Edwin Freshfield and Byzantine Ephesos: Railway, Faith and Archaeology

The British solicitor Edwin Freshfield was a wealthy collector with a passion for Byzantine antiquities. Among the Byzantine capitals that he acquired from the 1870s onwards are three originally from the church of St John in Ephesos. By examining the means by which these objects were acquired, this article sheds light on Freshfield’s interest in Asia Minor. Unpublished archival material suggests his pioneering role in the archaeological rediscovery of the church of St John, which scholarship on Late Antiquity and Byzantium has so far entirely forgotten. In the context of the British interest in the eastern Mediterranean, Freshfield’s activity illustrates how economic and collecting impulses were not exclusive motives. His collection mirrors his religious identity and his desire to connect the Anglican Church to the origins of the Christian faith, through the ‘preservation’ of the Byzantine past.