Mark Letteney joined Princeton’s Department of Religion in Summer 2026. He is an ancient historian and archaeologist studying ancient Christianity, the history of incarceration, and the archaeology of military occupation. Prior to joining the Department of Religion, he held the Carol Thomas Endowed Professorship in Ancient History in the Department of History at the University of Washington.

His first book, The Christianization of Knowledge in Late Antiquity: Intellectual and Material Transformations (Cambridge) explored how imperial Christianity changed the way that scholars across disciplines made arguments in the fourth and fifth centuries CE, and the reflection of new scholastic practices in manuscripts from the Theodosian Age. It was awarded the 2024 Lautenschläger Award, and was shortlisted for the SHARP Book History Book Prize and the AAR Award for Best First Book in the History of Religions.

His second book, Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration (California) co-authored with Matthew D. C. Larsen, brought together documentary, archaeological, literary, and visual evidence to present a synthetic account of the ideology and experience of incarceration in the ancient Mediterranean basin, from 300 BCE–600 CE. Many of the data underlying the book are available on the Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration Database. The book has been reviewed in The New Yorker and Times Literary Supplement. Corrigenda are available here.

Mark also serves as assistant director on the excavation of the Roman 6th Legion at Legio, Israel, where he directs excavations in the legionary amphitheater.