Academic Year 2015-2016

09/28/2015 06:30 PM ISAW Lecture Hall

AIA Lecture: Arabia at the Crossroads of Cultures

The Oasis of Tayma

Arnulf Hausleiter

Known from Biblical and cuneiform sources as an important trading post, the oasis of Tayma, Northwest Arabia, was a major stop of the famous “incense road” used for trading South Arabian aromatics to the Mediterranean and at the same time part of a larger communication network for caravans all over the peninsula.
09/29/2015 06:00 PM ISAW Lecture Hall

Wizard Wunderkinder and Vengeful Women

Cult Practices in Ancient Egyptian Literature

Franziska Naether

Sorcery, reincarnation, mummification – rituals, magic, and divination play a major role in ancient Egyptian literature from the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2137 BC) until the Roman Imperial Period (ca. 3rd century AD). Franziska Naether will present and analyze passages of cult practices from a particularly rich and exciting story – the Second Setna Novel about the son of pharaoh Ramesses II, Setna, and his wunderkind son.
10/02/2015 10:00 AM Second Floor Lecture Hall

LAWDI Event

Digital Antiquity Coffee House

The Library and the Digital Programs team of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World continue the work of the Linked Ancient World Data Initiative (LAWDI) by organizing an informal coffee house for New York metro area scholars and scholars-in-training with an interest in digital approaches to the study of antiquity. Click on the event link to read more about the program and speakers.
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10/06/2015 06:00 PM ISAW Lecture Hall

The First Pagan Historian

Dares Phrygius and the History of Forgery

Frederic Clark

This lecture examines several episodes in the neglected 1500-year afterlife of the forged "De excidio Troiae historia" or "History of the Destruction of Troy" of pseudo-Dares Phrygius. Although the Latin "De excidio" was a late antique fabrication composed most likely in the fifth or sixth century CE, its author claimed to be an eyewitness to the Trojan War, whose account of the conflict openly contradicted such canonical sources as Virgil and Homer. Deemed by many to be the first pagan to write history, Dares infiltrated numerous domains of literary culture in medieval and early modern Europe.
10/13/2015 06:00 PM ISAW Lecture Hall

The Emporia and the Re-birth of Towns in Anglo-Saxon England

Evidence from Ipswich

Pam Crabtree

The problem of the origins of early medieval towns has been of interest to scholars since the days of Henri Pirenne. While much of the early research was based on historical records, archaeology has played an increasingly important role since the 1960s and 1970s. This talk will present some of the results of the Origins of Ipswich Project (1974-1990), with a particular focus on the faunal remains that can reveal how the residents of Ipswich were provisioned with meat and other animal products. The role of the ‘wic’ sites in the development of medieval towns will also be examined.
10/19/2015 10:30 AM ISAW - 15 E. 84th Street

Prospective Student Open House

ISAW's open house for prospective doctoral students will include coffee and lunch with ISAW students, faculty, and scholars; an information session about our academic program; a tour of ISAW and the ISAW Library; a Q&A session with current students; and an opportunity to attend an ISAW seminar taught by Prof. Elizabeth Murphy and Prof. Lorenzo d'Alfonso.
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10/26/2015 06:00 PM ISAW Lecture Hall

A Sanctuary of the Hellenistic Period at Torbulok (Tadjikistan)

Excavations in 2014 and 2015

Gunvor Lindström

A sanctuary of the Hellenistic period was recently discovered at the village of Torbulok in southwest Tajikistan. Excavations at the site, started in 2013 by a German-Tajik team, give insights into the structure of the sanctuary and confirm the dating to the 3rd and 2nd century BC, as Bactria was part of the Hellenistic world. The site seems to have functioned as a pilgrim sanctuary, associated with an ancient settlement at distance of ca. 30 kilometers.
10/27/2015 06:00 PM ISAW Lecture Hall

Statues of Amun

The Post-Amarna Period from an Art Historical Perspective

Marianne Eaton-Krauss

The lecture presents representative examples from among more than 60 statues of Amun and his consorts, Mut and Amunet, created to replace images destroyed during the iconoclastic phase of Akhenaten’s reign. This corpus, compiled over three decades, forms the basis of a study in the final stages of preparation. The main focus of the lecture is the indispensable role connoisseurship plays in such a project – and what can result from failure to apply it.
10/29/2015 06:00 PM ISAW Lecture Hall

Nasseredin Shah and his 84 Wives

(Film Screening)

Beate Petersen

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11/03/2015 06:00 PM ISAW Lecture Hall

Defining Elsewhere

The Abstraction and Othering of the Liminal in the Ancient Near East

Gina Konstantopoulos

Mesopotamia is populated with a host of supernatural figures, creatures often referred to as monsters or demons. In many cases, these figures represent the embodiment of dangers such as illness or disease, or they stood as a natural expression of the wild, uncivilized lands of the desert and the mountains, far beyond the reach of the inhabited city. While these qualities are not mutually exclusive by any means, this talk will focus on the characteristics of the creatures that predominately inhabited these liminal spaces, described generally as the desert or steppe.
11/06/2015 06:00 PM ISAW Lecture Hall

Ninth Annual Leon Levy Lecture: Scythian Elite Burial Mounds in the Eurasian Steppes

New Discoveries for a Deeper Understanding

Hermann Parzinger

The social structure of Scythians and other groups in the Eurasian steppe is mainly reflected by their graves, burial mounds, which are called "kurgans." Excavations during the last 20 years in different parts of Russia, from Siberia in the far east to southern Russia in the west, have yielded significant new information and have led to a rather new understanding of the phenomenon of elite kurgans.
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11/12/2015 06:00 PM ISAW Lecture Hall

After the Hittite Empire

Phrygian Identities and the Political History of Central Anatolia in the Early First Millennium BCE

Lorenzo d'Alfonso

When historians and archaeologists try to define who the Phrygians were, they have to face the existence of a complex, often contradictory body of information deriving from the many ancient Phrygian identities. This is particularly true if we examine the formation and development of the Phrygian kingdom. While the main discourse on the Phrygian kingdom derives from the classical Greek and Roman authors, the formation of this kingdom is deeply linked with the new political situation generated in Central Anatolia by the fall of the Hittite empire.
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