Research Blog

The burial cave of rabbi Judah, Beit She’arim, Israel In a famous passage from the Talmud, which even got its own code in the Aarne-Thompson...

I have been reading Peter Sarris’ brilliant and highly accessible book on Justinian and was struck by the significance of a passing observation he makes...

The new article in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (copyright: Cambridge University Press). By James Burns I have published an article in Transactions of...

As an undergraduate student, I developed a strong interest in Eastern Christian studies after reading Norman Russell’s translation of The Lives of the Desert Fathers....

A Merovingian sword (Metropolitan Museum of Art). Surrounded by his enemies, the sixth-century prince and rebel Merovech handed his blade to Gailen, and asked him to...

Photo Credit: British Library Add. MS 27263, f. 298r There is a story in Masnavi-i Ma’navi, written by Rumi, the famous poet, mystic, and scholar...

My work focuses on the social and religious history of the later Roman empire – in particular its eastern half – and I have a...

Photo credit: organisers of HistoryCon In this blog post, our researcher, James Burns, summarises a conference paper he gave on the importance and pleasure of...

He who wishes to remove himself from his kin group (parentilla) should go to court and in the presence of the thunginus or hundredman break...