Pasts Imperfect (11.21.24)
The Traitors and Ancient Heresy, Kohl Mining, Early Medieval Crowds & Much More
This week, historian of the late Roman Mediterranean, Robin Whelan, discusses late antique Church Councils and their strong parallels with the competition series The Traitors. Then, the oldest known alphabetic writing is identified in Syria, ancient kohl mining in the Bronze Age, Plotinus and the metaphysics of dance, the dearth of North African and Syrian representation in Gladiator II, Assassin’s Creed takes on feudal Japan, Dr. Wong defends her dissertation, recreations of medieval Nubian dress, new ancient world journals, a lecture on Cahokia storytelling, and much more.
Finding the Faithful: The Traitors and Late Roman Church Councils by Robin Whelan
In January 2025, The Traitors is coming back for new seasons in the UK and US. The competition series pits traitors against faithfuls in this addictive, unscripted show. I love it, but I think its producers have made a terrible mistake. It should clearly be called The Heretics.
Sure, the titular villains are ‘traitors’. Three contestants are secretly chosen to undermine the collective goal of earning a pot of shared prize money through group tasks. These traitors pretend to be ‘faithful’, but their aim is to steal this money for themselves. Each night, they ‘murder’ one of their fellow contestants. If the faithful identify all of the traitors before the series ends, they win; if any traitors are left when the game ends, they walk away with the cash.
US Trailer (UK trailer is at the end):
This hunting out of subversives within the group is a familiar feature across various historical contexts; it is exactly what late ancient Christians sought to do. Early Christian writers thought they had ‘heretics’ in their midst. The term itself comes from haeresis (or ‘choice’). Originally it was used for philosophical schools, but now applied to particular Christian thinkers, their theological ideas, and their followers. These heretics were seen as dangerous people who sought to lead their fellow Christians away from salvation by convincing them to adopt false beliefs or practices. In this way, they too sought to deceive the ‘faithful.’ These were the fideles: the community of baptized Catholic Christians.
In reality, those condemned as heretics in late antiquity were as arbitrarily chosen as the otherwise polite British people tapped on the shoulder by Claudia Winkleman (in the BBC version) and the rather more sharp-elbowed reality TV regulars selected by Alan Cumming (in the US version). Ancient heretics were, as far as modern scholars can tell, sincere individuals who thought that what they believed and did was right. Whether it was Arius, Priscillian, or Nestorius–or the ‘Arians’, ‘Priscillians’ or ‘Nestorians’ who supposedly followed them instead of Jesus Christ—accused heretics in the late Roman world were not trying to be ‘traitors’. They simply lost out in politicized debates over doctrine and practice. Yet almost all Christians—even ‘heretics’—agreed these evil people existed; they just disagreed on who they were. The Traitors stages these debates in real time and underscores how it can irreparably rupture social groups. The ‘faithful’ tear themselves apart as they try to identify the enemy within.
The Roundtable in Action:
These accusations are aired in the portion of the game which comes closest to emulating early Christian debate: the roundtable. At this daily meeting, the players level allegations and interrogate one another before taking turns to vote on who to banish from the game as a suspected traitor.
This exercise strongly resembles a church council: an assembly where bishops would seek to solve theological disputes by formulating a new statement of faith and excluding those whom they decided were heretics. These meetings became a standard part of the governance of the church, whether they were ecumenical (empire-wide) councils like Nicaea (325), Rimini and Seleucia (359), Ephesus I (431), Ephesus II (449) and Chalcedon (451), or provincial or local gatherings. The minutes (acta) of many of these councils survive. They are some of the most precious documents of the ancient world insofar as they (at least claim) to provide the verbatim transcripts of face-to-face conversations. They give us the sense that we are watching Christian debates play out in real time.
The social dynamics between Church Councils and Traitors roundtables are eerily similar and equally messy. Although the bishops were ostensibly supposed to meet in a peaceful atmosphere inspired by the Holy Spirit, the surviving minutes suggest these verbal exchanges frequently led to ad hominem attacks and kangaroo courts. And that is just what made it into the acta. Those who lost the debate, or simply said something they later regretted, claimed that the participants had been subject to violence. So, some of the participants at Chalcedon (451) explained away their (diametrically opposite) theological statements at Ephesus II (449) by suggesting they had been coerced; dissenters had been attacked by imperial soldiers, over-zealous monks, and even their fellow bishops. (The BBC and NBC have better crowd control.) Just like the roundtable, conciliar sessions would often end with a series of ‘subscriptions’: speeches where individual bishops explained their vote to banish a particular heretic or ban a particular doctrine.
Participants in the roundtable adopt similar strategies to early Christian bishops, and run up against similar problems.
In late antiquity, those who were too keen to hunt out heretics in their midst were at risk of denunciation: both because their opponents would make counter-accusations, and because sowing division was the sort of thing a heretic would do. This dynamic plays out in The Traitors as well. Suspicions have repeatedly fallen on contestants who throw out names of potential traitors. In season 2 of the UK series, Zack was marked for his constant ‘theories’, and even Harry and Jaz’s reputation as successful traitor-catchers brought them under increasing suspicion as time went on. As a result, many of the faithful—both in late antiquity and in the tv castle—simply go along with whatever the majority has decided and parrot arguments (however unconvincing) rather than risk drawing attention to themselves by airing their own accusations.
But going along to get along has its own dangers to navigate. Just as rapidly changing definitions of orthodoxy caught out bishops at Ephesus II (449) and Chalcedon (451), so the shifting suspicions of the contestants can latch onto insincere or inconsistent statements. Above all, the players at the roundtable—like bishops in councils—know that what they are saying is being recorded (if by cameras and microphones as opposed to notaries). Participants who are swayed by the party line again and again risk looking shifty by trying to fly under the radar, both to their fellow players, and to the audience at home.
That audience is increasingly critical of the mediated version of events which reality television provides us. Producers carefully cut their raw footage to establish compelling narratives. The gap between these constructed storylines and what ‘really happened’ creates ample room for speculation. In this sense, reality TV viewers show themselves to be experts at source criticism. Here again, the import of editing and omission can be seen in ancient councils as well. Recent work on the minutes of church councils has shown how their compilers edited the transcript to leave out everything from dissenting voices and inopportune statements to acts of coercion and violence. Above all, the (highly partisan) presiding bishops shaped this (supposedly verbatim) record to make the case that those condemned were clearly heretics. Producers always have an angle and intent. What are the Acts of the Council of Aquileia (381) or Ephesus (431) but a ‘villain edit’?
My analogy between ancient heresy and The Traitors only goes so far. Conflict over orthodoxy and heresy was not just a game: for bishops, it could result in deposition, excommunication and penal exile. ‘Losing’ had real social consequences (and not just the opportunity to start a podcast). More than that, there was no big reveal at the end, except, perhaps, at the Last Judgment. Still, as Season Three’s premiere looms on the horizon, I would argue that analysis of late ancient doctrinal controversy gives us useful ways to understand what is going on in The Traitors—and vice versa. Although we don’t have video of the actual accusations thrown out at late Roman Church Councils, we do have a kind of sociological laboratory for understanding how suspicion, trust, alliances, accusations of treason, and constructions of faith can divide groups—and ultimately result in discord rather than orthodoxy.
Global Antiquity and Public Humanities
The “oldest known alphabetic writing”, dated to 2400 BCE and written on clay cylinders, has been discovered in a tomb at Tell Umm-el Marra, in Syria.
“Previously, scholars thought the alphabet was invented in or around Egypt some time after 1900 BCE,” Dr [Glenn] Schwartz said. “But our artefacts are older and from a different area on the map, suggesting the alphabet may have an entirely different origin story than we thought.”
We do love a new origin story. The research on the find will be presented today at ASOR in Boston and online.
We know a lot about modern coal miners, but what about ancient kohl mining? A new study of Ancient Egypt and Nubia during the Bronze Age (samples range from 2000-1295 BCE) tracks the kohl trade. Using 11 isotopic analyses from funerary contexts in Sudanese Lower Nubia, Egyptologists Rennan Lemos, Matei Tichindelean , Yulia V. Erban Kochergina, and numerous other co-authors trace “galena ores from various mining sites on the Red Sea coast of Egypt [which] indicated that some of the galena used in kohl mixtures in Sudanese Lower Nubia came from the Pharaonic mining site of Gebel el-Zeit.” The authors note that this is the first study to integrate Sudanese Lower Nubia into known northeast African trade networks by using isotopic analyses of lead.
On the Journal of History of Ideas Blog, Max Wade, a philosophy Ph.D. student at Boston College, discusses the third-century C.E. Platonist philosopher, Plotinus’s metaphysics of dance and its influence.
Is Gladiator II historically accurate? Only a little. Should historians engage in nitpicking it into eternity? Still up for debate. From classicist Shadi Bartsch calling it “total bullsh**t” to valid complaints about sharks in the Colosseum, it is tempting to point out the many historical inaccuracies for the public. However, perhaps the most disappointing thing to me was the casting of Geta and Caracalla. Even if you don’t aim for or care about historical precision, Ridley Scott could at least provide more North African and Syrian representation for the Severan characters in the movie. Yes, Denzel Washington playing Macrinus is a step forward, but not far enough. However, I did enjoy Nero scholar Lauren Ginsberg’s clap back in the Washington Post over the new AirBnB “gladiator experience” in the Colosseum.
Ubisoft’s forthcoming game, Assassin's Creed Shadows, focuses on feudal Japan—the Azuchi-Momoyama period in the 16thC—and has a new trailer. It comes out on February 14, 2025, just in time for a Valentine’s Day present. Here is the new trailer:
Over at Neos Kosmos, PI co-founder, Homer scholar, and NYC marathon finisher Joel Christensen has an important new essay on “The old gods, new wars, and the battle for the past: How Crusader imagery and Classical traditions are being misrepresented to fuel right-wing agendas in Trump’s America." In it, Christensen breaks down the strong white supremacist connections to Pete Hegseth’s deus vult tattoo.
She is too modest to tell you herself, but PI editor and co-founder Stephanie Wong defended her dissertation last Friday in the Department of History at Brown University. Dr. Wong’s dissertation, “Materialities of the Spanish Pacific: Making the Early Modern,” looks at the early modern Spanish Pacific, “an area connected by the imperial trade route between the Philippines, Latin America, and Spain.” While current historians of Latin America “frequently discuss the impact of global mobility in Mexico,” Wong recognized that the material traditions from Asia and the Americas need more investigation. Her experimental archaeology approach focuses on "making and knowing,” as a pivotal method “to better understand cultural amalgamation and instances of globalization in the early modern world.” Congratulations, Dr. Wong!
At Medievalists.net, they have a great piece amplifying a project reconstructing medieval Nubian outfits. The “Costumes of Authority. The Image of Royalty and Clergy in Christian Nubia” has recreated five costumes (one bishop, two kings and two royal mothers) and is truly impressive. And as long as we are discussing historical clothing, Ellie Mackin Roberts’ new article on “Embodied Wearing: clothing for Artemis in Ancient Athenian Religion” is a fascinating sensory and material history.
In the digital pages of the New Yorker, Adam Gopnik discusses perceptions of crowds from Gibbon to January 6 before zeroing in on early medievalist Shane Bobrycki’s new book, The Crowd in the Early Middle Ages. As Princeton Press remarks on in the book abstract, the Ancient Roman crowds did not disappear, they just took a different form in the early Middle Ages.
Most historians have seen early medieval Europe as a world without crowds. In fact, Bobrycki argues, early medieval European sources are full of crowds—although perhaps not the sort historians have trained themselves to look for. Harvests, markets, festivals, religious rites, and political assemblies were among the gatherings used to regulate resources and demonstrate legitimacy. Indeed, the refusal to assemble and other forms of “slantwise” assembly became a weapon of the powerless. Bobrycki investigates what happened when demographic realities shifted, but culture, religion, and politics remained bound by the past.
Over at the Lex Fridman podcast, ancient historian Gregory Aldrete discusses the “Rise and Fall of Ancient Rome.” Aldrete is a progressive thinker and public scholar attempting to highlight new research and source criticism for Fridman’s listeners, who appear to be thinking about the Roman Empire quite a lot.
Finally, Boston University has suspended graduate admissions in numerous humanities areas, including Classics:
“According to an undated post on the university’s website, the programs not accepting Ph.D. students for next academic year are American and New England studies, anthropology, classical studies, English, history, history of art and architecture, linguistics, philosophy, political science, religion, Romance studies, and sociology.”
At least two deans have referenced the previous collective bargaining agreement of the graduate student union as causing “budgetary implications.” If I could be so bold?This appears to be a union-busting and intimidation tactic used against those who were a part of or supported the new graduate student contracts.
New Antiquity Journal Issues (by yaleclassicslib.bsky.social)
Studies in Late Antiquity Vol. 8, No. 4 (2024) NB laria L. E. Ramelli “Intellectual Constructions of Free Will: Bardaisan Versus Astrological Determinism, Novelties, Parallels, and Aftermath”
Ancient Philosophy Today Vol. 6, No. 2 (2024) Philosophical Rhetoric in Ancient Greece and Rome
Res Difficiles Vol.1, No. 2 (2024) #openaccess Re(Orient): Reception, Power, and Asian Experience
Journal of Biblical Literature Vol. 143, No. 3 (2024) NB Charles Hughes-Huff “Colonizing Frank Moore Cross: The Dead Sea Scrolls in 1950s Popular Media”
Comitatus Vol. 55 (2024)
The Bible & Critical Theory Vol. 20, No. 1 (2024) #openaccess
Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie Vol. 106, No. 4 (2024)
Neotestamentica Vol. 57, No. 2 (2023)
After Constantine No. 5 (2025) #openaccess
Etruscan and Italic Studies Vol. 27, No. 1-2 (2024)
Trends in Classics Vol. 16, No.2 (2024) Reading Roman Reconciliation
Klio Vol. 116, No. 2 (2024)
Afrique: Archéologie & Arts Vol. 20 (2024) #openaccess
Bibliotheca Orientalis Vol. 80, No. 5-6 (2023) NB Seth Sanders “Ugaritic Writing as a Political Act: Sea-Change or Closed Circle?”
Moreana Vol. 61, No. 2 (2024)
Early Medieval Europe Vol. 32, No. 4 (2024) NB Danuta Shanzer “Seen and named in narratives: denizens of hell in the early Middle Ages”
Opuscula Vol. 17 (2024) #openaccess
Karanos Supplement I (2024) Know Thy Neighbor: Macedonia and its Environment
Journal of Classics Teaching Vol. 25, No. 50 (2024) #openaccess
Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus Vol. 22, No. 3 (2024)NB Isaac T. Soon “A Previously Overlooked Life of Jesus by Martha Louisa ‘Lily’ Watson (1885)”
Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde Vol. 151, No.2 (2024)
Kadmos Vol. 63, Nos. 1-2 (2024)
International Journal of Divination and Prognostication Vol. 5, No. 2 (2024)
Erudition and the Republic of Letters Vol. 9, No. 4 (2024)
Collectanea Philologica Vol. 27 (2024) #openaccess Miscellanea Graeca et Latina. In honorem Hannae Zalewska-Jura
The Classical Quarterly Vol. 74, No. 1 (2024)
Frankfurter elektronische Rundschau zur Altertumskunde No. 53 (2024) #openaccess
Public Lectures, Events, and Exhibitions
There will be a book launch online event for Imprints of Dance in Ancient Greece and Rome (Madrid: UAM Ediciones, 2024), on Monday, November 25, 2024 - 5:00pm with Zoa Alonso Fernández, Sarah Olsen, Sue Jones, Tom Sapsford. “Emerging from a symposium held in 2022, this book explores the many traces of ancient Greek and Roman dance, the impressions, re-imaginations, and imprints of bodily movement and choreography evident in the literary, visual, and material sources of Greek and Roman antiquity.” Join the event online here.
On December 10, 2024 at 6:30 pm CT, Julie Zimmermann, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, will speak on “Storytelling in the Creation of Cahokia, a Native American Theater State”: “Cahokia might be understood as the capital of a Native American theater state which drew people to it and spread its influence by attracting followers through theatrical rituals. Of those rituals, storytelling was primary, because stories create worldview and give meaning to all other rituals. Cahokian stories were embodied in artworks made at and disseminated from Cahokia. Primary among these stories was that of a hero who wore human head earrings.” Register here.
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Does anyone get thrown to the lions in the Colosseum? (That, sadly, was the fate of too many of the original Christians, heretics or not.)