In every urban community, large or small, people live cheek by jowl. They share not only the same space, but also the same moments in time. Urban space, the visual expression of how people shape the city, has been well studied, but because it leaves few physical traces urban time is usually ignored. This project introduces the conceptual tool of the timescape – the matrix of all temporal practices (conventional schedules of activities) that shape a community – and applies it to the diverse communities of the late antique Mediterranean (AD 175-750). The project will establish how members of these communities negotiated their temporal practices in pursuit of peaceful coexistence, and how they dealt with the profound societal transformations that characterize the period. It will allow us to see, for example, how attendance at Sunday mass by a segment of the community influenced the life of the community as a whole.