DoSSE Project

A memorial to a Roman slave A Roman slave who died in Bonn in Germany approx. 2000 years ago is remembered to this day. Find out more about Euthenia.

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 world of the Icelandic sagas is outside the remit of the DoSSE project, but this is a striking example of how "invisible" medieval slaves might be commemorated, alongside kings, bishops and warriors.

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 lampsedinburgh@gmail.com
Deadline: 29th August 2025

We are particularly, but not exclusively, interested in how actors like bishops, clerics, monks and nuns, local administrators, state officials and landowners navigated the project to establish Christian orthodoxy on the ground. We propose a broad approach which encourages contributions that analyse administrative documents, ‘canon’, imperial or other legal and normative literature and juristic papyri, hagiographies, epistolography, narrative sources and epigraphic and archaeological evidence. How were doctrinal conflicts enmeshed within larger socioeconomic dynamics, i.e. of consumption, production and labour? How were economic or financial concerns deployed rhetorically in narratives attempting to establish or defend ‘orthodoxy’? How did the emergence, use and/or development of the concept of heresy affect relationships around ‘public’ or ‘private’ property, or vice versa? How did ecclesiastical and lay authorities approach questions regarding the administration of property in situations of doctrinal strife, to what ends and with what consequences? How did specific properties gain religious significance in these contexts, and how might this have affected economic relationships? How did the issues of property influence and were influenced by the questions of gender? We also welcome methodological or theoretical reflections on approaching the complex relationship between orthodoxy and economy in the late antique era. The resulting sessions will offer a space for discussion about the manifold unexplored economic dimensions of doctrinal conflict, orthodoxy and heresy in the late antique world. The sessions will have pre-circulated papers and we are aiming at publishing an open access special issue with the resulting articles. Please contact Dr Cinnamon Ducasse (cinnamon.ducasse@uni-erfurt.de) and Dr Mateusz Fafinski (mateusz.fafinski@uni-erfurt.de) with your proposed title and a short abstract (no more than 300 words) by 1st of September 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!

The front cover of Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration by Matthew Larsen and Mark Letteney.

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...

Migration and Mobility History The IHR Migration and Mobility seminar provides a space for historians and scholars from other disciplines to come together to discuss migration and mobility in history.

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/...

Letters, gifts and messengers. The epistolary strategies of St Radegund This article studies the ways the sixth-century queen and monastic founder Radegund (c.520–87) managed the non-textual elements of communication by letter. While Radegund’s role as a writer and commi...

At a loose end now that #IMC2025 has ended? Fill the yawning hours with the latest issue of Early Medieval Europe!
The issue includes:
Robert Flierman and Hope Williard on Merovingian letter-writing
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Happening tomorrow!

Erin is presenting at the IMC tomorrow, alongside our Leicester colleague Jo Story:

Heading to the IMC? Tomorrow Sheida will be presenting on 'Early Islamic Sexual Taboos: The Boundaries of Permissibility in al-Ṭabarī and al-Ṭabarānī's Narratives', as part of @beccagrose.bsky.social and Grace Stafford's panels on 'Sex Education and Late Antiquity'. 11:15-12:45, Esther Simpson 2.08

Passionate about med history? You follow @lincolnmedieval.bsky.social, @medievalists.bsky.social, @regestaimperii.bsky.social or @dosse-project.bsky.social ? You daily check @mideastmedieval.bsky.social, @digitalmedievalist.bsky.social or @canmedievalists.bsky.social ? #medievalsky feed is for you!

Re-envisioning Theodore: Theodore of Mopsuestia's Biblical Exegesis in his <i>Catechetical Homilies</i> "Re-envisioning Theodore: Theodore of Mopsuestia's Biblical Exegesis in his <i>Catechetical Homilies</i>" published on 19 Aug 2024 by Brill.

Link to the book: brill.com/display/titl...

You can also watch a recording of the book launch to find out more: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLhX...

Sofia challenges the common view of Theodore’s exegetical approach as “historical." Theodore may omit the exposition of the Bible's historical setting and introduce elements not present in the biblical narrative. She also reveals Theodore’s little known exegetical ties with Pro-Nicenes and Origen.

For all the Syriac and patristic scholars out there - our research associate Sofia Puchkova has a new book out!

It's the first comprehensive study of Theodore of Mopsuestia's biblical interpretation in his Catechetical Homilies. She also shows how he incorporates Greco-Syrian liturgical imagery.

New #Merovingia of interest.

@archanchistleic.bsky.social

You can read some of the work of the Body Politics team into pregnancy and archaeology in the Viking Age here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

It was great to talk to Alex Wilson, Brad Marshall, @thehem.bsky.social and Kevin Kay from Body Politics (another Leicester ERC project!) today about their exciting research into slavery and outlawry in medieval Iceland, and the interesting parallels with the legal culture of late antique societies.

I am happy to share an advertisement for a post-doc position in the Frankfurt-Leuven project "Commentary on John of Ephesus's Ecclesiastical History." The deadline is 23 July 2025, and the position is to be filled from 1 October 2025. Please feel free to contact me or Hartmut Leppin with questions.

Catch DoSSE project members at this year's IMC: Erin on the Merovingian Queen Balthild, a former slave (session 716); Sheida on Islamic sexual taboos (113), and sex education in Late Antiquity (413); and James on slaving by bandits (1304, our sponsored panel), and namelessness in texts (1403).

This new online edition of the Frankish formularies is beginning to shape up very impressively.