Όπως λέει στην συνέντευξη που παραχώρησε στο πρόγραμμά μας, θα επισκεφθεί και θα αναπτύξει θέματα σε διάφορες πόλεις της Αυστραλίας μεταξύ των οποίων: Σύδνεϋ, Νιουκάσλ, Βρισβάνη, Αδελαΐδα, Χόμπαρτ, Μελβούρνη, Καμπέρρα, και Αρμιντέηλ, στην επαρχιακή ΝΝΟ.
Θα αναφερθεί σε θέματα όπως: «Ο Κρητικός Λαβύρινθος», «Ο Όμηρος και η Αρχαιολογία της Κρήτης», «Η ανακάλυψη της Κνωσσού από τον Μίνωα Καλοκαιρινό» και άλλα.
Πληροφορίες για την περιοδεία του και τα θέματα τα οποία θα αναπτύξει υπάρχουν στην ιστοσελίδα του Ινστιτούτου http://sydney.edu.au/arts/aaia. Επίσης οι ενδιαφερόμενοι μπορούν να τηλεφωνούν στον αριθμό: 02-9351 4749.
Περισσότερα στοιχεία παρατίθενται εδώ:
Public Lectures by Professor Kotsonas
- Sydney (The University of Sydney) - Wednesday August 8, 6:30pm: The Cretan Labyrinth: Monument and Memory from Prehistory to the Present For bookings please click here
- Sydney (Macquarie University) - Thursday August 9, 6:00pm: Homer and the Archaeology of Crete
- Sydney (The University of Sydney) - Wednesday August 15, 6:30pm: Greece and the Near East in the Early 1st Millennium BCE For bookings please click here
- Armidale (The University of New England) - Thursday August 16, 6:00pm: The Cretan Labyrinth: Monument and Memory from Prehistory to the Present
- Newcastle (The University of Newcastle @ the Newcastle Museum) - Monday August 20, 6:00pm: The Cretan Labyrinth: Monument and Memory from Prehistory to the Present
- Brisbane (The University of Queensland) - Thursday August 23, 6:00pm: Homer and the Archaeology of Crete
- Canberra (The Australian National University and The Canberra Friends of the AAIA @ The Hellenic Club) - Wednesday August 29, 8:00pm: The Cretan Labyrinth: Monument and Memory from Prehistory to the Present
- Hobart (The University of Tasmania) - Thursday August 30, 6:00pm: The Discovery of Knossos by the Cretan Antiquarian Minos Kalokairinos
- Melbourne (The University of Melbourne , La Trobe University and the Classical Association of Victoria @ The University of Melbourne) - Wednesday September 5, 6:30pm: Homer and the Archaeology of Crete
- Adelaide (The University of Adelaide & SA Friends of the AAIA @ The University of Adelaide) - Tuesday September 11, 7:00pm: Greece and the Near East in the Early 1st Millennium BCE
- Perth (The university of Western Australia) - Thursday September 13, 6:00pm: The Cretan Labyrinth: Monument and Memory from Prehistory to the Present
topics
Greece and the Near East in the Early 1st Millennium BCE (lecture)
The complex and dense networks of interaction that linked Greece and the Near East were severely dismantled in the late 2nd millennium BCE. In the course of the early 1st millennium BCE connections were gradually restored through the agency of both Greeks and Near Eastern people, especially the Phoenicians, and, by the 7th century BCE, Greek culture was strongly Orientalizing. Moving beyond the traditional art-historical concept of a stand-alone, Orientalizing phase in the 7th century BCE, this lecture promotes the concept of the Orientalizing as a dimension rather than a phase of ancient Greek culture, and explores the manipulation of the East by different Greek social groups over the early 1st millennium BCE. Particular emphasis is given to the sites/regions and ethnic or other groups that pioneered the restoration of interconnections between the Aegean and the Near East; and on the regional and intra-regional variation in the modes of production, distribution and consumption of Near Eastern styles in the Aegean.
The Discovery of Knossos by the Cretan Antiquarian Minos Kalokairinos (lecture)
Minos Kalokairinos, a Cretan businessman and antiquarian, was the first to discover the Minoan palace of Knossos and to explore the ancient metropolis of Crete in the late 19th century CE. His contribution has been largely overshadowed by that of Arthur Evans, who later conducted systematic excavations at the site, and remained wholly neglected for nearly a century. Recent work has, however, shed light on the pioneering investigations of Kalokairinos. This presentation draws from archival research to reconstruct his fascinating archaeological agenda, his discovery and interpretation of the Minoan palace of Knossos, and his researches on the topography and monuments of the Greek and Roman city. The invaluable information Kalokairinos provides on the changing archaeological landscape of Knossos enables the identification of several unknown or lost monuments. Additionally, Kalokairinos provides glimpses into the collection of Knossian antiquities and their export beyond the island, from Egypt to west Europe; antiquities that have hitherto been considered as unprovenanced can thus be identified as Knossian and can be traced to their specific context of discovery, with considerable implications for our understanding of the topography, the monuments and the epigraphic record of the ancient city.
The Cretan Labyrinth: Monument and Memory from Prehistory to the Present (lecture/seminar)
The Cretan Labyrinth, the mythological maze where Theseus killed the Minotaur, has fascinated scholars and the wider public since antiquity. Traditionally, it has been regarded as a monument that did once exist, and it has been widely identified with the Minoan palace of Knossos. This approach has underestimated the variety and complexity of references to the Cretan Labyrinth and its capacity for metamorphosis from abstract memory to tangible monument, and for relocation from one Cretan site to another. Drawing from literature on memory and monuments, and especially from the work of Maurice Halbwachs, this lecture explores the poetics and politics, the materialities and temporalities that shaped different regimes of truth regarding the location and the form of the Cretan Labyrinth across several millennia. This diachronic analysis reveals the shifting and competing, indeed labyrinthine, narratives about this monument and produces a cultural history of it extending from prehistory to the present.
Material Culture, Economy and Society in Coastal Macedonia and the Thermaic Gulf of the 8th to 6th centuries BCE (lecture/seminar)
Academic and popular narratives of ancient Greece typically focus on regions in the central Aegean and emphasize their role in generating socio-cultural development, often reducing other Aegean regions to the status of peripheries. The concept of peripherality is embedded in the study of the history of coastal Macedonia and the Thermaic Gulf in the centuries preceding the time of Phillip II and Alexander the Great, and largely relies on socio-economic inferences drawn from a limited reading of later textual sources. Research and rescue excavations of the last few decades, however, have demonstrated that numerous sites in coastal Macedonia and the Thermaic Gulf were prospering in the 8th to 6th centuries BCE and developed wide-ranging interconnections. This presentation focuses on new discoveries by the Greek Archaeological Service at the site of Methone and presents the speaker's own contribution to the study of a large assemblage of ceramics bearing early inscriptions and other marks. This material, together with smaller groups of comparable finds from neighboring sites, can revolutionize our understanding of local society, economy, and culture and transform dated ideas on the interaction of coastal Macedonia and the Thermaic Gulf with the rest of the Aegean and beyond.
Containers, Commodities and Greek Colonization in the Mediterranean of the 8th century BCE(lecture/seminar)
The 8th century BCE is particularly important for Mediterranean history. The Greeks placed there the beginning of their history, and the Romans dated the foundation of Rome at the time. Scholarship has identified more milestones and new beginnings that punctuate the history of the ancient world in the 8th century BCE; this paper focuses on the beginning of Greek colonization in the Mediterranean and its impact on the regeneration of Greek and Mediterranean economy. It reviews the traditional “agrarian” and “commercial” models of Greek colonization, and evaluates the relevance of the under-studied class of transport containers and the commodities they contained to the relevant discourse.
The Materiality of Early Greek Inscriptions (seminar/advanced seminar)
The earliest inscriptions in the Greek alphabet date from the 8th and 7th centuries BCE and are particularly important for the understanding of Greek culture. These inscriptions have been studied extensively from an epigraphic and philological perspective centered on their text and meaning, and, more broadly, on the introduction of the Greek alphabet and its relation to the Phoenician alphabet, on orality and literacy in antiquity, and on the rise of the individual. Considerably less attention has been given to the archaeology of early Greek inscriptions and especially the material properties of the early Greek inscribed objects, which were largely clay vessels incised with a few words (so-called graffiti). Focusing on select assemblages of Greek inscribed ceramics of the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, this presentation explores the ways in which the inscribing of these vessels relates to their fabric, shape and decoration, and evaluates the relevance of functional and cultural context to the epigraphic habit in the early Greek world.
Homer and the Archaeology of Crete (advanced seminar)
The relationship between the Homeric epics and archaeology has been approached through the lens of Homeric archaeology, which involved matching the epics with the archaeological record and identifying realia of Homer’s heroes. However, a range of new approaches have recently revolutionized the field. Drawing from these approaches, this seminar offers a regional and diachronic analysis of Homeric stories about Crete, an assessment of the reception of these stories by the island’s inhabitants throughout antiquity, and an account of their impact on Medieval to modern literature and art.
