Translation Projects Across the Ancient World
Wednesday, 23 November 2022
The Center for Ancient Studies 13th Annual Symposium December 3rd, 2022 9:30 AM - 6:00 PM Penn Museum, Classroom M2 In-person and open to the public


WORKSHOP IN INDIAN EPIGRAPHY: THE EARLY BRAHMĪ SCRIPT
Sunday, 19 August 2018
*This international workshop, open to both students and faculty with some background in Sanskrit, will introduce participants to the skills necessary for reading and interpreting early Indian inscriptions. *If you are interested in joining this workshop, please contact Dr Daud Ali (daudali@sas.upenn.edu) Dr Luther Obrock (luther.obrock@utoronto.ca) in advance. Date: 20-24 August, 2018 Venue: Kislak Center, Room 625, Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania Programme: Aug 20: Morning Reading Session 9:00-12.00 --Minor Rock Edicts of Aśoka --Lumbini Inscription Lunch 12.00-1.30 Lecture/Discussion 1.30-3.00 --‘Using Epigraphy: an Overview’ Afternoon Reading Session 3.30-4.30 Aug. 21: Morning Session 9.00-12.00 --Major Rock Edict of Aśoka --Major Pillar Edict of Aśoka --Bharhut label inscriptions --Kanaganahalli inscriptions Lunch 12.00-2.00 Lecture/Discussion 2.00-3.00 --‘Interpreting Inscriptions’ Afternoon Reading Session 3.30-4.30 Aug. 22: Mornning Session 9.00-12.00 --Aśokan Edicts (cont.) --Aśokan inscriptions at Barabar/Nagarjuni --Cave Inscriptoins of the Western Ghats Lunch 12.00-2.00 Lecture/Discussion 2.00-4.30 --‘Sources of the Mauryan Period’ Aug. 23: Morning Session 9.00-12.00 --Mathurā Inscriptions Lunch 12.00-2.00 Lecture/Discussion 2.00-3.00 --Indic Manuscripts at Penn Afternoon Reading Session 3.30-4.30 Aug. 24: Morning Session 9.00-12.00 --Brahmi Inscriptions of Northern Pakistan Lunch 12.00-2.00 Lecture/Discussion 2.00-3.00 --Frontiers of Epigraphic Research and Wrap Up Afternoon Reading Session 3.30-4.30


Siamese Sampler: 19th Century Manuscripts of Scripture, Poetry, and Decree
Sunday, 4 September 2016
Tuesday, September 6, 2016, 2:00 - 7:00 PM Conference and exhibition reception Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, 3420 Walnut Street, 6th floor 2:00 Welcome and Introduction Will Noel (Director, Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies) 2:10 Keynote Scattered Leaves: Twenty Years of Searching for Thai Manuscripts Prof. Justin McDaniel (Penn) 3:00 Session 1 Teachers, Healers, and Accidental Diplomats: Early Protestant Missionaries in Siam Eva Pascal (Boston U.) Early Indic Eschatology: Vilification in Buddhist Hell Literature Travis Travis (Temple U.) 3:50 Coffee break and exhibition viewing 4:20 Session 2 The Life and Works of Sunthorn Phū: The Shakespeare of Thailand Paul McBain (Penn) The Sample: Exhibition summary and excerpt from Phra 'Aphaimanī Susanne Ryuyin Kerekes (Penn) 5:00 Reception
Siamese Sampler Exhibit and Conference


Capturing the Un-Representable: Artifacts and Landscapes between Mental and Material Worlds.
Tuesday, 8 July 2014
CALL FOR PAPERS ~ DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 “Capturing the Un-Representable: Artifacts and Landscapes between Mental and Material Worlds.” December 5-7, 2014 University of Pennsylvania Center for Ancient Studies Annual Graduate Student Conference Humanistic disciplines typically focus their investigations on tangible, material remains, such as texts, artifacts, architecture, and landscapes, analyzing them as autonomous objects. However, material remains can also be understood as traces – evidence of greater images, landscapes, and spaces that existed in the minds of their creators and users. What anthropologists call the “life world” is processed in the mind and thus becomes a cultural construct, subsequently made manifest through design as objects, landscapes, and architectures. In turn, these physical manifestations may be used to access the imaginaire of the culture that constructed them. Our conference aims to examine what such material remains evince about the thoughts, imaginations, and mental motivations of ancient and medieval cultures (Old and New World) – that is, how do material remains mediate between mental and material worlds? The annual graduate student conference, sponsored by the Center for Ancient Studies at the University of Pennsylvania (http://www.sas.upenn.edu/ancient/), aims to present a diverse set of methodological interventions that link material culture to historical imagination. Our goal is productive dialogue about the utility of methods employed in different geographic regions, time periods, and disciplines on the topic at hand (see below). We hope to accomplish our task by mixing graduate students with scholars at various stages of their careers and by means of a culminating methods workshop. Our conference asks the following questions: How can we recover the afterlife of artifacts and landscapes in human imagination? And how do imagined artifacts and landscapes have bearing on actual ones? What can the agency of an object tell us about the ‘intentions’ of its creators and users? Creator intention is arguably embedded both in the object’s reason for being as well as in the material form it takes. How do archaeological objects reflect mental conceptions about whatever the object was ‘designed’ to be? Does our inability to explain ‘intention’ reflect our own loss of codes to understanding that ‘original’ meaning? Does considering the agency of the artifact help us to better understand (and decode) the mental world behind its production and use? The conference will consist of a Friday evening reception and keynote address, with the main conference panels on Saturday and a methods workshop on Sunday morning. Each of the conference panels will be moderated by invited established scholars. After the conference sessions, a short workshop will give the speakers the opportunity to receive feedback and discuss their papers in more detail. We invite submissions from graduate students and recent PhDs in any field studying ancient and medieval cultures (both Old and New World), such as religious studies, art history, anthropology and textual/literary studies. Cross-disciplinary approaches are especially welcomed. Please submit an abstract of 250 words along with a CV to the conference organizers: Anastasia Amrhein and Divya Kumar-Dumas. All submissions should be submitted to dkdumas@sas.upenn.edu BY SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 with the subject line “Center for Ancient Studies Graduate Student Conference Abstract.” Potential paper topics could include: - Artifacts that indicate planned or imagined but perhaps unrealized architecture and landscapes. - Artifacts composed of words suggestive of greater mental images; words as representations and traces. - The relationship of textual and visual/material representations; ekphrasis. - Contradiction and multiplicity in representations; aesthetics and modes of viewing or reading. - The role of the tangible artifact in the creation (and destruction) of mental images. - Imagined landscapes and real terrain. - Mental mapping; experience of place; coding and decoding; re-connecting representations to real terrain. - New methodologies for accessing and studying mental imagery or conceptions that have not been preserved (or may never have been constructed) as representations in material culture.


Against Gravity: Building Practices in the Pre-Industrial World
Monday, 19 May 2014
20-22 March 2015 University of Pennsylvania Call for Papers Following on the success of “Masons at Work”(held in spring 2012, and published as http://www.sas.upenn.edu/ancient/publications.html), the symposium aims to assemble specialists to examine building practices in the pre-industrial world, with an emphasis on Greek, Roman, Byzantine, medieval, and pre-modern Islamic architecture. In addition to invited speakers, we are soliciting 20-minute papers that examine the problems which pre-modern masons commonly encountered - and the solutions they developed - in the process of design and construction. Evidence may be drawn from a variety of sources, but we encourage studies based on the analysis of well-preserved buildings. Those wishing to speak should submit by email a letter to the organizing committee, including name, title, institutional affiliation, paper title, plus a summary of 200 words or fewer. Graduate students should include a note of support from their adviser. Deadline: 15 November 2014. The final program will be announced immediately thereafter. Submit proposals to ancient@sas.upenn.edu with “Against Gravity” in the subject line. Organizing Committee: Lothar Haselberger, Renata Holod, Robert Ousterhout


Views from Below: Outsiders, Masses, and the Margins in Antiquity
Friday, 7 March 2014
Please join us this Friday and Saturday for the 6th Annual Penn Center for Ancient Studies Graduate Symposium "Views from Below: Outsiders, Masses, and the Margins in Antiquity." We have put together an exciting program with nine graduate papers on diverse topics, and a keynote address by Dr. Jonathan Tenney of Cornell University. Details are below. Both days of the symposium are free and open to the public. Schedule of Events Friday, March 7, 2014 6:00 PM: Keynote Address – Dr. Jonathan Tenney, Cornell University – The Inside from the Edges: Remarks on Mesopotamian Society as Gleaned from an Institutional Underclass Widener Lecture Hall, Penn Museum 7:00 PM: Reception Chinese Rotunda, Penn Museum   Saturday, March 8, 2014 10:00 AM: Breakfast and Registration for Speakers Mosaic Gallery, Penn Museum   11:00 AM: Session I – Mass Culture, Mass Movements Patricia Kim, Dwight Wu, and Breton Langendorfer – Discussants Classroom 2, Penn Museum 11:05 AM:  Kyle Olson (Penn) - Archaeological Visibility of Commoners and Elites in Prehistory: the Case of the Bronze Age in Northeastern Iran 11:35 AM: Ruben Post (Penn) - Arms for the Poor: Weapons and Society in Late Classical and Early Hellenistic Greece 12:05 AM: Ruslan Mamdeov – (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow) – National Liberation Movement under the Banner of Mazdakism (VI Century) and its Influence on Khurramism, Sufism and Shiism Ideologies 12:35 PM: General Discussion   12:50 PM: Lunch Break   2:00 PM: Session II – Social and Professional Lives Lydia Spielberg and Anna Goddard – Discussants Classroom 2, Penn Museum   2:05 PM: Daniel Diffendale, - (Michigan) - Title TBA 2:35 PM: Mali Skotheim – (Princeton)  - Theatrical Professionals in the Imperial Greek World 3:05 PM:  Randolph Ford – (Institute for the Study of the Ancient World) - Historical Representations of the Särbi Past: the Wandering Origins of a Steppe People in Early Medieval China 3:35 PM: General Discussion 3:50 PM: Break   4:05 PM Session III – Gender, Sexuality, and the Body Charlotte Rose and Irene Sibbing Plantholt – Discussants Penn Museum, Classroom 2 4:10 PM: Alex Clayden – (University College, London) – Hidden in Plain Sight: Same-Sex Desire in Pharaonic Egypt 4:40 PM: Alexandra Morris – (Penn) - A Social & Medical History of Dwarfism in Ancient Egypt  5:10 PM: Elizabeth Nabney – (Michigan) - Wet-Nursing Contracts as Evidence for Child Exposure and Slavery in Roman Egypt 5:40 PM: General Discussion and Closing Remarks This event is sponsored by the Penn Center for Ancient Studies, the Penn Museum, GAPSA, SASgov, the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program, the Medical School, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Art History, and Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. Please contact us at ancient@sas.upenn.edu with any questions.


Ancient Drugs
Friday, 18 October 2013
Ancient Drugs: Pharmacology Across the Ancient World Friday 18 October 2013 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Rainey Auditorium at the PENN Museum Speakers include: Alain Touwaide, Mark Plotkin, Robert Ritner, Pierce Salguero, Steve Tinny, Laurence Totelin, Douglas Emery and William Noel. Free and Open to the Public


Ephemeral Relics: Approaches to the Five Senses in the Ancient World
Saturday, 2 March 2013
EPHEMERAL RELICS: APPROACHES TO THE FIVE SENSES IN THE ANCIENT WORLD Saturday 2 March 2013 Class of 1949 Auditorium, Houston Hall The University of Pennsylvania PROGRAM 9:00 Welcoming Remarks 9:15-10:45 The Senses Aroused Chair: Deven Patel - Heather Elomaa (University of Pennsylvania) “Maculate Conception: Artistic Inspiration and Sensation in the Carmina Priapea” - Emilio Capettini (Princeton University) “Ach. Tat 5.27.1 and the Polyvalence of the Mouth and the Eyes in Ancient Erotic Literature” - S. Liuyin Kerekes (University of Pennsylvania) “Never Fall on Deaf Ears: Aurality and Anxiety in the Devotion to Kuan Yin” Respondent: Rose Muravchick 11:00-12:30 The Senses Enveloped Chair: Jeremy McInerney - ­­Kate Allen (University of Michigan) “Aegrum aera: Smelling the dead in Lucan and Statius” - Allyson McDavid (Institute of Fine Arts) “The art of bathing in Antiquity: A Moveable Feast for the Senses” - Gabrielle Niu (University of Pennsylvania) “Systems of Pictorial Representation: Depictions of Architecture in the Mogao Caves” Respondent: Alex Ramos Keynote Address (1:30-2:30): “Hissing Serpents, Crashing Thunder, and Clamoring Mobs: Listening to the Desert in Late Antiquity” Dr. Kim Haines-Eitzen, Cornell University Introduction by Annette Reed 2:30-3:00 Coffee and Q&A 3:00-4:30 The Senses Deceived Chair: Ralph Rosen - Efstathia Athanasopoulou (University College London) “Eyes, Ears and Mouth in the Reception of Theatre from the 2nd to the 6th C AD” - Karen Carducci (Catholic University) “Revisiting the Tower and Moon Illusions through Basil's Homilies on the Hexaemeron” - Franco Rossi (Boston University) “The Smoking Mirrors: Obsidian, divination and ritual in a Maya political order” Respondent: Jae Han 5:00-6:30 Cocktail Reception (2nd floor lounge, Cohen Hall) Program Sponsors: GAPSA, The Dept. of Religious Studies, The Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, The Dept. of Classical Studies, The Dept. of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the Center for Ancient Studies.


The End of Time
Saturday, 13 October 2012
Center for Ancient Studies Symposium: THE END OF TIME Whether or not the end of the time is predicted in the Maya calendar, many of the ancient world civilizations hosted a belief in a universal cataclysm—the Eschaton, the coming of the Antichrist, the Last Judgment, the Kali Yuga, the Götterdämmerung. In conjunction with the Penn Museum exhibit “Maya: Lords of Time,” the 2013 Center for Ancient Studies Annual Symposium explores comparative perspectives on the end of time. Tentative Schedule 10:00am, Welcome - Annette Yoshiko Reed (Penn) and Robert Ousterhout (Penn) 10:15am, Simon Martin (Penn Museum), "Maya Cataclysm: The World Flood in Ancient Maya Religion and Calendrics" 11:00am, David Carrasco (Harvard University), TBA 11:45am, Jalh Dulanto (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú), "Inca! Let's draw a line across this world: Central Andean Notions of the End of Time" 12:30pm, Lunch break 1:30pm, Keynote lecture - Elaine Pagels (Princeton University), "The Book of Revelation in Art, Music, and Politics" 2:30pm, Coffee break 3:00pm, Richard Emmerson (Manhattan College), "Personalizing the Apocalypse: The Medieval Antichrist." 3:45pm, Benjamin Fleming (Penn), "The Kali Yuga and End Times in Hinduism: Cosmos and History in Crisis" 4:15pm, Concluding remarks - Peter Struck (Penn), "The End of Time and Time without End" 5:00pm, Reception in Mosaic Gallery The event is organized by Bob Ousterhout and Annette Yoshiko Reed; for more information, please contact this year's CAS graduate assistant, Rose Muravchick. Location: Rainey Auditorium at the Penn Museum
Center for Ancient Studies- Symposia


Valuing Antiquity in Antiquity
Friday, 15 June 2012
Penn-Leiden Colloquium on Ancient Values The topic of the seventh colloquium, to be held at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, June 15-16, 2012, will be: Valuing Antiquity in Antiquity The ‘classical tradition’ is no invention of modernity. Already in ancient Greece and Rome, the privileging of the ancient over the present and future played an integral role in social and cultural discourses of every period. In this colloquium we want to examine this temporal organization of value and the mechanisms by which it was produced and sustained—in other words, ancient valuations of antiquity as expressions of lived value-systems. How did specific Greek and Roman communities use notions of antiquity to define themselves or others? What models from the past proved most acceptable or desirable (or not) for political practice or for self-fashioning? What groups were the main agents, or audiences, of such discourses on the value of antiquity, and what were their priorities and their motivations? What were the differences between Roman and Greek approaches, or between antiquarianism, genealogy, classicism, nostalgia, canonization and their opposites? How did temporal systems for ascribing value intersect with the organization of space, the production of narrative, or the espousal and application of aesthetic criteria? Friday 15 June 2012, University Library, “Grote Vergaderzaal” Jonas Grethlein ‘Questioning the value of the past in ancient Greece’ Sheila Murnaghan ‘The assessment of ancient valor in Sophocles’ Ajax’ Karen Bassi ‘Croesus’ offerings and the value of the past in Herodotus’ Histories’ Amanda Reiterman ‘Keimêlia in context. Toward an understanding of the value of antiquities in the past’ Margaret Miles ‘Burnt temples in the landscape of the past’ Ralph Rosen ‘Galen on the testimony of classical poets’ Casper de Jonge ‘The Attic Muse and the Asian harlot. Classicizing allegories in Dionysius and Longinus’ Lawrence Kim ‘The idea of the “archaic” in imperial literature’ Mieke de Vos ‘From Lesbos she took her honeycomb. Sappho and the female tradition in Greek and Roman poetry’ Jeremy McInerney ‘Pelasgians and Leleges. Using the past to understand the present’ Saturday 16 June 2012, LIPSIUS-building, room 147 Christina Kraus ‘Long ago and far away… Agricola as old-time hero’ Caitlin Gillespie ‘Agrippina the Younger. Tacitus’ unicum exemplum’ Lisa Cordes ‘Si te nostra tulissent saecula. Comparison with the past as a method of glorifying the present in imperial panegyrics’ Eleanor Leach ‘M. Attilius Regulus: Making defeat into victory. Diverse values in an ambivalent story’ Jason Nethercut ‘The anti-value of antiquity in Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura’ Antje Wessels ‘Subversive mimicry as a concept of art in Roman literature’ Ilaria Ramelli ‘Valuing antiquity in antiquity by means of allegoresis’ Joseph Howley ‘Aulus Gellius and the evaluation of antiquity’s mediators’ Maaike Leemreize ‘The Egyptian past in the Roman present’ Joseph Farrell ‘The Roman suburbium and the Roman past’


Packaging Legal Traditions in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Sunday, 6 May 2012
Berkowitz Living Room, Hillel, 39th and Locust, University of Pennsylvania Participants in this interdisciplinary workshop will explore the impact of genre on the reception of legal traditions, and thus, on the shaping of discrete legal cultures. The collaboration of established and emerging scholars of legal traditions of Late Antiquity, and of medieval Jewish, Christian and Islamic cultures, may facilitate a synoptic perspective that cannot be achieved when conducting research in isolation, and may even make apparent certain regional commonalities that cross the boundaries of faith and culture. 9:00- 9:30: Coffee 9:30-10:00: Introduction: Professor Talya Fishman, Department of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania 10:00-10:50: Roman Responsum of Late Antiquity Anna Dolganov, Department of Classics: Ancient World, Princeton University 11:00 -11:50: Syriac Christian Case Law Lev Weitz, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University 12:00 –12:50: Islamic Fatwa Professor Jonathan Brown, Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding 1:00- 1:50: Lunch 2:00- 2:50: Rabbinic Responsum of Geonic East Dr. Zvi Stampfer, Project for the Study of Medieval Judeo-Arabic Literature & Culture, Ben Zvi Institute, Jerusalem; Talmud Department, Hebrew University 3:00 – 3:50: Case Law of Medieval Christian Europe Professor Anders Winroth, Department of History, Yale University 4:00- 5:00: Wrap-Up Discussion and Planning for Conference in Spring 2013


Masons at Work
Friday, 30 March 2012
The symposium aims to assemble specialists in various fields to examine building practices in the pre-modern world, with an emphasis on aspects of construction and structure in ancient Greek, Roman, Byzantine, medieval, and early-to-middle period Islamic architecture. While some technologies and built forms may be shared across pre-modern cultures (such as vault construction or the use of centering), other may be specific to a single period or region (such as the use of concrete or structural ribs in vaulting). Papers will examine the problems pre-modern masons commonly encountered – and the solutions they developed – in the process of design and construction.
Masons at Work Schedule


Crowned Victor: Competition and Games in the Ancient World
Friday, 2 March 2012
This conference aims to explore the theme of competition in the ancient world. Competition was a key component of many aspects of life in the ancient world. The conference will focus on the role of competition and its associations with society at large, be it in the form of games or sports, interactions between members of a community, rivalries between communities, or the way culture and literature channeled competition. Our goal in presenting this conference will be to compare how competition manifested itself in the disparate societies of the ancient world and highlight similarities across cultures. Please join us on Friday, March 2 for the keynote address "Theater of violence: Social roles of ritual fights among the Prehispanic Maya" by Dr. Takeshi Inomata of the University of Arizona at 6:00 in Rainey Aduitorium, Penn Museum. A reception will follow. The paper sessions will begin on Saturday, March 3 at 9:30am in Classroom 2, Penn Museum. Sponsors include: Center for Ancient Studies, GAPSA, Center for East Asian Studies, Departments of Anthropology, Classical Studies, History of Art, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, the Graduate Groups in Ancient History and Art and Archaeology in the Mediterranean World, and the Penn Museum.
Conference Schedule


Ethnicity in the World of the Ancient Mediterranean
Monday, 9 January 2012
In recent years ethnic conflicts, from Sri Lanka to the former Yugoslavia, have focused attention on the subject of ethnic identity. Ethnicity has also gained currency as subject of academic discourse, as a result of a growing anxiety regarding the use of the term “culture.” Some scholars have preferred to examine identities of various sorts: sexual, group, national, and ethnic. But this opens a Pandora’s box. What are the key constituents of ethnic identity? Land, language, ancestry? If ethnic identities are not primordial, then how are they actively constituted? Under what circumstances? To whose advantage? This conference is devoted to investigating these issues in the context of the ancient Mediterranean. All sessions are free and open to the public. January 9-10th, 2012 in the Terrace Room, in Cohen Hall, located on the Campus of the University of Pennsylvania Monday, January 9 9:15-9:30 Jeremy McInerney - Welcome and Opening Remarks Session 1: Current Issues in Ethnicity (9:30-11:00) Kristian Kristiansen - Ethnicity and Culture in the European Bronze Age Thomas D. Hall - Ethnicity and World Systems Anna Collar - Networks and Ethnogenesis Session 2: Ethnicities of Self and Other (11:30-12:30) Stuart Tyson Smith Nubian and Egyptian ethnicity Brent Shaw Classical African Identities Session 3: Evolving Ethnicities (2:00-3:30) Gary Reger Ethnic Identities, Borderlands and Hybridity Jennifer Gates-Foster Achaemenids, Royal Power and Persian Ethnicity Nino Luraghi Being or Becoming Greek Session 4: Portraying Ethnicity (4:00-5:00) Efi Papododima Ethnicity and the Stage Rosaria Munson Herodotos and Ethnicity Tuesday, January 10 Session 5: Ethnicity and Locality (9:30-11:00) Angela Kühr Ethnicity and Local Myth Rebecca Martin Gender, Ethnicity and Representation Emily Mackil Ethnos and Koinon Session 6: Shifting Ethnicities (11:30-12:30) James Roy Ethnicity and Autochthony Alexander Thein Messenia, Ethnic Identity and Contingency Session 7: Intersecting Ethnicities (2:00-3:00) Gary Farney Romans and Italians John Wonder Lucanians and Southern Italy Session 8: Deploying Ethnicity (3:30-4:30) Valentina Follo Becoming Roman Again Johannes Siapkas Ancient Ethnicity and Modern Identity
2012 Conference on Ethnicity in the World of the Ancient Mediterranean


Recreating the Past in the Present
Friday, 28 October 2011
6th Annual Kolb Senior Colloquium This colloquium looks at how different individuals and communities created and re-created the past in their own present and for what purposes. Rather than examining one class of data in isolation, these lectures bring together different types of evidence and media to create a holistic picture. By analyzing these dynamics over a range of periods, places, and cultures, these three presentations illuminate both culturally specific and more universal strategies for using the past in the present. 2:00 pm Welcome: Holly Pittman, Kolb Society Faculty Coordinator Introduction to the Colloquium: Julia Shear, Conference organizer 2:15-2:45 pm Michael Frachetti, Associate Professor Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis Institutional 'Participation' in Ancient Inner Asia From the Bronze Age forward, Inner Asian mobile pastoralists shaped a complex web of institutional alignments, for which the circuitry is little understood. This paper explores the modes of social, ideological, and economic 'participation' that fostered transregional interactions and shaped the differentiated institutional landscape of Inner Asia throughout antiquity. 2:50-3:20 pm Matthew Rutz, Assistant Professor Near Eastern Languages, Brown University Making the Past Present for the Future: Models of Mesopotamian Extispicy Extispicy, the examination of a sacrificial animal’s entrails for divine signs, enjoyed both prestige and longevity as a cultural practice during the Bronze Age. Evidence from cuneiform tablets as well as models of the organs themselves have been found in present-day Iraq, Iran, Syria, Palestine, and Anatolia, raising questions about what is commonly construed as a “Mesopotamian” or “Babylonian” system of knowledge. This paper examines aspects of the source material to illustrate how certain methods and assumptions have permeated the discussion of this formative period in the history of Mesopotamian divination. Break 3:25-3:45 3:45-4:15 pm Julia Shear, Senior Associate Member American School of Classical Studies at Athens Revolutions Past and Present in Early Hellenistic Athens In 286 B.C., the Athenians revolted from King Demetrios Poliorketes, a process which was also accompanied by civil strife. When the city regained her freedom, the Athenians needed to ask how they were to negotiate their memories of this difficult period. They remembered the events as the restoration of democracy and as external war, strategies which they borrowed from their ancestors’ responses to the two oligarchic revolutions at the end of the fifth century B.C. In the early third century, the city’s past showed Athenians how to respond to the present and how to remember the difficult events which they had experienced. 4:15-4:45 pm General discussion and wrap-up
Agenda


Writing the East: History and New Technologies in the Study of Asian Manuscript Traditions
Friday, 21 October 2011
4th Annual Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age October 21-22, 2011 In partnership with the Rare Book Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Penn Libraries are pleased to announce the 4th annual Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age. This year's symposium will explore a range of issues relating to Asian reading and writing cultures, especially as they pertain to the manuscript source. Our focus will be on Asian manuscripts from the Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian traditions. We will bring together scholars representing these traditions to examine the ways in which hand-produced texts shape both meaning and interpretation, and to a larger extent, the cultural norms that define their use. We will also consider the role that modern digital technology can play to facilitate the study of manuscripts today. Participants include: Adam Gacek, McGill University David Germano, University of Virginia, The Tibetan and Himalayan Library Justin McDaniel, University of Pennsylvania, Thai Digital Monastery Yael Rice, The Philadelphia Museum of Art Peter Scharf, The Sanskrit Library Min Bahadur Shakya, Nagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods Kazuko Tanabe, The Eastern Institute Hiram Woodward, The Walters Art Museum Susan Whitfield, The British Library, The International Dunhuang Project Registration fee is $35 ($10 for students with valid student ID). Walk-in registrations will be accepted for a fee of $45 ($15 for students with valid student ID) to be paid in cash. The 2011 symposium is made possible with the generous support of the Center for Ancient Studies and the Departments of History, History of Art, Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, and South Asia Studies.
For program and registration, click here.


The One Who is Really Lost: A Conference in Honor of William R. LaFleur, University of Pennsylvania
Friday, 23 September 2011
Friday 9/23/2011: 12:00 pm, Stiteler Hall B21 - Stephen Miller, University of Massachusetts - Amherst: "Whose Michi is It Anyway?: The Road(s) to Buddhahood in the Heian Court Poetry" 3:30 pm, Claudia Cohen Terrace Room - Memorial Service (open to the community) Saturday, 9/24/2011: 9:00 am - 6:00 pm, Claudia Cohen Hall G17: Readings of the posthumous works plus papers on his influence, including: Hank Glassman, Haverford College, "Playing on that Liminal Shore: the segakie and the birth of sai no kawara" Jacqueline Stone, Princeton University, Freaks and Philosophers: Minding the Body in Medieval Japan--Outline of an Unpublished Work Steven Heine, Florida International University, "Seasons Are the Reason: On Bill LaFleur's Methodological Influences, and Dogen's Chinese Poetry Collection" Closing Event: Henry Smith, Columbia University, Commenting on The Karma of Books, a planned autobiography 6:00 pm, Cafe 58 in Irvine Auditorium: Closing reception The sudden unexpected demise of Penn’s distinguished Japanologist William R. LaFleur in February 2010 deprived us of a major voice in the fields of Japanese literature, culture, and bioethics. At this conference, we will explore our colleague’s posthumous works, which range widely across these fields. The conference will open with a lecture by Professor Stephen Miller of the University of Massachusetts Amherst on “Whose Michi Is It Anyway?: The Road(s) to Buddhahood in the Heian Court” at noon on Friday the 23rd of September. A memorial service is scheduled for 3:30 that afternoon. Readings of the posthumous works will fill Saturday’s schedule. The title of this conference is derived from Bill’s translation of one of the poems of the medieval Japanese monk Saigyō: “So, then, it’s the one / who has thrown his self away / who is thought the loser? / But he who cannot lose self / is the one who is really lost.” The gathering will be a memorial for the one whom we have lost, but it will also be an occasion to question our own positions in relation to this individual and his body of work. In discussing this poem, Bill notes that the literary critic Kobayashi Hideo credited Saigyō with “opening totally new territory, a place no one had entered before.” Bill’s work has similarly been recognized for going to new places and broaching unprecedented questions. This conference aims to recall that legacy, see where it was going at the end, and craft plans for carrying it forward. Participants are scheduled to include John Harding, University of Lethbridge, Eleanor Kerkham, University of Maryland at College Park, Jacqueline Stone, Princeton University, and others. William R. LaFleur, Awesome Nightfall: The Life, Times, and Poetry of Saigyō (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2003), p. 29 Please register by e-mailing the Center for East Asian Studies (ceas@ccat.sas.upenn.edu) with the following information: Name Title/Affiliation E-mail address Day(s) of Attendance (Friday memorial service? Saturday conference?) Number of Attendees Dietary restrictions? Note: Registration will be also available on-site for Saturday's conference


The Non-human, the Subhuman and the Superhuman: Exploring Nature(s) in the Middle East
Saturday, 2 April 2011
The Middle East Center Graduate Student Conference "The Non-human, the Subhuman and the Superhuman: Exploring Nature(s) in the Middle East" is now slated to happen on April 2nd, 2011 from 8AM to 8:30PM. The conference will feature five panels that discuss different perspectives and roles that nature plays in the field of Middle East Studies and the program will include a Plenary address from Alan Mikhail (History, Yale) and a special Keynote Address from Richard Bulliet (History, Columbia). For more information on the conference please contact the MEC Program Assistant, James Ryan, at jamryan@sas.upenn.edu. Papers of special interest to members of the Center for Ancient Studies: Peter Webb, Area Studies SOAS "'Sublime Desert' -- Representations of the Desert and 'Barbarism' in narratives of pre-Islamic Arabia Eduardo Escobar, NES UC Berkeley "The Boundaries of Nature in Early Babylonian Literature"


Mapping Ancient Near Eastern Masculinities
Friday, 25 March 2011
FRIDAY 9-10:30 Session I Opening Remarks: Ilona Zsolnay Introductory Lecture: Joan Westenholz (Institute for the Study of the Ancient World) “When was Man a Man? A Lexical Study of the Word lú “Man” in Sumerian” 10:30-11am Coffee Break 11-12:30pm Session II: Paradigmatics I Marc Brettler (Brandeis University) “Happy is the Man who Fills his Quiver with Them (Ps 127.5): Constructions of Masculinity in the Psalms” Simon Brodbeck (Cardiff University) “Mapping Masculinities in the Sanskrit mahabharata and ramayana” 12:30pm-2pm Lunch Break 2-3:30pm Session III: Paradigmatics II Ann Macy Roth (New York University) “Paradigms of Masculinity in Egyptian Mythology” Mary R. Bachvarova (Willamette University) “Wisdom of Former Days: The Manliness of the Hittite King and the Foolishness of Kumarbi, Father of the Gods” 3:30pm-4pm Coffee Break 4-5:30pm Session IV: Problematics Jerry Cooper (The Johns Hopkins University) “Female Troubles and Troubled Males: Roiled Seas, Decadent Royals, and Mesopotamian Masculinities in Myth and Practice” Hilary Lipka (University of New Mexico) “Shaved Beards and Bared Buttocks: Shaming through Emasculation in Biblical Texts” SATURDAY 9am-10:30am Session I: Deconstructing Scholarship Steven Holloway (American Theological Library Association) “Imagining the Unspeakable Genesis 6:1-4 in the Nineteenth Century” Martti Nissinen (University of Helsinki) “Eunuchs, Prostitutes, and Passive Partners: Perceptions of Non-Masculinities in the Old Testament and in Modern Scholarship” 10:30-11am Coffee Break 11-12:30pm Session II: Homosexual Aspects of Masculinity Ann Guinan (University of Pennsylvania) “The Queering of Mesopotamia” Julia Assante (Münster) “Men Looking at Men: The Homoerotics of Power in the State Arts of Assyria” 12:30 pm Lunch Break 2:30pm Closed Roundtable Table Discussion


Reconfiguring the Silk Road
Saturday, 19 March 2011
Reconfiguring the Silk Road, a major academic conference featuring nine distinguished scholars presenting their latest work on the Silk Road and the origins of the Tarim Basin Mummies. Saturday, March 19, 9:00 am to 7:00 pm Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 Admission: FREE for all PennCard holders and students with full-time college ID's. General Admission $45 Museum Members $35 For more information, call 215-898-2680 or visit http://www.penn.museum/silkroad/events_symposium.php Pre-registration required.
http://www.penn.museum/silkroad/events_symposium.php


Strangers in a Strange Land: 3rd Annual Center for Ancient Studies Graduate Student Conference
Friday, 4 March 2011
Travel has played a fundamental role in the shaping of history. As ancient peoples moved from one place to another, they left behind material remains, and in a few rare cases, literary accounts of their journeys. Today, scholars of the ancient world follow in their footsteps, visiting ancient sites, museums and libraries across the world. The aim of this conference is to bring together graduate students and faculty from a variety of disciplines in order to explore different approaches to travel in the ancient world, as broadly defined. Please join us Friday, March 4th for the keynote address by Dr. Annette Juliano of Rutgers University at 6:00pm (registration for the conference just prior) and a reception to follow. The paper sessions will begin on Saturday, March 5th at 9:30am. Sponsors include: The Center for Ancient Studies, GAPSA, the Center for East Asian Studies, and the departments of Classical Studies, Ancient History, and the History of Art
Poster


Religions along the Silk Road
Saturday, 13 November 2010
Saturday, November 13, 1:00 to 4:00 pm The Silk Road --subject of the major new exhibition, Secrets of the Silk Road, opening at the Penn Museum in February 2011--is known for the travelers and trade goods that moved great distances between the East and the West. Aspects of culture were also transferred, including knowledge and practice of various religions. This program features four short lectures by scholars, followed by an open discussion on the role of Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, and their impact along the Silk Road. Location: Rainey Auditorium University of Pennsylvania- Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 Admission: FREE for all students with full-time college ID's. General Admission $20 Museum Members $10 For more information, call 215-898-2680 or visit http://www.penn.museum <http://www.penn.museum/> . Pre-registration suggested (www.penn.museum/calendar <http://www.penn.museum/calendar> ).


Water in the Ancient World
Saturday, 2 October 2010
As part of the University of Pennsylvania's "Year of Water"-a multidisciplinary program of events and exhibitions- Penn Museum offers this afternoon program highlighting the challenges of water management in ancient times. Penn Museum scholars and invited specialists dive in, exploring the myths around and evidence for the Great Flood, the engineering marvels of Roman and Indus civilizations, and the watery landscapes of Amazonia and Mesoamerica. The program includes National Geographic Society archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert, whose underwater research with Robert Ballard in the Black Sea identified the remains of ancient floods, and Vernon Scarborough from the University of Cincinnati, who discusses how sustainable water use by ancient civilizations can provide models for our current response to global climate change. Visitors also enjoy a new display of the Museum's famous ancient Sumerian "Flood Tablet" along with objects and photographs illustrating the power of water to both sustain and destroy life in ancient Mesopotamia. Admission: Free with Museum admission donation. Optional reception ($10 fee) follows. Reservations requested


Washington Spoken-Latin Seminar 2010
Friday, 2 July 2010
The eighth annual Washington Spoken-Latin Seminar (Conventiculum Vasintoniense), to be held this summer on the campus of Wenatchee Valley College in the town of Wenatchee, is located in central Washington state, USA, on the eastern slopes of the Cascades. The Conventiculum Vasintoniense is unique among conventicula as it is largely activity-based. After the two days of preparatory sessions, which are held on campus, subsequent days are divided between classroom sessions, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, mountain hikes and field trips devoted to the type of experiential, kinesthetic learning that converts passive knowledge into an active knowledge of the language. Those who learn to speak Latin fluently report dramatically improved reading comprehension. Those who learn in an activity-based way experience Latin in more ways, have more fun, and learn even more deeply. This seminar is in fact much like taking a vacation, but all in Latin! The Wenatchee location was chosen for this year since it will provide the added advantage of being significantly less expensive than our previous seminars held in mountain lodges and in Seattle. Preparatory Sessions are June 30th to July 1st and the Main Seminar is July 2nd through July 8th. In order to apply for an opening in the seminar, please send the application form to Pam Kelly, Administrative Assistant, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Wenatchee Valley College, 1300 Fifth Street, Wenatchee, WA 98801, USA. For more information about this event, please visit the link below:
http://commons.wvc.edu/sberard/boreoccidentales/english/Annual%20Workshop/Home.aspx


Penn-Leiden Colloguium on Ancient Values (VI)
Friday, 25 June 2010
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. 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


Ancient Rome and America Exhibition at the National Constitution Center, Philadelphia
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Exhibition at the National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, now through August 1st. Ancient Rome and America showcases the cultural, political, and social connections between the lost world of ancient Rome and modern America. The exhibition features more than 300 artifacts from Italy and the United States, bringing together a never-before-seen collection from Italy’s leading archaeological institutions in Florence, Naples, and Rome, paired with objects from over 40 lending institutions in the United States. 20$ Adult tickets, free for members. For more information about the exhibition, please visit: http://constitutioncenter.org/rome/


Who Owns Underwater Cultural Heritage? Perspectives on Archaeological Law and Ethics in the Mediterranean
Friday, 26 March 2010
Public Lecture and Reception Friday, March 26, 7:00 PM Opening keynote lecture by George Bass, Distinguished Professor Emeritus (Texas A&M University) and Co-Founder, Institute of Nautical Archaeology, followed by public reception. Public Conference Saturday, March 27, 9:00 am-6:00 PM Public conference featuring presentations by policymakers involved in the development of the UNESCO 2001 Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, and by archaeologists conducting work in Mediterranean waters, followed by a panel discussion on law and ethics in underwater cultural heritage. This conference provides a forum in which to discuss what legal and ethical standards direct our collective responsibility as stewards of world cultural heritage. International experts from academic, professional, and governmental fields will address the guidelines for archaeological practice outlined in the 2001 UNESCO Convention, which entered into force in 2009. The maritime boundaries of modern nation states, on which the Convention is based, provide a framework for oversight that seems an uneasy fit with the shifting political spheres and cultural fluidity characteristic of the ancient Mediterranean. Individual artifacts from a ship’s cargo might originate in areas today occupied by multiple states; the vessel’s construction technology might belong to another cultural tradition; its present location might leave it close to several other states’ waters. Planned Participants Mariano Aznar Gómez (Department of Public International Law, Universitat Jaume I, Spain) David J. Blackman (Oxford University, UK) Bridget A. Buxton (Institute of Archaeological Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, USA) Katerina Dellaporta (Ministry of Culture, Greece) Andrej Gaspari (Military Museum of Slovenia & Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, Slovenia) Nic Flemming (National Oceanography Centre, UK) Irena Radiç Rossi (University of Zadar, Croatia) Vasıf Sahoglu (Research Center for Marine Archaeology [ANKÜSAM], Ankara University, Turkey) Jacob Sharvit (Marine Archaeology Unit, Israel Antiquities Authority, Israel) Sebastiano Tusa (Soprintendente del Mare, Regione Sicilia, Italy) Ole Varmer (Office of General Counsel for International Law, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, USA) Sponsored by the Penn Cultural Heritage Center, the Penn Museum, the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, Penn’s Center for Ancient Studies, the History of Art and Classical Studies Departments, the Graduate Group in the Art & Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, and Brock University.


Material Culture in Asian Religions
Sunday, 21 March 2010
March 21-22, 2010, Classroom 2, Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania. This conference will bring together specialists in a variety of Asian cultures to discuss the methodological challenges involved in integrating material evidence for the reconstruction of the religious histories of South, Southeast, Central, and East Asia. By means of specific "test-cases," participants will explore the importance of considering material and literary evidence in concert. What untold stories do these sources help us to recover? How might they push us to reevaluate historical narratives traditionally told from literary sources? In addition, participants will consider the challenges involved in interpreting these data, assessing the problems of interpretation distinct to specific types of material evidence (e.g., coins, temple art, manuscripts, donative inscriptions) and the issues raised by the different patterns in the preservation of such evidence in different locales. In exploring these questions, special attention will be paid to newly discovered sources (e.g., Gandhari MSS, Chinese tomb-texts), to our evidence for trade, migration, and inter-regional cultural exchange, and to geographical locales that served as "contact zones" connecting Eurasian cultures, both "East" and "West." Speakers include Kevin Bond (University of Regina), Gudrun Bühnemann (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Shayne Clarke (McMaster University), Jamal Elias (University of Pennsylvania), Benjamin Fleming (University of Pennsylvania), Hank Glassman (Haverford College), Shaman Hatley (Concordia University), Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa (University of Alabama), Jinah Kim (Vanderbilt University), Richard Mann (Carleton University), Justin McDaniel (University of Pennsylvania), Dirk Meyer (Oxford University), Jason Neelis (University of Florida), Annette Yoshiko Reed (University of Pennsylvania), James Robson (Harvard University), Tamara Sears (Yale University), and Travis Zadeh (Haverford College). Topics will range from numismatic evidence for the creative fusion of Hellenistic and Indic traditions, inscriptional and iconographical evidence for interactions between Buddhists and Brahmins, and manuscript evidence for the transmission of traditions from South to East Asia, to the implications of new material and manuscript data for our understanding of premodern Christian encounters with Asian religions. *Sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania's Mellon Cross-Cultural Diversity Fund, University Research Foundation, Department of Religious Studies, Center for Ancient Studies, South Asia Center, Center for East Asian Studies, and the Oriental Club of Philadelphia. *All sessions are free and open to the public. For more information see the following link:
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/%7Ebfleming/material_culture/


Recovering the Past: Archaeologists and Travelers in Ottoman Lands
Friday, 19 March 2010
Friday 19 March to Saturday 20 March The symposium is part of an 18-month program on the beginnings of American archaeology in Ottoman Empire during the late nineteenth century, the role of Osman Hamdi Bey in the development of cultural policies for archaeology, and the engagement of archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania, specifically the Penn Museum. The Halpern - Rogath Seminar in Museum Practice for undergraduates and graduates initiated the program in the fall of 2009. The symposium “Recovering the Past” is the second event in the series. It will be followed an exhibition at the Penn Museum opening in September 2010, featuring unpublished materials from the museum archives, two newly discovered paintings by Hamdi and objects from the Near East section of the museum. A version of the exhibit will appear in the Pera Museum, Istanbul in 2011. For more information contact: rholod@sas.upenn.edu or ousterob@sas.upenn.edu


Prospective Graduate Students’ Weekend
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Prospective graduate students weekend (Mar 18-20, 2010) for students applying to AAMW, Classics, and Ancient History at the University of Pennsylvania. Events include meeting with faculty and students, the “Archaeologists and Travelers” conference hosted by the Center for Ancient Studies, tour of the Penn Museum and campus, as well as a number of social gatherings with other graduate students.


The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Emulation and Imitation in the Ancient World
Friday, 12 March 2010
CAS Graduate Student Conference, March 12-13, 2010. Keynote speaker Robert Ritner of the University of Chicago will lecture on “Aspects of Cushite 'Egyptianization': Piety, Prestige and Propaganda” at 6:00 PM in the Rainey Auditorium, Penn Museum, on March 12. 2010. Reception afterwards in the Lower Egyptian Gallery. 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 in 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. Schedule FRIDAY, MARCH 12 (Rainey Auditorium) 5:00 – 6:00 pm Registration, Mosaic Gallery 6:00 – 7:30 pm Keynote Address: “Aspects of Cushite Egyptianization: Piety, Prestige and Propaganda” Dr. Robert Ritner, Professor of Egyptology, University of Chicago 7:30 – 9:00 pm Cocktails in the Lower Egypt Gallery SATURDAY, MARCH 13 (Mosaic Gallery and Classroom 1) 8:30 – 9:00 am Coffee and Late Registration, Mosaic Gallery 9:00 – 9:30 am Introductory remarks (Classroom 1): Brian Rose, Professor of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania 9:30 – 10:15 am SYNCRETISM IN RELIGION AND MAGIC (Classroom 1) “Secrets of Solomon: Jewish Magic in Roman Spells,” Erika Jeck, University of Chicago “The Selectiveness of Syncretism through the Prism of Language: Seth and Baal,” Niv Allon, Yale University “Paintings of Indian Star Gods in China,” Hui Li, Shanghai Jiaotong University 10:15 – 11:00 am IMITATION IN FORMING GROUP IDENTITY I (Classroom 2) “Lucian’s Use of Herodotus and Rearticulation of Hellenic Identity in the De Dea Syria,” Scott J. DiGiulio, Brown University “Choral Mimesis in Pindar’s Second Partheneion,” Lauren Curtis, Harvard University “Elite Houses in West Crete from the 2nd to the 4th Century AD: A Case Study in Eclectic Acculturation” Anna Kouremenos, University of Oxford 11:00 – 12:30 pm Lunch 12:30 – 1:30 pm LITERARY IMITATION AND ALLUSION (Classroom 1) “The Parsvabhyudaya: Exploring Medieval Jain Courtly Aspirations,” Sarah Hicks, University of Pennsylvania “Emulation and Innovation of Literary Genre in Su Shi’s Rhapsodies on Red Cliff,” Jeffrey Rice, University of Pennsylvania “Playing with Virgil: Imitation in the Culex,” Lyndy Danvers, Rutgers University “Literary Imitation in Early Jewish Expansion of the Prophets: The Case of 4Q386 1.ii (4QPseudo-Ezekielb)” John B. Whitley, Harvard University 1:30 – 2:30 pm IMITATION IN FORMING GROUP IDENTITY II (Classroom 2) “Ceramic Style and Identity in the Zapotec Diaspora of Classic-Period Central Mexico,” Haley Holt, Tulane University “The Visual Hybridity of Greco-Roman Mummy Shrouds: Imitation and Information Exchange in Ancient Egypt,” Lissette Jimenez, UC Berkeley “Necropolis Gorican: Self-Perseverance through Imitation,” Zeljko Rezek, University of Pennsylvania “Shared Practice and Group Membership: The Reconstruction of Entella in Western Sicily,” Randall Souza, University of California, Berkeley 2:30 – 3:00 pm Coffee Break 3:00 – 5:00 pm EMULATION IN THE LEGITIMIZATION OF POWER (Classroom 2) “Middle-Babylonia or Kassite Imitations?,” Nathanael Shelley, Columbia University “A Multi-Cultural Monarchy: The Royal Imagery of the Seleucid Empire,” Michael Sullivan, Rutgers University “Caligula’s Alexander Imitation,” Samuel L. Kindick, Florida State University


Connections You Believe In: Syncretism in the Ancient World
Friday, 26 February 2010
Center for Ancient Studies Annual Symposium Connections You Can Believe In: Syncretism in the Ancient World and Beyond Program: 9:30 Coffee in the Mosaic Gallery 10:00 Morning Session Robert Ousterhout (Director, Center for Ancient Studies) Welcome and Introduction Caitlín Barrett (Columbia University) Religious Syncretism in the Household and the Sanctuary: Egyptian and Egyptianizing Terracotta Figurines from Hellenistic Delos Jason BeDuhn (Northern Arizona University) Systematic Syncretism in Early Manichaeism Anne-Marie Luijendjik (Princeton University) Oracles You Can Belief In: Only Do Not Doubt 12:30 -1:30 Lunch Break 1:30 Afternoon Session Rina Talgam (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) New Filters to Classical Traditions: Christian and Jewish Attitudes towards Pagan Heritage in the Art of Late Antique Palestine David Frankfurter (University of New Hampshire) Remodelling Syncretism in Christianization: The Saint's Shrine as Religious Crucible 3:00-3:15 Coffee in the Mosaic Gallery 3:15 Late Afternoon Session Jaime Lara (CASVA, National Gallery of Art) It's All in the Blood: New Orthodoxies in the First Contact with Mesoamerica Heath Lowry (Princeton University) Hasluck & Beyond: The Fate of Muslim Sanctuaries in Post-Ottoman Greece Ross Kraemer (Brown University) Respondent Discussion 5:00 Reception in the Mosaic Gallery


AAA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
The American Anthropological Association is holding its Annual Meeting in Philadelphia this year on December 2-6, 2009 at the Downtown Marriott Hotel. Advanced registration is open now until October 15th, 2009, although registration materials will be available onsite at the Hotel at the following times. If you have pre-registered, please bring your receipt to the registration area. Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. Thursday, 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Friday, 7:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Saturday, 7:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. For more information about the meetings or the Downtown Marriott Hotel, please visit the AAA website:


Visualizing Jerusalem: Art and Sacred Topography
Saturday, 24 October 2009
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


Seeing the Past--Envisioning Islamic Art and Architecture. Symposium in Honor of Professor Renata Holod
Saturday, 10 October 2009
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


Contesting Images: Byzantine and Other Iconoclasms
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
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).


Change and Cultural Exchange in the Thirteenth Century
Saturday, 4 April 2009
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)


Ancient Cultures in Contact: Catalysts for Change
Friday, 20 March 2009
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


Celebrations of Continuity and Change: Triumph and Spectacle in the Ancient World
Friday, 6 March 2009
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.


Ancient Origins, Modern Identities: Program for March 21st
Monday, 3 March 2008
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
Center for Ancient Studies


Dark Ages Enlightened: Schedule
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
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


The Treasured Hunt: Collecting Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, Past, Present, and Future
Monday, 10 September 2007
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.
For registration, program details and maps, go to:


Center for Ancient Studies Symposium: Ancient Origins, Modern Identities
Friday, 7 September 2007
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!


The Penn Humanities Forum: Origins
Wednesday, 7 March 2007
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
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