More Than a Church: Early Christian Archaeology and History in Cyprus

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 More than a Church brings together architecture, ceramics, numismatics, landscape archaeology, and unpublished excavation material, alongside consideration of Cyprus’s dynamic and prosperous 4th–10th-century history.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.

About our speaker

Catherine Keane (PhD, 2021) is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Her research interests in late antique and Byzantine archaeology include the economic activity of the early Church, water infrastructure, and agricultural and artisanal production. After her M.Sc. at the University of Edinburgh in Mediterranean Archaeology, she did a PhD at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich in Late Antique Archaeology and Byzantine Art History. She has held postdoctoral fellowships at Koç University (ANAMED), the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, Marburg University, the University of Tübingen, Macquarie University, and from 2026 onward, the University of Glasgow. She is a member of the University of Sydney’s Paphos Theatre Archaeological Project.

Her book More Than a Church: Late Antique Ecclesiastical Complexes in Cyprus was published in 2024.

Part of the New Research on Ancient Cyprus: Perspectives from Australia series presented in conjunction with the High Commission of Cyprus in Australia to mark Cyprus holding the Council of the EU Presidency during the first half of 2026.