Some Aspects of Social and Cultural Time in Late Antiquity

Abstract

This study examines some aspects of social time in Late Antiquity, arguing that conceptions of time can be found in places other than the calendar, and that numerous different levels of time exist simultaneously, some of which can be investigated through texts and material culture. Late antique conceptions of renovatio, especially those expressed through numismatic legends, are examined, alongside evidence relating to the destruction and conversion of pagan temples during the period. This evidence is used to suggest that during this period time was conceptualised in a way that stressed its discontinuous, non-sequential, character. This is interpreted in the context of other recent studies of late antique culture which have argued that the period witnessed a characteristic fragmentation of larger structures into smaller discontinuous elements, subsequently made available for non-linear reassembly.