Friday, October 28, 2016

The First Institute Lecture in the Fall 2016 Program

On Wednesday evening November 2nd at the Library of the Institute is the first of the three lectures that constitute our Fall 2016 Lecture Program. In keeping with our mission of encouraging younger scholars in the development of their research, Jacob Heywood, a Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at The University of Melbourne, will give the lecture,Cretan Larnakes: Towards an Understanding of Syntax in Late Minoan III Funerary Iconography”.

The Late Minoan III period on Crete (ca. 1430-1100 BCE) was characterised by substantial socio-political discontinuity and island-wide change following the decline of the Minoan palaces. Alongside an array of other developments in material culture, the period was marked by a clear shift in mortuary practices, which included the expansion and re-invention of the pre-existing tradition of burial in clay funerary containers known as ‘larnakes’. Unlike funerary receptacles from earlier periods, many LM III larnakes were adorned with rich painted compositions. These drew upon a wide range of floral, faunal, cultic, and geometric motifs, many of which were already well-established in the Minoan iconographic traditions. Despite having received a great deal of scholarly attention, the exact symbolic significance of larnax decoration remains difficult to interpret, particularly given its typically abstract nature.

Jacob’s lecture investigates the value of a systematic ‘syntactic’ approach to larnax decoration as a means of establishing a more solid foundation for its iconographic interpretation. The identification and quantification of the specific symbolic associations and patterns characterising the use of individual larnax motifs may permit a more thorough understanding of the fundamental visual structures through which meaning was generated. A greater knowledge of this syntax can aid ongoing attempts to assess the possible funerary meanings associated with LM III art, as well as highlight in more detail the relationship between the sudden development of larnax iconography and the processes of socio-cultural change occurring on Crete during this period. In particular, an analysis of syntactic patterns can assist in demonstrating how familiar Minoan symbols - for example the horns of consecration and double axe - were adapted to serve new mortuary functions as larnax adornments, and the extent to which this use is consistent with that of both earlier and other contemporary artistic contexts.

We invite you to attend Jacob’s lecture at 19:30 on the 2nd to learn more about how a Minoan funerary container type was transformed in the 13th and 12th centuries BCE and decorated with large-scale external and internal painting.

Cordially,
David Rupp
Director

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Friday, October 21, 2016

Reminder: The CIG offers new online services!

Probably my scintillating Blog of July 29th where I described (with illustrations!) the new services that we now have online, my days digging in Crete and the news that we were closing for our August recess found my avid readership already in complete vacation mode. Our new online services via the CIG website (www.cig-icg.gr), however, are most worthy of me reminding you again to check them out carefully. Online payment is available for each service.

Membership: The benefits of the different types of membership in the Institute are outlined. Existing members can renew their memberships and new members can join in a few easy steps. Annual renewal reminders will be sent out to all registered members.

Purchase of CIG publications: All of the Institute publications that are still in print can be purchased through the Online Store. The shipping and handling costs will be added.

Donations to CIG: The Institute is seeking actively donations – large and small. There are eight specific Funds to contribute to as well as to Target Giving for annual giving needs. Such financial generosity will help support the fulfilment of the Institute’s mission and to make it stronger for the future.

So after you read this motivational blog please go and peruse these menu items on the website.

Cordially,
David Rupp
Director

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

The Fred Winter Collection

Aizanoi, view from wedge of village along length of stadium (Professor Fred Winter, 1978)

Friday, October 14, 2016

Ruth Kozak is Back for a Second Reading!

For our Athens Friends’ Association we have this coming Wednesday, October 19th, another book presentation and reading by the Vancouver-based travel journalist and author W. Ruth Kozak. Last fall Ruth was in Athens and she gave us a dramatic reading from Blood on the Moon, part one of her historical novel, Shadow of the Lion. This epic story is about the aftermath of the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the bloody contests among his Successors to rule the vast empire he created.

The second volume, The Fields of Hades, which is due to be published this month, picks up where the story left off. This novel seethes with conflict and dramatic tension as the Successors begin to battle over Alexander's territories. The joint-kings arrive in Pella just as the Regent is dying and has named Polyperhcon his successor. This sets Kassandros into a rage and he departs to Athens where he stirs up animosity between the Athenians and Macedonians and tries to enlist support from some of the other Successors. Meanwhile, the royal women vie for control of the throne. Alexander's 18-year-old niece, Adeia-Eurydike, wife of Arridaios, leads her faction in a civil war against Olympias, Alexander's mother. Caught up in the strife and palace intrigues, Roxana tries to protect her son Alexander IV (known by his Persian name, Iskader. The boy tries to understand his role and struggles to survive. The story ends on a climax of a true Greek tragedy, the end of Alexander's dynasty, fulfilling the novel's theme of "How blind ambition and greed brought down a world power."

The presentation will take place in the library of the Canadian Institute at Dionysiou Aiginitou 7, Ilisia (ground floor) starting at 19:30.

Cordially,
David Rupp
Director

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Friday, October 7, 2016

Sneak Preview II; Book of the Blog II

The Institute’s fall Lecture Program will be circulated shortly. In the meantime here’s the second installment of the “Fall 2016 Sneak Preview”. The first lecture will be on Wednesday, November 2nd. Jacob Heywood, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne will share will us fresh insights on the manner of decoration of terracotta larnakes from Late Minoan IIIC Crete. Then, on November 16th Dr. Žarko Tankosić, the Higher Executive Officer at the Norwegian Institute at Athens, will present the evidence from various surveys (including the Canadian Institute’s Southern Euboea Exploration Project) for the interconnectivity of southern Euboea within the Aegean during the Prehistoric period. Finally, Dr. Mark Hammond, one of the two Elisabeth Alföldi-Rosenbaum Fellows at the Institute this year, will speak on Wednesday, December 7th. His topic relates to the ceramic finds from an early unpublished excavation of a Late Roman cemetery on the Hill of Zeus at ancient Corinth. The lectures will be held in the Library of the Institute at 19:30. A poster will be sent out prior to each lecture. So save the dates!

Book of the Blog

My esteemed colleague at Brock University, Allison Glazebrook, and a long-term friend of the Institute, Barbara Tsakirgis, have co-edited a tantalizingly titled volume, Houses of Ill Repute. The Archaeology of Brothels, Houses and Taverns in the Greek World (University of Pennsylvania Press 2016). With six other contributors (including Mark Lawall from the University of Manitoba) they explore in depth the scattered and often ambiguous evidence for practice and the topos of prostitution in ancient Greece. Their starting premises are that one must have a good understanding of what constitutes “normal” domestic architecture and what a “typical” domestic material culture assemblage, especially in terms of the ceramic remains, looks like before one can begin to suggest that a purpose-built structure was used regularly for prostitution with a specific material culture package related to aspects of this service activity. There is the added problem that a so-called domestic structure with evidence for drinking and food consumption could be a shop (stoa), a tavern (kapaleion), a hostelry (pandokeion), a tenement house (sunoikie) or a gambling den (skirapheion), not a brothel (porneion) or a house (oikos). The location within the city core is not a ready given either for ascribing a structure as a brothel.

Reflecting on the comments of her co-contributors and on her own research, Glazebrook argues in the concluding Chapter that while there can be an “archaeology of prostitution” for ancient Greece, she admits that with all of the limitations and variables it will be difficult to realize. The neither public not private activities involved in the pursuit of these carnal pleasures makes secure assignments of function a challenge. The contextualization of this discussion (especially the “Introduction”) within the architectural remains and the material cultural assemblages from probable houses and drinking places as well as from possible brothels, in junction with the iconography from vase painting, makes this volume a broader cultural study of Greek urbanism. The use of similar investigations at Pompeii highlight the areas of convergence and of divergence between the two cultures. Each contribution is worthy of a careful reading. The references cited open many avenues for further stimulating reading. The volume is awaiting your attention at the Institute’s Library. In closing I wish to thank Angus Smith for delivering it to Greece!

Now who will be the next person to donate a book, a monograph or an edited volume to the CIG Library? The next iteration of the Book of the Blog will review it!!!

Cordially,
David Rupp
Director

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

The Fred Winter Collection

Alexandria, interior of the Alabaster Tomb (Professor Fred Winter, 1978)