Diaspora sine fine: Archaeological, epigraphical, and papyrological evidence for Jewish settlement evidence in the first six centuries CE

Abstract

In this thesis the dataset compiled of Jewish archaeological, epigraphical, and papyrological evidence is central to the research. All of the evidence that make up the dataset are coming from the Mediterranean basin in the first six centuries CE. With the dataset this thesis-research aims 1) to better understand and explain the Jewish Diaspora in the Roman period, by examining the parameters of this body of people. Next to mapping the provenance of the evidence, 2) other patterns that derive from the dataset will be examined, which have the potential to tell us how the life in the ancient Jewish Diaspora might have been, and what cultural characteristics are attributable to the Jews during this period. 3) Migration in antiquity, especially in the Mediterranean during the Roman period will be further explored in the thesis research. For travel and migration have played a key role in the spread of the Diaspora Jews during the period under study. Besides clear indications of migration that come to us via the inscriptions in the dataset 4) other possible factors that might have played a role in the migration-process will be examined so as to argue why certain regions in the Roman Empire have seen larger Diaspora communities than others.