Dr Ine Jacobs

Dr Ine Jacobs
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Associate Professor of Byzantine Archaeology and Visual Culture
University College
01865 (2)88398
Ine.Jacobs@classics.ox.ac.uk

I am a late antique archaeologist researching the development of the Mediterranean between the fourth and the seventh centuries. I am particularly interested in Late Roman and Byzantine architecture and settlements, the reception of classical antiquity in later centuries, the archaeology of Christianity, and Dark Age Asia Minor.

 

Research Interests

  • Late Antique archaeology and architecture
  • Archaeology of religion​
  • Popular culture​
  • Dark Age Asia Minor

My research focusses on late antique and Byzantine architecture and settlements, the reception of classical antiquity in later centuries and the archaeology of religion. I am particularly interested in how material and visual evidence can or cannot be combined with contemporary literary sources. I wrote my doctoral dissertation (2008) on the aesthetic maintenance of urban sites in the late antique Eastern Mediterranean, using archaeology to nuance and eventually overhaul the idea that they were slowly declining. In a similar vein, I looked into the reciprocal relations between the drastic political and religious changes taking place in the Theodosian period on the one hand and the economic developments and general prosperity in the eastern Mediterranean on the other. I am currently working on a monograph entitled Christian Leaders, Classical Habits, in which I examine how bishops and the clergy carefully curated the classical city, its institutions and its ornaments. 

I was a member of the Sagalassos team (Turkey) between 2003 and 2014, director of the British Archaeological Project at Grumentum (Italy) between 2012 and 2015 and co-director of the Kostoperska Karpa Regional Archaeological Project (Republic of North Macedonia) between 2013 and 2016. Currently, I am Field Director of the New York University excavations at Aphrodisias in Turkey, where I am working on the publication of the excavations in the so-called ‘Tetrapylon Street'. 

 

https://oxford.academia.edu/IneJacobs

See page on the Faculty of Classics website

Teaching

Current DPhil Students

  • Miranda Gronow - Living in the ruins: Geyre and the archaeology of memory  
  • Jelena Jaric - Warfare and Urban Transformation in the Late Antique Central Balkans (late 3rd - early 7th c. AD)
  • Shandra Laumate - The Kelsey Pendant. Amuletic Traditions in Early Byzantium 
  • Lily Liu - Brick Tombs in the Sichuan Basin during the Eastern Han Period (25-220AD): Regional Identity and Cultural Fusion
  • Kelly McClinton - Elite Identity in Domestic Space in Rome. Architectural Change and Redecoration in Late Antique Houses
  • Grace Stafford - Artistic representations of women in late antiquity, 4th - 7th centuries AD
  • Katerina Vavaliou - The network of fortified settlements of eastern Central Greece from the late 6th c to the 13th c AD

 

I would like to hear from potential DPhil students regarding:

  • Late Antique archaeology and architecture
  • Archaeology of Religion
  • Popular culture
  • Dark Age Asia Minor

 

Publications

  • Old statues, new meanings. Literary, epigraphic and archaeological evidence for Christian reidentification of statuary

    September 2020
    |
    Journal article
    |
    Byzantinische Zeitschrift
    This article examines literary, epigraphic and archaeological evidence for the Christian reidentification of statuary and reliefs as biblical scenes and protagonists, saints and angels. It argues that Christian identifications were promulgated, amongst others by local bishops, to make sense of imagery of which the original identity had been lost and/or was no longer meaningful. Three conditions for a new identification are discussed: the absence of an epigraphic label, geographical and/or chronological distance separating the statue from its original context of display, and the presence of a specific attribute or characteristic that could become the prompt for reidentification. In their manipulation and modernization of older statuary, Christians showed a much greater appreciation of the statuary medium than generally assumed.

  • Village churches and donors at the end of Antiquity

    January 2020
    |
    Chapter
    |
    Inscribing Texts in Byzantium. Continuities and Transformations

  • Asia Minor in the Long Sixth Century:

    February 2019
    |
    c-book
    This volume brings together historians and archaeologists working on diverse aspects of Asia Minor in the long sixth century. They discuss topics as varied as rural prosperity, urbanism in cities large and small, frontier management, and the imperial capital of Constantinople. Many of the papers focus on the fabric of cities during this period, showing that there was much greater vitality than has often been assumed. Together, they produce a comprehensive impression of the quality of life in both city and countryside in the period shortly before the transformation of Asia Minor in the face of the Arab attacks of the seventh century.
    Late Antiquity, Asia Minor

  • Chapter 1. Introduction

    February 2019
    |
    Chapter
    |
    Asia Minor in the Long Sixth Century Current Research and Future Directions
    Presents a comprehensive impression of the quality of life across Asia Minor during the last century or so before the end of Antiquity.
    History, late antique archaeology, Late Antiquity, Asia Minor

  • Chapter 3. Pagan-mythological statuary in sixth-century Asia Minor

    February 2019
    |
    Chapter
    |
    Asia Minor in the Long Sixth Century Current Research and Future Directions
    Presents a comprehensive impression of the quality of life across Asia Minor during the last century or so before the end of Antiquity.
    History, late antiquity, late antique archaeology
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