Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

Abstract

The fourth-century church complex at ‘Ain el-Gedida, in the Dakhleh Oasis, provides a striking case study for the integration of kitchen work into social and religious space in late antiquity. Its unique features – both sociological and archaeological – reflect a dynamic, rough-and-tumble integration that both protects the sacred space of the nave and centres the productive labour of cooking. This article analyses the anteroom/kitchen B6 from the perspectives of space syntax, the communicative landscape of labour, and the sociology of graffiti. While it may have been designed as a transitional zone or service auxiliary for the primary public spaces of church and gathering hall, B6 becomes, in its socio-spatial effects, an alternate pole of symbolic density that exerts a counterforce to the sacred space of nave and sanctuary. This analysis also provides a preliminary model for thinking about the role played by visible labour in the religious experience of Christians in the later Roman Empire, particularly non-elite Christians.

Comments

Originally published in Robinson, Dana. “The Kitchen in the Church Complex.” Religion in the Roman Empire, vol. 10, no. 1, 2024, pp. 127–148, https://doi.org/10.1628/rre-2024-0009.

Published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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