions from Classical Studies students from the University of Lincoln. Link: www.dosseproject.com/the-life-wor...

Interested in Dependency and Slavery Studies or just want to learn about our MA programs at the BCDSS? See our lecturer James M. Harland's statement: ow.ly/z3Ny50WNov0 ✍️ Apply until 15 Sept. 2025 @unibonn.bsky.social @dfg.de #UniversityBonn #newsemester #studyinbonn

We are so excited to announce the launch of the Shii Studies Network, a space for PhD students researching Shiism to forge personal and professional connections, share their research with and learn from each other, and push the field forward.

🎺 Job alert! 🎺 Durham University is advertising for an Assistant Professor in Histories of the Islamicate World (Medieval/Early Modern), permanent and full-time! Great department, lovely colleagues, beautiful historic city! Deadline for applications is 28/09/25! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOJ050/a...

The Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration Database is live at historyofincarceration.com. Both the platform and the data are very much a work in progress, and we will continually update it over the coming years. I hope that it is useful, and if you would like to contribute, please do be in touch.

New on the blog: "Sanctioning Sexual Exploitation" Guest post by Lauren Pugsley www.dosseproject.com/sanctioning-... This is the second of our guest contributions from Classical Studies students at the University of Lincoln.

Earthworks cover southern Iraq, built by slave labour during the Early Islamic period A slave rebellion was thought to have caused their abandonment, but new research suggests other factors, such as Mongol invasion and the plague, were responsible 🏺 #Archaeology Learn more 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

From the website: "While some [runaway domestic servants] were not enslaved, many were described by their masters as slaves and property" This makes me think of Alice Rio's argument for unfree status as the result of an act of labelling, deployed strategically by lords, in the Early Middle Ages.

Plugging a hole in a paragraph this afternoon with this from the fab University of Glasgow Runaway Slave database. 'AN East-Indian Boy, about 20 Years of Age...speaks English, but with a Scotch Accent'. He had 'Deserted from his Master' on 4 July 1751. 1/2 @leverhulme.ac.uk

In recent months, a significant amount of time has been devoted to our database of employees of the MGH since their founding in 1819. We are currently focused on documenting the genesis of our editions. All MGH editors will be included shortly. Have a look! data.mgh.de/databases/mg...

The A.D.A.M. network is coming to #imc2026! We're looking for papers that engage with 'difficult' topics in the Middle Ages, however you might define that... See you there @imc-leeds.bsky.social ! #cfp

New on the blog: 'Art in Chains' By Ellie Sadler This is the first of our guest blog posts from third-year Classical Studies students at the University of Lincoln. Here, Ellie explores the presentation of enslaved people in Roman mosaics. Link: www.dosseproject.com/art-in-chains/

Featuring DoSSE members Erin and James, alongside many wonderful scholars of Late Antiquity!

Take a look at the programme of our workshop on the subject of Elite Women and Systems of Dependency in Late Anitquity organised by Grace Stafford and yours truly, which will take place at the @dependencybonn.de next month.

Working on early/high medieval trading places, exchange, contact? Check out our call for papers for #IMC2026 ! ⛵️ @imc-leeds.bsky.social @rmoudheden.bsky.social

On 1 Aug. 1956, the gravestele of a Roman slave was found in Bonn. Find out why Euthenia, who died approx. 2000 years ago, is remembered to this day. dottietales.wordpress.com/2024/07/20/a...

The monument to Þorgerður brák – the enslaved nurse of Egil, who saved his life and was then murdered by his father – in Borgarnes, Iceland.

LAMPS SEMINAR SERIES CALL FOR PAPERS AUTUMN 2025 Please submit your paper to us at [email protected] Deadline: 29th August 2025

It is this time of the year again! We are organising @imc-leeds.bsky.social sessions on orthodoxy and economy in late antiquity for the #IMC2026! Have a look at our CfP and come and join us next year! Do get in touch and please share widely!

If the authors (including @letteney.bsky.social) are right about the pervasiveness of incarceration in the ancient Mediterranean world, then this book will require a paradigm shift in how we think about coercion and social control in antiquity. Not often that the historiographic stakes are so high!

What a lovely homage.

We have extended the call for applications to July 30th for a post-doc position in the Frankfurt-Leuven Project “Commentary on the Ecclesiastical History of John of Ephesus.” The successful candidate would not necessarily need to move to Frankfurt to take up this position.

Our PI Prof. Joanna Story is one of the newly elected Fellows! Her work on early medieval Insular sources, including interdisciplinary approaches to text and material culture, continues to break new ground in the INSULAR project.

Congratulations to our Leicester early medieval colleague, Professor Joanna Story (@insularmss.bsky.social), on being elected a Fellow of the British Academy!

Thanks for the opportunity! This has also inspired me to join @bsky.app The more interesting bit - the student blogs - to follow!

And, for anyone with @imc-leeds.bsky.social catch-up, it was a great paper (as were all our contributions and the response from @lisakaarenbailey.bsky.social .) I had no idea that early Islamic scholars had the same problems as some Carolingian penitential authors when it comes to sex positions...

#CFP for ##IMCLEEDS 2026. Looking for scholars who are interested in the relationship between bodies and time. #MedievalSky #MedievalHistory #Medieval #Skystorians #AcademicSky #HistorySky #EarlyModernSky #EarlyModernHistory #EarlyModern #MaterialCulture #Bodies #WhatsHistory #IMC2026 #IMC2025

New on the blog: Teaching Slavery in Late Antiquity - a reflection In a guest post, Jamie Wood (University of Lincoln) talks about his new undergraduate module on late antique slavery. We'll be publishing some of his students' work over the next few weeks. www.dosseproject.com/teaching-sla...

Really pleased and proud to announce a new @ihr.bsky.social seminar - Migration and Mobility History. We want to cover migration across time and space and speak with colleagues across disciplines. If you're interested in attending/presenting, get in touch: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...