Location: Akademiegebouw, Domplein 29, City Center, Utrecht

8:00-9:00                  Registration

9:00-9:30                  Welcome by organizers and authorities

 9:30-10:30                Opening keynote lecture

Neil Christie, University of Leicester, and David Petts, Durham University
Archaeology and Early Christianity: View from the centre(s) and periphery(ies)

10:30-11:00              Coffee break

11:00-12:30              Egypt

Chair: Gunnar Brands

Alexandra Daniela Pleşa, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Mattias Brand, Universiteit Leiden
Christians in the archaeological record? Revisiting the relation between religious identification and funerary patterns in late antique Egypt

Innemee Karel, Universiteit van Amsterdam
From Proconessos to Sketis: Marble architectural sculptures and their origin

Serena Massa, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano
Le origini del cristianesimo nell’Africa subsahariana: le testimonianze archeologiche di Adulis

Gabriele Castiglia, Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana
Oltre il limes: l’impatto monumentale del cristianesimo ad Adulis (Eritrea) e nel Corno d’Africa

Sabrina C. Higgins, Simon Fraser University
Mary, the Apocrypha and the construction of a visual identity in Late Antique Egypt

Discussion (15 minutes)

12:30-13:45              Lunch (own expense)

13:45- 15:15             Syria and Mesopotamia

Chair: Basema Hamarneh

Gunnar Brands, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Late antique sculpture from Antioch – ‘A lost ancient city’ revisited

Elie Essa Kas Hanna, Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana
La chiesa di Qirq Bize: un’analisi architettonica e una riflessione topografica

Paola Buzi, Sapienza Università di Roma; Emanuela Borgia, Sapienza Università di Roma; Massimiliano David, Università di Bologna; Francesca Romana Stasolla, Sapienza Università di Roma
Il cristianesimo negli agglomerati fortificati secondari di frontiera. Limes orientale

Antonio Enrico Felle, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro
Scutum fidei. Bible quotations inscribed along the Byzantine limes (Syria and Africa)

Discussion (15 minutes)

15:15-15:45             Tea break

15:45- 17:15             Roman and Byzantine Palestine

Chair: Galit Noga-Banai

Boaz Zissu, Bar-Ilan University, and Orit Peleg-Barkat, The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Early Christian churches and rock-cut tombs at Horvat Midras, Israel

Basema Hamarneh, University of Vienna
The Christianization of the Roman frontier in the Levant: Functions, identities, and transformations. Some case studies from Arabia and Palaestina (4th – 8th centuries)

Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets, Israel Antiquities Authority
Les derniers païennes? Fourth-century Jerusalem in the light of the new archaeological data

Josef Rist, Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Dichtung und Wahrheit: Die Christianisierung des spätantiken Gaza nach der Vita Porphyrii (BHG 1570) des Marcus Diaconus

Haim Goldfus and Benny Arubas, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
From farmstead to monastery – The archaeological site at Hatzerim Air Base, Israel

Carmelo Pappalardo, Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana
Umm al-Rasas e il Limes Arabicus nella regione di Madaba in Giordania tra VI e VII secolo: topografia di una frontiera in trasformazione

17:15-17:30              Break

17:30-18:15              Persia, Armenia, and Georgia

Chair: Annewies van den Hoek

Ute Verstegen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnber
Archäologische Zeugnisse der “Kirche des Ostens” – Forschungsstand und Forschungsfragen

Manuela Studer-Karlen, Université de Fribourg
Georgia as site of cultural interactions: The church setting

Discussion (15 minutes)

18:30-20:30              Welcome reception for participants and invited guests in the Pandhof Courtyard of Utrecht Cathedral