The Archaeology of the Early Christian World: History, Methods, Evidence

FAIN: FZ-272289-20

David Pettegrew
Messiah College (Mechanicsburg, PA 17055-6706)

Research and writing for a book on the archaeological history of Early Christianity.

This project explains how archaeological approaches, practices, and evidence shape historical interpretations of the early Christian world. Scholars have often viewed archaeology as a tool for generating extraordinary discoveries to authenticate, challenge, or illustrate the histories and theologies of the early church. This work considers how the more common but less spectacular findings of archaeological field research, including ceramic assemblages, stratified deposits, and surface remains, are gradually changing our picture of the social and economic life of Christian communities of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East between the first and seventh centuries CE. In its emphasis on processes and practices, the book fills a gap in Anglophone scholarship for a critical explanation of the archaeology of this world religion and an accessible introduction to a subject often sensationalized in popular media.

Associated Products

Dura-Europos and the Domus Ecclesiae: Revisiting the Archaeology of Syria’s Oldest House-Church" (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Dura-Europos and the Domus Ecclesiae: Revisiting the Archaeology of Syria’s Oldest House-Church"
Abstract: In his final published report on the Christian building at Dura-Europos (1967), Carl Kraeling established the domus ecclesiae as a standard fixture in the evolutionary typologies of church architecture. In Kraeling’s reading of the stratigraphic, architectural, and decorative evidence, the excavated third-century building represented a type of private domestic structure permanently adapted to communal Christian worship through a unified program of deliberate modifications. Kraeling’s thorough discussion of the evidence and airtight interpretation of architectural phases made Dura’s building the best example of a modified church before the age of Constantine. My paper revisits the archaeological evidence that proved foundational to Kraeling’s interpretation of architectural adaptation. In one respect, I discuss poorly known documents of the Dura-Europos collections of the Yale University Art Gallery archives to show how and why the building’s original excavators at times contested Kraeling’s reading of the evidence. In another, I reconsider the phases and function of the building in light of more recent studies of the Roman city of Dura and its domestic architecture. I conclude that the city's Christian building is a privately-owned house used for communal worship. In this respect, my paper highlights the value of thinking critically about influential “legacy ideas” (James 2019, 10) that structure and bind our views of archaeological sites.
Author: David K. Pettegrew
Date: 10/23/2022
Location: Virtual Conference
Primary URL: https://virtual.oxfordabstracts.com/#/event/2691/program?session=50138&s=3360

Dura-Europos and the Domus Ecclesiae: Revisiting the Archaeology of Syria’s Oldest House-Church (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Dura-Europos and the Domus Ecclesiae: Revisiting the Archaeology of Syria’s Oldest House-Church
Abstract: In his final published report on the Christian building at Dura-Europos (1967), Carl Kraeling established the domus ecclesiae as a standard fixture in the evolutionary typologies of church architecture. In Kraeling’s reading of the stratigraphic, architectural, and decorative evidence, the excavated third-century building represented a type of private domestic structure permanently adapted to communal Christian worship through a unified program of deliberate modifications. Kraeling’s thorough discussion of the evidence and airtight interpretation of architectural phases made Dura’s building the best example of a modified church before the age of Constantine. My paper revisits the archaeological evidence that proved foundational to Kraeling’s interpretation of architectural adaptation. In one respect, I discuss poorly known documents of the Dura-Europos collections of the Yale University Art Gallery archives to show how and why the building’s original excavators at times contested Kraeling’s reading of the evidence. In another, I reconsider the phases and function of the building in light of more recent studies of the Roman city of Dura and its domestic architecture. I conclude that the city's Christian building is a privately-owned house used for communal worship. In this respect, my paper highlights the value of thinking critically about influential “legacy ideas” (James 2019, 10) that structure and bind our views of archaeological sites. James, Simon. The Roman Military Base at Dura-Europos, Syria: An Archaeological Visualization. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. Kraeling, Carl H. The Christian Building. New Haven: Dura-Europos Publications, 1967.
Author: David K. Pettegrew
Date: 11/17/2022
Location: American Schools of Overseas Research Conference, Boston
Primary URL: https://virtual.oxfordabstracts.com/#/event/2691/program?session=50719&s=4108

The Christian House at Dura-Europos: Rethinking the Archaeology of the World’s Oldest Domestic Church (Article)
Title: The Christian House at Dura-Europos: Rethinking the Archaeology of the World’s Oldest Domestic Church
Author: David K. Pettegrew
Abstract: In his final report of the excavations at Dura-Europos, Syria, the eminent scholar Carl Kraeling established the site’s Christian Building as the ancient world’s preeminent example of a domus ecclesiae, a house converted into a church through architectural adaptation. In Kraeling’s interpretation, a private domestic structure (House M8A) built in 232 CE was later remade as a community-owned church through a single, deliberate program of modification. This article engages with legacy ideas about the Christian Building, unexplored archival records, and recent studies of Dura-Europos to rethink the building’s phases, function, and dating. I argue that House M8A was not the domus ecclesiae that Kraeling envisioned—wholly, instantly, and permanently converted to a church—but a Christian house that retained its domestic function even as it was used for religious activity. The article proposes new phases for the building and updates the chronology for its construction to the late second century CE, a time that better fits revised estimates of Dura’s Roman development. This reinterpretation of the world’s oldest domestic church bears significant repercussions for our understanding of early Christian architecture and communities and underscores the value of revisiting legacy ideas and critical thinking in archaeology.
Year: 2024
Primary URL: https://www.ajaonline.org/
Access Model: Authors may post a copy of their e-print, or final paginated version published in the journal, in their funding agency’s or institution’s secure digital repository after an embargo period of one year.
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: American Journal of Archaeology
Publisher: The Archaeological Institute of America

From Corinthian Twilight to the Busy Countryside. Remaking the Landscapes, Monuments, and Religion of the Late Antique Corinthia (Book Section)
Title: From Corinthian Twilight to the Busy Countryside. Remaking the Landscapes, Monuments, and Religion of the Late Antique Corinthia
Author: David K. Pettegrew
Editor: Christoph Auffarth
Abstract: None
Year: 2024
Primary URL: https://www.mohrsiebeck.com/en/book/korinth-ii-das-roemische-korinth-9783161625466?no_cache=1
Access Model: Open Access
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck Tubingen
Book Title: Korinth II: Das römische Korinth
ISBN: 9783161625459

---