CALL FOR PAPERS
Melammu Workshop 24
Bucharest, Romania, 17-18 October 2024
Mountains, seas, rivers, forests, deserts and swamps created barriers that separated human communities in the distant and even more recent past. Major geographical obstacles not only determined the creation and development of different cultures, economic areas and geopolitical spheres of influence but they also represented important benchmarks that stimulated the imagination, inventiveness and ability of organization and amassing resources of those individuals and groups seeking to cross them. Especially rivers and seas played an important role as markers of borders and limits of expansion, but at some point in history these borders were not accepted as natural borders anymore and they were overcome.
This workshop aims at bringing together scholars interested in expanding the understanding of how major geographical barriers and the successful (and failed) attempts to cross them shaped the history of Eurasia. Among the questions that would contribute to this end, we list just a few:
-
- What were the most important motivations that determined people to attempt to go across allegedly impassable or hardly passable geographical boundaries?
- How do imperial ideology and actual explorations and conquest interact?
- What was the conceptual radius of action of a given empire and how was this conceptualization translated into politics?
- What were the technical inventions and intellectual developments that made the crossing of major geographical barriers possible?
- Why were some successful crossing attempts followed by immediate and permanent developments in connectivity while others remained without any consequences?
- How did people describe and conceptualize major geographical barriers and the world beyond them before and after they were able to cross them?
- How were the crossings of major geographical obstacles portrayed in art and literature in different cultures?
We encourage the submission of abstracts of no more than 250 words on these indicative topics by 24 May 2024, at liviu.iancu@drd.unibuc.ro (cc: Sebastian.Fink@uibk.ac.at; florian.matei@gmail.com).
ORGANISERS
Liviu Mihail Iancu (The Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization, Bucharest)
Florian Matei Popescu (The “Vasile Pârvan” Institute of Archaeology, the Romanian Academy, Bucharest)
In cooperation with:
Bernhard Palme (University of Vienna), Sebastian Fink (University of Innsbruck), Robert Rollinger (University of Innsbruck)
CONFERENCE LANGUAGE
English
FEES
No fee is required for participation.
VENUE
The Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization
2A Boulevard Mareșal Constantin Prezan, 011452
Bucharest, ROMANIA
OPTIONAL POST-WORKSHOP EVENT
Tour of the city center of Bucharest and visits to its antiquities museums
Saturday, 19 October
Free of charge
click to download pdf file “CALL FOR PAPERS – Crossing geographical barriers and conceptualizing expansion in Eurasia. Exploration, conquest and ideology in antiquity and beyond” »»»
PROGRAM
Crossing geographical barriers and conceptualizing expansion in Eurasia.
Exploration, conquest and ideology in antiquity and beyond
Melammu Workshop 24
Bucharest, 17 – 18 October 2024
Thursday, 17 October 2024
09.00-09.30: Registration
09.30-10.00: Opening speeches
10.00-11.00: Keynote lecture
Crossing barriers and conceptualizing expansion in Eurasia. Exploration and conquest in Antiquity and beyond
Anca Dan (Paris, France)
11.00-11.30: Coffee break
Panel 1. The steppes and deserts of Eurasia
11.30-11.55:
Crossing the Kyzyl Kum and Kara Kum deserts in Bronze Age Eurasia
Gian Luca Bonora (Milano, Italy)
11.55-12.20:
The Sasanians and the Arabian desert. The interplay between imperial action and ideology
Clemens Steinwender (Innsbruck, Austria)
12.20-12.45:
‘Pilgrim functionaries’ and ‘imagined communities’ in Middle Byzantium and Song China
Zheng Ruisen, Nick Evans (London, Leeds/Cambridge, UK)
12.45-13.10:
Changing boundary settings and unequal stabilities: geographic and environmental impacts on linguistic, religious and political dominance in Inner Asia
Michal Schwarz (Brno, Czech Republic)
13.10-15.00: Lunch break
Panel 2. The Assyrian Empire and geographical barriers
15.00-15.25:
The Assyrian Kings Experiencing Geographical Barriers and Borders
Zozan Tarhan (Sofia, Bulgaria)
15.25-15.50:
To seas… and beyond: expansion and political discourse in Assyria
Aurélien Caron (Paris, France)
15.50-16.15:
Empire and Eurasian Nomads: Assyria and “Scythians”
Natalie Naomi May (Jerusalem, Israel)
16.15-16.40:
Empire in spite of Assyria. The genius of Pūlu/Tukultī-apil-Ešarra IV
Alexander Johannes Edmonds (Münster, Germany)
16.40-17.10: Coffee break
Panel 3. From Mesopotamia, through Persia, to India
17.10-17:35:
Gilgameš, Sargon, and Etanna at the Edges of the World
Sebastian Fink (Innsbruck, Austria)
17.35-18.00:
Land, Water and Crossing of Geographical Obstacles: Lessons from the Achaemenid Empire
Seyed Abazar Shobairi (Athens, Greece)
18.00-18.25:
India as a Hellenistic ultimate border – creating the new idea of otherness
Krzysztof Ulanowski (Gdańsk, Poland)
Friday, 18 October 2024
Panel 4. Alexander the Great (and other conquerors) and the great rivers of Eurasia
09.45-10.10:
The Mediterranean Empire crosses the Istros. Some strategic and logistic remarks on the military campaigns across the Danube, from Dareios to Zopyrion
Liviu Mihail Iancu (Bucharest, Romania)
10.10-10.35:
The Frontiers of Alexander’s Empire: Intellectual, ideological, and military motivations for crossing the Ister and Jaxartes rivers
Patrick Hayes (Cambridge, UK)
10.35-11.00:
Geography and Empire: Alexander III at the Jaxartes
Julian Degen (Trier, Germany)
11.00-11.30: Coffee break
11.30-11.45: Official group photo
Panel 5. The sea and the ocean in Hellenistic and Roman times
11.45-12.10:
Laevus Pontus: from Hellenistic geographic concept to Roman administrative unit
Florian Matei Popescu (Bucharest, Romania)
12.10-12.35:
Non Plus Ultra. Use (and abuse) of the temple of Gades as symbol of the conquest of the Ocean in Hellenistic and Imperial Antiquity
Pamina Fernandez Camacho (Cádiz, Spain)
12.35-13.00:
Perception and representation of the sea in Latin verse inscriptions
Chiara Cenati (Vienna, Austria)
13.00 – 15.00 Lunch break
Panel 6. Geographical barriers and Rome: from empire-building to literary topoi
15.00-15.25
To enjoy Roman Empire, stay at home? Thoughts on Pliny the Elder's views of mobility and borders
Anne Vial-Logeay (Rouen, France)
15.25-15.50
Mountains, rivers and φιλοτιμία in Appian
Mads Ortving Lindholmer (Rome, Italy)
15.50-16.15
Rivers of Love, Rivers of Glory – Ovid’s Amores 3.6
Ana-Maria Răducan (Bucharest, Romania)
16.15-16.40
Geographical and Generic Boundaries in Ovid
Eleni Ntanou (Athens, Greece)
16.40-17.10: Coffee break
Panel 7. Resources, objects and exchange networks in the Carpathian and West Pontic area
17.10-17.35:
The Transylvanian Carpathians and the Dynamics of Prestige Goods throughout the Second Iron Age
Daniel Spânu (Bucharest, Romania)
17.35-18.00:
Town, hinterland, resources. Mapping the rural landscape of Histria and Tomis during the Principate
Ana Honcu, Lucrețiu Mihăilescu-Bîrliba (Iași, Romania)
18.00-18.25:
Dishes without borders. Networks of trade in the Roman empire and their impact on local and regional communities.
Alina Streinu (Bucharest, Romania)
Concluding remarks
Response
Bernhard Palme (Vienna, Austria)
20.00: Official dinner
Saturday, 19 October 2024
10.00-13.30:
Tour of the city center of Bucharest and visits to its antiquities museums (optional)
For more details, see “Useful information for participants”, ch. 6.
VENUE
The Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization
2A Boulevard Mareșal Constantin Prezan, 011452
Bucharest, ROMANIA
CONTACT INFORMATION
Liviu Iancu
liviu.iancu@drd.unibuc.ro
click to download pdf file “Program” »»»
click to download pdf file “Book of Abstracts” »»»
click to download pdf file “Useful Information” »»»
Anca Dan obtained her PhD in Classical Languages, Ancient History and Archaeology from the University of Reims in 2009, with a thesis titled “’La plus merveilleuse des MERS’: Recherches sur la représentation de la mer Noire et de ses peuples dans les sources antiques, d’Homère à Eratosthène.”
Specialising in the history of geography (ethnography and cartography), historical geography and geoarchaeology, Dr Anca Dan is an editor and commentator of Greek and Latin texts and maps. She has participated in and coordinated international and interdisciplinary projects to reconstruct the evolution of the environment, and is also the author and editor of four books and roughly 100 scientific articles.
Since 2020, she is the founding director of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Archaeological Mission to Ainos/Enez (Turkey, in collaboration with Sait Başaran, Emeritus Professor of the University of Istanbul).
Archaeologist and anthropologist Gian Luca Bonora is a scientific researcher specializing in the prehistorical and protohistorical material culture of Middle Eastern and Central Asian cultures, and in the relations between nomadic herding groups on the Eurasian steppes and sedentary farming communities in the Iranian plateau. The director of the Italian Archaeological Mission to Kazakhstan and a member of the Italian Mission to Iran (Sistan), Gian Luca Bonora is the author of numerous works, including: “The Sacral landscape of Saryarka” and “Astana. A Cultural Guide to the Capital of Kazakhstan”.
Clemens Steinwender graduated his BA studies in History at the University of Innsbruck with a dissertation titled “Theses of Ancient, Medieval and Austrian History.” He became a Master of Arts specialising in Mediaeval History at the University of Innsbruck, as well as a Master of Ancient History and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, having defended his thesis, “Zur Zeitgebundenheit bei Jordanes. Literarische Darstellungsmechanismen in Romana und Getica” at the same university.
Since 2021, Clemens Steinwender has been pursuing a PhD qualification at the University of Innsbruck, and is currently a junior student on the Board of Directors of the Melammu Project, as well as the Vice-president of the “Intricate Antiquities” Doctoral College.
Zheng Ruisen is a graduate of the Faculty of History, Classical Studies and Archaeology of the University of Edinburgh, and received a PhD in History from King's College London. His passionate research topics concern Byzantine Studies, Sinology, Palaeography and Universal History. His doctoral thesis, titled “The Management of Knowledge at the Imperial Court: Compiled Literature from Byzantium and China in the 10th and 11th centuries,” presents a detailed, inter-cultural and comparative study of both Byzantine and Chinese cultures, whose sources put forward two different albeit resonant political realities that support the understanding of the Eurasian medieval world. His thesis offers a novel approach to research for classicists, medievalists, Byzantine scholars and Sinologists alike.
Nicholas Evans received a PhD in History from the University of Oxford, where his 2016 doctoral thesis was titled “Mountains, Steppes and Empires: Approaches to the North Caucasus in the Early Middle Ages”. He is currently a Junior Research Fellow at Clare College and an Affiliate Lecturer at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of History. He has contributed to research projects at the University of Oxford, and taken part in archaeological excavations in Russia. Among his research specialities we mention Byzantine economic and social history, the Ancient and Late Medieval Caucasus, history and archaeology, the intellectual history of Russia and environmental history.
Michal Schwarz is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Department of Mongolian, Korean and Vietnamese Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Masaryk, from which he obtained his PhD diploma with a thesis on “Indo-European Comparative Linguistics” in 2013.
Among his scientific interests, we mention the history of Mongolia, Tocharian and Altaic languages, and the languages of China, Vietnam and broader South-East Asia. Projects Dr Schwarz has contributed to include: “The Indo-European language interference in Central Asia and China, GACR" (2012-2015); “Creating new lectures for the establishment of Vietnamese studies at the Unviersity of Masaryk, on the history of Vietnam and of Vietnamese research” (2015); “The Altaic hypothesis - arguments, counterarguments and optimization of their accuracy” (2015-2017); “Manuscripts of Mongolian rituals in a Czech collection - their number, history and Central Asian origins” (2019-2015).
Zozan Tarhan received his PhD diploma in 2022 specializing in the humanities, with a thesis titled “Authority and Ideology in the Early Neo-Assyrian Empire (934–745 BC).”
Among his research interests, we mention: cuneiform sources and studies; the Neo-Assyrian Empire; Assyrian royal ideology; ancient Semitic languages and cultures; relations and interactions in the ancient Near East; Eastern influence in Greece during the Archaic period; relations between ancient Thrace and the ancient Near East.
His rich archaeological experience has afforded Dr Tarhan command of Akadian, Sumerian, Latin, Old Greek, English, German, Turkish, Polish and Russian. Moreover, he is a member of a number of international organizations such as the International Association for Assyriology, the American Society of Overseas Research and the Sylff Association.
In 2023, Dr Tarhan received the Sofia Municipality Award for Best early career scholar at the “St. Kliment Ohridski” University of Sofia.
Aurelién Caron is a PhD student in Assyriology at the prestigious École Pratique des Hautes Études. He holds a BA in Historical Sociology from the “Le Havre” University of Normandie, commands knowledge of Akkadian, Sumerian, German and English and works at the Bibliothèque du Proche-Orient Ancien at the Collège de France. His fields of interest include history, ancient languages, art and archaeology. He has participated in archaeological missions as a volunteer (in Iraqi Kurdistan – Bash Tapa and at the Porte de Rouen d’Harfleur Seine-Maritime).
Natalie Naomi May has pursued post-doctoral studies in Archaeology and the Ancient Near East at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research specializations include Assyriology and Neo-Assyrian studies.
She is co-author to the volume “The Synagogue of Korazim. 1962–1964, 1980–1987 – excavations,” published in Hebrew in 2000. Among other studies co-edited by Dr May, we mention “Iconoclasm and the Destruction of the Text in the Ancient Near East and Beyond,” and “Change in the Neo-Assyrian Imperial Administration. Evolution and Revolution.”
Alexander Johannes Edmonds defended his PhD thesis on the Neo-Assyrian Empire at the University of Tübingen, Germany. As holder of a travel scholarship received from the German Archaeological Institute (DAI), he has just completed extensive research in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. In September 2021, he became a Visiting Professor at the Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations at the Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China, where he teaches Ancient Near Eastern Studies. Among his fields of research, we mention Assyriology, ancient history, Aramaic, Semitic languages and the Iron Age.
Sebastian Fink is a well-known researcher at the Institute of Ancient History and Oriental Ancient Studies at the University of Innsbruck, where he studied philosophy and Assyriology. After obtaining his PhD degree, he has held teaching positions in Innsbruck, Kassel and Helsinki. His research specializations include Mesopotamian culture and history, the Sumerian language and the Emesal dialect. He is the co-author of “Evidence combined. Western and Eastern Sources in Dialogue” (2022) and of “Societies at War” (2020).
Seyed Abazar Shobairi received a PhD in Classical Archaeology from the University of Athens, Greece. He is a member of the Department of History and Archaeology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and is pursuing post-doctoral studies at the Institute of Historical Research of the National Foundation for Hellenistic Research.
He is currently conducting a research project that consists of a comparison of Achaemenid Persian and Greek irrigation techniques (6th to 4th centuries BC), using archaeological and textual records drawn from both Greece and Iran. The project will compare different irrigation techniques from Classical Greece, starting from their earliest mentions.
His fields of research include Achaemenid archaeology, Achaemenid irrigation techniques, hydraulic works, iconography and Graeco-Persian relations.
Krzysztof Ulanowski is an Associate Professor of the Department of Social Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Gdańsk. His main scientific interests extend beyond the field of anthropology to also include religious studies, history, Classical and Oriental studies.Professor Ulanowski is affiliated with a number of scientific organizations such as the Polish Orientalist Society (PTO), the Classical Association in London (CA), the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), the International Association for Assyriology (IAA), the Societas Philologa Polonorum (PTF) and the General Association of Mediterranean Archaeology (GAMA).
He sits on the Board of Directors of the Melammu International Project, and has conducted research both in the academic centres of Paris, Padova and Athens, and in the field, in Mexico, Bhutan and Podlasia (Poland). He has authored over fifty publications (books, chapters and scientific articles), and is the editor of the forthcoming volume “Sacrality – Open to Dialogue, or Closed to Change?”
A historian and archaeologist, Liviu Mihail Iancu is a Scientific Researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization in Bucharest and programme coordinator for the Eurocentrica Association. He received his PhD in Ancient History and Archaeology from the University of Bucharest in 2018, with a thesis on Greek mercenaries in the Mediterranean basin during the Archaic period. He has taken part in archaeological excavations in Romania and Turkey, in particular at the ancient fortress of Histria, since 2010.
His main research interests include international relations and war in Graeco-Roman Antiquity (viewed primarily from economic and social perspectives); The Greek colonisation of the Black Sea basin; ancient metallurgy; the production and use of textile materials in ancient armies; the history of Romanian archaeology.
Among his most recent publications, we mention the articles “’Who is Gyges?’: Assessing the Carian connections of the first Mermnad king of Lydia once again” (Besançon, 2023); “The Great Conflict over the Levant (612 – 562 BC) and its Consequences for the Greeks” (Vienna, 2022); “The Eastern Greeks between the Levant and Pontos Euxeinos in the Archaic period” (Bucharest, 2022); “New Data on Gevork Tiratsy’an’s Activity before his Repatriation to Armenia from Romania in June of 1948” (Yerevan, 2022). He has also published the volume “Kleitoi Epikouroi. Conceptual and Methodological Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Mercenaries of the Archaic Period” (Bucharest, 2021), and is currently preparing the full publication of his PhD thesis in English.
Patrick Hayes (Cambridge, UK) continued the series of interventions to the first panel of the conference's second day of proceedings - "Alexander the Great (and other conquerors) and the great rivers of Eurasia" - with a presentation titled "The Frontiers of Alexander's Empire: Intellectual, ideological and military motivations for crossing the Ister and Jaxartes rivers".
Patrick Hayes is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Classics of the University of Cambridge, his doctoral thesis focusing on a "Study of Political Borders and their Formation during the Hellenistic Period".
Julian Degen has won numerous awards, including the Hypo Tirol Bank Dissertationspreis (University of Innsbruck, 2021), the Dr Otto Seibert Wissenschafts-Förderungs-Preis (2019) and the Studienförderpreis der Richard und Emmy Bahr-Stiftung in Schaffhausen (2016).
He has published over 50 studies in collected volumes and journals, as well as the monograph “Alexander III. zwischen Ost und West. Indigenous Traditionen und Herrschaftsinszenierung im makedonischen Weltimperium” (Oriens et Occidens 39; Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag 2022). He is the editor of the volume “Das achaimenidisch-persische Imperium” (Springer Companions zur Geschichte, Wiesbaden: Springer VS), which is forthcoming later this year. He is also the co-editor of the volumes “Ancient Worlds in Perspective: Contextualizing Herodotus” (Philippika 150; Wiesbaden, 2024: Harrassowitz); “The World of Alexander in Perspective” Contextualizing Arrian” (Classica et Orientalia 30, Wiesbaden 2022: Harrassowitz, open access: DOI: 10.13173/9783447119085.VII), and “Short-term Empires in World History’ (Universal-und kulturhistorische Studien. Studies in Universal and Cultural History, Wiesbaden 2020: Springer VS).
Florian Matei-Popescu received his PhD in Ancient History and Archaeology from the University of Bucharest, with the merit Summa cum laude for his thesis, “The Roman Army in Moesia Inferior,” published in 2010 and awarded the Romanian Academy’s Vasile Pârvan Prize for Archaeology in 2012. He is currently a Grade II scientific researcher at the “Vasile Pârvan” Institute of Archaeology in Bucharest.
His field of research includes Greek and Latin epigraphy, studies on the Roman army, Roman provincial archaeology, the history and archaeology of the Lower Danubian provinces of the Roman Empire and the Black Sea space, as well as research on the Roman borders present on the territory of modern Romania.
He is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Piteşti, where he teaches the history of Greece and Rome; the Ancient history of Romania: the history of Moesia and Dacia; Roman Civilization in Dacia; and Latin epigraphy.
He is the author of the volume “The Roman Army in Lower Moesia” (2010) and the co-author of “Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Between Dacia and Moesia Inferior. Roman castles in Muntenia during Trajan’s time” (2016), “Auxilia Moesiae Superioris” (2018) and “PONS TRAIANI DRVBETA. Between Hispania and Dacia” (2019).
Pamina Fernández Camacho received her PhD from the University of Cádiz in 2012, with a thesis on “The image of Cádiz in Greek and Latin texts - A Philological-Literary Analysis.” She teaches Latin at the University of Almería, and Greek philology at the University of Cádiz.
Her main research interests concern the study of the ideological and literary image of Cádiz and the far West in the texts of Graeco-Latin Antiquity, and the later perception of these themes in Renaissance humanism. She has worked at several seminal European institutions such as the universities of Leuven, Florence and Lisbon, in addition to publishing a number of articles in national and international journals and collected conference proceedings.
Among the awards she has received, we mention: Premio Extraordinario de Licenciatura en Filología Clásica de la Universidad de Cádiz (Curso 2006-2007); Premio Nacional fin de Carrera de Educación Universitaria (Curso 2006-2007), por el Ministerio de Educación (mención especial); and the Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado de la Universidad de Cádiz (2012-2006).
Chiara Cenati is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Ancient History and Archaeology, Papyrology and Epigraphy of the University of Vienna. Her research interests focus on social history, Latin epigraphy, Ancient history, Roman archaeology and the origins of marble.
From among her works, we mention “Miles in urbe. Identità e autorappresentazione nelle iscrizioni dei soldati di origine danubiana e balcanica a Roma"; "Poetry carved in Stone: Verse inscriptions from the limes of Moesia Inferior" and "Ad ripam fluminis Danuvi: Papers of the 3rd International Conference on the Roman Danubian provinces. Vienna, 11th-14th November 2015” (Tyche Supplement 11, co-edited with Fritz Mitthof and Livio Zerbini)
Anne Vial-Logeay is a University Lecturer at the University of Rouen, where she teaches the Latin language, Latin literature and Latin civilization. She received her PhD in Latin Studies from the University of the Sorbonne, and her research mainly focuses on the transmission of knowledge in Imperial Rome through the study of the "Natural History" of Pliny the Elder, the ancestor of the encyclopaedia; political representations; war and its depictions. From among her works, we mention: "Savoir, apprendre, éduquer chez pline l'Ancien", "La topographie de Rome chez Cicéron: quelques remarks sur l'invention d'un paysage politique", "Entre action et image: quelques remarques sur la présence du Sénat dans l'Histoire naturelle de Pline l'Ancien", and "Délocaliser la culture?: quelques remarques sur l'Histoire naturelle de Pline l'Ancien et la culture de son temps".
Mads Ortving Lindholmer is the Deputy Director of the Danish Institute of Rome (Accademia di Danimarca) and co-author of the project “A New Map of the Fall of the Roman Empire, 270-480 AD” conducted by the University of Glasgow and funded by the British Academy.
He received a PhD from the University of St Andrews, with a thesis on “Rituals of Power: The Roman Imperial Administration from the Severans to the Fourth Century," having graduated from the University of Glasgow with a dissertation on "Cassius Dio, Competition and the Decline of the Roman Republic."
He is co-editor of a volume on "Cassius Dio’s Forgotten History of Early Rome: The Roman History, Books 1-21" alongside Christopher Burden-Streven, published by Brill (Leiden, Boston )in 2018. From among his most notable works, we mention "Religion in Cassius Dio's Republic," "Folkemord i Antikken - en moderne illusion" ("Genocide in Antiquity - a modern illusion"), "Questioning the Historicity of the Second Usurpation of Maximus of Spain," and "Cassius Dio and the “Age of Δυναστεία”’ in Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies."
Ana-Maria Răducan graduated with a BA in Classical Philology and an MA in Mediaeval Studies from the School of Foreign Languages of the University of Bucharest. She received her PhD from the University of Bucharest in 2015, with a thesis on "The Mystical Eros in St Simeon the New Theologian," a work which received the Ad Astra Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research.
She has pursued research internships at the Central European University in Budapest, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (France), the "Accademia di Romania" in Rome and at the Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice.
Her research interests focus on Byzantine literature and the society of the Middle Byzantine period, with special attention given to the cultural heritage of Antiquity.
A Grade III Scientific Researcher in Classical Philology at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization, since 2018 Ana-Maria Răducan has coordinated the Institute's “Annual School of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies”, as well as its “Annual Interdisciplinary School of Egyptology, Ancient Greek and Oriental Languages” since 2020.
Among her scientific contributions , we mention: “Significations of the term 'eros' in the work of St Simeon the New Theologian” ( Romanian Academy Publishing House, Centre for Transylvanian Studies, Cluj-Napoca, 2015); “Lives of the Poet: Publius Ovidius Naso in Romanian Dramaturgy” (introductory study, Vicovia Press, Bacău, 2017); “Dan Slușanschi. The Portrait of a Classicist” (co-editor, Ratio et Revelatio Press, Oradea, 2019); "Byzantium: An Unending Civilization” (coordinator, Mega Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca).
Eleni Ntanou is a university lecturer at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where she teaches Classical Studies, as well as a philologist with the Hellenic-American College in Athens. She received her PhD from the University of Manchester with a thesis on “Ovid and Virgil’s Pastoral Poetry”.
Her fields of interest include archaeology, Ancient history, Greek mythology and literature, pastoral and epic poetry, as well as the study of gender - especially in what regards Augustan and Flavian literature.
Among her notable scientific works, we mention “HAC Arethusa TENUS (Met. 5,642): Geography and Poetics in Ovid’s Arethusa"; "Audita mente notaui: (Meta)memory, Gender, and Pastoral Impersonation in the Speech of Ovid’s Galatea”; “Golden Age and the Poetics of Repetition in Calpurnius Siculus’ Eclogues”; "Musae Ambo: Pastoral Poetry in the Ovidian Contest between Muses and Pierides."
Daniel Spânu is a Grade II Scientific Researcher at the “Vasile Pârvan” Institute of Archaeology in Bucharest. He received his PhD in Ancient History, Archaeology and Art History from the University of Bucharest, with a thesis on “Goldsmithing pieces in Dacia from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE," which received the mention "Magna cum laude." He also received a habilitation diploma in History, based on his thesis on "Acculturation East of the Carpathians from the Perspective of the 2nd - 3rd century Necropolis at Poieneşti").
In 2014, he was awarded the Romanian Academy's “Vasile Pârvan” Award for his monograph, “Dacian Hoards. Precious Metalsmithing in Pre-Roman Dacia”, as well as the “Flaminiu Mîrţu” Prize of the Argeş County Museum in Piteşti in 2013.
A member of the Romanian Registry of Archaeologists since 2000, he is classed as a Scientific Expert, taking part in the organization of 41 archaeological field campaigns in Romania and another 10 abroad in France, Germany and Georgia. He is also a member of the Editorial Committees of the journals “Dacia” and “Materials and Archaeological Research” edited by the Bucharest Institute of Archaeology, and a member of the International Commission for the Assessment of Dacian Bracelets IX-XI in Frankfurt am Main.
Ana Honcu is a Scientific Researcher and Archaeologist of the Institute for interdisciplinary Research at the Arheoinvest Center, specializing in epigraphic research and Roman social history. The main topic of her doctoral thesis , published in 2022, was "The urbanistic phenomenon in the provinces of Dacia and Moesia Inferior". During her Erasmus mobility traineeship undertaken between February and June 2016, she carried out applied research activities in the laboratories of the Anhima Study Centre for Graeco-Roman Antiquity in Paris, France. Supported by an ATLAS FMSH postdoctoral scholarship, in September and October of 2021 she engaged in research on the urban phenomenon in the Greek cities of the northern Black Sea coast (Olbia and Chersonessos).
Currently, Ana Hancu’s research focuses on the application of ArcGIS in epigraphy. To assist her research, she took on a postdoctoral scholarship at the "Babeş-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca between September and October of 2022. Between August and October 2023, she held a post-doctoral mobility internship in Paris, funded by the Romanian Cultural Institute through the Lucian Blaga Scholarship Fund. Between July 2023 and June 2024, she was a postdoctoral member of the Research Institute of the Department for Humanistic Sciences at the University of Bucharest. The international visibility of her scientific contribution is confirmed by her significant publications in ISI and SCOPUS indexed journals, through volumes published by international publishing houses and through her participation in important international scientific events.
Lucrețiu Mihăilescu-Bîrliba holds a PhD in Historical Sciences (distinction: "magna cum laude") from the "Babeș-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca, having defended his thesis on “Eslaves et affranchis impériaux dans les provinces romanaines d’Illyricum” in 2001. In 2004, he was awarded the title of Doctor in History (distinction: "Très honorable avec les félicitations du jury") by the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, for his thesis, “Les affranchis dans les provinces romaines d’Illyricum”. A university Lecturer (since 2002), Associate Professor (since 2005) and full Professor (since 2008) in the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology of the School of History at the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iași, where he teaches Graeco-Latin Epigraphy and Universal Ancient History, Lucrețiu Mihăilescu-Bîrliba boasts a rich publishing activity, as well as having participated in numerous national and international scientific colloquiums and conferences. From among his most notable published work, we mention: "Sclavi şi liberţi imperiali în provinciile romane din Illyricum (Dalmatia, Pannonia, Dacia şi Moesia)" ("Imperial slaves and freemen in the Roman provinces of Illyricum (Dalmatia, Pannonia, Dacia and Moesia", "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iași Press, 2004); “individu et société en Dacie romaine. Études de démographie historique," Otto Harrassowitz Press, Wiesbaden, 2004; "Les affranchis dans les provinces romaines de l’Illyricum," Otto Harrassowitz Press, Wiesbaden, 2006; "Ex toto orbe Romano. Immigration into Roman Dacia”, Peeters Publishers, Leuven, 2011; “Rure vivere in Moesia inferiore. La population dans le mileu rural d'une province péripherique de l'Empire romain," Otto Harrassowitz Press, Wiesbaden 2018.
His fields of interest include Roman social history, the historical demography of Antiquity, Latin epigraphy, migration and acculturation during the Roman period.
Alina Streinu specializes in Roman archaeology, rural archaeology, Roman ceramics, the Roman economy, art history. She is an expert in archaeological and historical-documentary goods, especially in what pertains to 1st - 3rd century CE Roman archeology and ceramics.
In 2014, she defended her doctoral thesis on the “Population of Scythia Minor. Demography and Prosopography” at the Department of History of the University of Bucharest. At present, she is carrying out research activities and organizing exhibitions within the Bucharest City Museum, while also studying and evaluating artifacts from the Antiquity found in the museum's collections by way of scientific publications and communications in addition to drafting evidentiary records of the cultural assets found among the patrimony of the Bucharest City Museum. Since 2014, she has been involved in a project dedicated to the Study of Roman pottery at the site of Labraunda, Milas, Turkey, coordinated by Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes, Istanbul (Turkey) in partnership with Le Laboratoire Histoire et sources des Mondes Antiques (Lyon).
She has published a volume on “Glass vessels from the Maria and Dr George Severeanu Collection” (Cetatea de Scaun Press, 2019), as well as numerous specialized studies, from among which we mention: “A street with a view over the centuries. The ceramic material from Street A in front of the crypt basilica at Histria (I)” (coauthored with Irina Achim, 2021); “Coarse cook wares from the local settlement at Acik Suhat, Baia, Tulcea, county” (2020); “To have and to hold... Three patera handles from the collection of the Museum of the Municipality of Bucharest” (2018); "Early Roman finds from Acic Suat (Caraburun, Baia village, Tulcea county)" (2017); “Revisiting the late antique countryside”; “Moesica et Christiana. Studies in Honour of Professor Alexandru Barnea” ( Istros Press, 2016).
Bernhard Palme is the Director of the Papyrus Collection and Papyrus Museum of the Austrian National Library (since 2009), a member of the Kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik (AEK) des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts (DAI) (since 2007), a member of the Austrian Academy of Science (ÖAW) (since 2012), and a member of the Academia Europaea (since 2015).
He was awarded the START Prize of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research in 1997, as well as the Kardinl-Innitzer Prize in 2007.
His research mainly focuses on the history and culture of Graeco-Roman Egypt and the historical analysis of the papyrus, but also on the history of mentalities in Antiquity, with a particular emphasis placed on papyrological sources. At present, he is undertaking a study into the administrative, military and legal history of the Late Roman Empire, three historical fields in which he has published numerous studies and has coordinated a number of seminal research projects.
Opening Ceremony
Emeritus Professor Emil Constantinescu, President of the Scientific Council of The Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization:
Distinguished guests, honourable assistance,
It is a great pleasure and profound honour to welcome you at The Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization in Bucharest!
We are enthusiastic about hosting this conference on such an important topic as that of the crossing of geographical barriers and its impact on states and societies, not only militarily and economically, but also in the realm of knowledge and arts. Certainly, the debate at this event will focus on antiquity, but the issue is also of much interest nowadays. This is extremely suitable to us, as an Institute of Advanced Studies having the informal motto: We learn from the past in order to understand the present and to prepare for the future.
I am also pleased to see that the topic attracted such a large number of researchers from many different universities and institutes, with distinct methodological and geographical specializations. From my perspective, besides the relevance of the subject, the diversity of approaches is the second most important condition for the success of an academic event at this scale. Looking on the program a few days ago and seeing you now in the room, I can tell that this requirement is copiously met. So, thank you for your positive answer to our call and for coming to Bucharest!
I also wish to thank our partners in this endeavour: the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the universities of Vienna and Innsbruck and the Institute of Archaeology of Bucharest, as well as the Melammu Project. And let me notice one thing. It is not a coincidence that the impetus for a workshop with this topic came from researchers working in two countries, Romania and Austria, united – and partially defined – by such a great and awe-inspiring river as the Danube.
In our Institute, we recognized the great importance of the Danube and the West Pontic coast for mediating connections between Central Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean and we started a few years ago a new project devoted to the study of the port settlements in the area, from prehistory to the present. It is well understood that I am very happy because so many papers that will be read at this conference deal with the old Istros and Pontus.
Certainly, our Danubian and Pontic project is only one among quite a few that we embarked on since the relatively recent foundation of the institute, in 2017. We were able to host significant events as the annual meeting of the World Academy of Art and Science, to whom we are affiliated as its Center of Excellence, or the first ever comprehensive conference on war and textiles in antiquity. We also published a wide series of volumes and we are editing two periodicals, the International Journal of Levant Studies and Naturculturalia, where you are welcome to submit your studies. Part of all these is displayed on your left and I invite you to take a look at them during the breaks.
Our aim is to bring through our work a significant contribution to the knowledge and valorisation of the long-lasting heritage of the Levant, in its largest accepted meaning. I am confident that we will achieve our goal, as we were able to assemble a small, but highly professional and active team, of which Liviu Iancu, who had the initiative for this conference, and Ana Maria Răducan, who will hold an engaging presentation tomorrow, are illustrative examples.
I am also optimistic as we are not doing this alone. We have many individual and institutional friends: museums, universities, NGOs, entrepreneurs. Some of them helped us with the organization of this event, too, and we are as always much thankful for their precious support!
We are hopeful that after spending these few days in Bucharest and getting acquainted with the pleasant atmosphere of our institute, the vibrant spirit of the city centre, the elegant silhouettes of its monuments and the kindness of its inhabitants, we will be able to count you all among our friends.
I wish you all a nice stay in Romania, constructive talks and why not, some spare time that will leave you with great memories over the years! I spent decades in researching Romanian geology and I know well that international conferences are very important moments in the life of an academic. Despite the hardships encountered by researchers, nothing compares to the emotion of presenting the results of your research in front of your brethren, the curiosity of learning as well from them, the great pleasure in meeting old friends and new like-minded people and chatting with them over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. Enjoy the moment!
Bernhard Palme, member of the Austrian Academy of Science (ÖAW)
Sebastian Fink, University of Innsbruck, President of Melammu's Scientific Board
Day 1
Thursday, October 17 2024, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization hosted the proceedings of the first day of the 24th Melammu Workshop, with the theme "Transcending geographical barriers and conceptualizing expansion in Eurasia. Exploration, conquest and ideology in Antiquity and beyond".
Renowned researchers from France, Italy, Austria, the United Kingdom, Czechia, Bulgaria, Israel, Germany and Greece answered the Levant Institute's invitation to take the floor and present some of the most cutting-edge research regarding the history, archaeology, politics and geography of Antiquity over the course of three panels themed according to distinct geopolitical areas: "The Steppes and Deserts of Eurasia"; "The Assyrian Empire and geographic barriers"; and "From Mesopotammia, through Persia, to India".
Melammu is a long-term academic project regarding the impact of ancient civilizations on extant history which has, for over two decades, brought together resonant names among researchers into the history of the cultures and civilizations of Antiquity. Thus, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization now joins the ranks of other prestigious institutions that have hosted the Melammu Workshops over the years.
Day 2
On Friday, October 18th 2024, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization hosted the proceedings of Day 2 of the 24th Melammu Workshop, themed around ”Crossing geographical boundaries and conceptualizing expansion in Eurasia. Exploration, conquest and ideology in Antiquity and beyond” and co-organized by the Levant Institute and the Romanian Academy, the ”EurAsia” Cluster of Excellence of the Viennese Academy of Science and the Universities of Vienna and Innsbruck (Austria).
The dayțs first two panels primarily focused on the issue of waterways in Antiquity, discussing ”Alexander the Great (and other conquerors) and the great rivers of Eurasia” and "The Sea and the Ocean in Hellenistic and Roman times", respectively. Later proceedings turned to the dissemination of material culture artefacts, discussing "Resources, objects and exchange networks in the Carpathian and West Pontic areas".
The day's numerous interventions by researchers from the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Austria, France, Italy, Greece and Romania - including two research presentations by the Levant Institute's own Dr Liviu Mihail Iancu and Dr Ana-Maria Răducan - were followed by the Concluding Remarks of the 24th Melammu Workshop, summarized by the renowned papyrologist Academician Bernhard Palme, Professor at the University of Vienna, who highlighted the vast geographical range - from Korea and and Mongolia to the Atlantic Ocean - and broad temporal spectrum - from the Epic of Gilgamesh to the Late Roman period - which the Workshop's participants covered in their interventions
Professor Palme also identified the central issue that underpinned each of the communications presented over the two days of conference proceedings: the generous topic of the dynamics of border regions in Antiquity, which will also constitute the unifying thread linking the scientific research articles to be elaborated beginning from participants' interventions and brought together in a forthcoming volume collecting the Proceedings of the 24th Melammu Workshop held in Bucharest.
