Religion at the end of empire : church construction, labor mobilization, and social power in the late antique Western Mediterranean

This dissertation examines church construction, labor mobilization, and social power in three regions during Late Antiquity: the Po Valley, the Ebro Valley, and the Rhône Valley. Despite considerable recent archaeological work, there has been no attempt to develop systematic inter-regional mapping of the energetics of church construction, from quarrying stone to laying mosaics. This work thus contributes a innovative methodological and theoretical framework (quantitative energetics and qualitative examination of taskscapes) for interregional study of construction, provides maps and charts of energetics estimates in three regions, critically examines Late Antique written sources concerning work in and around churches, and carries out an analysis of economic and social change in the Christian built environment and in the livelihoods of elite and non-elites at a crucial juncture in the religious history of the Mediterranean. Chapter 1 describes the history of political and national disciplinary divergences in early Christian archaeology and Late Antique studies. Chapter 2 characterizes the economic history of these regions under the themes of integration, state capacity, transaction costs, and social relations. In addition to archaeological data, this study also examines textual records of ecclesiastical social and moral regulation and historical narratives. Chapter 3 thus examines canon law regulations and Late Antique architectural histories. These texts shed light on economic ideologies in this period and provide valuable information about financing, clerical mobility, and work-life in Late Antique churches. However, consistent narrative biases that favor the elite hide much of the quantitative scale and qualitative practices of building from us. Archaeological studies based on energetics approaches are therefore essential for filling this gap. Consequently, Chapter 4 outlines an energetics methodology adapted for Late Antique churches. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss this data in its various regional contexts. Primary data collection was carried out in the field at basilicas, baptisteries, and museums across the Western Mediterranean. A series of religious landscapes, defined by changes in construction processes, location, form, and scale, appeared and disappeared. Large-scale changes in economic structures in the Roman world had a major impact in shaping different Christian built environments; these changes influenced the scale, design, and the day-to-day taskscapes of church construction. Political and economic crises in the 5th century concentrated energy expenditure unequally in fewer and fewer places. I conclude by suggesting that church construction by bishops has been underestimated as an important arena of negotiations over power in society. Bishops had to engage in complex power negotiations with wider society over finances and mobilization. Consequently, the act of construction itself, not just the church as final product or its symbolism, was an important part of expressing and gaining social power. This study aims to be a stepping stone to further theorization and data collection that will continue to examine how bishops, elites, and laborers used construction projects to produce and display power in their communities, and how ordinary workers responded and reacted to their new Christian worlds.

Keywords: Classics.
Advisor: Leidwanger Justin 
Scheidel Walter
Trimble Jennifer