Tuesday 20 May 2014

The visualisation of the late antique city - Conflict in Late Antiquity: two conferences


*THE VISUALISATION OF THE LATE ANTIQUE CITY*
(Late Antique Archaeology 2014)
The Society of Antiquaries, London, Saturday 7th June 2014

*Introduction*
09.45-10.00 Ellen Swift
Visualising the late antique city.

*Public Space*
10.00-10.30 Luke Lavan
Streets in late antiquity: form and function.

*Churches*
10.30-11.00 Nikos Karydis
New approaches to the architectural reconstruction of churches.
11.00-11.30 Joe Williams Object groups in ecclesiastical space.

*Houses*
11.30-12.00 Solinda Kamani
Architecture and decoration of modest houses.
12.00-12.30 Joanna Stoner
Domestic material culture: function to cultural meaning.
12.30-12.45 Discussion

*Shops*
13.30-14.00 Aoife Fitzgerald
Architecture and decoration of colonnaded shops.
14.00-14.30 Joe Williams
Commercial object groups: production, storage and sale.

*Guest Lecture*
14.30-15.00 Tayfun Oner
Visualising Constantinople: recent work.

*Dress*
15.00-15.30 Faith Morgan
Manufacture, wear and repair of late antique garments, with a fashion show of historic costumes produced for the event.

*From Research to Art*
15.45-16.00 Ellen Swift
Artefact studies to everyday life: spoons and late antique dining habits
16.00-16.15 Will Foster
Drawing architecture, objects and dress.

*Case Study*
16.15-16.45 Luke Lavan
Late Roman Ostia: urban life in AD 387, as seen by St Augustine.
16.45-17.00 Discussion

The conference will be held at The Society of Antiquaries (Meeting Room), Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BE.

Admission 20 GBP; Students / OAPs 10 GBP. To reserve a place and pay please contact Joanna Stoner
jms59@kent.ac.uk by Saturday 25th of May.
Registration opens at 09.30. Underground: Green Park and Piccadilly.
www.visualisinglateantiquity.wordpress.com

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XXIII Finnish Symposium on Late Antiquity
Conflict in Late Antiquity
Tvärminne, Finland, 17–18 October 2014
The XXIII Finnish Symposium on Late Antiquity will be organized on 17–18 October 2014. The aim of the symposium is to bring together scholars and postgraduate students with an interest in Late Antiquity from a variety of universities and disciplines. Our main aim is to stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue between philology, archaeology, history, theology, religious studies, art history and other disciplines that deal with Late Antiquity.
The theme of the symposium in 2014 is “Conflict in Late Antiquity”. It will be approached from a wide perspective, including different types and levels of conflict and attempts at solving them. Conflict can be discussed from the from the point of view of politics and competition for power, ethnic conflicts, conflicts between different areas and peoples of the empire, cultural and religious conflicts between and within traditions, doctrinal conflict, interpretation and portrayal of conflict in literature and art, personal conflicts, and conflicts versus everyday life. We welcome papers that discuss scholarly approaches to late antiquity, why the sources and scholarship focus so emphatically on conflict, and what other perspectives can be applied instead.
 This year’s symposium features the following invited speakers:
- Hagith Sivan (Department of History, University of Kansas). Prof. Sivan is specialist in Roman history, Late Antiquity, study of women in Antiquity as well as the Hebrew Bible, Jewish history and early Christianity. She has written/edited six books that include Dinah's Daughters. Gender and Judaism from the Hebrew Bible to Late Antiquity (2002); Between Woman, Man and God: A New Interpretation of the Ten Commandments (2004); Palestine in Late Antiquity (2008) and Galla Placidia. The Last Roman Empress (2011). She has written articles on topics ranging from the Roman army in late ancient Spain to Christian ascetic females, and from the Visigothic kings of Toulouse to Jewish childhood and to meandering monk Barsauma.
 
- Petri Luomanen (Biblical Studies, University of Helsinki). Prof. Luomanen has studied Jewish-Christians - i.e. Christians who embraced Christian faith but kept their Jewish way of life - and hostility expressed against them by both Christians and other Jews. He has employed social-scientific and cognitive approaches in his works. His publications include Recovering Jewish-Christian Sects and Gospels (2012), Explaining Christian Origins and Early Judaism: Contributions from Cognitive and Social Science (2007, editor with Ilkka Pyysiäinen and Risto Uro), and A Companion to Second-Century Christian ‘Heretics’ (2005, 2008 editor with Antti Marjanen).
 - Lucy Grig (School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh). Dr. Grig is specialist in cultural history in Late Antiquity, including literary and material culture with particular interest in religious history and popular culture. She has published Making Martyrs in Late Antiquity (2004) and co-edited (with Gavin Kelly) Two Romes: Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity (2012).
 - Antti Lampinen (Classics, University of Turku). Dr. Lampinen is specialist in Greco-Roman ethnographical writing. He finished his doctoral dissertation, Istae contra omnium religiones. Characterizing Northern Barbarian Religiosity in the Graeco-Roman Literary Tradition from Hellenism to the Later Empire in 2013.
 There is space for a maximum of nine more papers. If you wish to deliver a paper, please send a short abstract (maximum length 300 words) by 1 June 2014 to Dr. Ville Vuolanto: ville.vuolanto(at)uta.fi. We encourage not only senior, but also junior scholars and postgraduate students to participate.
 Applicants will be informed by 19 June 2014 whether they have been accepted. We have reserved 30 minutes for each presentation including discussion, wherefore we recommend limiting the papers to 20 minutes.
 The symposium will be organized in the premises of a zoological research station operated by the University of Helsinki at a beautiful location at Tvärminne on the southern coast of Finland (http://luoto.tvarminne.helsinki.fi/english). It is organized by an interdisciplinary organizing committee under the auspices of the center of excellence “Reason and Religious Recognition” in the Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki, together with Department of World Cultures, University of Helsinki.
 The seminar is free. We will offer transportation from Helsinki to Tvärminne and the return journey, as well as accommodation (one night)and meals in Tvärminne. However, we are not able to cover any travel costs to or accommodation in Helsinki. Registration for the conference will start 1 September and close on 30 September 2014.
 The organizing committee:
• Maijastina Kahlos, PhD, Classics / Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki, maijastina.kahlos(at)
helsinki.fi
• Ulla Tervahauta ThD, Biblical Studies, University of Helsinki, ulla.tervahauta(at)
helsinki.fi
• Ville Vuolanto, PhD, History, University of Tampere /  University of Oslo, ville.vuolanto(at)
uta.fi
 Contact information
Please send newsletter contributions to
jan-eric@steppa.se, by phone at +46 46 211 55 39, or by snail mail to Jan-Eric Steppa, Spårsnögatan 55, 226 52 LUND, Sweden. If you do not wish to receive any newsletters, please send blank e-mail to jan-eric@steppa.se with "unsubscribe from newsletter" in the subject line.

Monday 5 May 2014

Post-doctoral position, conference and competition


For the papyrologists among us, there is now an announcement of a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Minnesota. King’s College, London, opens for registration for the conference ”Institutions in Villages in Egypt”. Students may be interested in the competition announced by the Accademia Vivarium Novum.

The Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Minnesota is now accepting applications for a post-doctoral research associate for the initial period of September 2014 - December 2015 to aid in our analysis of documentary papyri in Greek and Coptic as described below. If funding permits, the position may continue for at least one additional semester.  

This is the link to the job posting 

The requisition number for the position is 119188.

Questions and application materials should be sent to psellew@umn.edu.  

The position is open until filled.

Our primary data set is the collection of crowd-sourced papyri transcriptions through Ancient Lives (http://ancientlives.org/about), a project of this department in collaboration with colleagues at Oxford University, but we are also accessing publicly available digitized collections.  While the focus of this position is research, if desired the post-doc associate may also be able to teach one or two advanced courses centered on early Christian history, literature, or material culture.

The funding for this position comes through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities along with support from the University's College of Liberal Arts. The link below offers a bit more information:

"Resurrecting Early Christian Lives: Digging in Papyri in a Digital Age"

Researchers at the University of Minnesota (US) and Oxford University (UK) will study Christian identity in Greco-Roman Egypt by building a digital transcription tool for the Coptic language and a web-based interface that will permit scholars to analyze crowd-sourced transcriptions of ancient papyri found in a trash heap in Egypt documenting the everyday lives and activities of early Christians in the Mediterranean.  (NEH grant support: $174,977)
http://www.neh.gov/news/press-release/2014-01-15

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Institutions in Villages in Egypt from the Early Roman to the Fatimid Period
 
 
3rd July 2014 – 4th July 2014

Last Booking Date for this Event
13th June 2014
Description
This conference will focus on the study of administrative, economic and social institutions in villages in Egypt from the early Roman period through to the Fatimid period.
The aim of the conference is threefold:
1) to assess the role and importance of village institutions in the community;
2) to examine whether and to what extent villages had communal self-awareness;
3) to investigate how institutions (and the very idea of them) changed over time. The conference is organised with the support of the British Academy.

The conference is organised with the support of the British Academy.
 
Location
Nash Lecture Theatre
Venue Details
Room K2.31
King's College London
Strand Campus
Strand
London WC2R 2LS
More Information
Named after former Assistant Principal and Professor of Civil Engineering John Nash, this 300 capacity lecture theatre has been newly refurbished and equipped with state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment. Opposite you will see a plaque in honour of James Clerk Maxwell, whose equations, published whilst he was a professor at King’s, formed the basis of classical electrodynamics, and underlie modern electrical and communications technologies.

Getting to the Strand Campus: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/campuslife/campuses/directions/strand.aspx
Contact
For any enquiries please contact Micaela Langellotti (micaela.1.langellotti@kcl.ac.uk).
Description
Institutions in villages in Egypt from the Early Roman to the Fatimid Period
This conference will focus on the study of administrative, economic and social institutions in villages in Egypt from the early Roman period through to the Fatimid period. The aim of the conference is threefold:
  1. to assess the role and importance of village institutions in the community;
  2. to examine whether and to what extent villages had communal self-awareness;
  3. to investigate how institutions (and the very idea of them) changed over time.
The conference is organised with the support of the British Academy.

Programme
Thursday 3 July
9:00-9:30 Registration
9:30-9:45 Micaela Langellotti (King's College London) Introduction
9:45-10:30 Mario C. D. Paganini (Copenhagen) Private associations and village life in early Roman Egypt
10:30-11:45 François Lerouxel (Université Paris-Sorbonne) Private banks in villages of Roman Egypt
11:45-12:15 Tea/Coffee Break
12:15-12:45 Andrea Jördens (Heidelberg) Feste und Feierlichkeiten im Hinterland
12:45-13:15 Roberto Mascellari (Florence) Security, legality and police procedures in Roman Egypt: the role of village officials in the submission of complaints
13:15-14:15 Lunch
14:15-14:45 Thomas Kruse (Vienna) The organisation of the state farmers and its role in village administration
14:45-15:30 Maria Nowak (Warsaw) Village or town: Does it matter in legal terms?
15:30-16:00 Tea/Coffee Break
16:00-16:45 Silvia Strassi (Padua) Presbyteroi nell'Egitto romano: i casi di Bakchias e Karanis
16:45-17:30 Micaela Langellotti (King's College London) Record-offices in villages in Roman Egypt
18:00-19:30 Drinks reception
Friday 4 July
9:00-9:45 Lajos Berkes (Heidelberg) Fiscal Institution or Local Community? The Village koinon in Late Antiquity (4th–8th centuries)
9:45-10:30 Roberta Mazza (Manchester) Associations (koina) in villages and minor localities of the Apion estate between reality and documentary formulas
10:30-11:15 Gesa Schenke (Oxford) The Monastery of Apa Apollo as Landowner and Employer
11:15-11:45 Tea/Coffee Break
11:45-12:30 Arietta Papacostantinou (Reading) The lashane and the ‘great men’: secular authority in villages of the Umayyad period
12:30-13:15 Yossef Rapoport (London) Tribal institutions in Ayyubid Fayyum (1243 CE)
13:15-14:15 Lunch
14:15-14:45 Dominic Rathbone (King's College London) Conclusions
14:45 Discussion
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Announcement of Competition at the Academy Vivarium Novum
 
For the 2014-2015 academic year, the Academy Vivarium Novum in Rome is offering ten full tuition scholarships for high school students (16-18 years old) and ten full tuition scholarships  for University students (18-24 years old) of any part of the world. The scholarships will cover all of the costs of room, board, teaching and didactic materials for courses to be held from October 6, 2014 until June 13, 2015 on the grounds of the Academy’s campus at Rome.  The goal of the Academy is to achieve a perfect command of both Latin and Greek through a total immersion in the two languages in order to master without any hindrances the texts and concepts which have been handed down from the ancient times, middle ages, the Renaissance period and modern era, and to cultivate the humanities in a manner similar to the  Renaissance humanists.  All the classes will be conducted in Latin, except for Greek classes which will be conducted in ancient Greek.
Application letters must be sent by June 30, 2014 in order to receive consideration.