The Boston Area Classics Calendar for March 3, 2017
PLEASE NOTE: * = new entry, ** = alteration or addition to an existing entry
The Futures of Classical Antiquity
SMITH COLLEGE, Seelye Hall 106, Northampton, MA 01063
Sat., Mar. 4, 2017, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
A one-day symposium on possible futures for Classical Studies in twenty-first century
America. Five speakers address the challenges facing the Classics and the Humanities in
general, and offer their views on approaches and areas of inquiry that may best serve an
increasingly diverse and globalized citizenry.
Joy Connolly, Provost at the Graduate Center, City University of New York
Connected Classics: Research and Teaching in the Public Interest
Gregory Crane, Professor of Classics and Digital Humanities, Tufts Univ./Leipzig Univ.
Redefining and Supporting Classics for a Diverse America in a Global Age
Emily Greenwood, Professor of Classics, Yale University
Voyaging into Old-New Worlds: Imagining the Future through the Past via Classical
Receptions
Denise McCoskey, Professor of Classics, Miami University
“But then you read”: Why Ancient Identity Matters (and how to keep it that way)
Dimitri Nakassis, Professor of Classics, University of Colorado, Boulder
Doing Archaeology in a Digital Age: Challenges and Opportunities
More info:
www.smith.edu…<https://www.smith.edu/classics/docs/TheFuturesOfClassical…
Roger Wilson (University of British Columbia)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Barker 133, Cambridge, MA 02138
Mon., Mar. 6, 2017, 5 – 7 p.m.
“Caddeddi on the Tellaro: A Late Roman Villa in Sicily and its Mosaics”
The Roman villa in contrada Caddeddi on the R. Tellaro, near Noto in southeast Sicily, was
discovered by chance in 1971. Although brief notes have been published about the villa and
its mosaics, and the site is mentioned in passing in general surveys of late Roman villas,
it and its fine mosaics have until very recently lacked a detailed publication. They date
to the second half of the fourth century AD, and so belong to a generation later than the
famous floors of Villa Casale near Piazza Armerina. This talk considers the iconography of
the three main mosaics at Caddeddi: a mythological scene, the ransoming of the body of
Hector; a floor depicting a bust of Bacchus at the center with satyrs and maenads in the
panels around; and an action-packed hunting scene with many episodes paralleled in general
terms on the Piazza Armerina floors. The paper also sets the Caddeddi mosaics in context
by comparing details from all three with mosaic comparanda in north Africa, and comes to
the conclusion that, although not all details can be paralleled there, the mosaics at
Caddeddi, like those at Piazza Armerina, were all laid by itinerant African craftsmen,
almost certainly based at Carthage.
Event Series: James Loeb Lecture
Roger Wilson (University of British Columbia)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Barker 114, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Tue., Mar. 7, 2017, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
“Dining with the Dead: New Light on Early Byzantine Sicily at Punta Secca (RG)”
Punta Secca (in Ragusa province) on the south coast of Sicily is a late Roman and early
Byzantine village, partly excavated in the 1960s and 1970s and identified as the Kaukana
of the ancient sources, where Belisarius set sail for the conquest of Africa in AD 533.
This talk will describe a more recent excavation, focused on one building (a house), which
examined in detail its building phases and the commercial contacts that its inhabitants
enjoyed with other parts of Sicily—and indeed the wider Mediterranean world. Finds include
the earliest securely dated example in Europe of a thimble, and what may arguably be the
earliest depiction of a backgammon board. The biggest surprise was the discovery of a
substantial tomb placed in what was probably the yard of the house in the second quarter
of the seventh century AD, and of evidence for associated feasting in honor of the
deceased. Who was inside the tomb, and why did that person deserve this level of respect?
What evidence was there for feasts, and what was eaten? Was it a pagan or a Christian
burial? And what was the tomb doing here, in a domestic setting, rather than in the
village cemetery, or indeed, if the deceased was Christian, in or near the church? These
and other intriguing questions will be addressed in this talk, and the discovery set in
the context of what else is known about such practices in late Roman and early Byzantine
funerary culture.
Event Series: James Loeb Lecture
*René Bloch (visiting at Harvard from the University of Bern, Switzerland)
BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY, 415 South Street, Mandel Center for the Humanities, 303, Waltham, MA
02453
Wed., Mar. 8, 2017, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
“Show and Tell: Myth, Tourism, and Jewish Hellenism”
In Greco-Roman antiquity Jews had their own displays where visitors could see and admire
objects from mythical times. Very much like pagan culture, Jewish Hellenism, too,
developed a tourism of sorts at sights of miracle and wonder.
Event co-sponsored by Departments of Classical Studies, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies,
the program in Religious Studies, and the Feminist Sexual Ethics Project at Brandeis.
Free and Open to the public. Free parking. Reception with light refreshments in the same
room.
Nicholas G. Blackwell (NC State)
TUFTS UNIVERSITY, 62 Talbot Ave, Somerville, MA 02144, Pearson Hall 104
Thu., Mar. 9, 2017, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
"Construction Methods and Political Statements at Mycenae: New Analysis of the Lion
Gate Relief and Treasury of Atreus."
China/Rome Forum on Economic Histories
BROWN UNIVERSITY, Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute, 111 Thayer St. 02912
Mon., Mar. 13, 2017, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Join this comparative forum on Chinese and Greco-Roman economic histories.
Richard Von Glahn (UCLA) will present his new book, The Economic History of China From
Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century (2016). Walter Scheidel (Classics, Stanford) and Joe
McDermott (Chinese History, Cambridge) will respond. All welcome.
*Michele Ronnick (Wayne State University, Detroit)
BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY, 415 South Street, Mandel Center for the Humanities 303, Waltham, MA
02453
Tue., Mar. 14, 2017, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
“Black Women and Men in Classics in the Bay State and Beyond” (in connection with the
exhibition, “15 Black Classicists" just mounted in the Mandel Center for the
Humanities)
The talk features many interesting black American figures from Phillis Wheatley to Helen
Chesnutt, the third black to graduate from Smith; Charlotte Hawkins Brown whom Alice
Freeman Palmer saw in Cambridge with a baby carriage in one hand and book of Vergil in
another; George M. Lightfoot, the third black graduate of Williams College; Richard
Greener, the first black member of the Society of Classical Studies and the first black
graduate of Harvard University, who was later dean of Howard's Law school; and Boston
Latin School's Wade McCree, who graduated from Harvard's Law School and was the
second black solicitor general of the United States.
Event co-sponsored by Departments of Classical Studies, African and African American
Studies, English, the Program in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the Mandel
Center for the Humanities
Free and Open to the public. Free parking. Reception with light refreshments will follow.
James Rives (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
BROWN UNIVERSITY, Smith Buonanno Hall, Room 106, 95 Cushing St., Providence, RI 02912
Tue., Mar. 14, 2017, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
"Animal Sacrifice and Euergetism in the Hellenistic and Roman Polis"
More info:
www.brown.edu…<https://www.brown.edu/academics/classics/sites/brown.edu.…
Joel Christensen (Brandeis University)
COLLEGE OF THE HOLY CROSS, Smith Hall, Room 201 1 College Street Worcester, MA 01610
Wed., Mar. 15, 2017, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Lecture on Homer; title TBA
Directions:
www.holycross.edu…<http://www.holycross.edu/maps-directions-and-transpor…
Contact Ms. Toni Methe (tmethe@holycross.edu<mailto:tmethe@holycross.edu>) with any
questions.
"Foreign Relations in the Ancient Mediterranean World"
BOSTON UNIVERSITY, CAS 200, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02155
Sat., Mar. 18, 2017
9th Annual Graduate Student Conference of Classical Studies
Sponsored by the Boston University Center for the Humanities and the Department of
Classical Studies
More information as well as the registration link can be found at:
www.bu.edu…<http://www.bu.edu/classics/lectures-conferences/graduate-stu…
Stefan Hagel (Institute for the Study of Ancient Culture, Austrian Academy of Sciences)
and Susanne Gaensicke (J. Paul Getty Museum)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Barker Center, Room 114, 12 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA 02138
Mon., Mar. 20, 2017, 4 – 6 p.m.
"Hellenistic Music in Africa, 10 BCE: Reconstructing the Instruments from Queen
Amanishakheto's Pyramid"
Event Series: Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar: Civilizations of Ancient Greek and Rome
Christelle Fischer-Bovet (University of Southern California)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge, MA 02138
Mon., Mar. 20, 2017, 5 p.m.
TBA
*Christelle Fischer-Bovet (University of South Carolina)
BROWN UNIVERSITY, RI Hall, Room 108, 60 George St., Providence, RI 02912
Tue., Mar. 21, 2017, 5:30 – 7 a.m.
"Reassessing the Ptolemaic settlement policies: Another look at the
"poleis"
More info:
www.brown.edu…<https://www.brown.edu/academics/classics/sites/brown.edu.…
Andrew Ollett
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Harvard Yard, Boylston Hall 105, Cambridge, MA 02138
Wed., Mar. 22, 2017, 5 – 7 p.m.
"Complementizers in Middle Indic"
*James H. Tatum (Professor Emeritus, Dartmouth College)
BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY, 415 South Street, Mandel Center for the Humanities, 303, Waltham, MA
02453
Wed., Mar. 22, 2017, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
"Tragicomedy Ancient and Early Modern: Plautus' Amphitryon and
Shakespeare's Othello in Performance"
A bench reading by the Ad Istud Players at Brandeis of scenes from Shakespeare and
Plautus, followed by contentious discussion.
Event co-sponsored by Departments of Classical Studies, English, and Theater Arts.
Free and Open to the public. Free parking. Reception with light refreshments following in
the same room.
New Digs and Discoveries at Sardis in Turkey
HARVARD ART MUSEUMS, Menschel Hall, Lower Level, 32 Quincy Street (use entrance on
Broadway), Cambridge, MA 02138
Wed., Mar. 22, 2017, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Research from the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis in western Turkey, sponsored by
Harvard and Cornell Universities, continues to produce exciting and unexpected surprises.
In this lecture, Director Nicholas Cahill, professor of art history at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, will present recent results from the expedition. Cahill will discuss
ongoing excavation at a sanctuary of the Roman imperial cult and its transformation in
late antiquity; work in the area believed to be the palace of Croesus and new evidence for
the earliest occupation of the city; one of the largest Roman triumphal arches known; and
conservation and restoration projects.
Free admission. Complimentary parking available in the Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street,
in Cambridge. For more information, please contact Robin Woodman at 617-495-3940 or
robin_woodman@harvard.edu<mailto:robin_woodman@harvard.edu>.
The Sardis Biennial Lecture is sponsored by the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis to
present new excavation finds and current research. Work at Sardis is authorized by the
Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and has been sponsored by the Harvard Art Museums
and Cornell University since 1958.
Event Series: Sardis Biennial Lecture
More info:
archaeology.harvard.edu…<http://archaeology.harvard.edu/event/new-digs-a…
CONFERENCE hosted by Theater and Dance at Amherst College
AMHERST COLLEGE, Holden Theater in Webster Hall, 200 College St, Amherst, MA 01002
Thu., Mar. 23 – Sat., Mar. 25, 2017
“Re-imagining the Greeks: Contemporary and Cross-cultural Approaches to Greek Tragedy”
Each day will be devoted to a different region of the world, and its cultural relationship
with the ancient Greeks. The first day will be about Japanese adaptations, the second
about Black interpretations (African and American), and the third about American
adaptations. The conference will combine scholarly discussions, workshops, non-western
performative approaches. And live performances. Participation in the workshops is open to
students and professionals with experience in performing.
More info:
www.amherst.edu…<https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/theate…
Christelle Fischer-Bovet (University of Southern California)
TRINITY COLLEGE, Rittenberg Lounge, Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106
Thu., Mar. 23, 2017, 12:15 – 2:15 p.m.
"Identifying People in Hellenistic and Early Roman Egypt: A Comparative
Perspective?"
Sponsored by the Departments of Classics and History
Lothar von Falkenhausen (University of California, Los Angeles)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA
Thu., Mar. 23, 2017, 5 – 7 p.m.
"Trying to Do the Right Thing to Protect the World's Cultural Heritage: One
Committee Member's Tale"
The Archaeological Institute of America’s 2017 Norton Lecturer will speak as part of
Harvard's East Asian Archaeology Seminar series.
Charles Bartlett (Harvard University)
COLLGE OF THE HOLY CROSS, Hogan Campus Center Suite A (4th floor), 1 College St,
Worcester, MA 01610
Thu., Mar. 23, 2017, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
“Sovereign Debt in the Hellenistic World" with commentary by Joseph Manning (Yale
University)
Directions:
www.holycross.edu…<http://www.holycross.edu/maps-directions-and-transpor…
Please contact Ms. Toni Methe (tmethe@holycross.edu<mailto:tmethe@holycross.edu>) if
interested in attending the meeting and dinner.
Event Series: New England Ancient History Colloquium
Gasper Begus (Harvard University)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Harvard Yard, Boylston 105, Cambridge, MA 02138
Wed., Mar. 29, 2017, 5 – 7 p.m.
"A Diachronic Model for Explaining Unnatural Sound Changes”
Paolo Visonà (University of Kentucky)
HARVARD ART MUSEUMS, Menschel Hall, Lower Level, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Wed., Mar. 29, 2017, 6 p.m.
"From Byrsa to the Tiber: Carthaginian Coins and History"
New evidence from hoards, overstrikings, and excavation finds across the western
Mediterranean in the last 50 years has significantly increased our knowledge of
Carthaginian coins and their circulation patterns in the core regions of the Punic world,
from North Africa to Spain. As mediums of payment, stores of value, and social artifacts,
Carthaginian coins were used in diverse contexts and by different ethnicities.
In this lecture, Paolo Visonà, associate professor at the University of Kentucky at
Lexington, will discuss how these coins provide essential information on the history and
the economy of Carthage, underscoring its connectivity with other Punic centers and its
relations with its Mediterranean neighbors and rivals, particularly Cyrene, Syracuse, and
Rome.
Following the lecture, select galleries related to the talk will remain open until 8pm.
Free admission. Complimentary parking available in the Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street,
Cambridge.
To honor the memory of renowned numismatist and scholar Leo Mildenberg (1912–2001) and his
years of friendship with Harvard University, a fund was established by his friends and
colleagues and endowed in 2005 by his wife, Ilse Mildenberg-Seehausen.
Event Series: Mildenberg Lecture
More info:
www.harvardartmuseums.org<http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/>
Karen Foster (Yale University)
TRINITY COLLEGE, Rittenberg Lounge, Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106
Thu., Mar. 30, 2017, 5 – 7 p.m.
"Monkeys in Aegean Image and Imagination"
Sponsored by the Departments of Classics and History
Emma Dench (Harvard University)
COLLEGE .OF THE HOLY CROSS, Smith Hall, Room 201 1 College Street Worcester, MA 01610
Wed., Apr. 5, 2017, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
“Ethnography and history in the Roman world”
Directions:
www.holycross.edu…<http://www.holycross.edu/maps-directions-and-transpor…
Contact Ms. Toni Methe (tmethe@holycross.edu<mailto:tmethe@holycross.edu>) with any
questions.
Event Series: New England Ancient History Colloquium
Elizabeth Irwin (Columbia University)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge, MA 02138
Wed., Apr. 5, 2017, 6 – 8 p.m.
TBA
Event Series: James Loeb Lecture
Eric Frederickson (Harvard University)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Harvard Yard, Boylston Hall 103, Cambridge, MA 02138
Wed., Apr. 12, 2017, 4 – 6 p.m.
"Dating (Classical Hebrew) Texts Linguistically: A Bayesian Approach.”
Thomas Zanker (Amherst College)
TRINITY COLLEGE, Rittenberg Lounge, Summit Street, Hartford, CT 06106
Thu., Apr. 13, 2017, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
"The Golden Age in Augustan Rome"
Sponsored by the Department of Classics
Brooke Holmes (Princeton)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge, MA
Fri., Apr. 21, 2017, 3 – 4:30 p.m.
Topic: TBA
Event Series: GSAS Workshop—"Postclassicisms: Literary Secondariness in Antiquity and
Beyond"
More info:
classics.fas.harvard.edu…<http://classics.fas.harvard.edu/links/gsas-wor…
Tim Whitmarsh (University of Cambridge)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge, MA 02138
Wed., Apr. 26, 2017, 5 – 7 p.m.
TBA
Event Series: James Loeb Lecture
Adam Gitner (Indiana University, Bloomington)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBA, Cambridge, MA
Wed., May 3, 2017, 4:30 – 6 p.m.
Topic: TBA
Event Series: GSAS Workshop—"Postclassicisms: Literary Secondariness in Antiquity and
Beyond"
Subscribe to weekly emails:
http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/calclass-list
Subscribe to/download calendar:
http://classics.fas.harvard.edu/boston-area-classics-calendar
New event submissions/current event revisions welcome:
calclass@fas.harvard.edu<mailto:calclass@fas.harvard.edu>.
PLEASE send event information in the format modeled above.