Joel Walker | University of Washington (original) (raw)

Joel Walker

Trained as a historian of Late Antiquity, I have taught in the University of Washington's History Department since 1997. My interests have broadened over the years to embrace a wide range of thematic topics in the history of ancient and medieval Eurasia. Current research projects include the history of cattle in the Ancient World (Paleolithic to early Christianity) and a sourcebook on the Mongol Empire.

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Books by Joel Walker

Research paper thumbnail of The Legend of Mar Qardagh: Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq (University of California Press, 2006)

Research paper thumbnail of Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World, eds. Scott Noegel, Joel Walker, and Brannon Wheeler (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003)

Articles by Joel Walker

Research paper thumbnail of "From Nisibis to Xi'an: The Church of the East in Late Antique Eurasia," in The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity, ed. Scott F. Johnson (Oxford University Press, 2012), 994-1052.

Research paper thumbnail of "Ascetic Literacy: Books and Readers in the East-Syrian Monastic Tradition" (2010)

Research paper thumbnail of "Hagiography as History in Late Antique Iraq: The History of St. George of Izla (d. 614) by Babai the Great" (2010)

Research paper thumbnail of "The Legacy of Mesopotamia in Late Antique Iraq: The Christian Martyr Shrine at Melqi (Neo-Assyrian Milqia)" (2006/2007)

Research paper thumbnail of "The Limits of Late Antiquity: Philosophy between Rome and Iran" (2002)

Museum Reviews by Joel Walker

Research paper thumbnail of "Iran and its Neighbors in Late Antiquity: The Art of the Sasanian Empire, 224-642 C.E." (2007)

Book Reviews by Joel Walker

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Averil Cameron, Late Antiquity on the Eve of Islam (London: Ashgate, 2013), in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 89, no. 1 (Jan. 2014): 169-71.

Crucifixion, very possibly a Mother of God: the proportions of this figure are not unlike the elo... more Crucifixion, very possibly a Mother of God: the proportions of this figure are not unlike the elongated Virgin in the Crucifixion in the Gospels of Judith of Flanders (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M. 78, fol. 1v) who similarly reaches upward to dab at her son's side wound with her veil. Hypothetical identifications of other badly damaged figures here are also open to discussion: Bitton 4 (Gloucestershire), barely visible in photographs, as Sol or Luna; the Church Stretton 1 (Shropshire) figure as a possible seated Pan with his pipes; and Ampney St. Peter's 1 and Saintsbury 1 (both Gloucestershire) as fertility figures (the Ampney figure may well be Eve with the serpent).

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Greg Fisher, Between Empires: Arabs, Romans, and Sasanians in Late Antiquity (Oxford University Press, 2011), in Classical Review 63, no. 2. (October. 2013): 557-59.

Research paper thumbnail of Review: James Howard-Johnston, Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century, in Hugoye: The Journal of Syriac Studies (summer, 2013): 385-88.

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Samuel Lieu et al. Medieval Christian and Manichaean Remains from Quanzhou (Zayton) (Turnout: Brepols, 2011)

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Thomas Sizgorich, Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity: Militant Devotion in Christianity and Islam (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009)

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Byzantium Viewed by the Arabs (Cambridge, MA/London: Harvard University Press, 2004), in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 82, no. 1 (Jan., 2007), 179-81.

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Gabriele Puschnigg, Ceramics of the Merv Oasis: Recycling the City (Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2006), in the American Journal of Archaeology 113, no. 1 (2009), 148-49.

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Tjalling Halbertsma, Early Christian Remains of Inner Mongolia: Discovery, Reconstruction, and Appropriation (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008)

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Henning Borm, Prokop und die Perser: Untersuchungen zu den romisch-sasanidischen Kontakten in der ausgehenden Spatantike (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2007)

offers a survey, largely chronological, of the ways Romans engaged with "divine qualities." These... more offers a survey, largely chronological, of the ways Romans engaged with "divine qualities." These are deities we are more accustomed to hearing described as "deified abstractions" or "divine personifications," that is, gods and goddesses with names like Honos, Virtus, Concordia, Felicitas, Fides, and Victoria. Clark is concerned mostly with those qualities that are known to have received public cults and temples in the period of the Republic. In addition to six synthetic chapters and a lengthy concluding chapter that traces the appearance of divine qualities into the imperial period, Clark provides appendixes on republican temples and shrines to divine qualities, prodigies pertaining to them and their cult sites, republican coins on which they or their attributes appear, the Capitoline Temple of Ops, and the appearance of "féliciter" in Campanian graffiti.

Research paper thumbnail of URL link to review: Christoph Baumer, The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity (London/New York: I.B. Tauris, 2006)

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Paul Magdalino and Maria Mavroudi (Eds), The Occult Sciences in Byzantium (Geneva: La Pomme d'Or, 2006)

Research paper thumbnail of URL link to review: Kevin Butcher, Roman Syria and the Near East (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2003)

Research paper thumbnail of The Legend of Mar Qardagh: Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq (University of California Press, 2006)

Research paper thumbnail of Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World, eds. Scott Noegel, Joel Walker, and Brannon Wheeler (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003)

Research paper thumbnail of "Iran and its Neighbors in Late Antiquity: The Art of the Sasanian Empire, 224-642 C.E." (2007)

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Averil Cameron, Late Antiquity on the Eve of Islam (London: Ashgate, 2013), in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 89, no. 1 (Jan. 2014): 169-71.

Crucifixion, very possibly a Mother of God: the proportions of this figure are not unlike the elo... more Crucifixion, very possibly a Mother of God: the proportions of this figure are not unlike the elongated Virgin in the Crucifixion in the Gospels of Judith of Flanders (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M. 78, fol. 1v) who similarly reaches upward to dab at her son's side wound with her veil. Hypothetical identifications of other badly damaged figures here are also open to discussion: Bitton 4 (Gloucestershire), barely visible in photographs, as Sol or Luna; the Church Stretton 1 (Shropshire) figure as a possible seated Pan with his pipes; and Ampney St. Peter's 1 and Saintsbury 1 (both Gloucestershire) as fertility figures (the Ampney figure may well be Eve with the serpent).

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Greg Fisher, Between Empires: Arabs, Romans, and Sasanians in Late Antiquity (Oxford University Press, 2011), in Classical Review 63, no. 2. (October. 2013): 557-59.

Research paper thumbnail of Review: James Howard-Johnston, Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century, in Hugoye: The Journal of Syriac Studies (summer, 2013): 385-88.

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Samuel Lieu et al. Medieval Christian and Manichaean Remains from Quanzhou (Zayton) (Turnout: Brepols, 2011)

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Thomas Sizgorich, Violence and Belief in Late Antiquity: Militant Devotion in Christianity and Islam (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009)

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Byzantium Viewed by the Arabs (Cambridge, MA/London: Harvard University Press, 2004), in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies 82, no. 1 (Jan., 2007), 179-81.

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Gabriele Puschnigg, Ceramics of the Merv Oasis: Recycling the City (Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2006), in the American Journal of Archaeology 113, no. 1 (2009), 148-49.

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Tjalling Halbertsma, Early Christian Remains of Inner Mongolia: Discovery, Reconstruction, and Appropriation (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008)

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Henning Borm, Prokop und die Perser: Untersuchungen zu den romisch-sasanidischen Kontakten in der ausgehenden Spatantike (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2007)

offers a survey, largely chronological, of the ways Romans engaged with "divine qualities." These... more offers a survey, largely chronological, of the ways Romans engaged with "divine qualities." These are deities we are more accustomed to hearing described as "deified abstractions" or "divine personifications," that is, gods and goddesses with names like Honos, Virtus, Concordia, Felicitas, Fides, and Victoria. Clark is concerned mostly with those qualities that are known to have received public cults and temples in the period of the Republic. In addition to six synthetic chapters and a lengthy concluding chapter that traces the appearance of divine qualities into the imperial period, Clark provides appendixes on republican temples and shrines to divine qualities, prodigies pertaining to them and their cult sites, republican coins on which they or their attributes appear, the Capitoline Temple of Ops, and the appearance of "féliciter" in Campanian graffiti.

Research paper thumbnail of URL link to review: Christoph Baumer, The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity (London/New York: I.B. Tauris, 2006)

Research paper thumbnail of Review: Paul Magdalino and Maria Mavroudi (Eds), The Occult Sciences in Byzantium (Geneva: La Pomme d'Or, 2006)

Research paper thumbnail of URL link to review: Kevin Butcher, Roman Syria and the Near East (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2003)

Research paper thumbnail of Review: John Joseph, The Modern Assyrians of the Middle East: Encounters with Western Christian Missions, Archaeologists and Colonial Powers (Leiden: Brill, 2002)

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Helen Rhee, Early Christian Literature: Christ and Culture in the Second and Third Centuries -- The Apologies, Apocryphal Acts and Martyr Acts

Studies of early Christian literature typically focus on a modest subsection of the available evi... more Studies of early Christian literature typically focus on a modest subsection of the available evidence. Helen Rhee seeks to break through this compartmentalizing approach in this succinct book, a revised version of her dissertation at Fuller Theological Seminary. Early Christian Literature systematically compares the thematic content of three major genres of the early Church: the apologies, the Apocryphal Acts, and pre-Decian martyr literature. The result is an engaging, thought-provoking study that documents both the diversity and common threads of early Christian literature.

Research paper thumbnail of URL link to review: Mark Vessey and William Klingshirn (Eds), The Limits of Early Christianity: Essays in Honor of Robert Markus (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1999).

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