ACHELIS, HANS. - Archaeologist and historian of early Christianity, b. at Hastedi, near Brenna, in 1865, d. at Leipzig in 1937. The son of a Protestant pastor, he was directed by Harnack to the study of ecclesiastical history, devoting himself especially to investigating the institutions of the early Church and applying to it the results of archaeological research. For this reason, especially in his later years, he devoted a great part of his activity also to strictly archaeological themes. His approach was liberal and rationalist, but moderate. In 1907 he was a professor at Halle, in 1916 he moved to Bonn and in 1918 to Leipzig.
He published: Das Symbol des Fisches und die Fischdenkmäler der römischen Katakomben (Marburg 1888); Die alten Denkmäler des orientalischen Kirchenrechts (2 vols., Leipzig 1891 and 1904); Acta Nerei et Achillei (Leipzig 1893); Hippolytus' Werke, vol. II and Hippolytus-Studien (Leipzig 1897); Die Martyrologien, ihre Geschichte und ihr Wert (Göttingen 1901); Virgines subintroductori (Leipzig 1902); Das Christentum in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (2 vols., Leipzig 1912; 2nd ed., ibid. 1925); Entwicklungsgeschichte der altchristlichen Kunst (Leipzig 1919); Römische Katakombenbilder in Katanien (Berlin 1932); Die Katakomben von Neapel (Leipzig 1936).
Antonio Ferrua