“New discoveries in the late antique polytheism: The House of Kybele at Aphrodisias” is the title of the third lecture in the 6th Lecture Cycle on Late Antiquity “When our World Became Christian”, which is organized by the Undergraduate Programme “Studies in Hellenic Culture” of the Open University of Cyprus (OUC). The guest speaker is Dr Ine Jacobs, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Associate Professor of Byzantine Archaeology and Visual Culture at the University of Oxford. The lecture will take place on 6 March 2025 at 19:00 pm (GMT+2), and will be broadcast online via the OUC’s distance learning tools at the following link: https://tinyurl.com/bdew2azv
Registrations link: https://forms.office.com/e/5AqsXLDLNE
The Lecture Series is supported by the Students and Alumni Association of the “Studies in Hellenic Culture” Programme and Fata Libelli bookstore. The communication sponsor is the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation.
In 1986, excavations at Aphrodisias uncovered two late antique statuettes—one of Kybele and the other of Asklepios—in what appeared to be an early 7th-century residential area, slightly removed from the city center. Following a pause in research after 1986, investigations in this area have recently resumed. In 2024, new excavations revealed an underground cult complex dedicated to the Anatolian mother goddess Kybele, which flourished during Late Antiquity and persisted into the early 7th century, until the structure housing it was abruptly destroyed. This lecture will examine the architectural setting of the cult complex, the cult statuettes and associated material culture, as well as the context that allowed such a cult to endure.
Dr Ine Jacobs is the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Associate Professor of Byzantine Archaeology and Visual Culture at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include Roman and Byzantine architecture and urbanism, the experience and perception of the built environment and its decoration, long histories of display and reception of sites, statuary, and artifacts, and material religion. She has worked on excavations in Belgium, Italy, the Republic of North Macedonia and Turkey, and has been the Field Director of the Aphrodisias Excavations since 2016.
