Become a member of the International Catacomb Society! Members receive advance notice of events, access to password-protected features on the ICS web site (incl. our online image database DAPICS), and invitations to member-only tours, lectures and outings. www.catacombsociety.org/become-a-mem...

Learn more about our founder Estelle Shohet Brettman (1925-1991) on our webpage. www.catacombsociety.org/about/about-... Here's how she summed up her vision of the ICS:

Ok! Three drafts of chapters are out to generous readers. One last tricky chapter to deal with. This book is nearly there! It feels weird to be writing about scandal with all the scandals around us but here we are.

Learn more about our founder Estelle Shohet Brettman (1925-1991) on our webpage. www.catacombsociety.org/about/about-... Here's how she summed up her vision of the ICS:

Deep, detailed review of my recent book in BMCR: bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2026/2026.07...

A #Roman mosaic depiction of a snake in a river scene - love the attention to detail in this piece, especially the patterning on its body, & the tongue sticking out 🐍🏺 #Archaeology #MosaicMonday #AncientBlueSky

Found under the #DomusAurea, these in situ C2–C1 BCE floors likely belonged to a single Republican domus in the Carinæ. #Rome resisted "Greek luxury" while it could, but this "a stuoia" mosaic with crustae reflects the style born at the Temple of Capitoline Jupiter. #MosaicMonday #AncientBluesky 🏺

Today is the feast of St Apollinaris, first bishop of #Ravenna. A basilica was dedicated to him in the 6th c. near the site of his martyrdom by the city's port. The apse is decorated with his image in prayer below a symbolic rendering of the Transfiguration. 📷🇮🇹 flic.kr/p/Gfusy2 #photography #Italy

And hey: Things Unseen is free--- you can buy it, sure, but it's available open access. Go to this link www.ucpress.edu/books/things... Hit "read book" and boom! There it is

Become a member of the International Catacomb Society! Members receive advance notice of events, access to password-protected features on the ICS web site (incl. our online image database DAPICS), and invitations to member-only tours, lectures and outings. www.catacombsociety.org/become-a-mem...

This chapter will be a bit of a follow-up to my OE piece on Eusebius’s Palestinianness, digging more into how he narrated local trauma to craft a shared Palestinian ID & encouraged his readers elsewhere to care about Palestinian Christian suffering everydayorientalism.wordpress.com/2025/05/20/t...

First look at my contribution to Uden & Várhelyi's _Pain, Trauma, and Suffering in the Roman Empire_! Looking forward to sharing thoughts on Eusebius's production of Palestinian Christian identity via shared trauma + the effects of spatial confinement that produced death-bound subjects

Inside the Roman #Catacombs Under a D.C. Church www.youtube.com/shorts/dTbPx...

CfP: Mortuary Ritual in the Roman Near East: Current Work and Future Directions (University of Groningen, January 28-29, 2027) (h/t @mjcbac.bsky.social) maryjahariscenter.org/blog/mortuar...

Mosaic portrait of the bishop Quodvultdeus from the #Catacombs of San Gennaro in #Naples #MosaicMonday #archaeology #AncientBlueSky🏺

Mosaic portrait of the bishop Quodvultdeus from the #Catacombs of San Gennaro in #Naples #MosaicMonday #archaeology #AncientBlueSky🏺

Fresco of a peacock in the #catacomb of Domitilla, #Rome. (Joseph Wilpert watercolor, plate 12.4) #archaeology #earlyChristianity #lateantiquity #art #ancientBluesky🏺

I could use some extra pairs of eyes to help me decipher the figure circled below. Context--obelisk of Theodosius in Istanbul, depiction of the imperial court. Keep reading 👇

Fresco of a peacock in the #catacomb of Domitilla, #Rome. (Joseph Wilpert watercolor, plate 12.4) #archaeology #earlyChristianity #lateantiquity #art #ancientBluesky🏺

Fresco from the #Catacomb of Praetextatus in #Rome likely depicting the healing of the woman with the flow of blood (Matthew 9:20-22). The woman can be seen on the ground behind the two standing figures. Jesus is on the right (fragmentary) (Wilpert watercolor, plate 20)

Archaeologists discover rare 1,700-year-old Roman marble busts buried near an ancient winepress in Israel timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-o... #archaeology

Egypt Uncovers a Complete Byzantine City in the Dakhla Oasis, Preserving Streets, Homes, Church, and Daily Records arkeonews.net/egypt-uncove... #archaeology #LateAntiquity #Egypt #travel

1,500-Year-Old Mosaic Room Unearthed in Ancient Smyrna in Western Türkiye arkeonews.net/1500-year-ol... #archaeology #mosaics #LateAntiquity #Turkey

"Their decoration includes geometric and vegetal compositions typical of Late Antique northern Italy: octagons framed by guilloche bands, interlaced circles with acanthus leaves, ivy and pelta motifs, and lozenges with inscribed crosses." arkeonews.net/early-christ...

I’m thrilled to have been chosen as one of the 26-27 Shohet Scholars! www.catacombsociety.org/news-and-eve...

We are, too! Congratulations and we look forward to learning more about your research!

For #MosaicMonday, an unexpected trip to Caerleon yesterday where these examples are on display in the museum and bath house.

Do you work in late antiquity? Like church councils? Appreciate northwestern Anatolia? Then you should submit a paper for this Sept '26 online conference on Nicaea hosted by the SBL Greco-Roman Religions unit! www.samreligions.org/virtual-conf...

Congratulations to 2025-2026 Shohet Scholar Chance Bonar!

The Pax et Concordia Mosaic  from Tipasa is a stone mosaic mensa (banqueting table) with a decor of #fish and marine animals and the inscription In Chr(ist)o Deo/ pax et concordia sit/ convivio nostro. From the Necropolis of Tipasa-Matares, circa 4th AD. #MosaicMonday #art 👀

For a late #MosaicMonday, let’s see how a North African workshop linked the early-C4 elite across vast distances. From #Sicily to an urban palace and a suburban villa in #Rome, these mosaics share a master catalogue dedicated not to arena gore, but to the "Theatre of Capture." #AncientBluesky 🏺 🧵

A small bird in the floor mosaic of the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna. The sixth-century church is an important surviving example of early Byzantine art and architecture, and its mosaics in particular are some of the most-studied works in Byzantine art. #MosaicMonday

Where Roman artistic traditions met emerging Christian culture ... A beautiful detail from the Mausoleum of Santa Costanza in Rome: a 4th-century mosaic often identified as depicting Constantina, daughter of Constantine the Great #Rome #LateAntiquity #MosaicMonday #AncientBluesky 🏺

Digitization of catacombs in Malta, Roman columbarium inscriptions, early Christian families, AI and legacy data on catacomb scholarship, and a VR reconstruction of the Pantheon from classical to late antiquity -- another great cohort of @catacombsociety.bsky.social Shohet Scholars! #AncientBluesky

We're thrilled to announce our 2026-2027 cohort of Shohet Scholars! The grants support research into religious communities of the ancient Mediterranean. Congratulations to Madeleine Kraft, Christy Cobb, Kelly McClinton, Bernard Frischer, and Grace Funsten. Learn more here: shorturl.at/hzdqC

A peek down the Galleria delle Statue (Gallery of Statues) in the Vatican Museums. What an amazing collection of Roman sculpture! Oh, and hey, there's Antoninus Pius on the left! 📷🇻🇦 www.flickr.com/photos/60661... #photography #travel #museum #Rome #AncientBluesky 🏺

I'm having to verify I'm human so often I'm beginning to doubt myself

The #architecture of an Empire on the defensive, massive and defiant, combining civil and military elements. The Porta Nigra in #Trier, imperial capital of #Constantius in the West. #Archaeology #Roman

My most facetious ancient history opinion is that there should be a history of the Social War with one side written in roman type and the other side in italics.

‘Cyprus receives 48 antiquities repatriated from Greece’ #archaeologynews 🏺 cyprus-mail.com/2026/06/02/c...

Ancient studies ppl: I’ll have about a week in Rome in the third week of June. What new sites or exhibits are must sees? I know a lot got a glow up during the jubilee year.

Presidential address! David Brakke on Rufinus, canon & lists.

Whether you are participating in #NAPS2026 in person or online, join us this afternoon for two paper sessions on Clothing and Meaning Making in Early Christianity. Details below!

The ICS is sponsoring two online sessions at #NAPS2026 on Clothing and Meaning-Making in Early Christianity.

If you plan to be at #NAPS2026 in person or online, come check out the online sessions on clothing and meaning-making organized by the @catacombsociety.bsky.social (updated)

The ICS is sponsoring two online sessions at #NAPS2026 on Clothing and Meaning-Making in Early Christianity.

Interested in "Clothing and Meaning-Making in Early Christianity"? Attending the NAPS conference next week? Then come check out the two ICS-sponsored panels on Zoom! Friday May 22nd, open to all NAPS attendees. Session details below. (1/5)

An amazing #sarcophagus from c. 150 CE in the #VaticanMuseums for #SarcophagusSaturday with an excellent buffet of ancient sculptures atop it. The scene shows the #myth of #Orestes, and corpses litter the landscape, with vengeful Orestes wreaking havoc. The House of Atreus, eh! #AncientBluesky 🏺

Proofs day for A Workshop of Eloquence: A Collection of Gazan Literature from Late Antiquity! I'm grateful to be working with DAK University Press in Bethlehem and a Gazan Arabic translator to offer an introduction and selection of translated texts by, from, and about late ancient Gaza.

This incredible, almost Mannerist bust portrays Eutropius, the first eunuch to be consul. During his rise to power, he was notorious for his greed & cruelty which I think the sculptor knew and shows in this portrait. He eventually fell from power & was executed. 🕰️c400AD 🏛️📷 Kunsthistoriches Museum