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Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion
research group

The Ancient World

The research group has as its overall objective to create a collaborative platform for research and teaching in antiquity and unite researchers from UiB and other universities.

Mosaikk av en romersk robåt. Fra Bardo musum, Tunisia
Photo:
Wikimedia Commons

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In addition to bringing antiquities researchers together in Bergen, the research group will also contribute to improving national and Nordic cooperation on antiquities research

The research group The Ancient World has as its overall objective to create a collaborative platform for research and teaching in antiquity and unite researchers from Department of Archaeology, History, Culture studies and Religion (AHKR), Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic studies (LLE), Department of Philosophy (FoF) and other universities.

In addition to bringing antiquities researchers together in Bergen, the research group will also contribute to improving national and Nordic cooperation on antiquities research. Here we will especially gather around using the Norwegian institutes in Rome and Athens, which we have a special national responsibility for maintaining the activity at.

We also have common interests in developing national strategies to maintain a strong teaching offer in ancient subjects, and increase the recruitment of bachelor's, master's and PhD students.

Ongoing projects

O Muse, tell me of that man of many ways, who travelled
Far and wide, after he sacked the sacred citadel of Troy;
Many mens’ cities he saw and knew their minds,
Many pains too he suffered at sea (Homer, Odyssey. 1.1-4)

From the earliest epic narratives about the heroic wanderings of Odysseus and Gilgamesh to the early Christian pilgrimage to the ‘Holy Land’ in late antiquity, humans have been preoccupied with the dangers and benefits of travel. Mobility, both inside communities and crossing borders, creates networks, enables (cross-)cultural contact and facilitates changes. Although the ancient world lacked the fast methods of travel and mass communication that defines the modern world, it was nevertheless a world of travel, interaction, and communication. From travelling individuals, such as traders, pirates, and monks, to multi-ethnic empires stretching to the edges of the known world, many agents and institutions facilitated mobility and contact. In this world, urban communities were often nodes in these networks. This research group is interested in the mobility of individuals (human and divine), goods and texts, as well as ideas, and the role urban centers played in dissemination and distribution. It will look both at networks at a macro level and at individual case studies.

Programme autumn 2024

WeekDateDayKl.ActivityPlace
3421. AugWednsdayKl. 12.15Einar Thomassen – “A newly identified letter of Valentinus?”Classics Library in HF-bygget; Rom 373
3604. SepWednsdayKl. 12.15Sissel Undheim – "Thinking with popular culture. Theorizing religion, dissemination, and mobility in the Roman world."Classics Library in HF-bygget; Rom 373
3712.septThursdayKl. 12-15Silk Road Study DayØystensgate 3, room 418
3925. SepWednsdayKl. 12.15Eivind Heldaas Seeland - “Distance and Scale in Late Roman and Early Christian property structure as reflected in the Liber Pontificalis”Classics Library in HF-bygget; Rom 373
4002.-04. OctWednsday - friday Workshop in Rome with the Norwegian Institute 
4216. OctWednsdayKl. 12.15Moa Christina Airijoki – “Mobility, Controversy, and Apophthegmata Patrum: the Desert Father Legacy.”Classics Library in HF-bygget; Rom 373
4401. NovFridayKl. 14.15Guest Lecture
Prof. Michael Blömer – “Exploring Urbanism in Roman Syria. The Doliche Excavations”
Sydneshaugen skole, Aud. Q.
4613. NovWednsdayKl. 12.15Guest Lecture
Bradley Jordan – "Connectivity and disconnectivity: translocal approaches to Hellenistic and Roman Mysia"
Classics Library in HF-bygget; Rom 373
4827. NovWednsdayKl. 12.15Torill Christine Lindstrøm – “The great fresco in Villa dei Misteri, Pompeii: A copy or not a copy? That’s the question.”Classics Library in HF-bygget; Rom 373
5011. DecWednsdayKl. 16.30End-of-Semester MeetingTBA

 

Greek Reading Group:

 

First session: TBAevery thursdayKl. 16.00Greek Reading Group – Lucian’s Περὶ τῆς Συρίης Θεοῦ / De Dea SyriaSpecial Collections Library at HF-bygget

Programme spring 2024

Wednsday 21.jan
kl. 12.15
Fynn Riepe – New Research on a Bathhouse from Northern Syria
Sted: Classics Library in HF-bygget; Rom 373
Wednsday 7.feb
kl. 12.15
Christina Videbech - Sindets Ild: Sindssygdom og galskab i antikken - Et tværfagligt bogprojekt
Sted: Classics Library in HF-bygget; Rom 373
Wednsday 21.feb
kl. 12.15
Sotiria Rita Koutsopetrou-Møller - TBA
Sted: Classics Library in HF-bygget; Rom 373
Wednsday 28.feb
kl. 12.15
Annika Os - Ancient History in the Norwegian School system
Sted: Classics Library in HF-bygget; Rom 373
Wednsday 6.mar
kl. 12.15
Tomas Larsen Høisæter - Like Islands in a Sea of Sand – NFR Project presentation
Sted: Classics Library in HF-bygget; Rom 373
Wednsday 20.mar
kl. 12.15
Ingvild Gilhus - Conception of animals in Egyptian monastic texts (4-5th centuries CE)
Sted: Classics Library in HF-bygget; Rom 373
Wednsday 3.april
kl. 12.15
Moa Christina Airijoki - Tending the Garden of the Monks: Investigation of a Medieval Copto-Arabic Apophtegmata Patrum Recension
Sted: Classics Library in HF-bygget; Rom 373
Onsdag 17.april 
Monday/Tuesday 22-23. april
 
GUEST LECTURE: Gerhard van der Heever - Of Materiality, Cultic Spaces, and Agency … and Discourse in Between: The Entanglement of Religious Space, Discourse, and Practice in Two Case Studies – Two Mithraea and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Sted: TBA
Wednsday 1.may 
Wednsday 15.may
kl. 12.15
Rhiannon Williams - Trajectories of Religious Transmission. Christianity in Kharga Oasis.
Sted: Classics Library in HF-bygget; Rom 373
Wednsday 29.may
kl. 12.15
Sissel Undheim - Disseminating gods. Religion and “popular culture” in antiquity.
Sted: Classics Library in HF-bygget; Rom 373

Programme autumn 2023

Wednsday 30. aug
 
Reading Group Classical language

Thursday 7. sept
kl. 16.30

Prøveforelesning Christina Videbech
sted: Sydneshaugen skole, Aud. B
Friday 8. sept
kl. 09.30 - 13
Disputas: Christina Videbeck - "Quo Vadis, Romane?"
sted: Sydneshaugen skole, Aud. B
Wednsday 13. septReading Group Classical language
Wednsday 20. sept
kl. 12.00 - 14
Introduction Phds Fynn Riepe and Annika Os
sted: Sydneshaugen skole, grupperom H
Thursday/Friday 28-29. septATHENS, Norsk institutt i Athen
Wednsday 4. oktReading Group Classical language
Tuesday 18. okt
kl. 14.15 - 16
Sotiria Koutsopetrou-Møller - The legal remedies for rape in the Roman Republic and Principate
sted: HF-bygget, Seminarrom 217
Wednsday 25. okt
kl. 12.00 - 14
Christina Videbeck - Prosjektbeskrivelsen (mobilitetsstipendiet)
sted: Classics library in HF-bygget (373)
Wednsday 1. novReading Group Classical language
Wednsday 8. nov
kl. 12.00 – 14
Jørgen Bakke - Travelling Images from Ancient Athens
sted: Classics library in HF-bygget (373)
Wednsday 15. novReading Group Classical language
Wednsday 22. nov
12.00 – 14
sted: Classics library in HF-bygget (373)
Wednsday 29. nov
kl. 12.15 - 14
Simon Malmberg - Romas elvemurer: når bygdes de, og hvorfor?
sted: Sydneshaugen skole, Seminarrom K
Wednsday 6. des
kl. 12.00 - 14
Christina Videbeck - Sindets Ild: sindssygdom og galskap i antikken - Et tværfagligt bogprosjekt
sted: Classics library in HF-bygget (373)

Programme spring 2023

Tuesday 17 January
kl. 12.15–13
Christian Bull - Astral Healing in the Hermetica
Tuesday 24 January
kl. 12.15–13
Classical languages reading group
Tuesday 31 January
kl. 12.15–13
Christina Videbech – Roman graffiti
Tuesday 7 February
kl. 12.15–13
Classical languages reading group
Tuesday 14 February
kl. 12.15–13
Sissel Undheim - From taking the veil to changing the garb
Tuesday 21 February
kl. 12.15–13
Classical languages reading group
Tuesday 7 March
kl. 12.15–13
Classical languages reading group
Tuesday 14 March
kl. 12.15–13
Ivan Miroshnikov  – "So too it happens with unreasoning animals": Towards a New Edition of Coptic Literary Manuscript 1220.
Tuesday 21 March
kl. 12.15–13
Classical languages reading group
Tuesday 28 March
kl. 12.15–13
Marijn Visscher – The Seleucid kings in the Sibylline Oracles
Tuesday 11 April
kl. 12.15–13
Simon Malmberg – Resilient Ports: a new perspective on harbours in the city of Rome
Tuesday 18 April
kl. 12.15–13
Classical languages reading group
OBS! Thursday 20 April kl. 12.15–13CANCELLED Tomas Høisæter – Sten Konow og utforskinga av Xinjiang
Tuesday 25 April
kl. 12.15–13
Classical languages reading group
Tuesday 2 May
kl. 12.15–13
Classical languages reading group 
OBS! Friday 5 May
kl. 12.15–13
Guest lecture – dr. Chris Siwicki (The Norwegian Institute in Rome) – 'The Romans Who Didn't Build'
Place: Sydneshaugen skole, seminar room K 
Tuesday 16 May
kl. 12.15–13
Guest lecture – dr. Sam Newington (University of Aberdeen) – 'Corporeal defilement and beautification in Sappho's poetry'
Place: HF-bygget, seminar room 264
OBS! Wednesday 24 May
kl. 16.15–17   
+ drinks
Dr. Tomas Høisæter (HVL) - 'Sten Konow og utforskinga av Xinjiang'  
Place: Sydneshaugen skole, seminar room K
OBS! Friday 9 June
kl. 10.15
Workshop – prof. Elisa Uusimäki (Aarhus) – 'Women, Travel and Transformation in the Ancient Jewish Tradition' + response
Place: Sydneshaugen skole, seminar room K