Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):

Dining & Death
Interdisciplinary perspectives on the ‘Funerary Banquet’ in art, burial and belief

Conference at the Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, Oxford
Saturday 25 – Sunday 26 September 2010

When is a ‘funerary banquet’ a funerary banquet?

Depictions of banquets on tombstones and in tombs are widespread in antiquity, from Ancient Egypt to Roman Britain. The term ‘funerary banquet’ is sometimes used to refer to such images, but what does it mean, and is it useful? The banquets shown differ in format, and their meanings are debated by scholars. Do some images memorialize the dead in terms of the best that life could offer, and would people actually have experienced this in reality? Do others, in contrast, refer to ceremonial events, such as funerary rites, or even the pleasures they can expect in the afterlife? Are these images best used to gain insights into beliefs about death, or to assess cultural differences in banqueting, its manners and accoutrements? And are such aims mutually exclusive?

Answers to these questions can differ within and between disciplines, but these differences are rarely explicitly addressed. This conference will provide a forum for that purpose, bringing together archaeologists specialising in ancient Egypt, China, the Near East, and the Greek and Roman worlds, to compare images and interpretations. Focussing on this particular interpretative problem, conference speakers and audience members can also consider broader issues about the interpretation of images and archaeological evidence more generally.

Confirmed Speakers

Keynote address: Johanna Fabricius (Freie Universität Berlin)
Closing comments: Oswyn Murray (University of Oxford)

Amann, Petra (University of Vienna, Bankett und Grab Projekt): ‘Banquet and Grave.’ Methods, aims and first results of a recent research project.
Baughan, Elizabeth P. (University of Richmond): Burial Klinai and ‘Totenmahl’?
Harrington, Nicola (University of Oxford): The 18th Dynasty Banquet: ideals and realities.
Hartwig, Melinda (Georgia State University): Life and Death in Ancient Egyptian Banqueting.
Kalaitzi, Myrina (KERA, National Hellenic Research Foundation): The Theme of the Banqueter on Hellenistic Macedonian Tombstones.
Lockwood, Sean (Trent University): Family Matters: The interpretation of Lycian “funerary banquet” reliefs.
Mitterlechner, Tina (University of Vienna, Bankett und Grab Projekt): The Banquet in Etruscan Funerary Art and its Underlying Meaning.
Nickel, Lukas (SOAS): Banquets and Tombs in Han Dynasty China: Luoyang as a case study.
Nylan, Michael (Berkeley): Funerary Banquets in Classical-era China.
Rawson, Dame Jessica (University of Oxford): Painting Afterlife Banquets in Han Dynasty Tombs (100 BC – AD 200).
Robins, Gay (Emory University): Meals for the Dead: the image of the deceased seated before a table of offerings.
Stamatopoulou, Maria (University of Oxford): Banquets in the Painted Stelai of Demetrias
Stewart, Peter (Courtauld Institute of Art): Image and Reality in the Roman Totenmahl.
Struble, Eudora, (University of Chicago): Ritual Engraved: Rethinking the Meanings of Syro-Hittite Mortuary Feasts.
Tuck, Antony (University of Massachusetts): Dining with the Dead: Practice and Symbol in Etruscan Funerary Ritual.

Website: http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/dininganddeath.html

Inquiries: dininganddeath.conference AT arch.ox.ac.uk

Organisers:

· Catherine M. Draycott, Katherine and Leonard Woolley Junior Research Fellow, Somerville College, Oxford
· Maria Stamatopoulou, University Lecturer in Classical Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford

Sponsored by: the John Fell Fund, Somerville College, the Craven Fund, the Faculty of Classics, the School of Archaeology and the Griffith Egyptological Fund, Oxford.

Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):

Classics in the Subject Centre is pleased to announce a new day in its calendar of events: the TEACHING ANCIENT HISTORY DAY, a day aimed at promoting and supporting the teaching of Ancient History in Higher Education and providing a forum for discussion. Ancient History faces unique challenges in teaching a diverse range of materials, and this event aims to address those challenges and present practical solutions.

This FREE event will be held at the University of Leicester on June 1st 2010 in collaboration with the School of Ancient History and Archaeology. We are delighted to have four respected ancient historians who will each give a presentation on a different area of Ancient History teaching. We hope that this event will be of interest to all those who teach Ancient History at all levels.

The programme for the day is as follows:

10.15 – 10.30 Registration and Welcome
10.45-11.45 Epigraphy: Graham Oliver
11.45-12 Coffee
12 -1 Incorporating Archaeology: Janett Morgan
1-2 Lunch
2-3 Using Translations: Robin Osborne
3-3.15 Coffee
3.15-4.15 Numismatics: Constantina Katsari
4.15-4.30 Closing remarks and end

The event is free of charge and travel subsidies are available for delegates. If you are interested in attending please email me on classicshea AT liverpool.ac.uk stating your name, institution, and any access or dietary requirements.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries [Sarah Francis].

Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):

Classical Association Annual Conference 2011
Durham University, Friday 15 April – Monday 18 April 2011

Call for Papers

The Classical Association Annual Conference 2011 is to be hosted by Durham
University. The presidential address and plenary lectures will be held in
the Calman Centre (on the Science site); the panels will take place nearby,
in Collingwood College.

We welcome proposals for papers (20 minutes long followed by discussion) and
coordinated panels (comprising either 3 or 4 papers) from academic staff,
graduate students, and school teachers on the topics suggested below, or on
any aspect of the classical world. We are keen to encourage papers from a
broad range of classical, historical, and archaeological perspectives.

Suggested topics: attitudes towards the future in Greece and Rome; memory
and forgetting; archives and libraries; Greek epigraphy; display practices
and public space; beauty; concepts of authorship and forgery; the identity
of the artist; the disciples of Socrates; Greek and Roman historiography;
Greek law; Greece and the Near East; Greek epigram; the reception of
Augustan poetry; the Œlong¹ third century AD; iconicity of materials; sites
of heritage; regionalism in Roman art and architecture; landscape and the
environment; reconstruction of ancient remains; e-learning.

Title and an abstract (no more than 300 words), and any enquiries should be
sent to the address below (preferably by e-mail) not later than 31 August
2010:

Paola Ceccarelli, CA 2011,
Department of Classics & Ancient History,
Durham University,
38 North Bailey,
Durham DH1 3EU, UK.
Email: CA.2011 AT durham.ac.uk
Tel.: +44 (0)191 3341686

Website: http://www.dur.ac.uk/classics/events/ca_conference2011/