Our project hosts yet another guest talk – on 11 April Marlena Whiting (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz / Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), a member of the DFG-funded project “Procopius and the Language of Buildings”, will come to Warsaw to read a paper “What’s in a title? Late antique ‘matronage’ through the lens of church dedicatory inscriptions” during the Warsaw Seminar in Epigraphy and Papyrology. Her paper will examine church donor inscriptions from sixth and seventh-century Palaestina and Arabia in which female donors included their social rank and titles. This is used to demonstrate that women as well as men publicised their earthly status, and that Christian inscriptions, rather than solely emphasising pious anonymity and communication with God for spiritual rewards, were used by women as a way to gain recognition from their communities.

The talk will allow us to better grasp the issue of gender and identity in dedicatory inscriptions, and their impact on the methods of self-presentation of donors.

The seminar will take place at 4:45pm in room 206, at the Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw. Everyone is welcome!

Image: Mosaic panel from Kissufim.