ABSTRACT
The Christianisation of the Roman Empire, at its most intense around 400 CE, is resilient as the dominant explanation model for changes in burial practices in Late Antiquity. Consequently, a dichotomy has been created where Roman burial practices were substituted by a monolithic and distinctly Christian burial practice. Recent research has challenged that the Church was not particularly involved in burial practices. Their main concern, securing an afterlife, was not dependent on how – or even if – people were buried.
Drawing on assemblage theory to reveal complexity in place of dichotomies and universal explanation models, this chapter uses the establishment of a Christian sanctuary in the North-East Necropolis of Hierapolis of Phrygia to highlight some of the complexities of late antique burial practices. The chapter decentres religious transformation as an explanative model for changing burial practices. Ultimately, this chapter argues that embracing more ‘messy’ answers to how burial practices changed can lead us towards a richer (though not simpler) understanding of late antique burial practices.
