Publié le

XVe édition (4-5 Octobre 2024)

4-5 Octobre 2024 : XVe Rencontres internationales des jeunes byzantinistes

Le programme est maintenant disponible ! / The programme is available!

Téléchargez ici l’appel à communication ! / The call for papers is available here!

Byzance en ses marges : centres, périphéries, contours

La montagne, la croix, les bourreaux : tout, dans la célèbre miniature du Psautier Khludov, nous transporte “au-dehors”. Aux portes de la ville, à la lisière de la société, la Crucifixion évoque encore, au souvenir des iconoclastes, les contours mouvants du dogme chrétien. De cette remarquable mise en abyme où l’image, depuis les marges auxquelles elle semble reléguée, surplombe le texte pour en mieux tempérer l’ascendant, émane pourtant une vague confusion : lequel, de l’écrit ou de l’enluminure, se tient au centre de la page – s’il en est un ?

Des marges du psautier à celles de Byzance, il n’y a qu’un pas. Microcosme par excellence, le livre illustré nous invite à étendre, à l’échelle d’un monde, cette notion ambivalente.  À l’image du tracé mouvant des frontières, la tension qui se noue entre le texte et la miniature affleure, sous de multiples aspects, à travers la carte : entre la capitale et les provinces, l’empire et ses vassaux, le prince chrétien et ses voisins.

Telles régions limitrophes s’affirment, avec le temps, comme des centres incontestables du pouvoir – la Serbie et la Bulgarie, l’Épire et Trébizonde : et voici Byzance devenue marge. Telles autres, plus éloignées de Constantinople – culturellement, spirituellement –, maintiennent avec elle des liens ténus pour mieux se définir : ainsi de l’Arménie, de la Sicile, de la Rus’ de Kiev et même de l’Éthiopie, autant d’autres Byzance(s) en-dehors de Byzance.

En réduisant à l’espace urbain les enjeux territoriaux de l’empire, en les transposant aussi à l’espace ecclésial, le même paradigme nous incite à en déceler les axes et les seuils. Les murs de la ville et ses édifices, l’architecture et le décor des églises, les lieux de pèlerinage et les nécropoles élaborent et refondent, constamment, la notion de liminalité.

Le Christ supplicié, de même que l’iconoclaste sacrilège, esquisse la norme sociale : l’hérésie, comme le calvaire, retranche, exclut, marginalise. Mais les franges de la société byzantine, qui dépassent de loin les
projections modernes, façonnent une mosaïque nuancée dont bien des composantes, souvent négligées – femmes, criminels, ascètes –, nous engagent à repenser la cohérence.

Moines et monastères revendiquent leur marginalité autant qu’ils l’idéalisent : tant leur implantation, aux abords ou en plein cœur de la ville, que la reconnaissance sociale dont ils jouissent, semblent contredire la réclusion à laquelle ils prétendent. L’exil lui-même, souvent amer, maintient plus que jamais son objet au centre des égards : éloigné, on le surveille ; il écrit, revient parfois.

Penser Byzance, enfin, exige la distance et le décentrement du regard étranger. Chroniqueurs arméniens, latins et syriaques, émissaires arabes et mongols ont porté sur l’empire, sa culture et ses rites, un œil attentif, parfois acéré, que les historiens ne sauraient mésestimer. Notre discipline elle-même n’y échappe en rien : ultime soubresaut du monde gréco-romain, interminable Bas-Empire ou prélude à la Turquie ottomane, l’histoire byzantine fut, elle aussi, longtemps perçue comme marginale – l’une de ces inévitables transitions indispensables à la chronologie.

Les centres, les normes, les limites : tout restait alors à définir à qui voulait que la culture byzantine devînt enfin l’objet d’une étude autonome. Aujourd’hui, la délicate tension entre le centre du monde et les marges de l’empire témoigne des avancées de la recherche comme des écueils auxquels elle est confrontée. Telle est l’ambition des XVe Rencontres internationales des étudiants du monde byzantin : aborder Byzance en ses marges, depuis ses marges, en tant que marge.

Les communications pourront s’inscrire dans les thématiques suivantes :
– marges territoriales, frontières et espaces de transition
– peuplement des marges et déplacements de populations
– place des femmes, des enfants, des esclaves, des individus en dehors des normes de genre
– maladies, infirmités, handicaps, mort
– controverses religieuses, hérésies, excommunications et anathèmes
– institutions monastiques
– manifestations de la marginalité : costume, pratiques alimentaires
– Byzance vue de l’extérieur

Les interventions, d’une durée de vingt minutes, pourront être données en français ou en anglais. Les propositions de communications (250 à 300 mots), ainsi qu’une brève biographie incluant l’institution de rattachement, le niveau d’études actuel (master, doctorat, post-doctorat) et le sujet de recherche, devront être envoyées à l’adresse aemb.paris@gmail.com, au plus tard
le 31 mars 2024. Les Rencontres se tiendront en présentiel,
à Paris, les 4 et 5 octobre 2024. La prise en charge des frais de transports par l’AEMB est envisageable pour les candidates et candidats ne pouvant obtenir de financement de la part de leur institution d’origine. Les candidates et candidats retenu.es devront adhérer à l’AEMB.

Byzantium within its margins: Centres, Peripheries and Outlines

 

A mountain, a cross, an executioner: everything in the well-known miniature of the Chludov Psalter carries us “outside”. At the gates of the city and on the margins of society, the Crucifixion also recalls, through the memory of Iconoclasm, the shifting outlines of Christian dogma. From the margin where it is seemingly relegated, the image overlooks the text to better mitigate its authority. Yet, in this remarkable mise en abyme, a sense of confusion remains: which of the written word or the image holds centre stage – if there is any?

There is but one step from the margins of the psalter to those of Byzantium. As a quintessential microcosm, the illuminated manuscript invites us to extend this ambivalent notion to the scale of a world. Like the shifting lines of a border, the tension emerging between the text and the miniature likewise surfaces in varied ways across the map: between the capital and its provinces, the Empire and its vassals, the Christian prince and his neighbours.

Thus, some borderlands emerge over time as centres of power in their own right – Serbia and Bulgaria, Epirus and Trebizond – occasionally turning Byzantium itself into a margin. Others, further removed from Constantinople geographically, culturally or spiritually – nevertheless maintain subtle ties with it to better define their own identity, such as Armenia, Sicily, Rus’ and even Ethiopia – all in a way Byzantium(s) beyond Byzantium.

By scaling down the territorial questions of the Empire to urban space, or transposing them onto the space of the church, the same paradigm invites us to retrace their axes and thresholds. City walls and structures, church architecture and decoration, pilgrimage sites and necropoleis constantly reshape and redefine the notion of liminality.

Both the Torture of Christ and the sacrilege of iconoclasm suggest a social norm: heresy, like Calvary, excludes, cuts off and marginalises. Yet the fringes of Byzantine society, which go far beyond contemporary projections, compose a nuanced mosaic whose many elements, often overshadowed – women, criminals, ascetics –, call upon us to rethink the cohesion of the whole.

Monks and monasteries proclaim their marginal status as much as they idealise it: both their location, on the fringes if not within the heart of the city, as well as the social recognition they receive seemingly contradict the reclusion they claim to seek. Exile itself, though bitter, keeps its object surely within the line of sight: the exile is watched when far away, writes back and sometimes returns.

To consider Byzantium, lastly, requires the distant and decentred gaze of foreign eyes. Armenian, Latin and Syriac chroniclers, Arab and Mongol emissaries turned a careful, sometimes cruel eye on the Empire, its culture and rites, which historians would be wrong to ignore. The discipline of Byzantine history itself has long been relegated to the margins of the field, as a necessary but uninteresting transition, with Byzantium variously held as the last jolt of the Greco Roman world, the exhaustingly long final breath of the Late Roman Empire or the prelude to Ottoman Turkey.

Centres, norms, limits: everything remained to be done for the partisans of an autonomous study of Byzantine culture. Today, the delicate tension between the centre of the world and the margins of the Empire reflects both the advances and the pitfalls faced by academic inquiry. Such are the aims of the XVth Rencontres : to consider Byzantium within its margins, from its margins and as a margin.

Papers may concern the following themes:
• Territorial margins, borders and spaces of transition
• Settlement of margins and population transfers
• The situation of women, children and slaves
• Definitions and transgressions of gender norms
• Disease, disability, infirmity and death
• Religious controversies, heresy, excommunication and anathema
• Monastic communities
• Visible forms of marginality such as dress and foodways
• Byzantium as a margin

Papers, with an expected duration of 20 minutes, may be presented in French or English. Proposals for presentations (250-300 words), as well as a brief biography including the candidate’s affiliation, their current level of study (master, doctoral, post-doctoral) and their area of study should be sent tà
aemb.paris@gmail.com by March 31, 2024, at the latest.

The conference will be held in-person in Paris on October 4-5, 2024. Participants’ travel costs may be covered by the association if they are unable to receive funding from their institutions. Selected candidates will be asked to register as members of the association

Publié le

XIVe édition, (6-7 octobre 2023, Paris)

6-7 octobre 2023 : XIVe Rencontres internationales des jeunes chercheurs en études byzantines

La publication des Actes des XIVe Rencontres par la revue Porphyra est désormais disponible ici ! The publication of the Proceedings of the XIVth Rencontres by the journal Porphyra is now available here!

Le programme des XIVe Rencontres est désormais disponible ! / The programme is available!

Téléchargez ici l’appel à communications / The call for papers is available here.

La mémoire et la trace :
commémorer, transmettre, perpétuer

Sous la plume d’Ammien Marcellin, l’éloge de Julien l’Apostat exalte en ces termes les facultés mnémoniques de l’empereur : « si l’absorption de certain breuvage avait eu le pouvoir d’augmenter la force de la mémoire, on aurait pu dire qu’il en avait eu le tonneau à sa disposition, et qu’il l’avait mis à sec avant d’arriver à l’âge d’homme » (Histoire de Rome XVI, 5). La capacité de mémorisation, pierre angulaire de l’accomplissement intellectuel, figure ainsi parmi les vertus célébrées par la littérature encomiastique. Au-delà d’un simple outil rhétorique, évoquant l’aptitude à acquérir et à conserver des connaissances, la notion de mémoire se déploie à travers un vaste champ sémantique que reflète la diversité linguistique du monde byzantin. Le terme grec µνήµη (mnêmê) embrasse ainsi les notions de réminiscence et de souvenir, la collecte de traces et d’événements, suggérant aussi bien l’acte de se remémorer que l’empreinte matérielle du passé. La racine syriaque ܕܵܟܹܪ (dākhēr) implique simultanément le fait de se souvenir, d’avoir à l’esprit, de retracer et de retenir le récit d’événements, mais également de commémorer. En arménien classique, le terme յիշատակ (yišatak) signifie à la fois le souvenir, la mémoire, la commémoration, mais désigne aussi un mémorial ; intrinsèque à celle du monument lui-même, la notion de mémoire peut donc être convoquée, à travers ce même terme, pour évoquer un édifice commémoratif.
Enfin, le fait de se remémorer un événement ou une personne est rendu en copte par un verbe qui témoigne d’une conception particulièrement active de ce processus mental : ⲣⲡⲙⲉⲉⲩⲉ ( erpmeeue ), littéralement « faire la pensée ». Ce terme, qui s’emploie ainsi dans le domaine funéraire tout comme dans la littérature, sous-tend l’idée d’une activité intellectuelle intense, productive, qui requiert un effort.Le thème de la mémoire s’affirme de ce fait comme un enjeu prééminent, tant dans les milieux religieux que séculiers, à travers l’ensemble du monde méditerranéen. En Orient chrétien, comme à Byzance, l’écriture de l’histoire passe par l’inscription des événements rapportés dans la continuité du récit biblique. La connexion des événements politiques et de l’histoire religieuse, au service de la construction d’une mémoire collective, s’élabore dans le temps long ; elle s’affirme comme un moyen de légitimation en même temps que d’affirmation des identités confessionnelles et culturelles. Nécessaire à la stabilité et à la cohésion d’une communauté, la perpétuation du souvenir de figures charismatiques – dédicataires, fondateurs et fondatrices, donateurs et donatrices –, se décline aussi bien dans le monde monastique que laïque. Dans sa dimension collective, la mémoire, en particulier religieuse, s’inscrit dans le paysage urbain comme rural. Les pratiques rituelles en assurent la pérennité au sein d’espaces dédiés tels que lieux saints, sanctuaires et sépultures, sans occulter le rôle de la sphère civique. Perpétuée par les sources littéraires et épigraphiques, la mémoire collective s’incarne également dans des lieux, des objets ou des images : autant de témoignages matériels, échos de prototypes vénérables ou de visages contemporains, qui donnent corps au souvenir et focalisent l’attention. Bien qu’il s’avère difficile d’en saisir fidèlement les expressions, l’expérience mémorielle relève aussi de la sphère personnelle et intime. En sollicitant différents canaux sensoriels et processus cognitifs, images, inscriptions et chants participent conjointement à l’élaboration du souvenir, à son activation et à sa transmission. Le rôle privilégié de la mémorisation, mécanisme indispensable à l’apprentissage et à la diffusion du savoir, nous invite à interroger les moyens employés pour forger la mémoire, l’entraîner, la renforcer. Qu’était-il nécessaire de retenir ? Quelle place accordait-on à la culture classique ? Quels indices conservons-nous des méthodes d’assimilation et de récitation ? Au-delà de cette dimension pédagogique, la mémoire individuelle s’exprime enfin par un attachement émotionnel aux lieux et aux défunts, dont les épitaphes, graffiti et souvenirs de pèlerinages nous ont transmis les traces. Ainsi placées sous le signe de la mémoire, les XIVèmes Rencontres byzantines s’inscrivent dans le sillage de cette dynamique mémorielle dont les différentes disciplines de la recherche scientifique participent elles-mêmes étroitement. Lieux et images, sources archéologiques, épigraphiques et littéraires, sont autant d’empreintes dont l’étude, menée dans un cadre méthodologique rigoureux, concourt à révéler le sens et les enjeux de la mémoire, à tous les niveaux des sociétés.

Les communications pourront s’inscrire dans l’une des thématiques suivantes :

• La construction de la mémoire collective : commémorations d’événements, légendes…
• L’oubli collectif : damnatio memoriae, anathèmes, exil
• Espace(s) et mémoire
• Supports de la mémoire
• Mémoire et sensorialité
• Mémoire(s) et tradition(s)
• Mémoire et pèlerinage
• Mémoire, rituel et liturgie
• Prototype, souvenir et transmission
• Traces iconographiques et culturelles préchrétiennes
• Spolia et remplois
• Le souvenir par l’image : procédés narratifs, cognitifs ou visuels
• La mémoire par l’écrit : colophons, notes et inscriptions
• Les conceptions temporelles de la mémoire
• La mémoire comme vertu
• Les pratiques d’apprentissage et de récitation
• Inventer la mémoire de Byzance
• Postérité et réception de Byzance
• La démarche de la recherche : textes, archives et vestiges archéologiques

Les communications, d’une durée de vingt minutes, pourront être données en français ou en anglais. Les propositions de communications (250 à 300 mots), ainsi qu’une brève biographie incluant l’institution de rattachement, le niveau d’études actuel (master, doctorat, post-doctorat) et le sujet de recherche, devront être envoyées à l’adresse aemb.paris@gmail.com, au plus tard le 30 mars 2023. Les Rencontres se tiendront en présentiel, à Paris, les 6 et 7 octobre 2023. La prise en charge des frais de transports par l’AEMB est envisageable pour les candidats ne pouvant obtenir de financement de la part de leur institution d’origine. Les candidats retenus devront adhérer à l’AEMB.

 

Memory and marks: commemorating, transmitting, and perpetuating

 

Penned by Ammianus Marcellinus, the panegyric of Julian the Apostate exalts the mnemonic abilities of the emperor in the following terms: “if drinking a particular beverage could enhance the power of memory, Julian must have had the whole cask at his disposal, and he must have drank it dry before he was a grown man”. The propensity for memorization, the cornerstone of intellectual accomplishment, is among the celebrated virtues of encomiastic literature. More than a simple rhetorical tool, aiding in the ability to acquire and conserve knowledge, the notion of memory is found dispersed among a vast semantic sphere that reflects the linguistic diversity of the Byzantine world. The Greek term µνήµη (mnêmê) embraces notions of reminiscence and remembrance, and the gathering of impressions and events, suggesting the act of remembering as much as the material imprint of the past. The Syriac root ܕܵܟܹܪ (dākhēr) simultaneously implies the act of remembering, or calling to mind and the retracing or retelling of events, but also of commemoration. In classic Armenian, the term յիշատակ (yišatak ) signifies both remembering, memory, and commemoration, but it also designates memorials, inherent to the notion of a monument itself. By using this one term, therefore, the notion of memory can elicit the idea a commemorating edifice. Finally, the act of remembering an event or a person is understood in a Coptic verb which bears witness to a particularly active conception of the mental process : ⲣⲡⲙⲉⲉⲩⲉ(erpmeeue), literally “to make a thought”. This term, which is used in the funerary domain as well as in literature, implies the idea of an intense and productive intellectual activity which requires effort.In this way, the topic of memory affirms itself as a major issue, within both religious and secular realms, throughout the entire mediterranean world. In the Christian East, as in Byzantium, the writing of history occurs through the inscription of recounted events through the propagation of biblical continuity. The connection of political and historical religious events in order to construct a collective memory, therefore, is elaborated throughout time; it becomes a legitimate way of affirming confessional and cultural identities. Necessary to the stability and the cohesion of a group, the perpetuation of the remembrance of charismatic figures – dedicators, founders, donors –, can be seen in both monastic and lay communities. In the collective arena, memory, particularly religious memory, is inscribed in both urban and rural landscapes. Ritual practices assure the perennity of certain spaces, such as sacred spaces, sanctuaries, and tombs, to say nothing of its role in the civic sphere. Perpetuated by literary and epigraphic sources, collective memory is also incarnate in spaces, objects, and images: countless material evidence, echoes of venerable prototypes or of contemporary faces, give shape to memory and focus its attention. Although it is difficult to accurately capture all of its forms, memorial experience is also revealed in personal and intimate spheres. In soliciting various sensorial channels and cognitive processes, images, inscriptions, and songs work together to elaborate, activate, and transmit memory. The privileged role of memorization, an essential tool in the learning and diffusion of knowledge, invites us to ask how it was used for creating and strengthening memories. What was necessary to retain? What place was given to classical culture? What hints do we have of the methods of assimilation and recitation of memorized knowledge? Finally, beyond the pedagogical dimension, individual memory can be expressed through the emotional attachment to places and to the deceased, of which epitaphs, graffiti, and pilgrim souvenirs leave tracks.

In this way, placed under the heading of Memory, the 14th Post-Graduate Conference inscribes itself within this dynamic understanding of remembering, in which different research disciplines are intrinsically involved. Places and images, archaeological, epigraphic and literary sources, are all pieces of evidence that may be used within a rigorous methodological framework to reveal the meanings and challenges associated with memory at all societal levels.

The presentations might follow in one of the following themes:

• The construction of collective memory: commemorations of events, legends…
• Collective forgetting: damnatio memoriae, anathemas, exile
• Spaces and memory
• Mediums for memory
• Memory and sensoriality
• Memory and tradition
• Memory and pilgrimage
• Memory, ritual, and liturgy
• Prototypes, souvenirs, and transmission
• Pre-Christian iconographic and cultural traces
• Spolia and reuse
• Remembering through images: narrative, cognitive, or visual processes
• Remembering through writing: colophons, notes, and inscriptions
• Temporal conceptions of memory
• Memory as virtue
• Practices of learning and recitation
• Inventing the memory of Byzantium
• Afterlife and reception of Byzantium
• Recherche methods: texts, archives and archaeological vestiges

Proposals for presentations of 250 to 300 words, as well as a brief biography including the candidate’s affiliation, their current level of study (master, doctoral, post-doctoral), and their area of study should be sent to aemb.paris@gmail.com by March 30, 2023 at the latest. 20 minutes papers may be presented in French or English. The conference will be held in-person in Paris on October 6-7, 2023. Participants’ travel costs may be covered by the association if they are unable to receive funding from their institutions. Selected candidates will be asked to adhere to the association.

Publié le

Appel à contribution – Les sens du rite : encens et religion dans les sociétés anciennes (Rome, 23-24 Juin 2017)

Call for Papers

Sensing Divinity
Incense, religion and the ancient sensorium

***

Les sens du rite
Encens et religion dans les sociétés anciennes*

An international, interdisciplinary conference

23-24 June 2017, British School at Rome and the École française de Rome


Organisers

Mark Bradley, Associate Professor of Ancient History, University of Nottingham (mark.bradley@nottingham.ac.uk)

Beatrice Caseau, Professor of Byzantine History, University of Paris-Sorbonne (beatrice.caseau@paris-sorbonne.fr)

Adeline Grand-Clément, Associate Professor in Greek History, University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès (adelinegc@yahoo.fr)

Anne-Caroline Rendu-Loisel, Post-Doctoral Researcher in Assyrology, University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès (acrenduloisel@hotmail.com)

Alexandre Vincent, Associate Professor in Roman History, University of Poitiers (alexandre.vincent@univ-poitiers.fr)

 

Keynote speakers

Joël Candau (University of Nice)

Esther Eidinow (University of Nottingham)

 

 

Summary (*available in French on request)

This conference will explore the history of a medium that has occupied a pivotal role in Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman and Judeo-Christian religious tradition: incense. According to Margaret E. Kenna in her provocative 2005 article ‘Why does incense smell religious?’, this aromatic substance became a diagnostic feature of Greek orthodoxy during the Byzantine period, but it is clear that incense was also extensively used in the rituals of earlier polytheistic societies to honour the gods. Fragrant smoke drifting up towards the heavens emblematized the communication that was established between the mortal and the immortal realms, which in turn contributed to the sensory landscape of the sanctuary.

Although several studies have drawn attention to the role of incense as an ingredient in ritual and a means of communication between men and gods, there remains no comprehensive examination of the practical functions and cultural semantics of incense in the ancient world, whether as a purifying agent, a performative sign of a transcendent world, an olfactory signal to summon the deity, a placatory libation, or food for the gods. Moreover, recent archaeological research has provided evidence (alongside literary, epigraphic and iconographic evidence) that the physical origins and chemical constituents of incense are complex and diverse, as are their properties: resins, vegetable gums, spices, and a welter of aromatic products that could be exhibited and burned before ancient eyes and noses. These were components of a multi-sensory religious experience in which music, colourful costumes, lavish banquets and tactile encounters defined the ritual sensibilities of the community.

During the two days of the conference, incense will be interrogated as a historical phenomenon. We will explore its materiality, provenance and production, as well as the economic and commercial aspects of the incense trade. The conference will also examine the mechanics of incense use and the various ways it was integrated into various Mediterranean rituals (following the lines of enquiry set out by N. Massar and D. Frère), as well as its role within religious topography. The properties associated with the term ‘incense’ will be evaluated in the context of work by M. Detienne on The Gardens of Adonis (1989): what components of incense make them effective and potent within ritual? And what mechanisms and processes are used to release their aromas? And what was the perception of incense by the various participants of the ritual – deities, priests, assistants, spectators? These research questions will be informed by the recent research synergies of the organisers: M. Bradley, whose edited volume Smell and the Ancient Senses (Routledge, 2015) probes ‘foul’ and ‘fragrant’ odours as part of both human and divine social relations; A. Grand-Clément and A.-C. Rendu-Loisel, who lead the Toulouse research project on Synaesthesia that is dedicated to the interdisciplinary and comparative study of polysensoriality in ancient religious practice; and A. Vincent, who is engaged in the study of sensory perception in Roman ritual in his work on the Soundscapes (Paysages sonores).

This conference sets out to compare approaches across a range of disciplines in order to examine the role and significance of incense in ancient religion, and compare it to later aromatic practices within the Catholic Church. By adopting this cross-disciplinary and comparative approach, we hope to move beyond a universalist approach to religious aromatics and reach a more sophisticated understanding of the religious function of incense in the Mediterranean world: we hope to identify continuities in both the practice and interpretation of incense, as well as to identify specific features within individual historical contexts and traditions.

Although the conference is principally concerned with the use of incense in antiquity, we also welcome contributions from Byzantine and Medieval scholars, as well as church historians, to help provide a comparative perspective on the use and significance of incense within the Mediterranean world. We also hope to use the conference’s setting in Rome to examine current practice in the use of incense and aromatics in Roman Catholic contexts and other religious traditions. The conference will also provide an opportunity to examine first-hand the material properties of incense through a practical workshop around incense-production and burning (co-ordinated by A. Declercq, one of the scientific researchers on the Synaesthesia project at Toulouse), which will allow participants to handle a range of aromatic products and experience their various multi-sensory properties. The outcome of this workshop will be presented as the Musée Saint-Raymond at Toulouse in November 2017, as part of an exhibition on ‘Greek rituals: a sensible experience’, currently in preparation.

It is hoped that this conference will be of interest to scholars working in archaeology, anthropology, cultural history, literature, art history, and the history of religion, as well as local artists and members of the public. Papers should last approximately 20 minutes, and may be in English, Italian or French; they should be original and should not have been previously published or delivered at a major conference.

Paper topics might include, but are certainly not limited to, the following themes related to incense:

•           Material and chemical properties
•           Geography and distribution
•           Economics and commerce
•           Production and release
•           Religious topography
•           Transcendence and supernatural experience
•           Transition and rites of passage
•           Incorruptibility and immortality
•           Relationship to perfumes
•           Sacred and profane scents
•           Religious experience and synaesthesia
•           Community and homogenous sensations
•           Concealment of unwashed humanity and smells of sacrifice
•           Fumigation and purification
•           Drama and performance
•           Frankincense and myrrh
•           Censers and censing
•           Judaeo-Christian traditions

Abstracts of approximately 200-300 words should be submitted by 31 October 2016 to Mark Bradley (mark.bradley@nottingham.ac.uk) or Adeline Grand-Clément (adelinegc@yahoo.fr). Successful contributions may be considered for publication in a conference volume.

This conference has been funded with generous support from the École française de Rome, the British School at Rome, the Institut Universitaire de France and the IDEX of the University of Toulouse.

Publié le

Conférence – Multidisciplinary Approaches to Food and Foodways in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean

conference lyonMultidisciplinary Approaches to Food and Foodways in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean

19-21 May 2016
Maison de l’Orient et de la Mediterranée – Lyon, France

 

Final conference for the POMEDOR Project « People, Pottery and Food in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean ».

Information and registration before May 1st.

Programme:

THURSDAY 19 MAY

09h00 Registration
09h20 Welcome
09h40 “Introduction. People, Pottery and Food in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean: the
POMEDOR Project” – S.Y. Waksman (CNRS Lyon)
10h30 Coffee Break

CYPRUS AND THE LEVANT
11h00 “Population Change in the Southern Levant as Reflected in Ceramic Production and
Consumption from the Fatimid to the Crusader Periods” – E.J. Stern (Israel Antiquities Authority),
A. Shapiro (Israel Antiquities Authority), S.Y. Waksman (CNRS Lyon)
11h30 “Food and Holy War: the Role of Food in the Crusaders’ Conduct of War and in their
Encounter with the New Land and its Inhabitants” – J. Bronstein (Haifa University)
12h00 “Eating and Drinking at Medieval Kinet” – S. Redford (University of London), C. Çakırlar
(Groningen University)
12h30 Discussion
12h45 Lunch Break

14h00 “Between « Tanur » and « Oven » – From the Early Islamic to the Crusader Kitchen” – E.
Yehuda (Tel Aviv University)
14h30 “Acre vs. Safed: An Archaeozoological Analysis of Faunal Remains from the Medieval
Holy Land” – N. Agha (Israel Antiquities Authority & Haifa University)
15h00 “Some Thoughts on Sugar Production and Sugar Pots in the Middle Islamic to Mamluk
Periods in Jordan” – R.E. Jones (Glasgow University), T. Grey (University of Wales Trinity St
David)
15h30 “Ceramic Evidence for Sugar Production in the ‘Akko Plain: Typology and Provenance
Studies” – E.J. Stern (Israel Antiquities Authority), A. Shapiro (Israel Antiquities Authority), N.
Getzov (Israel Antiquities Authority), S.Y. Waksman (CNRS Lyon)
16h00 Discussion
16h15 Coffee Break

16h45 “Du lac de Limassol aux tables de Nicosie : pêcheries et consommation de poissons à
Chypre sous la domination latine (1191-1570)” – P. Trélat (Rouen University)
17h15 “Les tavernes (canutes) comme instruments de contrôle économique et social dans le
royaume de Chypre aux XIIIe-XVIe siècles” – G. Grivaud (Rouen University)
17h45 “Food, Wine and the Latin Clergy of Lusignan Cyprus, 1191-1473” – N. Coureas (The
Cyprus Research Centre, Nicosia)
18h15 “Archaeological and Archaeometric Investigations into Cooking Wares in Frankish and
Venetian Cyprus” – R.S. Gabrieli (University of Sydney), A. Pecci (Barcelona University), A.
Shapiro (Israel Antiquities Authority), S.Y. Waksman (CNRS Lyon)
18h45 Discussion
20h00 Conference Dinner (for speakers)

Byzantine Banquet Created by S. Grainger, A. Dalby and I. Anagnostakis
Paul Bocuse Institute, Ecully
Under the Patronage of Chef Régis Marcon
FRIDAY 20 MAY

10h00 Coffee and Posters Session

BYZANTIUM AND BEYOND
11h00 “La nourriture des autres aux yeux des Byzantins (10e-14e s.): Petchénègues, Latins et
Turcs” – B. Caseau (Paris-Sorbonne University)
11h30 “The Composition of Church Festive Meals in a Medieval Christian Community in the
Southern Crimea, Based on Ceramics and Faunal Materials” – I. Teslenko (National Ukrainian
Academy of Science)
12h00 “Eating in the Aegean (ca. 700-1500): A Comparison of Pots and Pans in Athens and
Ephesus” – J.A.C. Vroom (Leiden University)
12h30 Discussion
12h45 Lunch Break

14h00 “Ceramic Vessels and Food Supplies: Chalcis as a Major Production and Distribution
Centre in the Byzantine and Frankish Periods” – N.D. Kontogiannis (Ephorate of Antiquities of
Boeotia), S.S. Skartsis (Directorate of Byzantine and Post Byzantine Antiquities, Athens), G.
Vaxevanis (Ephorate of Antiquities of Euboea), S.Y. Waksman (CNRS Lyon)
14h30 “Food Consumption in the Urban Environment; the Byzantine City as a Consumption
Centre” – E. Tzavella (Open University of Cyprus)
15h00 “L’approvisionnement de Constantinople et des cités pontiques par les Occidentaux”
– M. Balard (Paris-Sorbonne University)
15h30 Discussion
15h45 Coffee Break

16h15 “Animals in Food Consumption during the Byzantine Period in Light of the Yenikapı
Metro and Marmaray Excavations, Istanbul” – V. Onar (Istanbul University)
16h45 “Foods Consumed in Byzantine Greece: the Evidence of Biological Data and Stable
Isotope Analysis” – C. Bourbou (Ephorate of Antiquities of Chania)
17h15 “Food Production and Consumption in the Byzantine Empire in Light of the Archaeobotanical
Finds” – A. E. Reuter (Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz & Kiel University)
17h45 Discussion
18h30 Public Conference
“Banquets byzantins: la gastronomie du centre du monde” – A. Dalby

SATURDAY 21 MAY

TRADING GOODS, TRADING TASTES
09h00 “Residue Analysis of Medieval Amphorae from the Eastern Mediterranean” – A. Pecci
(Barcelona University), N. Garnier (Garnier Laboratory), S.Y. Waksman (CNRS Lyon)
09h30 “One Amphora, Different Contents – the Multiple Purposes of Byzantine Amphorae
According to Written and Archaeological Data” – E. Todorova (Bulgarian Academy of
Sciences)
10h00 “Byzantine Amphorae of the 10th-13th Centuries from the Novy Svet Shipwrecks,
Crimea, the Black Sea. Preliminary Archaeological Typology and Archaeometric Studies” – S.
Zelenko (Kiev University), I. Morozova (Kiev University), S.Y. Waksman (CNRS Lyon)
10h30 Discussion
10h45 Coffee Break

11h15 “Freightage of Amphorae, Tableware and Foodstuffs in the Middle and Late Byzantine Period: the
Evidence of Shipwrecks” – G. Koutsouflakis (Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, Athens)
11h45 “Production for Whom and for What Target: Thoughts on a Group of Wine Containers from the
Kuşadası, Kadıkalesi Excavation” – Z. Mercangöz (Ege University Izmir)
12h15 “Food Habits and Tableware in Venice: the Connections with the Mamluk Sultanate” – V. Vezzoli (Ca’
Foscari University, Venice)
12h45 Discussion
13h00 Lunch Break

BYZANTIUM AND BEYOND
14h15 “Byzantine and early Turkish Tablewares in Sèvres and the Louvre Museum: Investigations by PIXE into
Provenance and Technology” – A. Bouquillon (PSL Chimie ParisTech & C2RMF Paris), J. Burlot (Lyon University),
S.Y. Waksman (CNRS Lyon), L. Tilliard (Cité de la Céramique, Sèvres), C. Maury (Louvre Museum, Paris)
14h45 “Changing People, Dining Habits and Pottery Technologies: Tableware Productions on the Eve of the
Ottoman Empire in Western Anatolia” – J. Burlot (Lyon University), S.Y. Waksman (CNRS Lyon), B. Böhlendorf
(Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz), J.A.C. Vroom (Leiden University), I. Teslenko (National Ukrainian
Academy of Science)
15h15 “Ottoman Period Sources for the Study of Pottery and Food (15th-18th centuries)” – F. Yenişehirlioğlu
(Koç University, Ankara)
15h45 Discussion
16h00 Concluding Remarks

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Appel à contribution – OUBS’ 18th International Graduate Conference

Call for Papers

 Trends and Turning-Points: Constructing the Late Antique and Byzantine World (c. 300 – c. 1500)

 The Oxford University Byzantine Society’s 18th International Graduate Conference

26th – 27th February 2016, University of Oxford

Spanning more than a millennium in time, ranging from the Atlantic to Iran, and including a vast array of polities, social groups, and cultural moments, the Late Antique and Byzantine world is, if nothing else, complicated and varied. Despite Gibbon’s famous attempt to reduce it to a single trend, the Late Antique and Byzantine world refuses to be simplified.

This conference aims to provide a platform to identify, discuss and debate the major trends and turning-points in the Late Antique and Byzantine world. Postgraduate scholars might choose to examine trends and turning-points on their own terms or to reflect critically on the limitations and blind-spots of our discipline, questioning the ways in which medieval Romans, their contemporaries and modern scholars have gone about constructing this past. We are calling for papers which explore all types of trends and turning-points in all fields of Late Antique and Byzantine studies. Papers might address problems such as:

  • Trends in numismatic production and design
  • From Late Antiquity to Byzantium, turning-point or trend?
  • Complexity and new approaches to constructing the past
  • Archaeological trends in conflict with historical narratives
  • Economics with or without trends?
  • Religious discourse as turning-point or trend
  • Paradigmatic ‘trends’ of growth and decline
  • ‘Great’ battles or the deaths of emperors as turning-points
  • Constructing turning-points and trends in modern academic writing

Please send an abstract of no more than 250 words, along with a short academic biography in the third person, to the Oxford University Byzantine Society at byzantine.society@gmail.com by Friday, 27th November 2015. Papers should be 20 minutes in length, and should be delivered in English or French.

As with our previous conferences, there will be a publication of selected on-theme and inter-related papers, chosen and reviewed by specialist readers from the University of Oxford’s Late Antique and Byzantine Studies research centres. Any speakers wishing to have their papers considered for publication should try to be as on-theme as possible in their abstract and paper. Nevertheless, all submissions are warmly invited.

Further information will be made available on the appropriate page of the OUBS website.

Call for papers (.pdf).