The visual and material culture of Late Antique Egypt, extending, roughly, from the later third to the seventh century, preserves an unusually broad spectrum of artistic remains, ranging from the public monumentality of cityscapes, for example, to clothing and other items of personal significance. Over the past generation, the quantity of artistic evidence has grown, thanks to current archaeological fieldwork, even as the quality of evidence has been improved by modern methods of documentation, close study of past excavations, and, notably, conservation campaigns. This expanding repertory of monuments has been characterized in recent studies in relation to artistic developments known elsewhere across the wider world of Late Antiquity. Accordingly, this historical period is referred to by designations connoting world-views extending far beyond the Nile Valley. The terms ‘‘Late Roman,’’ ‘‘Early Byzantine,’’ ‘‘Early Christian,’’ and ‘‘Late Antique’’ all refer to the same core chronological span but with different cultural emphases. Although Late Roman is retrospective and Early Byzantine prospective, both terms refer to the continuation of the Roman Empire and Roman culture - in fact, the people we call ‘‘Byzantine’’ and locate in the mainly Greek-speaking eastern Mediterranean called themselves ‘‘Roman.’’ ‘‘Early Christian’’ refers to the spread of Christianity across the Roman Empire and beyond. The phrase ‘‘Late Antique,’’ however, is used in a more inclusive sense to refer not only to Rome and Byzantium but also to the political, religious, and cultural spheres of the Sassanian Persian Empire of the third to seventh centuries, and the early Arab Caliphate, which incorporated Persian and Byzantine territories into the emerging Islamicate world beginning in the the early seventh century. The world of Late Antiquity comprises, in addition, kingdoms of Western Europe during this time period, as well as contemporary polities and cultures farther north, east, and south. One of the most striking traits of this period of Egyptian art is the extent to which it reflects the interconnectedness of these diverse realms.
Late Antique Egyptian society maintained ongoing, long-range communications by means of trade, travel, and remarkably effective postal systems. Whereas it is often noted that much of Egypt’s role within the expansive economy of the later Empire was based upon long-distance travel, we should recognize that the massive shipments of grain sent from Egypt via Alexandria, first to Rome, then later to the new capital city of Constantinople traveled along maritime routes with other commodities and goods. Egypt exported flax and linen, for example, the cloth made from flax, papyrus paper made from the papyrus plant, raw glass, and objects made of glass. Ivory, as well, remained an important sumptuous material for export and for significant diplomatic gifts, such as the eight stools and fourteen chairs of ivory sent by the patriarch Cyril of Alexandria (412-444) to the emperor Theodosius II (408-450) in Constantinople (Cutler 1985: 20). Exports from Egypt were complemented by imports into Egypt. Ivory, for instance, came originally from India and East Africa via Red Sea trade routes and, from the south and west across African land routes. Silk was imported from China via Persia until at least the mid-sixth century when sericulture was established within the empire. Traveling to and from Egypt across the Mediterranean and the Red Sea and along extensive road networks with such goods and the merchants who traded in them were government officials and church leaders, monks and pilgrims, soldiers, scholars, and artisans. Ideas were in transit, too, not only in the minds of Late Antique globe-trotters but as expressed in texts, images, and objects.