Monday, November 2, 2009

Dr. Diane A. Conlin
Associate Professor of Art History and Classics
University of Colorado, Boulder

"LIFE AND DEATH ON THE VIA APPIA IN ROME"

Long referred to as the queen of Rome’s roads (Statius, Silvae 2.2), the picturesque Via Appia was the premier location to immortalize the dead and celebrate the luxuries of life in ancient Rome. Today, the capital’s first paved road is still lined with the impressive remains of Roman tombs and grand aristocratic estates. This talk will examine the written and archeological evidence for several religious, funerary and villa structures built along the first four kilometers of Appia. The focus of the lecture will be the recent discoveries of the University of Colorado excavations at the site of Vila of Maxentius, a vast suburban imperial estate begun in 309 C.E. by Tetrarchic usurper. As the last imperial palace erected in Rome by a pagan emperor, the Villa of Maxentius occupies a pivotal historical, topographical and architectural place in Rome’s epochal transformation from “pagan city to Christian capital.” Evidence for the early fourth century villa and two earlier Roman suburban complexes discovered below the Maxentian ruins will be discussed and illustrated with new photographs and drawings.

Diane A. Conlin is Associate Professor of Art History and Classics with the University of Colorado. She holds a Ph.D. in Classical Art & Archaeology from the University of Michigan, and her areas of specialization are Roman art and archaeology, Roman relief sculpture, marble carving analysis, and Imperial Rome. She is Co-Director of the University of Colorado's excavations at the Villa of Maxentius in Rome, has received numerous awards for her research and teaching, and has published The Artists of the Ara Pacis (1997, University of North Carolina Press) and Political Art in Flavian Rome (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press).

Some reading suggestions (for lay reader):

• Conlin, D., A. Haeckl and G. Ponti. 2007. “The Villa of Maxentius on the Via Appia: Report on the 2005 Excavations.” The Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 51/52: 347-370.
• Cullhed, M. 1994. Conservator Urbis Suae: Studies in the politics and propoaganda of the emperor Maxentius. Stockholm.
• Curran, J. 2000. Pagan City and Christian Capital: Rome in the Fourth Century.
Oxford 2000.
• Della Portella, I., ed. 1994. The Appian Way: from its foundation to the Middle Ages.
J. Paul Getty Museum, 1994.

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Thursday, November 12, 2009
Northrup Hall 040 -- 7:30PM

Dr. Kathleen Coleman
Professor of Latin
Harvard University

"The Virtues of Violence: The Amphitheater, Gladiators, and the Roman System of Values "

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Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Dr. Cheryl Ward
Associate Professor
Department of Anthropology, Florida State University

"CEDAR, FRANKINCENSE AND SPOILS OF WAR: SEAFARING IN ANCIENT EGYPT"

People usually consider the ancient Egyptians as focused on the Nile, but recent research and discovery at archaeological sites throughout Egypt and the Levant suggests this perception is out-dated. For more than a century, scholars have argued about when, how and in what sort of ships the ancient Egyptians went to sea. Discovery of the remains of seagoing ships at the pharaonic anchorages of Wadi Gawasis and Ayn Sokhna recently provides the first physical evidence of these massive cedar ships. Their cargoes are attested by textual references, as well as archaeological evidence, and the impact of seafaring on Egyptian society is reflected in areas as diverse as gold jewelry and consolidation of the throne by an expedition sent to acquire frankincense and other exotic products from lands bordering the southern Red Sea. In this lecture, I describe archaeological finds, place them in context, introduce my recent reconstruction of a seagoing ship and its voyage, and discuss the impact on our understanding of ancient Egypt as a seafaring nation.

Cheryl Ward is a maritime archaeologist with an active research program in the history and construction of wooden ships and archaeobotany as an Associate Professor and Marine Archaeologist with Coatal Carolina University's Department of History, and formerly with Florida State University. Dr. Ward currently serves as Co-Principal Investigator for Maritime Artifacts at the pharaonic port at Wadi Gawasis on the Red Sea in Egypt and has just completed the reconstruction and sailing of an ancient Egyptian seagoing ship. Her recent projects include participating in remote surveys of both the ancient coastline and the deep anoxic layer in the Black Sea for INA; acting as ship reconstructor in the excavation of the world's oldest planked boats at Abydos, Egypt, and directing an underwater survey off the coast of Turkey in the region where Roman pirates operated and were later settled. In addition, she directed the excavation of the 18th-century Sadana Island shipwreck in Egypt's Red Sea, with its cargo of coffee, coconuts, and frankincense for INA. Her published works include Sacred and Secular: Ancient Egyptian Ship Construction (2000, AIA Monographs Series), The Philosophy of Shipbuilding: Conceptual Approaches to the Study of Wooden Ships (2004, Texas A&M University Press), and many articles in both scholarly and popular journals.

For more background information about the speaker and topic: http://mailer.fsu.edu/~cward/Egyptmain.htm

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Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Dr. Erwin Cook
T. Frank Murchison Distinguished Professor of Classical Studies,
Trinity University

"THE ODYSSEY IN ELEUSIS"

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Monday, April 12, 2010

Dr. Steven Garfinkle
Associate Professor
History Department, Western Washington University

"THE CREATION OF IMPERIAL COMMUNITIES IN THE ANCIENT WORLD: THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE IN THE FIRST MILLENNIUM BC"

“The Assyrian Came Down Like the Wolf on the Fold”
With this line, Lord Byron captured the enduring image of the Assyrians for the West. Both modern studies and biblical lore have tended to regard the warlike Assyrians with a wary eye. Fortunately, recent scholarship on the Assyrians is allowing us to produce a more complete picture of these ancient inhabitants of northern Mesopotamia. In particular, recent efforts to document the reliefs and monuments of the Assyrians and to publish their royal inscriptions provide modern scholars with the opportunity to examine in detail the growth of Assyria into a large territorial empire in the first millennium BC, and on the institutions of imperialism that accompanied that growth. Imperialism is a topic of recent historical interest, and the Assyrians created one of the first world empires. In many respects, the practices and institutions developed by the Assyrians served as a model not only for later imperial societies of the Near East, such as the Babylonians and Persians, but also for the imperial societies of the Classical World. This lecture examines the Assyrian empire on the basis of the tremendous archaeological evidence that survives from their lavish palaces, as well as the textual record from their archives and monumental inscriptions.

Born in New Jersey, Steven Garfinkle developed an early interest in the history and archaeology of other places. His love of archaeology was encouraged by a trip up Masada on his father's shoulders at the age of five. Eventually, he pursued history and archaeology at Tufts University, where his advisor suggested that he get some field experience in Israel. His first task as a member of the Tel Kabri excavations was to dig a trench in order to bury the water supply for the portable showers. In addition to that important task, during six years at the site Garfinkle participated in uncovering the fantastic Middle Bronze Age palace at Kabri and unearthing the Minoan frescoes there. Garfinkle completed his Ph.D. at Columbia in ancient Near Eastern studies, writing a thesis about private enterprise in Babylonia at the end of the third milennium. Since 2001, he has taught in the history department at Western Washington University. His children, Jakob and Rebecca, to his chagrin, have shown great interest in ancient Egypt.

Some reading suggestions (for lay reader):
• Joannès, F. 2004. The Age of Empires, Mesopotamia in the First Millennium BC. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• Larsen, M.T. 1996. The Conquest of Assyria. New York: Routledge.
• Saggs, H.W.F. 1984. The Might That Was Assyria. London: Sidgwick & Jackson.
• Van De Mieroop, Marc. 2004. A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000 – 323 BC. Malden, MA: Blackwell.