Camel caravan

Camel caravan
Mosaic from Deir al-Adas, Syria, 8th century (photo: J.C.Meyer)
The research project Mechanisms of cross-cultural interaction: Networks in the Roman Near East (2013-2017) investigates the resilient everyday ties, such as trade, religion and power, connecting people within and across fluctuating imperial borders in the Near East in the Roman Period. The project is funded under the Research Council of Norway's SAMKUL initiative, and hosted by the Department of archaeology, history, cultural studies and religion, University of Bergen, Norway.

This blog is no longer updated, for any queries, please contact project leader Eivind Heldaas Seland

Tuesday 1 December 2015

Conference: Sinews of empire: Networks and regional interaction in the Roman Near East and beyond

Finally the time has arrived for our project conference, which takes place at the Norwegian Institute in Athens over the next few days (Dec. 2nd-4th). Proceedings will be published in due time. For now this is a list of our speakers: 

Vincent Gabrielsen, University of Copenhagen: Alongside the State, Beside the Temple, Next to the Market: Exemplifying the Network as a category of historical analysis

Kasper Grønlund Evers, University of Copenhagen, Crucibles of collaboration: a comparative study of associations and other organisations in ancient Near Eastern commerce

Michael Sommer, University of Oldenburg, The mechanics of empire. Personal networks and the modus operandi of Roman hegemony

Tom Brughmans, University of Konstanz, Simulating Roman economic integration: correlations between transport distance and price in a network model of tableware distribution in the Roman East

Henrik Gerding and Per Östborn, University of Lund, Brick makers, builders, and commissioners in the Hellenistic world: modelling social networks to fit archaeological data

Lara Fabian, University of Pennsylvania, Numismatic communities of the South Caucasus: Geospatial analysis of 3nd c. BCE- 3th c. CE coin finds

Leonardo Gregoratti, Durham University, Sinews of the other Empire: Parthian Great King’s rule over vassal Kingdoms

Kerstin Droß-Krüpe, University of Kassel, Businessmen and local elites in Roman Asia Minor

Yanne Broux, Leuven University, Trade networks among the army camps of the Eastern Desert of Roman Egypt

Rubina Raja, Aarhus University, Networking beyond death: Social networks in Palmyra - the funerary evidence

Ted Kaizer, Durham University, Networks between Palmyra and Dura Europos

Katia Schörle, University of Nice, Mapping Economic Integrations in Palmyrene Networks  

Giovanni Ruffini, Fairfield University, The Social Networks of Late Antique Thebes

Håkon Teigen, University of Bergen, The Manichaean Church in Roman Egypt: church officials and their networks

Mattias Brand, University of Leiden, Exploring speech patterns in social networks as indicators of religious change: the Manichaean community in late antique Egypt

Anna Collar, Aarhus University, Sinews of belief, anchors of devotion: the cult of Zeus Kasios in the Mediterranean

Taco Terpstra, Northwestern University, Mediterranean Connectivity, State Institutions, and Phoenician Trade.

Eivind Heldaas Seland, University of Bergen, Networks in the Roman Near East: Cases, perspectives, lessons