NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ROMAN GREECE:
CONNECTIVITY, INTERACTION AND INNOVATION
CONFERENCE
15th–17th May 2024
The British School at Athens
In her 2015 afterword to the volume "What's New in Roman Greece," Susan Alcock points out that future scholars might face challenges in fully grasping the significance and originality of the rigorous research focused on Roman Greece in recent years. While a substantial body of literature on the Roman provinces of the Greek mainland and the islands continues to be produced, there remains a compelling need for a deeper exploration of this region’s role within the intricate networks of the time. This is especially true in terms of the cross-regional and intercultural connectedness that characterised the globalising Roman world.
The main goal of this international conference is to integrate the research on Greece during the Roman Empire and Greece’s position within the wider Roman Mediterranean into the current Roman archaeology scholarship while actively engaging with the conceptual agenda of interconnectivity, identities, and social inequalities. The conference explores how new networks of connectivity and mobility impacted Greek communities amidst the economically, socially, and politically changing climate brought by the Roman Empire.
Sixteen papers, presented across three days, will bring together different perspectives on the effects of connections, exchange, and innovation in the region in terms of commodity flow, demography, foodways, religious interaction, social dynamics, and cultural transformations. With a strong focus on cutting-edge approaches, the conference seeks to establish an interdisciplinary dialogue, challenge existing paradigms, and stimulate fresh perspectives on the complex interplay between global connections and local innovations in Roman Greece during this dynamic period.
The conference explores a number of key themes in the archaeology of Roman Greece:
Theme 1 – Mobility: the effects of Mediterranean mobilities and new forms of cross-cultural interactions.
Theme 2 – Demographics and Society: material traces of diasporic communities, social inequalities, and communities in the making.
Theme 3 – Religious Networks: the impact of travelling objects on social practices, religious experience, and historical memory.
Theme 4 – Material Conditions: land and maritime connectivity, entangled cities, and supply networks.
Theme 5 – Material Culture: material changes, cultural exchange, and interconnected economies.
Keynote speakers
Prof. Greg Woolf
Ronald J. Mellor Distinguished Professor of Ancient History, UCLA
Only Disconnect. Resisting the Deep History of Roman Greece
Opening keynote lecture
Prof. Miguel John Versluys
Professor of Classical & Mediterranean Archaeology, Leiden University
Only Connect. Roman Greece in its Afro-Eurasian Context
Closing keynote lecture
Programme
Venue
British School at Athens
Souidias 52, Athina 106 76, Greece
See you in Athens!
Organisers
The event is generously supported by the Hellenic Society: the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies