Dr. Stefan Ardeleanu
Research Project: Funerary koiné and local practices: tracking commemorative rituals from funerary contexts of Late Antique North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula (4th–8th c. AD.)
Stefan Ardeleanu’s project analyzes the materiality of commemorative rituals from funerary contexts of Late Antique North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. He examines which forms of commemorative (post-funeral) rituals can be traced in the archaeological record. He takes into account a broad range of evidence, from drinking and dining ceramics/glasses to epigraphy, but also funerary mensae, installations for libation, archaeobotanical and archaeozoological residues. Early Christian literary sources condemned these rituals as excessive practices of pagan conviviality, but the archaeological and epigraphic spectrum shows that the rituals were highly popular in Christian contexts and far more complex than hitherto believed. The scope of this project is to reconstruct the nature of such commemorative rituals performed by Late Antique societies. Given the high relevance of collective and individual commemoration of the dead in Late Antiquity, this study will offer an important contribution to the transition of urbanitas and of daily life in Late Antiquity. Both the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa have revealed by far the most extensive series of such ritual-related contexts. The project will therefore be able to highlight common and comparative characteristics of the rituals, but also micro-regional and local trends.
Profile
Dr. Stefan Ardeleanu is an archaeologist, who has been working on North African urbanism on a large geographical and chronological scale from the Early Iron Age to the Early Medieval period. He has been publishing various studies on the stylistic and material analysis of Roman and Late Antique stone monuments, on pre- and early Roman settlements of North Africa, on funerary habits and epigraphy of the Late Antique oecumene, on trade networks and connectivity in the Western Mediterranean. Other studies included the edition of monuments and artifacts from Roman and Late Antique Germaniae and Galliae, as well as on the perception and functionalization of Antiquity in colonial and postcolonial times. He has conducted fieldwork across the ancient Mediterranean and beyond (Turkey, Switzerland, Germany, Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen) and published various studies on his field projects in internationally renowned journals and media. His methodological approaches include recently developed concepts such as the materiality of objects, glocalization and micro-regional archaeology. He has studied and held several positions at the Universities of Heidelberg, Rome (La Sapienza), Aix-en-Provence, Berlin (HU), Tübingen, Osnabrück and at the German Archaeological Institute (Rome and Berlin), which granted him a one-year traveler scholarship (Reisestipendium) across the Mediterranean in 2016–2017.
His first book focused on the transition of urbanism from pre-Roman to Early Roman Numidia (2021), while edited works span from the re-edition of Roman and Late Antique stone monuments in the Reiß-Engelhorn-Museum at Mannheim (2021) to a Mediterranean-wide panorama on Late Antique funerary habits and epigraphy (2023).
CV
Selected Publications
Ardeleanu, Stefan / J. Cubas Díaz, Jon, eds. (2023a), Funerary Landscapes of the Late Antique Oecumene. Contextualizing Epigraphic and Archeological Evidence of Mortuary Practices. Proceedings of an International Conference in Heidelberg, May 30–June 1, 2019 (KEMTE-Series), Heidelberg : Heidelberg University Publishing (open access). https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1176 (peer reviewed).
Ardeleanu, Stefan / Cubas Díaz, Jon (2023b), "Reconsidering Late Antique Funerary Habits. Trends, Debates and Perspectives", in: S. Ardeleanu and J. Cubas Díaz, eds., Funerary Landscapes of the Late Antique Oecumene. Contextualizing Epigraphic and Archeological Evidence of Mortuary Practices. Proceedings of an International Conference in Heidelberg, May 30–June 1, 2019 (KEMTE-Series), Heidelberg 2023, 1-64. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1176.c16230 (peer reviewed).
Ardeleanu, Stefan (2023c), "Materializing Death in Late Antique North Africa: An Overview on Microregional Epitaphic Habits and Funerary Rituals", in: S. Ardeleanu and J. Cubas Díaz, eds., Funerary Landscapes of the Late Antique Oecumene. Contextualizing Epigraphic and Archeological Evidence of Mortuary Practices. Proceedings of an International Conference in Heidelberg, May 30–June 1, 2019 (KEMTE-Series), Heidelberg 2023, 107-157. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1176.c16232 (peer reviewed).
Ardeleanu, Stefan et al. (2023d), "Sakralisierung", in: L. Lieb – N. Dietrich – N. Schneidereit, eds., Theorie und Systematik materialer Textkulturen. Abschlussband des SFB 933 (Materiale Textkulturen 46,1), Boston/Berlin 2023, 209–256. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111292229-006 (peer reviewed).
Ardeleanu, Stefan et al. (2022a), "Urban Transformation in the Central Medjerda Valley (North-West Tunisia) in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages: a Regional Approach", Libyan Studies 53, 1-19.
Ardeleanu, Stefan (2022b), "Angehende und markierte Konfliktlandschaften der römischen Republik und frühen Kaiserzeit – Erkennungsmöglichkeiten und Grenzen der Archäologie", in: C. Rass – M. Adam, eds., Konfliktlandschaften interdisziplinär lesen (Konfliktlandschaften 1), Göttingen : Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht Verlage, 49–76.
Ardeleanu, Stefan (2021a), Numidia Romana? Die Auswirkungen der römischen Präsenz in Numidien (2. Jh. v.–1. Jh. n. Chr.) (Archäologische Forschungen 38), Wiesbaden: Reichert (peer reviewed).
Ardeleanu, Stefan / Lipps, Johannes / Osnabrügge, Jonas / Witschel, Christian, eds. (2021b), Die römischen Steindenkmäler in den Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim (Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter Sonderveröffentlichungen 14), Mannheim: Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen.
Ardeleanu, Stefan (2020), "Hippo Regius – Bûna – Bône. Ein Erinnerungsort im Spiegel der kolonialzeitlichen Augustinusrezeption", Römische Quartalsschrift 115, 29–56.
Ardeleanu, Stefan / Chaouali, Moheddine / Eck, Werner / von Rummel, Philipp (2019a), "Die frühkaiserzeitlichen Grabsteine aus Simitthus (Chimtou). Stilistisch-epigraphische Analyse und urbaner Kontext", Archäologischer Anzeiger 2019,1, 276–323. doi: https://doi.org/10.34780/639r-3561 (peer reviewed).
Ardeleanu, Stefan (2019b), "Zum funerärepigraphischen habit des spätantiken Hippo Regius. Gräber, Kirchen mit Bestattungen und Grabinschriften in ihrem urbanen und sozialen Kontext", Römische Mitteilungen 125, 401–448 (peer reviewed).
Ardeleanu, Stefan (2018a), "Directing the Faithful, Structuring the Sacred Space: Funerary Epigraphy in its Archaeological Context in Late-Antique Tipasa", Journal of Roman Archaeology 31, 475–501 (peer reviewed).
Ardeleanu, Stefan (2018b), "Giallo antico in Context. Distribution, Use and Commercial Actors According to New Stratigraphic Data from the Western Mediterranean (2nd c. BC – 1st c. AD)", in: D. Matetić Poljak and K. Marasović, eds., ASMOSIA XI. Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone. Proceedings of the XI ASMOSIA Conference Split 18–22 May 2015, Split: University of Split, 155–165.
Ardeleanu, Stefan (2017), "Italische Sigillata in Nordafrika. Ikonographie und Nutzungskontext", in: M. Flecker, ed, Neue Bilderwelten. Zu Ikonographie und Hermeneutik Italischer Sigillata. Kolloquium vom 16.–18. April 2015 in Tübingen (Tübinger Archäologische Forschungen 23), Rahden/Westf. : Verlag Marie Leidorf 2017, 199–230.
Ardeleanu, Stefan (2015), "Vom Jugurtha qui a réussi zum Zivilisationendialog Ben Alis. Die Rolle der Antike in der Repräsentation tunesischer Autokraten nach 1956", Thersites 1, 203–248 (peer reviewed).