Maik Patzelt is going to present a working paper on 'The 'Freedom' of the Widows: Late Antique Inheritance Hunting as Focal Point Networks and Agency of Late Antique Widows'

My paper targets the relatively unknown dynamics of legacy hunting in late antiquity through the eyes of a multidimensional network-agency-approach. By following the paths of economic, socio-political and religious networks, which all culminate in the scenes of legacy-hunting, I am able to reveal the complexity and the various ramifications of networking processes that common network analyses are unable to detect. Given the prominent presence of widows in the variety of legal, historical and ecclesiastical sources, these ramifications especially concern the transformations and thus conflicts of norms and moral codes. A complex context appears, in which late antique widows set up networks that compete with those of local elites and bishops.