»Zwischen Heiligenverehrung und „Götzendienst“: spätantike Ostraka aus Ephesos«

Patrick Sänger | Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Seminar für Alte Geschichte

The lecture offers an overview of the results of the DFG-funded and completed project »Schriftkultur und Wirtschaftsleben im spätantiken Ephesos. Neue Ostraka und Inschriften auf Gebrauchskeramik«. The inscribed pottery sherds examined in this project are divided into two groups. One was discovered in 2014 in the entrance area of the Serapeion. The dating and content of the pieces found there indicate that they belong to a late antique construction phase of the monument; they could therefore be associated with the church that was built in the late 4th and early 5th century within the cella of the Serapeion. The other group belongs to find material that came to light in the late antique-medieval city quarter located south of the Church of Mary.

The focus of the lecture will be on the contextualisation of two particularly noteworthy ostraca: on the one hand, a text from the Serapeion group that contains allusions to Hermione and Theotimos - two Ephesian saints - and, on the other hand, a text with a magical spell from the ruins of the late antique-medieval city quarter. This evidence will show that the information content of the new late antique ostraca from Ephesos goes far beyond the scope of writing culture and economic life.