Greek and Roman cultures were alive with the arts and deeply interested in questions of aesthetic value. Whether it was poetry, music, the plastic arts or architecture, functional or ornamental craftsmanship, public drama or private recitation, the arts were continually discussed and contested by people of all social classes and backgrounds. Our sources suggest that there were in fact many kinds of responses to the arts in classical antiquity, not all of them positive or consonant with one another. This colloquium concerns how Greeks and Romans ascribed or denied value to the arts, what criteria they invoked in distinguishing between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ art, whether we can accurately speak of an ancient concept of the ‘fine arts’, and how aesthetic value varied as a function of social class or political ideology. We will consider the complex and fluctuating interaction between conceptions of beauty, pleasure and utility, especially from the perspective of general audiences and fans or devotees, not just theorists or philosophers. In particular, we will attempt to access the aesthetic discourse of non-specialists as they responded emotionally and intellectually to the arts.

For this sixth colloquium we invite abstracts for papers (30 minutes) on all aspects of our proposed topic, from the earliest periods of Greece through Imperial Rome. We welcome contributions from all research areas, including literary studies, philology, art history and archaeology, history, and philosophy. Selected papers will be considered for publication by Brill Publishers. Those interested in presenting a paper are requested to submit an abstract of no more than 1 page, by email, before October 1st, 2009. Contact (please copy both with email correspondence): Professor Ralph M. Rosen, Department of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania Professor Ineke Sluiter, Classics Department, University of Leiden rrosen@sas.upenn.edu i.sluiter@let.leidenuniv.nl

CAS Graduate Student Conference, March 12-13, 2010. Gala with keynote speaker will be held in the Lower Egyptian Gallery on Friday, March 12. All-day symposium from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Saturday, March 13, 2010.

When groups in the ancient world interacted, there was an inevitable amount of borrowing from one another. What was borrowed and what was not? Who were the imitators and what was their objective? What did it mean, for example, when the architectural details, iconographic elements, myths, literary styles, traditions, or aspects of material culture of one group were copied by another? Or, for that matter, by members of the same group? The study of emulation and imitation in antiquity can be approached from many angles, through such topics as the transmission of knowledge through repetition, the borrowing of literary forms from other cultures or individuals, the formation of political identity, the mass production of luxury goods in cheaper materials, or the diffusion of art styles. In all cases, it can be argued that emulation and imitation were both forces for cultural continuity as well as change.

CAS is accepting submissions for papers from graduate students for this conference up until January 9, 2010. Please send abstract no longer than one page (double-spaced) to ancient@sas.upenn.edu. Talks should not exceed 20 mins.

CAS Symposium 1:00 - 5:00 PM The city of Jerusalem exists both as a physical entity, fixed in time and place, and also as an idea that transcends its physical form. The symposium examines the monuments that testify to the sanctity of Jerusalem, as well as the rituals and representations that allow the "idea" of Jerusalem to be reproduced at distant locations. Session One: Building Jerusalem Rina Avner (Israel Archaeological Service): On the Roads to Jerusalem: Recent and Less Recent Finds Ted van Loan (History of Art, University of Pennsylvania): The Little Stone that Could Jordan Pickett (AAMW, University of Pennsylvania): Patronage Contested: Archaeology and the Early Modern Struggle for Possession at the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem Coffee Break Session Two: Imagining Jerusalem Sarah Lenzi (Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania): Pilgrimage and Meditation: The Dual Development of the Via Dolorosa Laura Whatley (History of Art, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Visualizing Jerusalem and Crusade in Medieval England Anne Lutun (Architecture, University of Pennsylvania): Visualizations of Jerusalem in Renaissance Milan and the Development of the Sacro Monte at Varallo Sponsored by the Center for Ancient Studies

Gala event and symposium honoring the work of Renata Holod and her contributions to the field of Islamic art, architecture, and visual culture. The Gala will be held Friday evening, October 9th at the Penn Museum. The symposium will take place in the Carolyn Hoff Lynch Room, First Floor, Chemistry Building, University of Pennsylvania (231 South 34th Street) on October 10th, 2000, from 8:45 am to 6:00 pm. Session I * 9:30-10:00 Christine Gruber, “Voir la Vie en Rose: Cosmic Florets and Sacred Visions in Islamic Art” * 10:00-10:30 David J. Roxburgh, “The Rhetoric of Vision in Late Timurid Painting” * 10:30-11:00 Tarek Kahlaoui, “Ottoman Cartographers and Ottoman Seaman” * 11:00-11:30 Nancy Micklewright, “Many Views, Multiple Readings? Photographs of Ottoman Istanbul” Discussion Lunch Session II * 1:30-2:00 Luly Feliciano, “Luxury and Respectability, or the Cultural Values of Islamic Textiles in Early Medieval Iberia” * 2:00-2:30 Cynthia Robinson, “Power, Light, Intraconfessional Discontent, and the Almoravids” * 2:30-3:00 D. Fairchild Ruggles, “Inventing the Alhambra” Discussion Coffee Break Session III * 4:00-4:30 Stephennie Mulder, “Seeing the Light: Polyvalent Iconographies at Three Medieval Syrian Shrines” * 4:30-5:00 Alison Shah, “Re-viewing the Architecture of Indo-Islam: Saints, Sama’, and Visuality in Hyderabad’s Nineteenth-Century Shrine Complexes” * 5:00-5:30 Alaa El-Habashi, “The Islamic Monuments of Cairo after the Comite de Conservation des Monuments de l’Art Arabe” Discussion

Wednesday evening 23 September, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Penn Museum, Classroom 2 (use the Kress Entrance) Round Table discussion featuring Leslie Brubaker (University of Birmingham), Brian Rose (Penn), Jamal Elias, (University of Pennsylvania), and Richard Clay (University of Birmingham). Moderated by Robert Ousterhout (University of Pennsylvania).

CAS Workshop 2009 9:30 Coffee 10:00 Session One * Robert Ousterhout, Introduction (Penn History of Art / Center for Ancient Studies) * Renata Holod, Trade goods from a Kipchak burial (Penn History of Art) * Warren Woodfin, Metalwork from a Kipchak burial (Penn History of Art / Metropolitan Museum of Art) * Helen Evans, Manuscript painting in Armenia (Metropolitan Museum of Art) * Discussion 11:15 Coffee 11:30 Session Two * Paroma Chatterjee, Icons between East and West (Penn Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow / University of North Carolina) * Pagona Papadopoulou, Numismatics (Princeton Hellenic Studies) * Lynn Jones, Relics, reliquaries, and trade (Florida State University) * Discussion 12:45 Lunch 2:30 Session Three * Mary Lee Coulson, Frankish architecture (Metropolitan Museum of Art) * Henry Maguire, Ivories and pilgrimage (Johns Hopkins University) * Eunice Dauterman Maguire, Ceramics in Byzantium and Cyprus (Johns Hopkins University) * Discussion 4:00 Coffee Break 4:20 Concluding Discussion * Paul Cobb, Commentary (Penn NELC) * Tia Kolbaba, Commentary (Rutgers, Religion)

CAS Graduate Conference - 20-21 March 2009, Penn Museum When interactions between ancient cultures are characterized as confrontations with inevitable "winners" and "losers", one group emerges to dominate political, cultural, and historical discourse. However, such a view tends to overlook or oversimplify the extent to which cultures and ethnic groups influence one another. This interaction often mutually influenced each culture in areas as broad as economy, material culture, literature and the arts, and government. This conference aims to discuss the appearance and results of cultural contact broadly, as found throughout the ancient world. While the term 'ancient' has different connotations in every discipline and can imply different chronological parameters, nevertheless, its fundamental connotations are relatively stable: e.g., a period of considerable remoteness of time and radical changes in cultural paradigms in such basic areas of human activity and experience as technology, economics, and epistemology. These common principles that underlie conceptions of 'ancient' are the focus of the Center for Ancient Studies. Keynote: “The First Investigations of the Highland/Lowland Frontier of the Classic Maya Civilization: Unexpected Discoveries and New Insights into Ancient Identity, Ethnicity, and Political Economy” Dr. Arthur Demarest Ingram Professor, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University Director, Vanderbilt Institute of Mesoamerican Archaeology

The Center for Ancient Studies at the University of Pennsylvania will sponsor a one-day symposium on “Celebrations of Continuity and Change: Triumph and Spectacle in the Ancient World” to take place all day Friday 6 March 2009, beginning at 9:30 a.m. All lectures are open to the public and will take place in the Rainey Auditorium at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. The keynote speaker will be Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge and fellow of Newnham College. She is Classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement and author of the book The Roman Triumph, published in 2007. Other speakers include Kostas Zachos (Greek Archaeological Service), Mehmet Ali Ataç (Bryn Mawr College), David O’Connor (Institute of Fine Arts, NYU), Lillian Armstrong (Wellesley College), Larry Silver (Penn), and Julian Raby (Smithsonian Institution). Lecture topics will range from ancient Egypt through the Ottoman Empire. The symposium is timed to accompany the exhibit “Grand Scale: Monumental Prints in the Age of Dürer and Titian,” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from 31 January through 26 April 2009. Curated by Penn History of Art Professor Larry Silver, the exhibit features large-scale and multiple-plate prints, several of which recreate Roman triumphs, while others expand upon the theme of the triumph to celebrate more exotic subjects.

PROGRAM 8:30-9:00 Coffee and Registration in the Mosaic Gallery 9:00 – 10:45 Session One Robert Ousterhout Director, Center for Ancient Studies, Penn Opening Remarks John C. Shields Department of English, Illinois State University “Competing American Mythologies: Adam and Aeneas” Eric Cheyfitz Department of English, Cornell University “The Way to the Fifth World: Navajo Epistemologies of Origin and Identity” 10:45-11:00 Coffee in the Mosaic Gallery 11:00-12:45 Session Two Phiroze Vasunia Department of Classics, University of Reading, U.K. “Alexander the Great and Colonial India” Valentina Follo Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, Penn “The Past Made Present: Mussolini's Pursuit of an Empire” 12:45-2:15 Lunch 2:15-4:00 Session Three Mario Ruiz Department of History, Hofstra University “Remembering Cosmopolitan Alexandria” Brian Spooner Department of Anthropology, Penn “Iranian Ideals, Persian Regrets” 4:00-4:15 Coffee in the Mosaic Gallery 4:15-6:00 Session Four Dmitry Shvidkovsky Russian Academy of Art and Moscow Institute of Architecture “The Historic Identity of Russian Architecture and its Modern Meaning” Jo-Ann Gross Department of History, The College of New Jersey “Oral History, Sacred Space, and Isma’ili Identity in Tajik Badakhshan” Renata Holod Department of the History of Art, Penn Closing Remarks 6:00-7:00 Reception

The Dark Ages Enlightened: A Workshop Friday 1 February 2008 Rainey Auditorium, University of Pennsylvania Museum Sponsored by the Center for Ancient Studies and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology In order to properly welcome Dr. Richard Hodges to the University of Pennsylvania’s intellectual community, scholars at Penn and in the Philadelphia area will gather for a day of informal presentations and discussion of their research on the early Middle Ages. All presentations are free and open to the public. Students are encouraged to attend. 10:30-11:00 Coffee 11:00 – 12:45 Session One (Chair: Robert Ousterhout) Richard Hodges (Director, University of Pennsylvania Museum) Dark Age Economics in 2008 John Haldon (History, Princeton University) How Dark Were the Dark Ages? Ann Matter (Religious Studies, Penn) The Soul of the Dog-Man: Ratramnus of Corbie and the Dilemma of Humanity Robert Maxwell (History of Art, Penn) Medieval Urbanism and the Problem of Romanesque Art 12:45-2:00 Lunch 2:00-4:00 Session Two Annette Yoshiko Reed (Religious Studies, Penn) The First Christian Novel: The Pseudo-Clementines and their Early Reception Cameron Grey (Classics, Penn) The Origins of the Medieval Serfdom? (Re)reconsidering the Roman Colonate. Celia Chazelle (History, The College of New Jersey) Ritual, Art, and Evocations of the Holy Land in the Early Medieval British Isles Jessica Goldberg (History, Penn) Peering Backward: The Cairo Geniza and the Mediterranean 4:00-4:15 Coffee 4:15-6:15 Session Three Elizabeth Bolman (History of Art, Temple University) New Research at the Red Monastery (near Sohag, Egypt) Dale Kinney (History of Art, Bryn Mawr College) Recycling/Metamorphosis: Ancient Gems in Dark Age Treasuries Cynthia Hahn (History of Art, Graduate Center, CUNY) Portable Altars: Messages and Meanings Larry Nees (History of Art, Delaware) The Dome of the Chain and the Beginnings of Islamic Architecture in Jerusalem

On November 2, 2007, the University of Pennsylvania and the Free Library of Philadelphia will present an all-day symposium. This symposium explores the motivations behind the collecting of manuscript books through case studies of historic collectors presented by scholars and by hearing from contemporary collectors themselves in a roundtable discussion. Speakers include: Gifford Combs, Private Collector Derick Dreher, Director, The Rosenbach Museum & LibraryConsuelo W. Dutschke, Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, Columbia University Richard Linenthal, Antiquarian Bookseller, Bernard Quaritch Ltd William Noel, Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books, The Walters Art Museum David Rundle, History Faculty and Corpus Christi College, Oxford University Lawrence J. Schoenberg, Private Collector Claire Richter Sherman, Research Associate Emerita, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art Toshiyuki Takamiya, Private Collector, Keio University James Tanis, Director of Libraries and Professor of History Emeritus, Bryn Mawr College The keynote address will be given by Christopher de Hamel, Gaylord Donnelley, Fellow Librarian, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University. The symposium will be followed by a reception at the Arthur Ross Gallery in the Fisher Fine Arts Library, featuring the exhibition "Treasured Pages: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts from the Collections of the Free Library of Philadelphia" (on view from October 12, 2007, to January 6, 2008). Registration deadline is October 19, 2007. Registration is free and open to the public, but seating is limited.

Organized to complement the Penn Humanities Forum annual theme of “Origins,” the Center for Ancient Studies spring symposium takes the theme “Ancient Origins, Modern Identities,” examining the ways in which pre-modern history and civilizations have been invoked in the construction of modern group identities (national, religious, or ethnic). The all-day symposium will take place on Friday 21 March in the Rainey Auditorium at the Penn Museum. Speakers will include John C. Shields (English, Illinois State), Phiroze Vasunia (Classics, Univ. of Reading), Valentina Follo (AAMW, Penn), Eric Cheyfitz (English, Cornell), Simon Kaner (Sainsbury Institute, East Anglia), Jo-Ann Gross (History, College of New Jersey), Eve Troutt Powell (History, Penn), Brian Spooner (Anthropology, Penn), Dmitry Schvidkowsky (Russian Academy of Art/Moscow Institute of Architecture). Mark your calendars!

Once again, the question of origins is possessing the human sciences. In academia and beyond, lectures are given, classes taught, and books and essays published on the question. Origins of what? The list is long and dizzying in scope. With a click of the mouse we can order books on the origins of language, music, art, genius, creativity, the beautiful, religion, myth, science, modernity, the state, society, economics, ethics, virtue, the mind, consciousness, and humanity itself—to cite only some of the more general and humanities-oriented topics. Topic Director: Gary Tomlinson, Annenberg Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Music, Penn