Authors

A long-distance swimmer, Robert G. Ousterhout (“The Cave-Dwellers”) once splashed his way across the Bosporus from Europe to Asia. He has directed a survey of Cappadocia’s Byzantine settlements at Çanl’ Kilise, near Aksaray. Ousterhout is chair of the department of architectural history and preservation at the University of Illinois; he is currently working on a new book, Byzantine Masons at Work (Princeton University Press, forthcoming).

Veronica G. Kalas (“Monasteries? Heavens, No,”) has spent several summers surveying Middle Byzantine rock-cut architecture in Cappadocia’s Peristrema Valley. “Very few specialists of Byzantium are lucky enough to work in the field,” she says. Kalas is currently a Ph.D. candidate at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts.

Anson F. Rainey (“This is the Taste of Death”) teaches historical geography at Tel Aviv University, where he is professor emeritus. He also teaches historical geography and the history of Hebrew at Jerusalem University College on Mt. Zion.