1. Brent Landau University ofTexas at Austin October 17, 2013—5:00 p.m.—UNB 4.224 Asian Culture Room
The Star-Child and his Star-Food: Fragments ofVisionary Experience in the Syriac Revelation of the Magi
Dr. Landau will discuss the Revelation of the Magi, an apocryphal Christian text preserved in Syriac and ostensibly narrated by the Magi of
Matthew’s Gospel, with a focus on understanding better the unusual phenomena described in this document.After providing a brief overview of
this little-known text,it will assess how likely it is that the visionary experiences of the Magi in this writing actually represent the lived experiences
of some early Christians,a methodological challenge familiar to interpreters of pseudepigraphical Jewish and Christian literature.This paper argues
that there is indeed sufficient evidence to regard these textualized events as derivatives of “real world” religious experience. It will then consider
in more detail several of the stranger and more distinctive practices and experiences in the Revelation of the Magi: the Magi’s practice of silent
prayer; their ingesting of a substance that leads to polymorphic visions of Christ; and Christ’s manifestation to them as both a star and a small
luminous human being.
William Caraher University of North Dakota September 27, 2013—5:00 p.m.—UNB 2.102 Eastwoods Room
Reconstructing Community from Busted Pots and Ruined Churches on Cyprus
The last three decades has been a golden age in the archaeology of Cyprus. From pioneering intensive surveys to meticulous excavations focused
on rural sites that often fell outside the traditional scope of Mediterranean archaeological research, scholars of Cypriot archaeology have engaged
current debates surrounding postcolonialism and hybridity, networks of exchange and connectivity, insularity, and the development of the ancient
state.The theoretical innovation and methodologically significant fieldwork on Cyprus,however,has done little to project the island from the fringes
of most archaeological conversations. Dr. Caraher will discuss the ongoing work at the site of Polis-Chrysochous (ancient Arsinoë) on the western
side of Cyprus where a team has worked to document both the architecture of one of two Early Christian basilicas and an associated assemblage
of Late Roman ceramics.The architecture and assemblage from this site demonstrates the connections between the city ofArsinoë and other sites
on Cyprus as well as southernAnatolia.At first glance,these links may appear an unremarkable consequence of the site’s location,but the character
of the basilica and the nature of the assemblage reveals more than simply geographic determinism and hints at the material manifestations of the
human decisions that constitute culture.The significance of the past 30 years of field work on Cyprus, in this context, becomes clear as it provides
an almost unparalleled potential to analyze the material culture of a series of related,yet distinct,sites in the ancient world.
Sponsored by
Middle Eastern Studies
The Department of Religious Studies
Workshop on
Late Antiquity
MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
t h e u n i v e r s i t y o f t e x a s at a u s t i n