Fortress Press

Exquisitely researched and thoroughly reasoned, Excavating Women examines markers used to honor women leaders in ancient artwork. After women converted to Christianity, their leadership as deacons, priests, elders, and bishops reflects the same archaeological symbols. The parallels are impossible to miss! From the Christian catacombs to early church mosaics, women leaders were stunningly prominent--a reality now impossible to ignore.

There has been a lot written on the role of women in the early Christian church. Typically, information on their role is obtained from interpreting certain New Testament passages and, later, various early church documents. Archaeology, on the hand, provides a contemporary window into what women were actually doing in the early Church. While there have been previous studies that attempted to utilize archaeological finds to illuminate the role of women, Carina Prestes has done an admirable job of going beyond these earlier studies, not only by reinterpreting some earlier finds, but by bringing many new discoveries to the discussion that open that window into the past more broadly. This is a must-read for anyone who wants a new additional perspective on how important women were to the rise of the Christian church.

Excavating Women explores evidence from material culture of Christian women's leadership in Late Antiquity. Prestes contributes a careful analysis of burial inscriptions, frescoes, and mosaics, adding to the now substantial evidence that many ancient churches had women clergy. Her clear description and sage analysis of the evidence makes this material available in new ways for students of ancient Christianity.

During this time when many Christian churches are struggling with the issue of women in ministry, here comes a study persuasively demonstrating that in the early centuries after Christ, women were not only in positions of leadership in the church but were even ordained for their ministries. The contribution of this book is primarily its presentation of the archaeological evidence, shared within its Greco-Roman historical and cultural background.

In her new book, Excavating Women, Dr. Prestes carefully takes a new look at old archaeological reports to identify previously overlooked (or ignored) evidence of women clergy during Late Antiquity, and she contextualizes her new evidence with other known material remains that depict women church leaders, creating a magnificent compendium. She is one of the leaders of a group of scholars doing groundbreaking work in this field. Excavating Women is remarkably readable and beautifully illustrated. I thoroughly recommend it.