Videos by Laura M Clark
This audio is a companion piece to the poster 'Ancient pollution and the Early Byzantine burials ... more This audio is a companion piece to the poster 'Ancient pollution and the Early Byzantine burials of Phaeno, Jordan', for the Midlands4Cities (M4C) Research Festival 2021. 1 views
Paper given at the Leeds International Medieval Conference (2022) on how Byzantinists should appr... more Paper given at the Leeds International Medieval Conference (2022) on how Byzantinists should approach research on human remains and methodologies to identify good research on human skeletal remains. 39 views
Thesis Chapters by Laura M Clark
Appendix to Burials of the Byzantine Near East (4th-7th centuries) Vol. 1.
Research on burials of the Byzantine Near East has focused on a transformation from ‘pagan’ to ‘C... more Research on burials of the Byzantine Near East has focused on a transformation from ‘pagan’ to ‘Christian’ beliefs, the simplicity of Christian burial, and exceptional examples. To date, a large-scale data study on the Byzantine burials of this region has not been undertaken. This thesis provides the first big data study on burials of the Near East between 330 CE and the Arab invasions in the seventh century. The study explores different aspects related to burial and their study: tomb types, cemetery organisation, human remains and their study, grave goods, inscriptions, and iconography. These aspects are situated in a series of case studies that show the value in careful and detailed analysis. Two chapters are also dedicated to the study of human remains, which is identified as a key weakness in the current state of Byzantine studies.
MA thesis, University of Birmingham, 2017.
Dream divination and magic were two elements of occul... more MA thesis, University of Birmingham, 2017.
Dream divination and magic were two elements of occult study and practice that persisted throughout the Byzantine period in various forms, developed from their ancient and classical predecessors. Educated and elite Byzantines accepted them to varying degrees: some outright rejected the possibility of prophetic dreams, or dismissed magic completely, labelling it as a tool of the devil. Others viewed dreams (at least in some circumstances, if not completely) as a real method of divining the future, or embraced magic as either an element of study or even a practically useful tool.
This study focuses on the attitudes that elites and intellectuals demonstrated towards dream divination and magic in middle and late Byzantium, by examining literature, letters, books, and other written sources. It also considers how these attitudes developed from their Greek and Roman predecessors to create an Orthodox understanding of their place in society and explanations for why they could or could not be seen as compatible with Orthodox thinking. Additionally, it will examine the position of dream divination and magic in middle and late Byzantine society, to suggest why the attitudes to these two occult subjects developed in such alternate ways.
Further to this, considerations will also be made regarding who the practitioners and users of dream divination and magic might have been, from uneducated Byzantines to examples of elites. I will demonstrate how their practitioners were characterised in literature and what this suggests about the attitudes to these subjects among the literate classes in middle and late Byzantium. Finally, I will provide some thoughts on the differences between the practice (or claimed practice) of these subjects and the understanding of them in terms of the Orthodox theory surrounding how they worked and whether they were acceptable or unacceptable behaviours.
Conference Presentations by Laura M Clark
Poster for the Midlands4Cities (M4C) Research Festival 2021.
Poster at 3rd Annual Edinburgh International Graduate Conference in Late Antique, Islamic and Byz... more Poster at 3rd Annual Edinburgh International Graduate Conference in Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies, 2019
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Videos by Laura M Clark
Thesis Chapters by Laura M Clark
Dream divination and magic were two elements of occult study and practice that persisted throughout the Byzantine period in various forms, developed from their ancient and classical predecessors. Educated and elite Byzantines accepted them to varying degrees: some outright rejected the possibility of prophetic dreams, or dismissed magic completely, labelling it as a tool of the devil. Others viewed dreams (at least in some circumstances, if not completely) as a real method of divining the future, or embraced magic as either an element of study or even a practically useful tool.
This study focuses on the attitudes that elites and intellectuals demonstrated towards dream divination and magic in middle and late Byzantium, by examining literature, letters, books, and other written sources. It also considers how these attitudes developed from their Greek and Roman predecessors to create an Orthodox understanding of their place in society and explanations for why they could or could not be seen as compatible with Orthodox thinking. Additionally, it will examine the position of dream divination and magic in middle and late Byzantine society, to suggest why the attitudes to these two occult subjects developed in such alternate ways.
Further to this, considerations will also be made regarding who the practitioners and users of dream divination and magic might have been, from uneducated Byzantines to examples of elites. I will demonstrate how their practitioners were characterised in literature and what this suggests about the attitudes to these subjects among the literate classes in middle and late Byzantium. Finally, I will provide some thoughts on the differences between the practice (or claimed practice) of these subjects and the understanding of them in terms of the Orthodox theory surrounding how they worked and whether they were acceptable or unacceptable behaviours.
Conference Presentations by Laura M Clark
Dream divination and magic were two elements of occult study and practice that persisted throughout the Byzantine period in various forms, developed from their ancient and classical predecessors. Educated and elite Byzantines accepted them to varying degrees: some outright rejected the possibility of prophetic dreams, or dismissed magic completely, labelling it as a tool of the devil. Others viewed dreams (at least in some circumstances, if not completely) as a real method of divining the future, or embraced magic as either an element of study or even a practically useful tool.
This study focuses on the attitudes that elites and intellectuals demonstrated towards dream divination and magic in middle and late Byzantium, by examining literature, letters, books, and other written sources. It also considers how these attitudes developed from their Greek and Roman predecessors to create an Orthodox understanding of their place in society and explanations for why they could or could not be seen as compatible with Orthodox thinking. Additionally, it will examine the position of dream divination and magic in middle and late Byzantine society, to suggest why the attitudes to these two occult subjects developed in such alternate ways.
Further to this, considerations will also be made regarding who the practitioners and users of dream divination and magic might have been, from uneducated Byzantines to examples of elites. I will demonstrate how their practitioners were characterised in literature and what this suggests about the attitudes to these subjects among the literate classes in middle and late Byzantium. Finally, I will provide some thoughts on the differences between the practice (or claimed practice) of these subjects and the understanding of them in terms of the Orthodox theory surrounding how they worked and whether they were acceptable or unacceptable behaviours.