One of the greatest benefits of studying the ancient Greek and Roman past is the ability to utili... more One of the greatest benefits of studying the ancient Greek and Roman past is the ability to utilise different forms of evidence, in particular both written and archaeological sources. The contributors to this volume employ this evidence to examine ancient housing, and what might be learned of identities, families, and societies, but they also use it as a methodological locus from which to interrogate the complex relationship between different types of sources. Chapters range from the recreation of the house as it was conceived in Homeric poetry, to the decipherment of a painted Greek lekythos to build up a picture of household activities, to the conjuring of the sensorial experience of a house in Pompeii. Together, they present a rich tapestry which demonstrates what can be gained for our understanding of ancient housing from examining the interplay between the words of ancient texts and the walls of archaeological evidence.
Dura-Europos is one of Syria's most important archaeological sites. Situated on the edge of the E... more Dura-Europos is one of Syria's most important archaeological sites. Situated on the edge of the Euphrates river, it was the subject of extensive excavations in the 1920s and 30s by teams from Yale University and the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
Controlled variously by Seleucid, Parthian, and Roman powers, the site was one of impressive religious and linguistic diversity: it was home to at least nineteen sanctuaries, amongst them a Synagogue and a Christian building, and many languages, including Greek, Latin, Persian, Palmyrene, and Hebrew which were excavated on inscriptions, parchments, and graffiti.
Based on the author's work excavating at the site with the Mission Franco-Syrienne d'Europos-Doura and extensive archival research, this book provides an overview of the site and its history, and traces the story of its investigation from archaeological discovery to contemporary destruction.
In this chapter, we trace how the actions of Western archaeologists created a classical vision of... more In this chapter, we trace how the actions of Western archaeologists created a classical vision of the Temple of Bel in Palmyra at the expense of other histories. We draw on archival documents and photographs to demonstrate how the lenses and pens of the archaeologists working at the site since its ‘discovery’ in the eighteenth century transformed the complexity of the sanctuary into a single narrative that paid insufficient attention to the living population of Tadmor-Palmyra. We argue that a consistent practice of heritagizing the sanctuary, emptying the sanctuary, and divorcing it from its local community have led to actions in the present, both by Da’esh, but also by Western institutions, that continue that process of emptying and the disenfranchisement of local communities.
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, 2024
Before standardized context forms, before section drawing, and before photography, archaeology wa... more Before standardized context forms, before section drawing, and before photography, archaeology was recorded in field notebooks. Field diaries are perhaps the archetypal archaeological document both in the field and in the archive, and they persist in various contemporary forms as a key means of recording. Based on archaeological field diaries made in Syria during the French Mandate, in particular those of Clark Hopkins at Dura-Europos and Harald Ingholt at Palmyra, this article looks to the inclusions, elisions, and absences in archaeological field notebooks and asks whether it might be possible to reexamine the history of Mandate-era archaeology in Syria through them.
During the Syrian conflict, ongoing since 2011, Palmyra became notorious for the destruction and ... more During the Syrian conflict, ongoing since 2011, Palmyra became notorious for the destruction and looting of its Roman-period remains, giving rise to many narratives of what Palmyra’s future should bring, often without attention to how we have come to know its past. This article explores that past through a key period—the French Mandate—when European archaeologists categorically reshaped the site, culminating in the relocation of the site’s population from mudbrick houses in and around the Temple of Bel to a new, military-built town north of the original. We examine the site immediately prior to that transformation through contemporary archaeological diaries from 1924 to 1928, written by Danish archaeologist Harald Ingholt. Through his diaries, it is possible to reconstruct the complexity of knowledge production at the site, which disrupts the authorized discourses of archaeological discovery with important consequences for how we understand the contribution of local inhabitants to scientific knowledge.
Dura-Europos has long been dubbed the ‘Pompeii of the Syrian Desert’. One of the many reasons thi... more Dura-Europos has long been dubbed the ‘Pompeii of the Syrian Desert’. One of the many reasons this moniker does not fit is because the parched aridity the name conjures belies a site which not only sits immediately above the mighty Euphrates river, but also had a range of ways of accessing its immense water flow and indeed other sources of water. Yet, despite this, Dura Europos had concerns with water: supplying it, managing it, and storing it. For most of its history, the archaeology of the site indicates that supply and storage of water was a household rather than a broader civic concern. This chapter examines what is known concerning the use of water in the houses of Dura Europos. It will begin with a survey of the available evidence on the hydraulic arrangements of the site, and the problems in using that evidence. It will then explore what we know about water management from the houses, before moving on to a consideration of what meaning we might draw from that evidence—that is, the social and cultural significance of the arrangement and use of water in the houses of Dura Europos.
Baird, J. A. (2023) “Franco-American Relations at Dura-Europos” in M. al-Maqdissi, Studia Orontic... more Baird, J. A. (2023) “Franco-American Relations at Dura-Europos” in M. al-Maqdissi, Studia Orontica 19, 2020-21: 17-30.
IN Archaeological Photography (2019) edited by Dan Hicks and Lesley McFadyen, 73–95. London: Blo... more IN Archaeological Photography (2019) edited by Dan Hicks and Lesley McFadyen, 73–95. London: Bloomsbury.
In Raja, R and Boubou, O, edd. Archival Historiographies: The Impact of 20th-Century Legacy Data on Archaeological Investigations. Brepols. , 2022
As many archaeological sites of the Middle East have become increasingly inaccessible to Western ... more As many archaeological sites of the Middle East have become increasingly inaccessible to Western scholars, attention has turned afresh to archaeological archives both as sources and objects of study. But why do we have them, and why do they contain so much archaeology which has never been published? This paper contends that many archaeological archives mark the site of systematic failure of the discipline of archaeology to reckon with the volume of data generated over more than a century of archaeological work in the Middle East. Our stewardship of these archives in itself speaks to archaeology’s place in the colonial project, held as they are far from the places in which they were produced, in languages foreign to local communities. Drawing on archives of the Syrian sites of Dura-Europos (held by Yale University Art Gallery) and Palmyra (the Wood Collection of Joint Library of the Institute of Classical Studies and the Hellenic and Roman Societies in London), I ask whether digitisation and dissemination projects will ever be sufficient to deal with the ethical, material, and epistemological problems posed by these archives, and what potentials archives might hold as sites in themselves.
Ann Laura Stoler has asked what happens when we shift our scrutiny from the picturesque ruins of ... more Ann Laura Stoler has asked what happens when we shift our scrutiny from the picturesque ruins of empire to the ongoing process of ruination. Examining some of the many and continuing ruinations of the site Dura-Europos on the Syrian Euphrates, this paper compares ancient and modern destructions by the Roman army, Sasanian forces, Yale archaeologists and ‘Islamic State’, and questions the different way these are understood. Through these stories of ruination I interrogate the relationship between archaeologists and processes of site destruction, examining archaeologists not only as those who evaluate loss but as agents of destruction themselves. https://traj.openlibhums.org/articles/10.16995/traj.421/
Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 2019
The 1753 publication of The Ruins of Palmyra by Robert Wood was key in the formation of archaeolo... more The 1753 publication of The Ruins of Palmyra by Robert Wood was key in the formation of archaeological understandings of the site. Examining the original notebooks and drawings of the expedition, which formed the basis for this publication (now held by the Combined Library of the Institute of Classical Studies and the Hellenic and Roman Societies in London), this article examines the relationship between those first documents, the publication, and some of its afterlives. We demonstrate how Wood’s treatment of Tadmor‐Palmyra and its inhabitants has shaped memories of the site, prioritizing certain narratives and occluding others, a process that continues today.
We need to rethink graffiti: they are not just words and images but places and things. Using the ... more We need to rethink graffiti: they are not just words and images but places and things. Using the graffiti of Dura-Europos on the Syrian Euphrates, this paper discusses some of the ways that the unofficial urban texts of antiquity can, when studied in their spatial context as material objects, reveal urban histories which rub against the grain of traditional studies. It explores the ways such seemingly ephemeral marks can be active agents within the urban environment in public, religious, and private contexts. I propose that graffiti can be defined by their immedi- acy and spatial contingency, and I contend that graffiti have the potential to give new per- spectives on the ancient world: they are unmediated traces, stories of daily life, and through them it is possible to explore the ways in which the walls of the city could become active in people’s lives.
Archaeology continually reproduces its own images. Speaking archaeology’s visual language is one ... more Archaeology continually reproduces its own images. Speaking archaeology’s visual language is one way we prove membership in the discipline. Many aspects of this visual language have become so naturalized within archaeological representation as to be almost unquestionable: the cleaning of the site, the use of scale, and particular framings and perspectives. How, then, is the production of particular photographic images of archaeology related to the practice of archaeology? Does archaeology look a certain way (in photographs) or are archaeologists reproducing an archaeology according to the way it is thought it should look? Using examples of early photographs from Latin American archaeological expeditions, this article investigates not only photography as an applied technology for scientific recording, but also its power to situate archaeological knowledge. Drawing on recent reflective and critical developments in both the history of archaeology and visual anthropology, it uses five focal points – trace, objectivity and authenticity, sight/site, still lifes, and still lives – to argue that early-twentieth-century archaeological photographs of Latin America participated in the generation of an ‘authentic’ past rather than simply paid testament to it.
One of the greatest benefits of studying the ancient Greek and Roman past is the ability to utili... more One of the greatest benefits of studying the ancient Greek and Roman past is the ability to utilise different forms of evidence, in particular both written and archaeological sources. The contributors to this volume employ this evidence to examine ancient housing, and what might be learned of identities, families, and societies, but they also use it as a methodological locus from which to interrogate the complex relationship between different types of sources. Chapters range from the recreation of the house as it was conceived in Homeric poetry, to the decipherment of a painted Greek lekythos to build up a picture of household activities, to the conjuring of the sensorial experience of a house in Pompeii. Together, they present a rich tapestry which demonstrates what can be gained for our understanding of ancient housing from examining the interplay between the words of ancient texts and the walls of archaeological evidence.
Dura-Europos is one of Syria's most important archaeological sites. Situated on the edge of the E... more Dura-Europos is one of Syria's most important archaeological sites. Situated on the edge of the Euphrates river, it was the subject of extensive excavations in the 1920s and 30s by teams from Yale University and the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
Controlled variously by Seleucid, Parthian, and Roman powers, the site was one of impressive religious and linguistic diversity: it was home to at least nineteen sanctuaries, amongst them a Synagogue and a Christian building, and many languages, including Greek, Latin, Persian, Palmyrene, and Hebrew which were excavated on inscriptions, parchments, and graffiti.
Based on the author's work excavating at the site with the Mission Franco-Syrienne d'Europos-Doura and extensive archival research, this book provides an overview of the site and its history, and traces the story of its investigation from archaeological discovery to contemporary destruction.
In this chapter, we trace how the actions of Western archaeologists created a classical vision of... more In this chapter, we trace how the actions of Western archaeologists created a classical vision of the Temple of Bel in Palmyra at the expense of other histories. We draw on archival documents and photographs to demonstrate how the lenses and pens of the archaeologists working at the site since its ‘discovery’ in the eighteenth century transformed the complexity of the sanctuary into a single narrative that paid insufficient attention to the living population of Tadmor-Palmyra. We argue that a consistent practice of heritagizing the sanctuary, emptying the sanctuary, and divorcing it from its local community have led to actions in the present, both by Da’esh, but also by Western institutions, that continue that process of emptying and the disenfranchisement of local communities.
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, 2024
Before standardized context forms, before section drawing, and before photography, archaeology wa... more Before standardized context forms, before section drawing, and before photography, archaeology was recorded in field notebooks. Field diaries are perhaps the archetypal archaeological document both in the field and in the archive, and they persist in various contemporary forms as a key means of recording. Based on archaeological field diaries made in Syria during the French Mandate, in particular those of Clark Hopkins at Dura-Europos and Harald Ingholt at Palmyra, this article looks to the inclusions, elisions, and absences in archaeological field notebooks and asks whether it might be possible to reexamine the history of Mandate-era archaeology in Syria through them.
During the Syrian conflict, ongoing since 2011, Palmyra became notorious for the destruction and ... more During the Syrian conflict, ongoing since 2011, Palmyra became notorious for the destruction and looting of its Roman-period remains, giving rise to many narratives of what Palmyra’s future should bring, often without attention to how we have come to know its past. This article explores that past through a key period—the French Mandate—when European archaeologists categorically reshaped the site, culminating in the relocation of the site’s population from mudbrick houses in and around the Temple of Bel to a new, military-built town north of the original. We examine the site immediately prior to that transformation through contemporary archaeological diaries from 1924 to 1928, written by Danish archaeologist Harald Ingholt. Through his diaries, it is possible to reconstruct the complexity of knowledge production at the site, which disrupts the authorized discourses of archaeological discovery with important consequences for how we understand the contribution of local inhabitants to scientific knowledge.
Dura-Europos has long been dubbed the ‘Pompeii of the Syrian Desert’. One of the many reasons thi... more Dura-Europos has long been dubbed the ‘Pompeii of the Syrian Desert’. One of the many reasons this moniker does not fit is because the parched aridity the name conjures belies a site which not only sits immediately above the mighty Euphrates river, but also had a range of ways of accessing its immense water flow and indeed other sources of water. Yet, despite this, Dura Europos had concerns with water: supplying it, managing it, and storing it. For most of its history, the archaeology of the site indicates that supply and storage of water was a household rather than a broader civic concern. This chapter examines what is known concerning the use of water in the houses of Dura Europos. It will begin with a survey of the available evidence on the hydraulic arrangements of the site, and the problems in using that evidence. It will then explore what we know about water management from the houses, before moving on to a consideration of what meaning we might draw from that evidence—that is, the social and cultural significance of the arrangement and use of water in the houses of Dura Europos.
Baird, J. A. (2023) “Franco-American Relations at Dura-Europos” in M. al-Maqdissi, Studia Orontic... more Baird, J. A. (2023) “Franco-American Relations at Dura-Europos” in M. al-Maqdissi, Studia Orontica 19, 2020-21: 17-30.
IN Archaeological Photography (2019) edited by Dan Hicks and Lesley McFadyen, 73–95. London: Blo... more IN Archaeological Photography (2019) edited by Dan Hicks and Lesley McFadyen, 73–95. London: Bloomsbury.
In Raja, R and Boubou, O, edd. Archival Historiographies: The Impact of 20th-Century Legacy Data on Archaeological Investigations. Brepols. , 2022
As many archaeological sites of the Middle East have become increasingly inaccessible to Western ... more As many archaeological sites of the Middle East have become increasingly inaccessible to Western scholars, attention has turned afresh to archaeological archives both as sources and objects of study. But why do we have them, and why do they contain so much archaeology which has never been published? This paper contends that many archaeological archives mark the site of systematic failure of the discipline of archaeology to reckon with the volume of data generated over more than a century of archaeological work in the Middle East. Our stewardship of these archives in itself speaks to archaeology’s place in the colonial project, held as they are far from the places in which they were produced, in languages foreign to local communities. Drawing on archives of the Syrian sites of Dura-Europos (held by Yale University Art Gallery) and Palmyra (the Wood Collection of Joint Library of the Institute of Classical Studies and the Hellenic and Roman Societies in London), I ask whether digitisation and dissemination projects will ever be sufficient to deal with the ethical, material, and epistemological problems posed by these archives, and what potentials archives might hold as sites in themselves.
Ann Laura Stoler has asked what happens when we shift our scrutiny from the picturesque ruins of ... more Ann Laura Stoler has asked what happens when we shift our scrutiny from the picturesque ruins of empire to the ongoing process of ruination. Examining some of the many and continuing ruinations of the site Dura-Europos on the Syrian Euphrates, this paper compares ancient and modern destructions by the Roman army, Sasanian forces, Yale archaeologists and ‘Islamic State’, and questions the different way these are understood. Through these stories of ruination I interrogate the relationship between archaeologists and processes of site destruction, examining archaeologists not only as those who evaluate loss but as agents of destruction themselves. https://traj.openlibhums.org/articles/10.16995/traj.421/
Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 2019
The 1753 publication of The Ruins of Palmyra by Robert Wood was key in the formation of archaeolo... more The 1753 publication of The Ruins of Palmyra by Robert Wood was key in the formation of archaeological understandings of the site. Examining the original notebooks and drawings of the expedition, which formed the basis for this publication (now held by the Combined Library of the Institute of Classical Studies and the Hellenic and Roman Societies in London), this article examines the relationship between those first documents, the publication, and some of its afterlives. We demonstrate how Wood’s treatment of Tadmor‐Palmyra and its inhabitants has shaped memories of the site, prioritizing certain narratives and occluding others, a process that continues today.
We need to rethink graffiti: they are not just words and images but places and things. Using the ... more We need to rethink graffiti: they are not just words and images but places and things. Using the graffiti of Dura-Europos on the Syrian Euphrates, this paper discusses some of the ways that the unofficial urban texts of antiquity can, when studied in their spatial context as material objects, reveal urban histories which rub against the grain of traditional studies. It explores the ways such seemingly ephemeral marks can be active agents within the urban environment in public, religious, and private contexts. I propose that graffiti can be defined by their immedi- acy and spatial contingency, and I contend that graffiti have the potential to give new per- spectives on the ancient world: they are unmediated traces, stories of daily life, and through them it is possible to explore the ways in which the walls of the city could become active in people’s lives.
Archaeology continually reproduces its own images. Speaking archaeology’s visual language is one ... more Archaeology continually reproduces its own images. Speaking archaeology’s visual language is one way we prove membership in the discipline. Many aspects of this visual language have become so naturalized within archaeological representation as to be almost unquestionable: the cleaning of the site, the use of scale, and particular framings and perspectives. How, then, is the production of particular photographic images of archaeology related to the practice of archaeology? Does archaeology look a certain way (in photographs) or are archaeologists reproducing an archaeology according to the way it is thought it should look? Using examples of early photographs from Latin American archaeological expeditions, this article investigates not only photography as an applied technology for scientific recording, but also its power to situate archaeological knowledge. Drawing on recent reflective and critical developments in both the history of archaeology and visual anthropology, it uses five focal points – trace, objectivity and authenticity, sight/site, still lifes, and still lives – to argue that early-twentieth-century archaeological photographs of Latin America participated in the generation of an ‘authentic’ past rather than simply paid testament to it.
The article discusses the material culture in viewing sexual labor in ancient Rome as to the inte... more The article discusses the material culture in viewing sexual labor in ancient Rome as to the interpretation on a gold bracelet from Pompeii seen as a love-gift to slave women in prostitution. Topics covered include the master and sex slave reciprocating affection based on exploitation and brutality and the archeological context of the gold bracelet worn by domestic prostitute or slave. Also mentioned are other interpretations on the gold bracelet with ancilla inscription.
Baird, J.A. 2016. January. “Lazrus (P.K.) and Barker (A.W.) Eds All the King’s Horses. Essays on ... more Baird, J.A. 2016. January. “Lazrus (P.K.) and Barker (A.W.) Eds All the King’s Horses. Essays on the Impact of Looting and the Illicit Antiquities Trade on our Knowledge of the Past. Washington DC: The Society for American Archaeology, 2012. Pp. iv + 164. $26.95. 9780932839442.” The Journal of Hellenic Studies (January): 1–2. doi:10.1017/S0075426916001130.
Baird, J. A. (submitted) 2012, Review of Domestic Space in Classical Antiquity, by Lisa C. Nevett... more Baird, J. A. (submitted) 2012, Review of Domestic Space in Classical Antiquity, by Lisa C. Nevett. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Classical Review 62. 2
Freie Universität Berlin, Theological Forum Judaism-Christianity
Conference on Image Interference... more Freie Universität Berlin, Theological Forum Judaism-Christianity Conference on Image Interference-Questionability of Images
Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference Webinar, 2023
The history of Salihiyeh, the settlement on the Euphrates immediately beneath the plateau on whic... more The history of Salihiyeh, the settlement on the Euphrates immediately beneath the plateau on which the Roman-era site of Dura-Europos sits, has always been entangled with that of the ruins. People from the village have long provided the labour for the excavations, and yet their contribution has been all but invisible in accounts of the site. This talk will present results of oral history research, conducted with my colleague Adnan Almohamad, which attempts to address such absences, and examines the ongoing relationship between communities and archaeological heritage in Syria.
Conference paper with Rubina Raja and Zena Kamash for "Palmyra in Perspective". Copenhagen, The R... more Conference paper with Rubina Raja and Zena Kamash for "Palmyra in Perspective". Copenhagen, The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, December 2022.
This paper looks at the building usually known as the Temple of Bel at Palmyra, and its transformation over two millennia, and asks why and how certain parts of its history have come to be seen as the most important ones. Drawing on archival documents and photographs, we focus on its transformation in the twentieth century, including through the eyes of the archaeologists who worked at the site, and what they did—or did not—record.
We will provide a brief survey of the main phases of the building in the Roman period and beyond. Through an analysis of e.g. archaeological archives, photographic archives and guidebooks, we will explore the ways in which the building and its immediate surroundings have been emphasised, ignored, appropriated and heritigized. We will demonstrate that the built heritage of the Temple of Bel has long been the focus of attention, resulting in a concomitant lack of attention to the living population. This is a habit that has had severe consequences in the events of the recent past where the destruction of the building, and the haunting images of the lone surviving gateway that now circulate widely, have been emphasised while the voices, stories and experiences of those who lived through those events have been side-lined or even ignored.
Paper for "Between the Lines: Rereading Legacy Data for a Decolonized Archaeology" Aarhus Univers... more Paper for "Between the Lines: Rereading Legacy Data for a Decolonized Archaeology" Aarhus University, June 2022.
Before standardised context forms, before section drawing, and before photography, archaeology has been recorded in field notebooks. Field diaries are perhaps the archetypal archaeological document both in the field and in the archive, and they persist in the present as a key means of recording. Drawing on the field diaries made in Syria during the French Mandate, in particular those of Clark Hopkins at Dura-Europos and Harald Ingholt at Palmyra, this presentation looks to the inclusions, elisions, and absences in archaeological field notebooks, and asks whether we ever truly reckon with the legacies of our legacy data.
The legacy of Dura-Europos is well-known through hundreds of scholarly publications and continuin... more The legacy of Dura-Europos is well-known through hundreds of scholarly publications and continuing work in the archives of the excavations held by Yale University Art Gallery. The absences in the traditional accounts of Dura’s excavation history are also increasing evident, including the role of local archaeological labour, and the relationship between local Syrian communities such as that of Salihiyeh—the settlement on the Euphrates immediately beneath the plateau on which Dura sits—and the archaeological site. This talk will present preliminary results of oral history research conducted in partnership with Syrian colleagues which attempts to address such archival absences and speaks to alternative legacies. That research examines the relationship between local people of Salihiyeh and al Athar (‘the ruins’), including local responses to the catastrophic destruction in the years since the Syrian conflict began, and asks whether digital platforms might provide opportunities for 21 st century Syrian voices to become part of Dura’s continuing history.
The long shadows cast by archives are often unacknowledged in contemporary reckonings with archae... more The long shadows cast by archives are often unacknowledged in contemporary reckonings with archaeological legacy data. In the age of pandemic and big data, many institutions which hold archaeological archives are leaning harder than ever into the digital turn: in some cases, this serves to reinforce existing power dynamics. This presentation questions whether it might be possible, through a counter- archive, to throw a little light into those shadows or begin to invert those dynamics. Using the example of a new oral history project, conducted in collaboration with my colleague Adnan Almohamad, which examines the relationship between local communities and the site of Dura-Europos on the Syrian Euphrates, I consider whether it might be possible, through interventions in the digital archive, to write people who have been excluded from archaeological histories back into the narrative.
University of Helsinki/Swedish Institute at Athens. Invited Paper on household water supply of Du... more University of Helsinki/Swedish Institute at Athens. Invited Paper on household water supply of Dura-Europos for closed workshop “Water for the masses across and beyond the Mediterranean: examining the non-monumental household water supply”. May 2021.
While few would still describe Dura-Europos as Rostovtzeff did, as a “caravan city”, there is no ... more While few would still describe Dura-Europos as Rostovtzeff did, as a “caravan city”, there is no doubt that the extensive excavations there in the first half of the twentieth century provide rich archaeological evidence for this frontier settlement, whose life spanned from c. 300 BCE to 256 CE. Indeed, it is easy to point to images of camel caravans scratched into house walls, or to scraps of fine imported silks pulled from the debris, and imagine Dura as just another node in an ancient network of cities spanning the Afro-Eurasian frontier. This presentation will consider the development of the settlement over the long term, as a place which was both liminal, forever inside the frontier, but also central and hyper-connected, and examine how Dura negotiated its place within and between spheres. Examining aspects of Dura’s material, social, and political networks, I will assess the ways in which this negotiation was not only a tale of trading, taxing, and military triumphs, but also of one of local habitus and a particular relationship with the site’s own deep past.
For AIA 2021 Colloquium session: Archive Archaeology and Cultural Heritage: Documentation in Conflict Zones, 2021
As many archaeological sites of the Middle East have become increasingly inaccessible to Western ... more As many archaeological sites of the Middle East have become increasingly inaccessible to Western scholars, attention has turned to archaeological archives both as sources and objects of study. But why do we have them, and why do they contain so much archaeology which has never been published? This paper contends that many archaeological archives mark the site of systematic failure of archaeology and archaeologists to reckon with the volume of data generated over more than a century of archaeological work in the Middle East. Our stewardship of these archives in itself speaks to archaeology’s place in the colonial project, held as they are far from the places in which they were produced, in languages foreign to local communities. Drawing on archives of the Syrian sites of Dura- Europos (held by Yale University Art Gallery) and Palmyra (the Wood Collection of the Institute of Classical Studies in London), I ask whether digitisation and dissemination projects will ever be sufficient to deal with the ethical, material, and epistemological problems posed by these archives, and what potentials archives might hold as sites in themselves.
Paper for Seminar: The Language of Urban Domestic Architecture as an expression of Identity: The ... more Paper for Seminar: The Language of Urban Domestic Architecture as an expression of Identity: The African Eastern Provinces
Against the archival grain: Digital tools for re-appropriation of diasporic archaeological archiv... more Against the archival grain: Digital tools for re-appropriation of diasporic archaeological archives Can archives themselves be sites of reconstruction in post-conflict situations? Can digital tools be used to appropriate or repatriate archives which reside far from the place they were gathered? This presentation seeks to address these questions with reference to the archival collection of Robert Wood and his early work at Palmyra. Held in the The Joint library of the Institute for Classical Studies and the Hellenic and Roman Library, [1] this collection formed the basis for Wood's seminal 1753 publication of The Ruins of Palmyra. Utilising the Wood archive as a case study, and the Recogito online text and image annotation tool [2] as a crowd-engagement platform, we explore how free, easy, digital annotations might be a way for people to re-appropriate their cultural heritage, and explore how it can be used to allow different readings of the ruination presented in the published accounts and different modes of engaging with archives of ruination. Annotations, tags and comments created by the public in Recogito can be then downloaded, collected, analysed and re-used for different purposes, from the study of the folksonomies developed by the different communities to talk about the ruins of Palmyra and their so-called discovery. Thus, we present archives as potential sites for the creation of new narratives which cut against the grain: enabling multiple voices and perspectives on the material, a form of reconstruction of ruins enabled by digital platforms rather than physical rebuilding. [1]
Almost a century ago, the accidental discovery of paintings on the walls of a temple sparked more... more Almost a century ago, the accidental discovery of paintings on the walls of a temple sparked more than a decade of excavations at the site we now know as Dura-Europos. Those paintings clung to the plaster of the first religious structure discovered at the site, the Temple of Bel, and in the years that followed excavations revealed many more: from that of Aphlad to that of Zeus Megistos, from a Jewish synagogue to a Christian building. The diversity of religious cults found at Dura-Europos was matched by that in languages, which ranged from Palmyrene Aramaic and Greek to Latin, from Syriac and Safaitic to Middle Persian. This talk will survey what we know of the ancient site of Dura-Europos and how we know it, and ask how we might understand the density of diversity at this ancient site perched on the edge of the Syrian steppe and overlooking Mesopotamia beyond.
As archaeologists of the Roman East, one of our main tasks is to consider the global and local cu... more As archaeologists of the Roman East, one of our main tasks is to consider the global and local cultures (as the title of this workshop puts it) of that region through its material remains: its ruins. Ann Laura Stoler, in her work on much more recent empires has asked what happens when we shift our scrutiny from the picturesque ruins of empire to the ongoing process of ruination (Stoler 2008, 2013, 2016). Looking at some of the many and continuing ruinations of Dura-Europos on the Syrian Euphrates, this paper compares ancient and modern destructions by the Roman army, Sasanian forces, Yale archaeologists and Daesh, and questions the differential way these are understood. Through these stories of destruction I ask whether we have, or should, be moving “from domination to interaction”, or whether we need to do more to understand the deep entanglements between ancient and modern empires.
The BSA has been investigating Knossos intensively for over a century. The primary focus of that ... more The BSA has been investigating Knossos intensively for over a century. The primary focus of that research has been the prehistoric period, though major excavations and publications have also documented components of the long post-prehistoric occupation. Far less attention has been given to the not inconsiderable remains of Roman Knossos: Colonia Iulia Nobilis Cnossus.
This paper will present preliminary results of a geophysical survey at Knossos, undertaken under the auspices of the BSA. Previous geophysical research at Knossos has been relatively limited and focused on specific areas of the landscape to provide local contexts for excavations, such as the (unpublished) survey by Richard Jones delimiting a Hellenistic fort (KS 37), and the immediate environs of the Villa Dionysus (Shell 1997; Wardle 1998; Wardle and Wardle 1994, 1996). More recent geophysical research on Lower Gypsades to the south of the Minoan Palace (The Knossos Gypsades Geophysical Project, AGOnline no. 1921) focused on magnetometry survey on the periphery of the site, capturing a limited swathe of land use types and underlying geological morphology.
Much of the current understanding of Roman Knossos is built upon excavations at the Villa Dionysus (Hayes 1983; Paton 1998) and Unexplored Mansion (Sackett et al. 1992) areas. More recently, rescue excavations have provided further insight into keyholes in the urban fabric of the Roman era site (Sweetman and Grigoropoulous 2010). While these publications provide knowledge of local ceramic sequences and specific structures, they provide no information regarding the broader topography of the inhabited landscapes, the relationship(s) between public, private and religious spaces, the nature of occupation within the valley as a whole, nor the place of Knossos within the province.
The aim of the present survey, of which two of four planned seasons have been completed, is to provide a spatial framework into which the current constellation of excavated but unstudied archival material from Roman Knossos can be placed. This paper presents the preliminary results of the survey and uses them to reinterpret what is known about the history and topography of the Roman city, and propose implications for its place within Crete as a whole, in light of other new and ongoing work (Francis and Kouremenos 2016).
References: Francis, J., and A. Kouremenos, eds. 2016. Roman Crete. New Perspectives. Oxford: Oxbow. Hayes, J.W. 1983. “The Villa Dionysos Excavations, Knossos: The Pottery.” The Annual of the British School at Athens 78: 97–169.
Hood, S., and D. Smyth. 1981. “Archaeological Survey of the Knossos Area.” The British School at Athens. Supplementary Volumes 14: i–69. Paton, S. 1998. “The Villa Dionysus at Knossos and its predecessors.” In Post-Minoan Crete. Proceedings of the First Colloquium on Post-Minoan Crete held by the British School at Athens and the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 10-11 November 1995 (BSA Studies 2), edited by W. G. Cavanagh and M. Curtis. London, 123-128. Sackett, L.H., K. Branigan, P.J. Callaghan, H.W. Catling, E.A. Catling, J.N. Coldstream, R.A. Higgins. 1992. “Knossos: From Greek City to Roman Colony. Excavations at the Unexplored Mansion.” The British School at Athens. Supplementary Volumes 21: iii–498. Shell, C.A. 1997. “Appropriate Geophysics and Excavation Strategy: From Mud Brick to Masonry in the East Mediterranean Region.” In Archaeological Sciences 1995. Proceedings of a Conference on the Application of Scientific Techniques to the Study of Archaeology, edited by, Anthony Sinclair, Elizabeth Slater, and John Gowlett, 333–342. Oxford: Oxbow. Sweetman, R.J., and D. Grigoropoulos. 2010. “Roman Knossos: Discovering the City through the Evidence of Rescue Excavations.” The Annual of the British School at Athens 105: 339–379. Wardle, K. A. and D. Wardle. 1994: “Knossos 2000: Interim Report for 1993 Excavations” Archaeological Reports 40: 75-6. Wardle, K. A. and D. Wardle. 1996: “Knossos 2000: Interim Report for 1995 Excavations” Archaeological Reports 42: 41-2.
The BSA has been investigating Knossos intensively for over a century. The primary focus of that ... more The BSA has been investigating Knossos intensively for over a century. The primary focus of that research has been the prehistoric period, though major excavations and publications have also documented components of the long post-prehistoric occupation. Far less attention has been given to the not inconsiderable remains of Roman Knossos: Colonia Iulia Nobilis Cnossus.
This paper will present preliminary results of a geophysical survey at Knossos, undertaken under the auspices of the BSA. Previous geophysical research at Knossos has been relatively limited and focused on specific areas of the landscape to provide local contexts for excavations, such as the (unpublished) survey by Richard Jones delimiting a Hellenistic fort (KS 37), and the immediate environs of the Villa Dionysus (Shell 1997; Wardle 1998; Wardle and Wardle 1994, 1996). More recent geophysical research on Lower Gypsades to the south of the Minoan Palace (The Knossos Gypsades Geophysical Project, AGOnline no. 1921) focused on magnetometry survey on the periphery of the site, capturing a limited swathe of land use types and underlying geological morphology
Much of the current understanding of Roman Knossos is built upon excavations at the Villa Dionysus (Hayes 1983; Paton 1998) and Unexplored Mansion (Sackett et al. 1992) areas. More recently, rescue excavations have provided further insight into keyholes in the urban fabric of the Roman era site (Sweetman and Grigoropoulous 2010). While these publications provide knowledge of local ceramic sequences and specific structures, they provide no information regarding the broader topography of the inhabited landscapes, the relationship(s) between public, private and religious spaces, the nature of occupation within the valley as a whole, nor the place of Knossos within the province.
The aim of the present survey, of which two of four planned seasons have been completed, is to provide a spatial framework into which the current constellation of excavated but unstudied archival material from Roman Knossos can be placed. This paper presents the preliminary results of the survey and uses them to reinterpret what is known about the history and topography of the Roman city, and propose implications for its place within Crete as a whole, in light of other new and ongoing work (Francis and Kouremenos 2016).
References: Francis, J., and A. Kouremenos, eds. 2016. Roman Crete. New Perspectives. Oxford: Oxbow. Hayes, J.W. 1983. “The Villa Dionysos Excavations, Knossos: The Pottery.” The Annual of the British School at Athens 78: 97–169. Hood, S., and D. Smyth. 1981. “Archaeological Survey of the Knossos Area.” The British School at Athens. Supplementary Volumes 14: i–69. Paton, S. 1998. “The Villa Dionysus at Knossos and its predecessors.” In Post-Minoan Crete. Proceedings of the First Colloquium on Post-Minoan Crete held by the British School at Athens and the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 10-11 November 1995 (BSA Studies 2), edited by W. G. Cavanagh and M. Curtis. London, 123-128. Sackett, L.H., K. Branigan, P.J. Callaghan, H.W. Catling, E.A. Catling, J.N. Coldstream, R.A. Higgins. 1992. “Knossos: From Greek City to Roman Colony. Excavations at the Unexplored Mansion.” The British School at Athens. Supplementary Volumes 21: iii–498. Shell, C.A. 1997. “Appropriate Geophysics and Excavation Strategy: From Mud Brick to Masonry in the East Mediterranean Region.” In Archaeological Sciences 1995. Proceedings of a Conference on the Application of Scientific Techniques to the Study of Archaeology, edited by, Anthony Sinclair, Elizabeth Slater, and John Gowlett, 333–342. Oxford: Oxbow. Sweetman, R.J., and D. Grigoropoulos. 2010. “Roman Knossos: Discovering the City through the Evidence of Rescue Excavations.” The Annual of the British School at Athens 105: 339–379. Wardle, K. A. and D. Wardle. 1994: “Knossos 2000: Interim Report for 1993 Excavations” Archaeological Reports 40: 75-6. Wardle, K. A. and D. Wardle. 1996: “Knossos 2000: Interim Report for 1995 Excavations” Archaeological Reports 42: 41-2.
This module will explore Syrian archaeology through two key sites: Palmyra and Dura-Europos. Palm... more This module will explore Syrian archaeology through two key sites: Palmyra and Dura-Europos. Palmyra, the “Venice of the Sands”, is well known as a Syrian Oasis site and famous for its monumental remains and for stories of its Queen, Zenobia. Many of the monumental remains were infamously and spectacularly destroyed by ISIS during the Syrian conflict. Also justifiably famous is the site of Dura-Europos, the “Pompeii of the Syrian Desert”, at which were found nineteen ancient religious buildings including an early Christian house church and a synagogue, both decorated with elaborate paintings. Dura-Europos is famed as an ancient crossroads of culture, where many religions were practices and languages spoken, from Hebrew and Greek and Latin to Aramaic and Safaitic. Like Palmyra, Dura-Europos has suffered catastrophic damage since the start of the Syrian conflict, but at Dura this has largely been in the form of extensive, and often organised, antiquities looting.
Tracing their excavation histories, this module will investigate both what is known of each of the sites and how we have come to know it. We will work with the primary records of the archaeological archives of the sites, and learn in detail about their material culture, textual, and architectural remains. Using those remains—things like papyri, inscriptions, architecture, ceramics, and sculptures—we will examine the economic and religious lives of people at the sites (all texts will be examined through their English translations). We will then examine how the sites have been used and displayed since their ‘discovery’, including how their objects are displayed in museum collections. We will study the recent destruction of the sites and consider why they have been targets, and the way their destruction links (e.g.) to the global trade in illicit antiquities. Museum and archive visits will be incorporated where possible.
In this module, students will acquire a deep familiarity with the archaeological remains of Roman-period Syria, develop a critical knowledge of archaeological archives and how to use them, including in the digital archives. Students will also gain a broad survey of the history of archaeological practice in the Middle East, and the entangled relationship of archaeology and politics, particularly during the twentieth century. Finally, students will develop a knowledge of the global framework of cultural heritage protection that exists through national governments and international bodies such as UNESCO, through the case studies of the failures of those protections in Syria.
Module description: By some estimates, as many as a third of the inhabitants of the Roman empire ... more Module description: By some estimates, as many as a third of the inhabitants of the Roman empire were slaves. For most elite free Romans, perhaps, slaves were nothing more than 'talking tools', devoid of humanity or agency. The invisibility of slaves in Roman archaeology, however, could also be argued until very recently to be a wilful blindness on the part of scholars. This module seeks to expose what might be learned of Roman slavery and the experiences of enslaved people from archaeological evidence, ranging from artefacts, to architecture, to landscapes. This module will examine experiences of slavery across a range of material scales, utilising small finds, architectural evidence, and landscape analysis. By approaching the institution of slavery and the experiences of enslaved people from material rather than textual evidence, students will be prompted to consider the voices of people who were silenced by Roman historians. Students will be encouraged to undertake their own analysis and interpretation of material evidence, and to draw on comparative approaches to slavery and human trafficking, from the ancient world, to the antebellum south to the present day.
This module addresses key issues in the study of Roman archaeology. What did it mean to live unde... more This module addresses key issues in the study of Roman archaeology. What did it mean to live under the Roman empire? How did the disparate peoples within the Roman world negotiate their place in relation to the regime? This module will introduce students to the critical evaluation of the archaeological evidence for identities and communities in the Roman period, and the approaches and theories that have been used to understand them. Through different classes of archaeological evidence (e.g. what people wore, what they ate, or how they treated the remains of their dead), we will examine how archaeology can be used to build a picture of personal and community identities. We will examine communities within the Roman empire, and those beyond its frontiers. We will consider questions of cultural interaction and Roman imperialism. We will focus on archaeological evidence, but will also consider the role of textual sources for the Roman period. Topics will include archaeologies of gender, childhood, and slavery.
Identified almost a century ago on the Syrian Euphrates, Dura-Europos is one of the most extensiv... more Identified almost a century ago on the Syrian Euphrates, Dura-Europos is one of the most extensively excavated urban sites of the Arsacid and Roman Near East. While the site has been heavily looted during the current conflict in Syria, there remains tremendous potential for new research and analysis of the site and its archaeology, including that which builds on the archives and objects from Dura held in the collections of the Yale University Art Gallery.
This session will bring together international scholars working on the multicultural heritage of Dura-Europos and addresses a range of questions including: What is the status of Dura in the 21 st century? How might Dura inform our understanding of the Roman Empire and its interaction with eastern cultures? How can the Dura archives and collection at Yale facilitate reinterpretation of existing theories and assumptions regarding culture in the Roman East? What are the potentials and pitfalls of working with 'legacy' data, especially when the site is no longer accessible to Western scholars?
Within the framework of this session, papers reference a range of evidence in seeking answers those questions. A reconsideration of deposits in Dura's famed synagogue opens new avenues for the exploration of Jewish life in Roman Syria. Religious space is also considered in relation to the Roman military occupation of the site in the third century, highlighting the complex interactions between soldiers and civilians at Dura. Another presentation looks at a previously unstudied group at Dura: the 'extended military community'. Our understanding of military and religious life at the site continues to be enhanced by new studies of the Mithraeum. Other papers bring together legacy data and recent excavations at the site to examine the Roman military base and the Roman marketplace in the agora. These projects consider various forms of data, from new excavation and survey to study of archival data, from analysis of works of art and artifacts to assessments of parchments and papyri discovered at the site.
What was the relationship between housing as it was expressed in words and how it materialised in... more What was the relationship between housing as it was expressed in words and how it materialised in walls? The past decade has seen a transformation in the study of housing, both by archaeologists and Classicists. This conference seeks to build on recent developments in this field, and specifically to examine the interface between archaeological and textual types of evidence. The study of ancient houses, households, and families has long been vexed by epistemological problems of how to combine an understanding derived from texts (literary and documentary) with that derived from archaeological material (e.g. house plans and related assemblages).
This conference aims to develop methodologies that privilege neither historical nor archaeological approaches. Rather, we want to focus on the ancient housing as a social and cultural phenomenon that we can approach through the lens of diverse types of materials and approaches. We welcome contributions which seek not to prove or disprove either textual or archaeological accounts, but which engage in a meaningful way with the relationship between these types of materials.
Correspondence is central to our understanding of the past. This workshop aims to investigate th... more Correspondence is central to our understanding of the past. This workshop aims to investigate the value of correspondence in the history of archaeology and antiquarianism. Papers are solicited from a wide range of perspectives, covering early modern and modern antiquarian or archaeological research. Papers might address the practicalities of archived correspondence, or correspondence as a tool for recreating the past.
Questions
• (How) has the nature of correspondence changed?
• How does correspondence reflect the development of disciplinary identity?
• Can correspondence be problematic for understanding the past?
• How does correspondence reflect a wider archaeological network?
Confirmed Participants include:
Ulf Hansson, University of Texas at Austin: ”More Feared than Loved” The Archaeological Correspondence and Professional Networks of Adolf Furtwängler (1853-1907)"
Gabriel Moshenska, UCL Institute of Archaeology
Simon Mills, Cambridge, "Antiquarian Correspondence in the 17th/18th Century"
Katie Meheux, UCL
Margarita Diaz Andreu, ICREA, "Correspondence and Disciplinary Identity 1920-1970"
Julia Roberts, UCLAN, "The Correspondence of Gordan Childe"
"
ICS Classical Archaeology Seminar, Spring term 2021
'The Archaeology of graffiti: Materiality an... more ICS Classical Archaeology Seminar, Spring term 2021
'The Archaeology of graffiti: Materiality and context of vernacular texts and pictures in the Near East in the Classical periods'
The relationship between connectivity and economic activity is a subject of current debate in Med... more The relationship between connectivity and economic activity is a subject of current debate in Mediterranean archaeology, and recent scholarship has shown the significance of this topic for North African studies. This paper approaches the issue through a body of evidence, artificial port structures (jetties, quays, enclosures, and breakwaters), which has hitherto been overlooked. I identify 29 definite, and 15 possible, structures between Cyrenaica and Mauretania, dating between the fourth century B.C.E and the sixth century C.E. I demonstrate that the archaeological evidence for these structures is a more reliable source of information than the ancient literary evidence, and discuss how the picture drawn from latter has misled earlier scholars.
October 22, 2013, 4:30-5:30
Presented by Rome in Bloomsbury and the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
Birkbeck, Dreyfus Room, 28 Russell Square (enter via 26)
For information contact: J.baird@bbk.ac.uk
Baird, J. A., Z. Kamash, and R. Raja. 2023. "Knowing Palmyra: Mandatory production of archaeological knowledge", Journal of Social Archaeology, 2023
During the Syrian conflict, ongoing since 2011, Palmyra became notorious for the destruction and ... more During the Syrian conflict, ongoing since 2011, Palmyra became notorious for the destruction and looting of its Roman-period remains, giving rise to many narratives of what Palmyra's future should bring, often without attention to how we have come to know its past. This article explores that past through a key period-the French Mandate-when European archaeologists categorically reshaped the site, culminating in the relocation of the site's population from mudbrick houses in and around the Temple of Bel to a new, military-built town north of the original. We examine the site immediately prior to that transformation through contemporary archaeological diaries from 1924 to 1928, written by Danish archaeologist Harald Ingholt. Through his diaries, it is possible to reconstruct the complexity of knowledge production at the site, which disrupts the authorized discourses of archaeological discovery with important consequences for how we understand the contribution of local inhabitants to scientific knowledge.
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Books by J.A. Baird
Controlled variously by Seleucid, Parthian, and Roman powers, the site was one of impressive religious and linguistic diversity: it was home to at least nineteen sanctuaries, amongst them a Synagogue and a Christian building, and many languages, including Greek, Latin, Persian, Palmyrene, and Hebrew which were excavated on inscriptions, parchments, and graffiti.
Based on the author's work excavating at the site with the Mission Franco-Syrienne d'Europos-Doura and extensive archival research, this book provides an overview of the site and its history, and traces the story of its investigation from archaeological discovery to contemporary destruction.
Papers by J.A. Baird
Controlled variously by Seleucid, Parthian, and Roman powers, the site was one of impressive religious and linguistic diversity: it was home to at least nineteen sanctuaries, amongst them a Synagogue and a Christian building, and many languages, including Greek, Latin, Persian, Palmyrene, and Hebrew which were excavated on inscriptions, parchments, and graffiti.
Based on the author's work excavating at the site with the Mission Franco-Syrienne d'Europos-Doura and extensive archival research, this book provides an overview of the site and its history, and traces the story of its investigation from archaeological discovery to contemporary destruction.
Conference on Image Interference-Questionability of Images
This paper looks at the building usually known as the Temple of Bel at Palmyra, and its transformation over two millennia, and asks why and how certain parts of its history have come to be seen as the most important ones. Drawing on archival documents and photographs, we focus on its transformation in the twentieth century, including through the eyes of the archaeologists who worked at the site, and what they did—or did not—record.
We will provide a brief survey of the main phases of the building in the Roman period and beyond. Through an analysis of e.g. archaeological archives, photographic archives and guidebooks, we will explore the ways in which the building and its immediate surroundings have been emphasised, ignored, appropriated and heritigized. We will demonstrate that the built heritage of the Temple of Bel has long been the focus of attention, resulting in a concomitant lack of attention to the living population. This is a habit that has had severe consequences in the events of the recent past where the destruction of the building, and the haunting images of the lone surviving gateway that now circulate widely, have been emphasised while the voices, stories and experiences of those who lived through those events have been side-lined or even ignored.
Before standardised context forms, before section drawing, and before photography, archaeology has been recorded in field notebooks. Field diaries are perhaps the archetypal archaeological document both in the field and in the archive, and they persist in the present as a key means of recording. Drawing on the field diaries made in Syria during the French Mandate, in particular those of Clark Hopkins at Dura-Europos and Harald Ingholt at Palmyra, this presentation looks to the inclusions, elisions, and absences in archaeological field notebooks, and asks whether we ever truly reckon with the legacies of our legacy data.
This paper will present preliminary results of a geophysical survey at Knossos, undertaken under the auspices of the BSA. Previous geophysical research at Knossos has been relatively limited and focused on specific areas of the landscape to provide local contexts for excavations, such as the (unpublished) survey by Richard Jones delimiting a Hellenistic fort (KS 37), and the immediate environs of the Villa Dionysus (Shell 1997; Wardle 1998; Wardle and Wardle 1994, 1996). More recent geophysical research on Lower Gypsades to the south of the Minoan Palace (The Knossos Gypsades Geophysical Project, AGOnline no. 1921) focused on magnetometry survey on the periphery of the site, capturing a limited swathe of land use types and underlying geological morphology.
Much of the current understanding of Roman Knossos is built upon excavations at the Villa Dionysus (Hayes 1983; Paton 1998) and Unexplored Mansion (Sackett et al. 1992) areas. More recently, rescue excavations have provided further insight into keyholes in the urban fabric of the Roman era site (Sweetman and Grigoropoulous 2010). While these publications provide knowledge of local ceramic sequences and specific structures, they provide no information regarding the broader topography of the inhabited landscapes, the relationship(s) between public, private and religious spaces, the nature of occupation within the valley as a whole, nor the place of Knossos within the province.
The aim of the present survey, of which two of four planned seasons have been completed, is to provide a spatial framework into which the current constellation of excavated but unstudied archival material from Roman Knossos can be placed. This paper presents the preliminary results of the survey and uses them to reinterpret what is known about the history and topography of the Roman city, and propose implications for its place within Crete as a whole, in light of other new and ongoing work (Francis and Kouremenos 2016).
References:
Francis, J., and A. Kouremenos, eds. 2016. Roman Crete. New Perspectives. Oxford: Oxbow. Hayes, J.W. 1983. “The Villa Dionysos Excavations, Knossos: The Pottery.” The Annual of the British School at Athens 78: 97–169.
Hood, S., and D. Smyth. 1981. “Archaeological Survey of the Knossos Area.” The British School at Athens. Supplementary Volumes 14: i–69.
Paton, S. 1998. “The Villa Dionysus at Knossos and its predecessors.” In Post-Minoan Crete. Proceedings of the First Colloquium on Post-Minoan Crete held by the British School at Athens and the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 10-11 November 1995 (BSA Studies 2), edited by W. G. Cavanagh and M. Curtis. London, 123-128.
Sackett, L.H., K. Branigan, P.J. Callaghan, H.W. Catling, E.A. Catling, J.N. Coldstream, R.A. Higgins. 1992. “Knossos: From Greek City to Roman Colony. Excavations at the Unexplored Mansion.” The British School at Athens. Supplementary Volumes 21: iii–498. Shell, C.A. 1997. “Appropriate Geophysics and Excavation Strategy: From Mud Brick to Masonry in the East Mediterranean Region.” In Archaeological Sciences 1995. Proceedings of a Conference on the Application of Scientific Techniques to the Study of Archaeology, edited by, Anthony Sinclair, Elizabeth Slater, and John Gowlett, 333–342. Oxford: Oxbow. Sweetman, R.J., and D. Grigoropoulos. 2010. “Roman Knossos: Discovering the City through the Evidence of Rescue Excavations.” The Annual of the British School at Athens 105: 339–379.
Wardle, K. A. and D. Wardle. 1994: “Knossos 2000: Interim Report for 1993 Excavations” Archaeological Reports 40: 75-6.
Wardle, K. A. and D. Wardle. 1996: “Knossos 2000: Interim Report for 1995 Excavations” Archaeological Reports 42: 41-2.
This paper will present preliminary results of a geophysical survey at Knossos, undertaken under the auspices of the BSA. Previous geophysical research at Knossos has been relatively limited and focused on specific areas of the landscape to provide local contexts for excavations, such as the (unpublished) survey by Richard Jones delimiting a Hellenistic fort (KS 37), and the immediate environs of the Villa Dionysus (Shell 1997; Wardle 1998; Wardle and Wardle 1994, 1996). More recent geophysical research on Lower Gypsades to the south of the Minoan Palace (The Knossos Gypsades Geophysical Project, AGOnline no. 1921) focused on magnetometry survey on the periphery of the site, capturing a limited swathe of land use types and underlying geological morphology
Much of the current understanding of Roman Knossos is built upon excavations at the Villa Dionysus (Hayes 1983; Paton 1998) and Unexplored Mansion (Sackett et al. 1992) areas. More recently, rescue excavations have provided further insight into keyholes in the urban fabric of the Roman era site (Sweetman and Grigoropoulous 2010). While these publications provide knowledge of local ceramic sequences and specific structures, they provide no information regarding the broader topography of the inhabited landscapes, the relationship(s) between public, private and religious spaces, the nature of occupation within the valley as a whole, nor the place of Knossos within the province.
The aim of the present survey, of which two of four planned seasons have been completed, is to provide a spatial framework into which the current constellation of excavated but unstudied archival material from Roman Knossos can be placed. This paper presents the preliminary results of the survey and uses them to reinterpret what is known about the history and topography of the Roman city, and propose implications for its place within Crete as a whole, in light of other new and ongoing work (Francis and Kouremenos 2016).
References:
Francis, J., and A. Kouremenos, eds. 2016. Roman Crete. New Perspectives. Oxford: Oxbow.
Hayes, J.W. 1983. “The Villa Dionysos Excavations, Knossos: The Pottery.” The Annual of the British School at Athens 78: 97–169.
Hood, S., and D. Smyth. 1981. “Archaeological Survey of the Knossos Area.” The British School at Athens. Supplementary Volumes 14: i–69.
Paton, S. 1998. “The Villa Dionysus at Knossos and its predecessors.” In Post-Minoan Crete. Proceedings of the First Colloquium on Post-Minoan Crete held by the British School at Athens and the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 10-11 November 1995 (BSA Studies 2), edited by W. G. Cavanagh and M. Curtis. London, 123-128.
Sackett, L.H., K. Branigan, P.J. Callaghan, H.W. Catling, E.A. Catling, J.N. Coldstream, R.A. Higgins. 1992. “Knossos: From Greek City to Roman Colony. Excavations at the Unexplored Mansion.” The British School at Athens. Supplementary Volumes 21: iii–498.
Shell, C.A. 1997. “Appropriate Geophysics and Excavation Strategy: From Mud Brick to Masonry in the East Mediterranean Region.” In Archaeological Sciences 1995. Proceedings of a Conference on the Application of Scientific Techniques to the Study of Archaeology, edited by, Anthony Sinclair, Elizabeth Slater, and John Gowlett, 333–342. Oxford: Oxbow.
Sweetman, R.J., and D. Grigoropoulos. 2010. “Roman Knossos: Discovering the City through the Evidence of Rescue Excavations.” The Annual of the British School at Athens 105: 339–379.
Wardle, K. A. and D. Wardle. 1994: “Knossos 2000: Interim Report for 1993 Excavations” Archaeological Reports 40: 75-6.
Wardle, K. A. and D. Wardle. 1996: “Knossos 2000: Interim Report for 1995 Excavations” Archaeological Reports 42: 41-2.
Tracing their excavation histories, this module will investigate both what is known of each of the sites and how we have come to know it. We will work with the primary records of the archaeological archives of the sites, and learn in detail about their material culture, textual, and architectural remains. Using those remains—things like papyri, inscriptions, architecture, ceramics, and sculptures—we will examine the economic and religious lives of people at the sites (all texts will be examined through their English translations). We will then examine how the sites have been used and displayed since their ‘discovery’, including how their objects are displayed in museum collections. We will study the recent destruction of the sites and consider why they have been targets, and the way their destruction links (e.g.) to the global trade in illicit antiquities. Museum and archive visits will be incorporated where possible.
In this module, students will acquire a deep familiarity with the archaeological remains of Roman-period Syria, develop a critical knowledge of archaeological archives and how to use them, including in the digital archives. Students will also gain a broad survey of the history of archaeological practice in the Middle East, and the entangled relationship of archaeology and politics, particularly during the twentieth century. Finally, students will develop a knowledge of the global framework of cultural heritage protection that exists through national governments and international bodies such as UNESCO, through the case studies of the failures of those protections in Syria.
This session will bring together international scholars working on the multicultural heritage of Dura-Europos and addresses a range of questions including: What is the status of Dura in the 21 st century? How might Dura inform our understanding of the Roman Empire and its interaction with eastern cultures? How can the Dura archives and collection at Yale facilitate reinterpretation of existing theories and assumptions regarding culture in the Roman East? What are the potentials and pitfalls of working with 'legacy' data, especially when the site is no longer accessible to Western scholars?
Within the framework of this session, papers reference a range of evidence in seeking answers those questions. A reconsideration of deposits in Dura's famed synagogue opens new avenues for the exploration of Jewish life in Roman Syria. Religious space is also considered in relation to the Roman military occupation of the site in the third century, highlighting the complex interactions between soldiers and civilians at Dura. Another presentation looks at a previously unstudied group at Dura: the 'extended military community'. Our understanding of military and religious life at the site continues to be enhanced by new studies of the Mithraeum. Other papers bring together legacy data and recent excavations at the site to examine the Roman military base and the Roman marketplace in the agora. These projects consider various forms of data, from new excavation and survey to study of archival data, from analysis of works of art and artifacts to assessments of parchments and papyri discovered at the site.
This conference aims to develop methodologies that privilege neither historical nor archaeological approaches. Rather, we want to focus on the ancient housing as a social and cultural phenomenon that we can approach through the lens of diverse types of materials and approaches. We welcome contributions which seek not to prove or disprove either textual or archaeological accounts, but which engage in a meaningful way with the relationship between these types of materials.
Keynote: Professor Lisa Nevett, Michigan
Jennifer Baird j.baird@bbk.ac.uk
and April Pudsey a.pudsey@bbk.ac.uk
Registration is now open here: https://www2.bbk.ac.uk/history/bww/
Questions
• (How) has the nature of correspondence changed?
• How does correspondence reflect the development of disciplinary identity?
• Can correspondence be problematic for understanding the past?
• How does correspondence reflect a wider archaeological network?
Confirmed Participants include:
Ulf Hansson, University of Texas at Austin: ”More Feared than Loved” The Archaeological Correspondence and Professional Networks of Adolf Furtwängler (1853-1907)"
Gabriel Moshenska, UCL Institute of Archaeology
Simon Mills, Cambridge, "Antiquarian Correspondence in the 17th/18th Century"
Katie Meheux, UCL
Margarita Diaz Andreu, ICREA, "Correspondence and Disciplinary Identity 1920-1970"
Julia Roberts, UCLAN, "The Correspondence of Gordan Childe"
"
'The Archaeology of graffiti: Materiality and context of vernacular texts and pictures in the Near East in the Classical periods'
October 22, 2013, 4:30-5:30
Presented by Rome in Bloomsbury and the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
Birkbeck, Dreyfus Room, 28 Russell Square (enter via 26)
For information contact: J.baird@bbk.ac.uk