Spatial readings of monuments and landscapes have fundamentally changed how archaeologists approach settlements and their relationship to the environment. On a more intimate scale, the evolution of materiality studies has further enriched how archaeologists interpret the creation, use, and disuse of objects within communities. In this lecture, I explore how the evolution of archaeological theory regarding space, placemaking, and the movement of things alters our understanding of the natural and cultural landscape associated with the early monastic movement in Egypt.

Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom Associate Professor, holds the Myra and Robert Kraft and Jacob Hiatt Chair in Christian Studies and has a joint appointment in the Departments of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and Classical and Early Mediterranean Studies. Dr. Brooks Hedstrom is an archaeologist and historian of ancient and early Byzantine Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean world (circa 300–1000 CE) with a specialization in the archaeology and history of monasticism. She is Senior Archaeological Consultant for the Yale Monastic Archaeology Project-North, in Wadi Natrun, Egypt, and co-field director of the Monastic Archaeology Field School at Lindores Abbey, Scotland. She is the author of The Monastic Landscape of Late Antique Egypt and Desert Ascetics of Egypt, and she is currently writing a new volume, Monks as Makers: A Material History of Monasticism.

This lecture will take place live on ZOOM, followed by a question and answer period. REGISTRATION OPENS MARCH 24

TIME ZONE CONVERTER

A church at the Monastery of Apa Jeremias, Saqqara, Egypt, during the inundation, c. 1912