More than a Church: Late Antique Ecclesiastical Complexes in Cyprus

More than a Church investigates the economic roles of late antique churches. Taking Cyprus as a case study, the book analyzes how churches doubled as important sites for the production of a range of agricultural and artisanal goods.

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The church annexes of late antique Cyprus were bustling places of industry, producing olive oil, flour, bread, ceramics, and metal products. From its earliest centuries, the church was an economic player, participating in agricultural and artisanal production.

More than a Church brings together architecture, ceramics, numismatics, landscape archaeology, and unpublished excavation material, alongside consideration of Cyprus’s dynamic and prosperous 4th–10th-century history. Keane offers a rich picture of the association between sacred buildings and agricultural and industrial facilities—comprehensively presenting, for the first time, the church’s economic role and impact in late antique Cyprus.