OCLA: Seminars & Events
Hercules and the Ceryneian hind, 4th-century
gold-glass from Rome.(Ashmolean Museum)
Listed here are forthcoming academic events within the field of Late Antiquity (individual lectures, seminars, conferences, etc.) being held in Oxford, or being organised outside Oxford by OCLA Researchers. If you are looking for events in a specific area of Late Antiquity (e.g. within ‘Islam and the Islamic World’, or ‘The Post-Roman West’), visit that section of our site, where you will find only the relevant events listed
This term's PDF “booklet”
Last updated 13 May 2013
OCLA SPECIAL LECTURE
Oded Irshai (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem):
"Blood in the Streets: Jewish-Christian Violence
in Early Fifth-Century Alexandria"
Wednesday 29 May 2013 at 5pm
The Buttery, Wolfson College, Oxford
The Heraclians: a dynasty from within
Two day-colloquium on Friday 31 May and Saturday 1 June 2013
Friday, Session I: Emperors and Empire
James Howard-Johnston (Oxford): To be arranged
Douglas Whalin (Cambridge): On the Back Foot: Imperial Grand Strategy in the Age of Constans II
Marek Jankowiak (Oxford): Constantine IV – Self-Confidence Regained
Michael Humphreys (Cambridge): Justinian II and Christocentric Kingship
Friday, Session II: The Dynasty in Letters
Mary Whitby (Oxford): To be arranged
Jessica Ehinger (Oxford): ‘One of Our Own’: Memories of Heraclius in Variant and Non-Christian Traditions
T. J. MacMaster (Edinburgh): In a Mirror Darkly: Heraclius and Constans II in the Frankish ‘Chronicle of Fredegar’
Marc Lauxtermann (Oxford): Herakleios and the Siege of 717: Forgotten Emperors and Misunderstood Events in the Liturgical Calendar of Constantinople
Friday, Session III: Reflections of the Régime
Elizabeth Jeffreys (Oxford): To be arranged
Elodie Turquois (Oxford): Theophylact Simocatta’s Ecumenical History: A Cautionary Tale for Heraclius
Caterina Franchi (Oxford): Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: the King, the Antichrist and the Last Emperor
Friday, Session IV: Material Manifestations
Sean Leatherbury (Oxford): Cross-Cultural Crosses: Heraclius, Khusro II, and the Art of the Cross in the Early Seventh Century
Ida Toth (Oxford): To be arranged
Philipp Niewöhner (Oxford): Anatolian Urbanism at the Crossroads: Antiquarianism versus Christianization
Saturday, Session V: Ecclesia, Ecclesiae
Phil Booth (Oxford): The Heraclian Crisis and the Making of Byzantine Monasticism
Richard Price (London): The Heraclian Dynasty and the Unity of the Church
Simon Ford (Oxford): Trends in Seventh Century Canon Law
Saturday, Session VI: Governance and the Provinces
Miranda Williams (Oxford): The Exarchate of Africa in the 7th Century
Federico Montinaro (Paris): Less is More: Designing a Simpler Empire under the Heraclians
Elizabeth Buchanan (Oxford): Egyptian in Seventh Century CE: a Cross-Cultural Approach to a Difficult Century (What Coptic Papyri tell us that the Greek Papyri do not)
Thomas Brown (Edinburgh): Servilis Provincia and Res Publica Sacra Revisited: Fresh Thoughts on Allegiance and Resistance to the Heraclian Dynasty in Italy 610–711
Organizing Committee: Simon Ford, Caterina Franchi, Douglas Whalin. Email
Through the Magnifying Glass. Small Finds and the Big Gap in the Byzantine Settlement History of Miletus and Ephesus
Saturday 1 June 2013 (Week 6 of Trinity Term)
Brasenose College, Lecture Room 11
Convener: Philipp Niewöhner
This one-day conference focuses on the Big Gap or so-called Dark Age that separates Late Antiquity and the middle Byzantine period and forms one of the most pressing problems of Byzantine archaeology and historiography.
9:00 Introduction
Session 1: Stratigraphy and Coins: Defining the Gap.
Chair: Mark Whittow (Corpus)
9:20 Philipp Niewöhner (Brasenose): The Late Antique and Byzantine Stratigraphy of Miletus: the Topography of the Gap
10:00 Yaman Dalanay (Oxford): The Late Antique and Byzantine Stratigraphy of Ephesus
Session 2: Approaching the Gap. Late Antique Ceramics and Glass from Miletus I
Chair: John Hayes (Oxford)
11.00 Alice Waldner (ÖAW-Institute for the Study of Ancient Culture, Vienna): Ceramics, Glass, and the Late Antique Renovation of the Southern Baths at Miletus
11:40 Nico Schwerdt (Humboldt University Berlin): Ceramics, the Late Antique Renovation, and the Abandonment of the Baths of Faustina at Miletus
Session 3: Late Antique Ceramics and Glass from Miletus II
Chair: Linda Hulin (Oxford)
1:00 Heike Möller (University of Cologne): Ceramics, Glass, and the Christianisation of a Late Antique Necropolis at Miletus
1:40 Veronika Sossau (University of Innsbruck): Ceramics and Glass from Late Antique contexts of a House next to the Temple of Athena at Miletus
2:20 Pamela Armstrong (Oxford): From Late Antique to Middle Byzantine Ceramic Production in Asia Minor: Miletus in Context
Session 4: Ephesus. Chair: Marlia Mango (St John’s)
3:40 Sabine Ladstätter (Austrian Archaeological Institute, Vienna): Archaeological Evidence for the so-called Dark Age at Ephesus
4:20 Ebru Findik (Hacettepe University Ankara): Middle Byzantine Ceramics from Ephesus
5:00 Alice Waldner (ÖAW-Institute for the Study of Ancient Culture, Vienna): The Ceramics from Miletus and Ephesus in Comparison
5:40 Final Remarks
Please register with Philipp Niewöhner <philipp.niewoehner@arch.ox.ac.uk>
Morning coffee, sandwich lunch, and afternoon tea:
£0/£10/£20 (unwaged/waged/donor covering for self and one unwaged).
Stoicism and its Legacy
Lecture by Dr John Sellars (Lecturer in Philosophy, Birkbeck, University of London):
Wednesday 5 June 2013, 1.00—1.30pm at Convocation House, Old Bodleian Library
Includes a manuscript of Epictetus proved to be the earliest.
Late Antique and Byzantine Seminar
Wednesdays at 5 pm in Trinity Term 2013
in the Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66, St Giles’, Oxford
(Please note the different arrangements for Week 5)
22 May (Week 5)
Zbigniew Fiema (University of Helsinki):
The Earthquake of 363 in Petra: Some New Considerations
To be held in the Al-Jaber Auditorium, Corpus Christi College
29 May (Week 6)
Holger Klein (Columbia University, New York):
Sensing the Sacred: Relics and the Rhetoric of Enshrinement
5 June (Week 7)
Elizabeth Jeffreys (Exeter College):
Why write fiction in Byzantium?
OCBR Special Lecture
12 June (Week 8)
Ortwin Dally (German Archaeological Institute, Rome):
Pagan statues in late antiquity – a case study: the baths of the empress Faustina at Miletus
Conveners: Marc Lauxtermann and Mark Whittow
Late Antique and Byzantine Archaeology and Art Seminar
Thursdays in Trinity Term 2013, 11am–12:30pm
St John’s College, New Seminar Room
23 May (Week 5)
Professor Robert Hohlfelder (Boulder):
The fortunes of Caesarea Maritima’s harbours in Late Antiquity: riches to ruins
30 May (Week 6)
Fabian Stroth (Heidelberg):
Monogram capitals in Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
6 June (Week 7)
Professor Ross Burns (Sydney):
What future for Syria’s past?
13 June (Week 8)
Dr Andrea Zerbini (London):
Quantifying the village economy: reflections on the extent and capabilities of cash crop production in the Limestone Massif of northern Syria (IV–VII c.)
Conveners: Dr Marlia Mango (St John’s) and Dr Philipp Niewöhner (Brasenose)
After Rome Seminar: Aspects of the History and
Archaeology of the Fifth to Seventh Centuries
Thursdays at 5pm in the Danson Room, Trinity College
23 May (Week 5)
Elizabeth Buchanan (History Faculty, and Christ Church):
Life, law and the case of the missing carats: loans in the late-antique Mediterranean
30 May (Week 6)
Ilya Yakubovich (Philipps-Universität Marburg):
Early Slavs through post-Roman eyes: when linguistics can help the historian
6 June (Week 7)
Judith McKenzie and team (Classics and Oriental Studies, Oxford):
Introducing the "Manar al-Athar" open-access photo-archive of monuments and art of the Near East (300 BC to the present)
13 June (Week 8)
Louise Blanke (University of Copenhagen):
Changing cityscapes: daily life and the use of space in late-antique Jerash
Conveners: James Howard-Johnston and Bryan Ward-Perkins
Khalili Research Seminar
Lecture Room, Khalili Research Centre, 3 St John Street, Oxford
Tuesdays 2.00–4.30 pm in Trinity Term 2013
21 May (Week 5)
James White:
Provincial power-play: a Safavid-era manuscript of ‘The Man in the Panther’s Skin’
28 May (Week 6)
Francesca Leoni:
The good, the bad and the ugly: representations of good and evil in Islamic art
4 June (Week 7)
Elise Morero:
Islamic rock crystal – technological perspectives
11 June (Week 8)
Marie Legendre:
Byzantine capitals, Umayyad dukes and the Egyptian dīwān: local administration and the formation of the Islamic state
Patristic and Late Antique Seminar
Tuesdays, 4.30–6.00pm in Trinity Term 2013
Seminar Room, Theology Faculty Annexe, 41 St Giles', Oxford
21 May (Week 5)
Dr Julia Hudson (Oxford):
Augustine on Christ and History in De Trinitate
28 May (Week 6)
Professor Guy Stroumsa (Oxford):
Judaeo-Christianity and the Origins of Islam
4 June (Week 7)
Dr Elena Ene D-Vasilescu (Oxford):
Gregory Nazianzen on ‘the manner of generation’
11 June (Week 8)
Dr Jonathan Kirkpatrick (Oxford):
Biblical Interpretation and the Survival of Paganism in Late Antique Palestine
Convener: Dr Stan Rosenberg
Seminar on Jewish History and Literature in the Graeco-Roman Period
Tuesdays, 2.30–4pm in Trinity Term 2013
Oriental Institute
The seminars in Weeks 2, 6 & 8 are those that relate to Late Antiquity
21 May (Week 5)
Professor John Barclay (Durham):
Justice and Mercy: 4 Ezra and the Second Temple debate concerning Divine Grace
28 May (Week 6)
Dr Oded Irshai (Hebrew University):
The paradigm of late antique rabbinization
11 June (Week 8)
Dr Aron Sterk (Manchester):
Jews in the Latin West in Late Antiquity: forgotten communities and texts
Conveners: Martin Goodman, Geza Vermes, and Alison Salvesen
Medieval History Seminar
Mondays at 5pm in Trinity Term 2013
Wharton Room, All Souls College
The seminars in Weeks 1, 4 and 7 are those that relate to Late Antiquity
20 May (Week 5)
Brendan Smith (University of Bristol):
The Governed and the Ungovernable in Late Medieval Ireland
27 May (Week 6)
Rory Naismith (Clare College, Cambridge):
Peter’s Pence and Beyond: the Forum Hoard and Anglo-Roman Monetary
Relations in the Early Middle Ages
3 June (Week 7)
Oliver Watson (Khalili Research Centre):
Islamic luxury pottery: China v. Syria in Abbasid Iraq
10 June (Week 8)
Alice Taylor (King’s College, London):
Homage and Hierarchy during the Central Middle Ages
Conveners: Paul Brand and Mark Whittow
Did Roman Art Decline? A Debate
Tuesday 11 June (8th Week), at 5pm
Ertegun House, 37a St Giles’, Oxford
Jaś Elsner and Peter Stewart will take opposite sides in a debate on this hardy perennial topic (which is at least five hundred years old, and still going strong). There will also be plenty of opportunity for audience involvement.
Andy Hilkens (University of Ghent):
‘A Late Antique Inheritance: The Anonymous Chronicle to the
Year 1234 and its use of the Book of Jubilees’
Monday 20 May 2013 (Week 5) at 5pm
Faculty Room, Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane
An unlikely, yet crucial, witness for the study of the late-antique afterlife of the Jewish
pseudepigraphical Book of Jubilees (second century BC) is the Anonymous Syriac Chronicle
to the Year 1234. This chronicle not only preserves extensive fairly literal excerpts from this
work, but also adaptations of some of its traditions, which probably reached the Chronicler
via one or more Syriac chronographic sources. The paper will investigate the origin of these
adaptations, leading to the Greek chronicles of Hippolytus of Rome (170/180–235 AD) and
Annianus of Alexandria (fl. Fifth century AD), and the Syriac chronicle of the enigmatic
Andronicus (perhaps of the sixth century AD).