The Center acknowledges with gratitude continued financial support from The Arete Foundation and from the Fellows of the Center.
ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE CITY: A CONFERENCE ON ANCIENT ROME IN NEW YORK March 2-4, 2012 The conference will address the dramatic increases in the archaeological and topographic knowledge of ancient Rome at the turn of both the 21st and the 20th centuries. On the one hand, it will discuss how the archaeological finds of the last twenty years have redefined the questions that scholars ask about the city. On the other hand, it will explore the history of archaeology in Rome between 1890 and 1915, with special attention to American scholarship. The conference celebrates the centennial of George N. Olcott (1867-1912), professor of Latin and the first lecturer in Roman archaeology at Columbia. Speakers include: J. Bodel, T.J. Cornell, C. Goddard, P. Gros, L. Haselberger, E. La Rocca, D. Palombi, G. Salmeri, B. Ward-Perkins, K. Welch, T.P. Wiseman, P. Zanker, J. Zetzel. Organizers: Francesco de Angelis and Marco Maiuro. For further information contact fda2101@columbia.edu. CROSSING BOUNDARIES: ANCIENT HISTORY EXPLORES ITS FUTURE Two two-day conferences, at Columbia (April 20th and 21st, 2012) and at Cambridge (December 12th and 13th, 2012). Register now for this conference! Ancient historians quite rightly spend a lot of time working at old controversies, and there is certainly no shortage of very old historical problems that deserve further discussion. Our two conferences will face in the other direction. Their purpose is to consider what historical problems, and (even more) what historical methods especially deserve to be pursued in the coming decades. There is no intention here to dictate or preach. The spirit is exploration and debate. It seems clear, however, both that fresh approaches have been opening up in recent years, and that some or all of them are intellectually challenging. An ancient historian alert to new developments is likely these days to be confronted with highly technical discussions in fields as disparate as osteology, nutrition, art history, psychology and earth sciences. How to use all the information and techniques in question productively? Without losing sight of our (we hope) still rigorous standards for dealing with the textual sources in their original languages. To see the program of the Columbia conference, click here. Organizers: William Harris, Susan Alcock, Wilfried Nippel, Robin Osborne, Walter Scheidel. For further information contact mea2153@columbia.edu or wvh1@columbia.edu. All who wish to attend are asked to register beforehand, for free, by completing this form.
|
UPCOMING EVENTS
All events are held in the 5th floor conference room of the Italian Academy, unless otherwise noted.
CAM IN THE BALKANS 2012
Columbia and JTS graduate students are invited to take part in an archaeological tour of sites in Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Croatia, May 24 to June 4. For details, click here.
Professor Alan Cameron, "Greek Mythology on Roman Sarcophagi"
When: Friday, February 17, 2012, 11AM
This lecture will be given in honor of the birthday of Marvin Deckoff, benefactor of Columbia and a Fellow of the Center. It is co-sponsored by the Classics Department.
Professor Ellen Morris, "Dancers, Flashers, and 'Fertility' Figurines in Old- and Middle-Kingdom Egypt"
When: Friday, February 24, 2012, 11AM
Paddle dolls, a genre of figurine infamous for wild hairdos and prominent pubic triangles, have been interpreted variously as concubines for the dead, as children’s toys, or as figurines linked to notions of fertility and rebirth. On the basis of eight lines of evidence, it will be argued that they were, instead, representations of a specific category of women, namely the Late Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom musical performers who danced both *as* and *for* the goddess Hathor at Deir el-Bahari. Paddle dolls are usually studied without reference to their archaeological contexts, which has limited our ability to assess their cultural meaning. Many of the arguments introduced in this talk derive from a close study of the Metropolitan Museum’s excavations at the Theban necropolis of Asasif—the locale that has yielded the vast majority of excavated paddle dolls.
A Lecture by Marc Van de Mieroop (Columbia University), "Reading before the Greeks: Masters of Truth in Ancient Babylonia"
Lecture Title TBA
When: March 30, 2012, 11AM
A Lecture by Professor Liz Irwin (Columbia University)
Lecture Title TBA
When: Friday, April 6th, 11AM
Timothy D. Barnes, "The Theodosian Code: Problems of Interpretation and Dating"
When: April 27, 2012
Location: Italian Academy, 5th Floor
