Via AGADE:

==========================

FRIENDS OF ASOR WEBINARS

The Mysteries of Mithras in Caesarea: Exploring the Cult’s Rites and Remains
March 11, at 7:00 pm EST
Jane DeRose Evans and Dr. Alexandra Ratzlaff.

Friends of ASOR presents the next webinar in our monthly series on
March 11, at 7:00 pm EST, featuring Prof. Jane DeRose Evans and Dr.
Alexandra Ratzlaff. These two experts will take you on a journey
underneath the ruins of ancient Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean
Sea coast of modern Israel. A bustling port city before and during the
lifetime of Jesus, this site has provided a wealth of information for
scholars studying Caesarea’s Roman era, when it was ruled by Herod the
Great, king of Judaea (37 BCE – 4 BCE). When the late Prof. Robert J.
Bull’s team arrived to dig in the sand dunes near this ancient harbor
in 1974, they discovered a row of warehouses dating to the Roman
period. After crawling through several of the structures to decide
which one to excavate, they chose the northernmost one in the row.
Inside the vault, which had been used in later periods to dispose of
decapitated bodies, the excavation team discovered the remains of a
Mithraeum, or a place of worship for the mystery cult of Mithras. Join
Prof. Evans and Dr. Ratzlaff as they discuss what we know about how
the initiates formed the Mithraeum, and what we can uncover about the
cult’s secret rites from the frescos painted on the vault walls and
the objects left behind following its abandonment. The webinar will
conclude with a live Q&A session.

Jane DeRose Evans is Chair and Professor of Art History at Tyler
School of Art and Architecture, Temple University. She earned the A.B.
in Classics from Franklin & Marshall College, and the M.A. and Ph.D.
degrees in Classical Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jane met Robert Bull (then of Drew University and the Director of the
JECM project) when he asked her to publish the excavation coins from
the JECM excavations at Caesarea, and she continued to work with him
on the materials from Caesarea for many years after they were
published. She is currently a numismatist for the Harvard-Cornell
Sardis Expeditions and The George Washington University’s Bir Madkhour
Project. She leads the team to publish the results of the JECM
excavations of the building on top of the warehouses.

Alexandra Ratzlaff is a Lecturer in the Department of Classical
Studies at Brandeis University. She earned her BA in Classical Studies
and Archaeology at The George Washington University and PhD in
Archaeology at Boston University. Alexandra is a Classical and Near
Eastern Archaeologist specializing in the Eastern Mediterranean. She
is currently an Associate Director of the Tel Kabri Excavations.
Beginning in 2021, she will be the Co-Director of a new project at the
Roman Fort of Birsama in Israel. She has excavated in Israel on
various projects for the last fifteen years. Her research interests
include the Roman army, the Late Antique economy, Roman and Byzantine
ceramics, Bronze Age economies and state structure. She is also the
Project Lead for the Brandeis Techne Group at Autodesk, a long-term
research project aimed at developing new equipment and methodologies
for digital imaging in archaeology and the humanities.

ASOR Sustaining Members: $0 | ASOR Members: $5 | Public: $10

To receive your ASOR member discount, log into the online store. If
you are new to ASOR, please click on the “New Visitor Registration”
link to register your e-mail address and choose password for our
online store. Once logged in, navigate to “Meeting and Event
Registration” to register for the webinar and pay the fee. Each paid
registrant will receive a confirmation e-mail when you pay for the
webinar. If you do not receive this e-mail, then you are not
registered. Please e-mail membership@asor.org with any questions or
issues with registering.

You will be e-mailed the Zoom Webinar link in the week prior to the
lecture on March 11, 2021. If you do not receive the link by the close
of business on the Monday before the webinar, please e-mail
membership@asor.org immediately. All webinars are recorded and all
paid registrants will be sent a link to view the recording.

All proceeds from this lecture are used to fund scholarships for
members impacted by COVID-19 as well as increasing ASOR’s online
resources, which are free to the public.