Dr Ine Jacobs

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