A.W. Persson-föreläsning 2015

Årets A.W. Persson-föreläsning i Uppsala kommer att hållas av professor Thomas Tartaron från Department of Classical Studies at University of Pennsylvania.

Onsdagen den 20 maj, klockan 13:15-15:00 talar Tartaron över ämnet "Recovering Maritime Small Worlds of the Aegean Bronze Age" i sal 2-0076. Efter föreläsningen bjuder institutionen på kaffe. (Klockan 17:15 kan den som inte fått nog även lyssna på Judith Herrin från London: Re-thinking Ravenna: the Ostrogothic inheritance i sal 16-0043).

Torsdagen den 21 maj, klockan 10:15-12:00 håller Tartaron ett seminarium med titeln "Locating the Maritime Coastal Communities of Mycenaean Greece: An Ethnoarchaeological Contribution" i sal 2-2033. Text inför seminariet distribueras snart till alla i Uppsala och till dem som så önskar vid andra institutioner.

Mer information:

Discussion of Mycenaean seafaring almost always centers on questions of long-distance maritime trade in the eastern and central Mediterranean. The distribution of Mycenaean fineware pottery overseas; the rare references to maritime matters in the Linear B, Egyptian, and Hittite records; and even the Homeric Odyssey are scrutinized for clues to these far-flung networks. At the same time, there is a virtual absence of sophisticated treatment of local-scale maritime networks. Little is known about the locations of Mycenaean anchorages or the communities that inhabited the coastal regions. Most coastal dwellers would not have ventured more than tens of kilometers out to sea in their lifetimes, making short journeys for fishing or visits to nearby coasts and islands for trading or social purposes. Yet these vibrant worlds were buzzing with activity and connectivity, and represent better the true fabric of Mycenaean maritime life.

In this lecture, drawing upon a book Tartaron published recently (Maritime Networks in the Mycenaean World, Cambridge University Press 2013), he describes concepts and methods to help recover and explore the maritime worlds of the everyday rather than the exceptional. Fieldwork methods drawn from geology and geomorphology, geophysics, and terrestrial and underwater archaeology can recapture lost anchorages and their coastal landscapes. The conceptual component is a multiscalar framework that reveals how connectivity forms and joins networks from local to international, yet also how networks at different geographical scales are different in nature. From local to interregional, the scales are the coastscape, the maritime small world, the regional or intra-cultural maritime sphere, and the interregional or inter-cultural maritime sphere. Using the Saronic Gulf and other case studies, Tartaron attempts to identify maritime small worlds of the Mycenaean Aegean and elucidate their long-term histories.