Reliquary crosses from Middle Byzantine Aphrodisias: intimacy and archaeology

Abstract

Worn constantly on the chest, reliquary crosses were intimately implicated in the lives of medieval people. Previous studies of such crosses have tended to consider them as tools through which people achieved specific ends, either as prophylactics against disease or as signifiers of hierarchical status. An alternative and complementary interpretation would emphasise intimacy: the prolonged rapport of particular crosses with particular bodies. This paper assembles and publishes 14 reliquary crosses from Aphrodisias in Caria, presented with commentary in an appendix. The body of the article addresses the archaeological contexts in which these crosses were found and explores the funerary use of reliquary crosses across Middle Byzantine Asia Minor from this novel perspective.