Books by Konstantin M Klein
City of Caesar, City of God: Constantinople and Jerusalem in Late Antiquity, 2022
When Emperor Constantine triggered the rise of a Christian state, he opened a new chapter in the ... more When Emperor Constantine triggered the rise of a Christian state, he opened a new chapter in the history of Constantinople and Jerusalem. In the centuries that followed, the two cities were formed and transformed into powerful symbols of Empire and Church. For the first time, this book investigates the increasingly dense and complex net of reciprocal dependencies between the imperial center and the navel of the Christian world. Imperial influence, initiatives by the Church, and projects of individuals turned Constantinople and Jerusalem into important realms of identification and spaces of representation. Distinguished international scholars investigate this fascinating development, focusing on aspects of art, ceremony, religion, ideology, and imperial rule. In enriching our understanding of the entangled history of Constantinople and Jerusalem in Late Antiquity, City of Caesar, City of God illuminates the transition between Antiquity, Byzantium, and the Middle Ages.
Thinking Through Ruins: Genealogies, Functions, and Interpretations, 2022
Ruins have for a long time captured the human imagination and, in one way or another, have been i... more Ruins have for a long time captured the human imagination and, in one way or another, have been inscribed in a community’s memory, history, or lore. This long-standing tradition concerning ruins – be it real or imagined, ancient or modern ones – has resulted in a multitude of reflections and creative interpretations. The discourse on ruins, steeped in tradition as it is, offers a unique vantage point to reflect upon their actual meaning in various societies and disciplines by focusing on how they have been and still are often (mis)used and employed in contemporary debates as powerful symbols and motifs. Tackling questions related to the genealogies, functions, and interpretations of ruins in literary and artistic, political and legal, philosophical and sociological discourses, this book aims at moving the discussion beyond the level of case studies. The contributors examine the perception of ruins and the discourse on decay, destruction, and reconstruction from various disciplinary perspectives, referring to a multitude of ruin-related concepts such as ‘longing’, ‘memory’, ‘trauma’, and ‘identity’.
Papers by Konstantin M Klein
from: Tārīḫ šuʿūb aṣ-Ṣaḥrāʾ aš-Šarqīya, ed. by Hans Barnard/Kim Duistermaat, trans. by ʿĀṭif Muʿtamid/Usāma Ḥamīd/ʿIzzat Zaydān, National Center for Translation, Cairo, 2025
In: E. Khansa/K. Klein/B. Winckler (Eds.): Thinking Through Ruins: Genealogies, Functions, and Interpretations. Berlin 2022, 36–71., 2022
ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, 2025
The deterioration of ancient inscriptions over centuries has resulted in irrevocable loss of vita... more The deterioration of ancient inscriptions over centuries has resulted in irrevocable loss of vital written records, hampering epigraphic analysis, and creating significant gaps in historical knowledge. Factors such as eroded letters and physical damage often compromise the readability of these inscriptions. We present DeepHadad, a neural network trained on procedurally generated synthetic data that uses displacement maps and image-to-image translation to digitally restore severely damaged ancient inscriptions to a more readable state. The network's name is derived from the famous Panamuwa (I) inscription on the mid-8th century BCE Hadad statue, where, at certain places, only faint traces of letters remain on the damaged basalt statue. A key challenge in this work is the lack of well-preserved and damaged glyph pairs for training, as each glyph instance is unique and therefore not found in different states of erosion. We address this by generating synthetic training data through simulated erosion processes, enabling our neural network to successfully generalize to real data. By extracting and overlaying completion maps onto the 3D model, we significantly enhance the legibility of the barely recognizable Aramaic inscription on the Hadad statue. Quantitative and qualitative experiments confirm that our approach can recover textual content that would otherwise be lost or recoverable only through time-consuming manual work. This research opens a pioneering avenue for employing state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) to enrich the readability of ancient textual heritage. Our methodology facilitates a more comprehensive analysis of significant inscriptions and demonstrates the potential of AI-assistive technologies to advance the field of ancient restoration and epigraphic studies.
EUROGRAPHICS Workshop on Graphics and Cultural Heritage, 2024
We present DeepHadad, a novel deep learning approach to improve the readability of severely damag... more We present DeepHadad, a novel deep learning approach to improve the readability of severely damaged ancient Northwest Semitic inscriptions. By leveraging concepts of displacement maps and image-to-image translation, DeepHadad effectively recovers text from barely recognizable inscriptions, such as the one on the Hadad statue. A main challenge is the lack of pairs of well-preserved and damaged glyphs as training data since each available glyph instance has a unique shape and is not available in different states of erosion. We overcome this issue by generating synthetic training data through a simulated erosion process, on which we then train a neural network that successfully generalizes to real data. We demonstrate significant improvements in readability and historical authenticity compared to existing methods, opening new avenues for AI-assisted epigraphic analysis. CCS Concepts • Computing methodologies → Mesh geometry models; Reconstruction; Neural networks; • Applied computing → Arts and humanities;
Epigraphy is witnessing a growing integration of artificial intelligence, notably through its sub... more Epigraphy is witnessing a growing integration of artificial intelligence, notably through its subfield of machine learning (ML), especially in tasks like extracting insights from ancient inscriptions. However, scarce labeled data for training ML algorithms severely limits current techniques, especially for ancient scripts like Old Aramaic. Our research pioneers an innovative methodology for generating synthetic training data tailored to Old Aramaic letters. Our pipeline synthesizes photo-realistic Aramaic letter datasets, incorporating textural features, lighting, damage, and augmentations to mimic real-world inscription diversity. Despite minimal real examples, we engineer a dataset of 250 000 training and 25 000 validation images covering the 22 letter classes in the Aramaic alphabet. This comprehensive corpus provides a robust volume of data for training a residual neural network (ResNet) to classify highly degraded Aramaic letters. The ResNet model demonstrates 95% accuracy in classifying real images from the 8th century BCE Hadad statue inscription. Additional experiments validate performance on varying materials and styles, proving effective generalization. Our results validate the model's capabilities in handling diverse real-world scenarios, proving the viability of our synthetic data approach and avoiding the dependence on scarce training data that has constrained epigraphic analysis. Our innovative framework elevates interpretation accuracy on damaged inscriptions, thus enhancing knowledge extraction from these historical resources.
Blitzlichter für den Wettergott. Auf den Spurer der Sprache des Stadtstaats von Sam'al
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2020
In A. Papaconstantinou, N. McLynn, & D. Schwartz (Eds.), Conversion in Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond (pp. 241-266), 2015
When Minucius Felix wrote his dialogue Octavius in the first half of the third century AD-which c... more When Minucius Felix wrote his dialogue Octavius in the first half of the third century AD-which culminates with one of the protagonists becoming eager to convert-he was describing a true victory of reason: Caecilius, who had lived for a long time in 'pagan superstitions' and 'ignorance', 1 discovers Christianity and is eventually convinced by the superiority of this religion. 2 Successful conversion in general is often portrayed in the vocabulary of triumph and juxtaposed with a time of ignorance and superstition before the adoption of the new faith. This paper aims to look at similar processes and topoi, though not in the imperial Rome of Minucius Felix, but at the edge of the late Roman world, in Syria, Palestine, and Arabia, and will focus on conversions of people 1 Superstitiosae vanitates and inscientia, Minucius Felix, Octavius 1.5 and 4.3; see Christoph Schäublin, 'Konversionen in antiken Dialogen?', in Christoph Schäublin (ed.), Catalepton: Festschrift für Bernhard Wyss zum 80. Geburtstag (Basel, 1985), 117-131, who compares the Christian monotheistic conversion with the classical turn to philosophy, e.g. in Cicero's Hortensius. According to Schäublin's analysis the novelty of a conversion dialogue such as Octavius is that-contrary to a classic Platonic dialogue-this disputation now has a definite goal and distinct result, namely the conversion of Caecilius. 2 Ego Octavio meo plurimum quantum, sed et mihi gratulor nec exspecto sententiam. vicimus, et ita ut inprobe usurpo victoriam. nam ut ille mei victor est, ita ego triumphator erroris, Minucius Felix, Octavius 40.1 ('Heartiest congratulations, Octavius, my friend; and I congratulate myself as well. I need not wait for the verdict. We have both won in a sense: it may sound outrageous, but I claim victory too, for while Octavius is victorious over me, I am triumphant over errorʼ, trans. G.W. Clarke, The Octavius of Minucius Felix [New York, 1974], p. 125). Both contestants were to be declared winners in the end: the eponymous Octavius for having the stronger arguments; Caecilius, the convert, for overcoming his former religious errors. In the end (40.4), Minucius Felix himself seems to be the third of the triumphants: Post haec laeti hilaresque discessimus: Caecilius quod crediderit, Octavius gaudere quod vi ce rit, ego et quod hic crediderit et hic vicerit ('Thereupon we departed, lighthearded and cheerful, Caecilius rejoicing because he had come to believe, Octavius because he had been victorious, and I because the one had come to believe and the other had been victorious', trans. Clarke, Octavius, p. 126). religious life constitutes a valuable contribution to our knowledge about pre-Islamic ritual, a field for which we have very few sources. 9 Theodoret, Religious History 26.21. 10 Elusa (Ḥaluza) was a town in the central Negev desert, first mentioned by Ptolemy (Geog. 5.15) and depicted on the Tabula Peutingeriana at a distance of 71 Roman miles from Jerusalem and 24 from Obodat ('Avdat). Not many of its buildings have survived, as the town was used as a quarry for nearby Gaza. In surveys and excavations from 1973 onwards, a theatre, two churches and an elaborate water supply system have been found. Elusa was not unimportant for the development of Christianity in the region: two of its bishops are recorded in the acts of the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon respectively. Elusa is also the setting for Pseudo-Nilus' narratio describing the abduction of the narrator's son by Arab marauders. 11 [M]aledicorum uoces (Jerome, Vita Hilarionis 1.6).
In: The Hagiographical Experiment: Developing Discourses of Sainthood, 256–274 , 2020
At the beginning of the fifth century, Synesius of Cyrene compared man's role in the great theatr... more At the beginning of the fifth century, Synesius of Cyrene compared man's role in the great theatre of the world with the performance of an actor: for both it was paramount to play the part well and, while doing so, to improve one's virtue and art.1 In this comparison Synesius explicitly referred to characters of ancient tragedy; however, it is safe to assume that he knew about plays not only from his reading of learned books, but because he himself had (voluntarily or not) glimpsed actual theatrical performances staged in Cyrene or elsewhere. His contemporary Augustine distinguished between tragedy and comedy on the one hand (both barely, but somehow, tolerable), and the unbearable genre of scenic performances on the other, that is to say, lowbrow theatrical shows such as the late antique mimus and pantomimus.2 For Synesius, it would have been even easier to watch such shows in the large city of Alexandria, where he moved in the AD390s to study with the renowned philosopher Hypatia. Syne-1 Synes. Provid. 13.9. 2 Cf. Aug. Civ. 2.8; on the genres of mimus and pantomimus in late antiquity in general, cf. Alexander Puk, Das römische Spielewesen in der Spätantike (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014), 289-300, and particularly on the Church Fathers' knowledge of them, 297-299. Claudia Ludwig compared late antique and Byzantine saints' lives with the second-century Vita Aesopi elucidating similar themes, while, of course, no direct influence from this text on hagiography can be observed, cf. Claudia Ludwig, Sonderformen byzantinischer Hagiographie und ihr literarisches Vorbild: Untersuchungen zu den Viten des Äsop, des Philaretos, des Symeon Salos und des Andreas Salos
In: Gymnasium 125, 251-273, 2018
Marcian gilt gleichermaßen als Pragmatiker auf dem Kaiserthron wie als vehementer Durchsetzer der... more Marcian gilt gleichermaßen als Pragmatiker auf dem Kaiserthron wie als vehementer Durchsetzer der auf dem von ihm einberufenen Konzil von Chalcedon gefällten dogmatischen Beschlüsse. Mehr noch als die Einberufung der Versammlung führte das Beharren auf den Beschlüssen und die partielle Verfolgung derjenigen, die jene ablehnten, dazu, dass Marcian in der monophysitischen Geschichtsschreibung zu einem der schlechtesten Kaiser überhaupt stilisiert wurde. Der folgende Beitrag untersucht Marcians Vorgehen gegen diese Gruppe im Detail und möchte anregen, auch die Religionspolitik des Kaisers vornehmlich als eine pragmatische anzusehen.
In: C. Fauchon-Claudon/M.-A. Le Guennec (eds): Hospitalité et régulation de l’altérité dans l’An tiquité méditerranéenne. Bordeaux 2022 (Scripta Antiqua 156), 145–155., 2022
De l'hospitalité en territoire "barbare" : pistes de réflexion autour d'une pratique celtique peu... more De l'hospitalité en territoire "barbare" : pistes de réflexion autour d'une pratique celtique peu connue, Sandra Péré-Noguès. .. .. .. .. Les Sidoniens de Sichem, le Garizim, la xénia et Antiochos IV (175-164 a.C.
In: K. Klein/J. Wienand (eds): City of Caesar, City of God: Contantinople and Jerusalem in Late Antiquity. Berlin 2022 (Millennium Studies 97), 139–159, 2022
cepted her in the pantheon of living holym en and women, and venerated her as a saint soon after ... more cepted her in the pantheon of living holym en and women, and venerated her as a saint soon after her demise. The Jacobite Synaxarion (Codex Parisinus 4869) records an originallyCoptic legend transmittedi nA rabic about aw oman called Sophia living in Constantinople at the time of the Emperor Arcadius and John Chrysostom, who was her alleged spiritual advisor.E vent hough the manuscript witness is late, Michelv an Esbroeck proposed that the legend itself dates to the late fifth century.S ophia bore three sons, but,a fter the death of her parents and husband, sought counsel from Chrysostom as she did not want to remarry and was at the samet ime afraid to join am onastery fearing the disapproval of her children. Distraught,S ophia layp rostrate before a large cross, and, likeM atrona, eventuallyfell asleep. In her dream it was the Virgin Mary who appeared to her and said that if Sophia wanted to please God, he would not call her in this city.S he, the Virgin, would have Sophia speak to her son. When Sophia wokeu p, she discovered that she had been transferred to Jerusalem.⁶ Both female figures,l egendary as they mayb e, are remarkable. Matrona stands out because she is caught in ab igamousl ovea ffair-one thats till does not leave enough room for her husband. She is obviouslye namored with the heavenlyb ridegroom, but at the same time she is deeplyi nl ovew ith the city of Constantinople. This city,however,isnot fit to house her alleged contemporary,Sophia, who is transferred in ac loud to Jerusalem.The HolyC ity is, accordingt ot he story'ss ubtext,a place much more suitable to house Sophia, the HolyW isdom, within its walls. It is remarkable that in the Matrona legend Jerusalem does not qualify as ad estination for her.I nS ophia'sc ase, however,J erusalemi st he only option during her lifetime. However,a fter her death, Sophia,W isdom, returns to Constantinople, which,a sI will show,p lays an important part in the logic of the narrative. How can these two legends about holyw omen help us to understand the role that saints-living as well as deceased-playedi nt he twoc ities?T he following pages aim to demonstrate how duringt he assumed lifetime of Matrona and Sophia, i. e., in the second half of the fifth century,afundamental changeo ccurred in Jerusalem concerning the relationship between saints and city-and how this change was directlyi nfluenced by contemporary developments in Constantinople. Holy Women between Constantinople and Jerusalem At the end of the fourth century, the pilgrim Egeria, awoman much more 'real' than Matrona and Sophia,but nevertheless quite elusive consideringthe numerous questions her pilgrim account leavesu swith, was travelling to the HolyL and. Returning from an excursion into the Judaean desert, she passed through aremotedesert valley whereshe discovered ahermit'scell. This is how she presents her quest for more in- Cf. vanE sbroeck2 001,132-133.
Millennium, 2018
Jerusalem and its surrounding hinterland were popular destinations for late antique pilgrims. The... more Jerusalem and its surrounding hinterland were popular destinations for late antique pilgrims. The majority relied on the hospitality offered in Christian guesthouses during their visits and afterwards returned to their homes all over the late antique world. This study aims at investigating how pilgrimage hospitality in the Holy Land between the fourth and the sixth centuries functioned in generaland to what extent board and lodging provided by the mostly monastic hosts had to be remunerated through either manual labour, voluntary financial donations or testamentary bequests by the guests. It will be demonstrated that hospitality was not only a Christian virtue but also a necessary means for the monasteries to survive as it formed the financial backbone for their social and political activities in the city of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Patriarchate. This constant source of income through a permanent influx of pilgrims enabled further monastic financial investments in a growing number of guesthouses which were constructed not only on the outskirts but also in the centres of cities and towns. Soon, alterations in both the ground plans and the function of the monasteries became noticeable: The monastic institutions of the Holy Land shifted from mere clusters of cells (laurae)which were unable to host the growing number of visitors and new novices aliketo monasteries (coenobia) with a strictly regulated communal life. The study furthermore shows that this change found support in the hagiographical literature of the age. Exhortations to demonstrate hospitality to pilgrims and to rebuild the cells into proper monasteries were often placed in narratives of divine visions or in the ultima verba or monastic testaments of famous abbots. Nevertheless, these changes were not unchallenged by monks who aimed for a more traditional lifestyle in quiet contemplation (hesychia) far away from the more economically-driven ambitions of their superiors, who, to quote John Moschus, had "lined up their bellies and purses."
Archives de sciences sociales des religions 182, 2018
In late antique Palestine in the century following the Council of Chalcedon, the spread of compet... more In late antique Palestine in the century following the Council of Chalcedon, the spread of competing miaphysite (anti-Chalcedonian) and dyophysite (Chalcedonian) theological positions meant that adherence to the wrong position could be detrimental to one’s hope for salvation. This essay demonstrates how ecclesiastical and monastic leaders of the age sought to gain influence by placing their allies in administrative leadership positions within the Church and by claiming certain holy places for their own camp. While the Chalcedonian position has never been called into question as the main narrative of fifth-century Palestine, this essay seeks to study anti-Chalcedonian and Chalcedonian hagiography as compositions with equal value and as texts that stood in sharp competition with each other. Chalcedonian texts sought to emulate their anti-Chalcedonian predecessors, and conversion became a literary topos for both parties.
Dans la Palestine de l’Antiquité tardive, au cours du siècle qui suit le concile de Chalcédoine et la diffusion des positions dogmatiques miaphysites (anti-chalcédoniennes) et dyophysites (chalcédonienes), prendre le mauvais parti mettait en danger les espoirs de salut. L’article montre comment les leaders cléricaux et monastiques de l’époque ont cherché à exercer leur influence en plaçant délibérément leurs partisans dans des positions de leadership administratif dans les structures hiérarchiques de l’Église et en revendiquant certains lieux saints pour leur propre dénomination. Bien que la position chalcédonienne n’ait jamais été contestée dans les principaux récits sur la Palestine au Ve siècle, les textes hagiographiques anti-chalcédoniens et chalcédoniens peuvent être analysés comme des contributions de valeurs égales, en compétition aiguë les uns avec les autres. Il apparaît que les textes chalcédoniens cherchent à concurrencer leurs prédécesseurs anti-chalcédoniens, et que la conversion devient un topos littéraire pour les deux partis.
Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages, 2018
There are two Palmyrene funerary stelae in the archaeological study collection of the American Ac... more There are two Palmyrene funerary stelae in the archaeological study collection of the American Academy in Rome (nos. H28, H29); neither has seen previous publication. The present study offers an art historical and epigraphic description of these objects, discussing the Palmyrene names found in the inscriptions. Together, they provide some new access points into the onomasticon of Palmyra and its environs.
KUSATU, 2018
Die Deutsche Bibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; deta... more Die Deutsche Bibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.ddb.de abrufbar.
L. Nehmé/A. Al-Jallad (eds): To the Madbar and Back Again: Studies in the Languages, Archaeology, and Cultures of Arabia dedicated to Michael C.A. Macdonald. Leiden/Boston 2018 (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics. 92), pp. 551–566, 2018
K. Dmitriev/I. Toral-Niehoff (eds): Religious culture in late antique Arabia: selected studies on the late antique religious mind, Piscataway 2017 (Islamic History and Thought. 6), 2017
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Books by Konstantin M Klein
Papers by Konstantin M Klein
Dans la Palestine de l’Antiquité tardive, au cours du siècle qui suit le concile de Chalcédoine et la diffusion des positions dogmatiques miaphysites (anti-chalcédoniennes) et dyophysites (chalcédonienes), prendre le mauvais parti mettait en danger les espoirs de salut. L’article montre comment les leaders cléricaux et monastiques de l’époque ont cherché à exercer leur influence en plaçant délibérément leurs partisans dans des positions de leadership administratif dans les structures hiérarchiques de l’Église et en revendiquant certains lieux saints pour leur propre dénomination. Bien que la position chalcédonienne n’ait jamais été contestée dans les principaux récits sur la Palestine au Ve siècle, les textes hagiographiques anti-chalcédoniens et chalcédoniens peuvent être analysés comme des contributions de valeurs égales, en compétition aiguë les uns avec les autres. Il apparaît que les textes chalcédoniens cherchent à concurrencer leurs prédécesseurs anti-chalcédoniens, et que la conversion devient un topos littéraire pour les deux partis.