Simeon D. Ehrlich

Time of Death in the Roman Empire: Tombstones, Timekeeping, Astrology, and Afterlife among Pagans and Christians

Nearly 1000 epitaphs recording times of death survive from the Roman empire. Thought signs of affection for deceased children, I argue these “hour texts” were the basis for horoscopes of the dead, to ensure their protection in the afterlife based on the correlation of a specific tutelary deity with the hour of their passing. Parallels for the veneration of hour deities abound in global antiquity. Egyptian funerary texts show the origins of this practice. Rome’s annexation of Egypt leads to its diffusion throughout the Mediterranean. In late antiquity, the practice is syncretized by early Christians, the apostles becoming the guardians.

Simeon Ehrlich holds degrees in Classics from The University of Western Ontario (BA, MA) and Stanford University (PhD). He has taught at Mount Allison University, Concordia University, Western Connecticut State University, and Springfield College, and has been a postdoctoral researcher at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has conducted archaeological fieldwork in Israel, Turkey, Sicily, and Canada and has been a member of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon since 2011. His research focuses on the materiality of daily life in Classical and Late Antiquity – the organization of urban space, transformations of the urban fabric, commemorative practices, and applications of technical knowledge (astrology, viticulture); and how these change in response to the rise of Christianity and Islam.