CRASIS Masterclass on Cultural Knowledge in the Ancient World

This Annual Meeting focuses on cultural knowledge: the packages of knowledge (skills, competences, and information) that are needed to operate competently within in a particular community (group, cult, school, city, ethnos, empire ...). We adopt a broad understanding of ancient cultural knowledge that includes social, legal, technical, religious, and philosophical forms of knowing. Ancient historians examine the transmission of knowledge across networks; archaeologists study the development and tradition of technical skills in material production, and technological transfer; religious knowledge is analysed from cognitive perspectives, while there is also a new emphasis on the role of the body and the senses in experiencing and generating knowledge. We aim to bring these angles and approaches together and develop new ones that help us understand the production, circulation, and validation of cultural knowledge in the ancient world.

Keynote and Master

This year's Keynote Speaker and Master is Professor Marietta Horster. She holds the Chair of Ancient History at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. Her broad-based expertise is evident from publications on imperial building inscriptions in the Roman West, land possession, civic priests and cult personnel at Greek sanctuaries, and the transmission of cultural knowledge through poetry.

Programme

	Coffee and tea
09.00	Ghislaine van der Ploeg (Warwick), ‘Global and Regional Connectivity in the Cult of Asclepius’
09.30	Constanze Graml (Mainz), ‘Cults and Sanctuaries as Keepers of Historical Knowledge’
10.00	Suzan Sierksma-Agteres (Groningen), ‘Validating Knowledge and Faith in Ancient Inter-Philosophical Polemic: the Adjectives of Substantiation’
10.30	Break
11.00	Antiopi Argyriou-Casmeridis (RHUL), ‘The Transmission of Civic Values Through Hellenistic Honorary Decrees with a Religious Context: a Study of the Moral Language and the Manifestations of arete’
11.30	Sjoukje Kamphorst (Groningen), ‘Honorific Decrees as Carriers of Cultural Knowledge’
12.00	Aaltje Hidding (Groningen), ‘Persecution on Papyrus: The Puzzle of the Persecutions of Christians in Egypt’
12.30	Lunch break
13.30	Marion Pragt (Leiden), ‘Attitudes to the Septuagint in the Prologue to Greek Sirach and the Letter of Aristeas’
14.00	Bernice Brijan (Groningen), ‘Creative Scribe, Inspired Sage, and Prophetic Interpreter: Exploring the ‘Teacher of Righteousness’ and his Decisive Role in the History of the Qumran Movement’
14.30	Baukje van den Berg (Univ. of Amsterdam), ‘Eustathios of Thessaloniki as a Mediator of Cultural Knowledge’
15.00	Break
15.30	Janric van Rookhuijzen (Nijmegen), ‘Gazing at Lieux de Mémoire of the Battle of Plataea: Topographical Knowledge as a Construct of Memory’
16.00	Roderick White (UCL), ’”Origin” Brands in the Roman Fine Wine Market: a Case Study in Cultural Communications’
16.30-17.00	Final discussion

When:	Th 13-02-2014 09:00 - 17:00
Where:	Room 130, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies