NORTH AFRICAN FUNERARY CHURCHES AS FOCAL POINTS OF COMMUNITY IDENTITY
(04/01 2001)RP: Not in File.Abstract
The remains of early Christian churches have long been recognized as tangible evidence for the dramatic expansion of saints' cults across the late Roman provinces of North Africa. Burial within many of these basilicas points to an increasing desire to assimilate ördinary" tombs within the space made sacred by the presence of martyrs' remains. The current model for understanding this ad sanctos burial focuses on the individual's attempt to secure salvation and articulate a relationship with the saint. Focusing on the collective, rather than personal, nature of church burial, however, will help us better understand its implications for late antique transformations of commemorative monuments and practices. This paper examines the way in which funerary mosaics from two North African sites (Kelibia and Setif) function as markers of community identity. While the internal homogeneity of funerary epigraphy and decoration from these sites has been read in terms of local workshop practice, this approach has failed to address the architectural and commemorative contexts of the grave markers. I suggest, rather, that similarities and contrasts among individual tombs demonstrate how North African funerary churches became key sites for the representation of elite status and the construction of a new social hierarchy privileging the clergy. This work thus seeks to adjust the current model of ad sanctos burial to account for the individual tomb's position among the gathered dead of the community, as well as its reception by the living viewers and visitors to the church.
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test export from refworks