2016-11- Being Pagan, Being Christian in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages (original) (raw)
Related papers
Circulating images: Late Antiquity's cross-cultural visual koiné
The 27th Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference
Late Antique visual and material culture across empires frequently incorporated elements of 'the other', of cultural traditions other than the patron's own, and often these same elements are found in different empires. This is especially true for luxury objects and the decoration of monuments commissioned by royal or elite patrons. This paper will focus on the transfer of images between Late Antique empires and the motivation of the patrons that resulted in this highly connected visual koiné. Based on recent theories of cross-cultural interaction (e.g. Brands, Canepa, Cormack) and globalisation (e.g. Versluys), I wish to discuss the appropriation of images in Late Antiquity as a cross-cultural circular system, crucial in royal and elite identity formation. I will argue that the phenomenon can be seen as a successive appropriation of first objects (such as luxury goods) and in a second step of the material and visual properties which had been associated with them and had obtained a positive cultural connotation. Both the objects themselves and their iconographic motifs and material characteristics served as a mode of communication between the elites of different empires and as an elite marker within their own cultural sphere. Objects were passed on, even across borders, for example through diplomatic gift exchange or as war booty, and gained prestige in this interaction. As the thus ideologically charged 'foreign' iconographic motifs and forms were not only appropriated, but imitated, and the newly produced objects potentially entered the cycle of cross-cultural interaction, it becomes increasingly difficult to determine the origin of their visual and material properties – a concern probably more vital to us than to the Late Antique contemporaries. Exemplified by case studies, I wish to reconstruct the different steps of appropriation that may have led to the globalised visual koiné of Late Antiquity.
Marguerite’s Folly. Erasmian Influences in the “Comédie de Mont-de-Marsan”
Paper presented at the 17th Annual Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR) Tartu, June 25 to June 29, 2019, “Religion – Continuations and Disruptions”, 2019
In the winter of 1548, a year before her death, in the small port of Mont-de-Marsan in Aquitaine, Marguerite de Navarre (1494-1549) composed a morality play for the festivity of the Mardi Gras. This mystical masquerade presents in quick succession four ladies: a worldly woman, a superstitious woman and a wise one discuss the true way of life and the relationship between body and soul. The plays ends with the enchanting and misunderstood apparition of a shepherdess, who enters stage singing popular love songs and declaiming an enraptured love for the Bridegroom. This mature composition of the queen of Navarre, always close to the more effervescent religious circles, represents a privileged point of view on an author who has proved to be difficult to label into narrow-minded religious categorization. The interplay between the four ladies allows Marguerite to show the slow unveiling of errors and the construction of more accurate definitions of the true faith. This paper proposes an in-depth analysis of the theological positions described in the comedy, often intended only as a defense against Calvin’s accusation of libertinism, directed against the French court. In particular, the paper will investigate the influence of Erasmus’ Origenian ecstatic love as a possible key of the representation.
In this paper I will try to examine how the monthly distributions of free grain to the urban citizens of Rome worked. Starting from the already well-known problem of the monthly distributions of free grain from the Republican to the Imperial era, I will try to reconstruct the original aspect of the buildings where they took place, generally known as porticus Minuciae (the vetus one and the frumentaria one), by means of a new comparative approach involving the archival data (from 1884 to 1941) and the nowadays archaeological evidences. The examination of the excavation journals of its discoverers Guglielmo Gatti and Antonio Maria Colini (done on 1937-1941) allows for both the reconstruction of the appearance of the building at its discovery and for the dating of its phases. A careful analysis of this archival material with the help of the successive documents of the adjacent excavations of Giuseppe Marchetti Longhi (non-edited notes, drawings, tracings and photos of the years 1928-1937) has permitted the reconstruction of the history of the excavation of the building and the identification of the Marchetti Longhi’s excavation pits and of the relative finds. Moreover, a study of the present state of the monument (the temple of via delle Botteghe Oscure and the ruins under via S. Nicola dei Cesarini) and a new survey of the structures revealed a bulk of unpublished information, not yet accessible through the journals. On these grounds, it is now possible to offer a scientific reconstruction of the building that impedes the general interpretation as one of the two porticus Minuciae known, and sheds new light on the topic, providing new directions for further research.
Among the rituals of Roman religion performed in war, the most striking one was probably the devotio. When a battle was about to be lost and there were no more military resources left, the Roman general could decide to consecrate himself to the gods of the underworld. After a complex religious procedure and a prayer, he launched himself into the hostile army on his horse, with the aim of dying, thus taking the enemies with him into the underworld.
(à paraitre) 2014, Fortifications of Banbhore (Sindh, Pakistan), EAA, Istanbul
The ancient port of Banbhore is an important site of the Indus delta, near Thatta, still visible by its fortifications. It is one of the rare sites from Indian coast to the Red Sea to be inhabited from Parthians to Muslims (until XIIIth century (because abandon following the Mongol invasion and change of the course of the Indus). Fortification of Banbhore is an urban military enclosure, adapted to the geographical environment (the site was probably surrounded by water). Full and semi-circular bastions, probably Sassanids or Abbasids (during reconstruction at the end of IXth century) are built on the massive enclosure. Many marks in the massonry and stonework suggest a reuse of an oldest city wall, probably Hindu/Parthian with square towers (as Sirkap, Taxila or Hatra in Iraq, but also by the Kushans in Kochambi (Uttar Pradesh, India). The two monumental gateways of the site are surrounded by two towers in Sassanid style. Because this principle of fortification will go back over by the Muslims (after conquest in 712), we question about the importance of the reuse of existing fortifications by Muslims? As well as the function of the defensive network of fortifications in delta of Indus, as Ratto Kot, surely to protect Banbhore.
Up In Flames: a visual exploration of a burnt building at Çatalhöyük.
This paper presents the results of a spatiotemporal study of a burnt building at the site of Çatalhöyük, South Central Turkey. Burnt structures are interesting on the site because of the unusual pattern of deposition of material culture at the final point of closure, as well as the potential for extraordinary preservation of organic remains not usually found elsewhere on the site. Using Building 77 (B.77) as a case study we have integrated specialist data relating to the material culture found in the final burning event, and its earlier occupation sequence, into a temporally enabled version of an intra-site GIS. This experimental appending of stratigraphic temporal data onto the spatial data is an unusual and innovative way to articulate space in time. Through the study and analysis of the material culture in relation to its spatiotemporal context we hope to gain some insight into the social identity of the building’s residents throughout the life cycle of the structure. We use spatiotemporal animations to present the results of this collaborative study as a type of ‘visual biography’, more dynamic and nuanced than conventional phasing, that might be used to underpin and illustrate a social narrative of the building.