Religion in Pieces
An Interdisciplinary Conference sponsored by the Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions and the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
Brown University
April 27th-29th, 2012
Program Schedule
Friday, April 27th 2012
7:00pm: Introduction and Welcome
Jeffrey Brodd, President, Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions
Susan Alcock, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
7:15pm: Keynote Address
Christopher Faraone, University of Chicago
“Connecting the Dots: Making Sense of the Fragmentary Evidence for Ancient Greek Magic”
Saturday, April 28th 2012
9:00-10:15am: Ancient Israel, Greece and the Near East
Janling Fu, Harvard University
“Fragments Left Over: Ritual Practice and Intimate Privilege in Ancient Israel”
Sarah Morris, University of California at Los Angeles
“Infanticide in Pieces: Fragments of Discourse and Practice on Infant Mortality in Greece and the Near East”
10:15-11:30am: Greek Religion
Nassos Papalexandrou, University of Texas, Austin
“Frustrating Fragments and Messy Contexts: Orientalizing Cauldrons and their Significance in Greek Religion”
Maya Muratov, Adelphi University
“A Headless Half-Horse, Three Bottomless Amphorae, and a Few Scythian Arrows on the Temenos of Pantikapaion: Sacrifice or Magic?”
11:30-11:45am COFFEE BREAK
11:45-1:30pm: Greek Mysteries
Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, Bryn Mawr College
“Broken Snatches of Sweet Melody: Piecing Together the Orphic Rhapsodies”
Thomas Blanton, Luther College
“Significant Nonsense: Denotation and Connotation in the ‘Great’ Tablet from Thurii”
Sandy Blakely, Emory University
“Broken Data, Robust Models: A Digital Response to the Samothracian Mysteries”
1:30-3:00pm LUNCH BREAK
3:00-4:00pm: Greek Ritual
Esther Eidinow, University of Nottingham, and Lisa Maurizio, Bates College
“Fragments and Fabrications: Reconstructing Women’s Ritual Competence”
4:00-4:15pm COFFEE BREAK
4:15-5:30pm: Greece and Rome
Shane Hawkins, Carleton University
“Hipponax and the Umbrella Man”
Dan-el Padilla Peralta, Stanford University
“Religion in Fragments: Naevius at the Crossroads of Greece and Rome”
5:30-6:45pm: Etruria and Italia
Mareile Haase, University of Toronto
“Piecing Together Etruscan Religion: The Case of Sacrificial Representations”
Tanja Van Loon, University of Groningen
“Interpreting Votive Deposits: The Cult Place at Laghetto del Monsignore”
7:45 pm: BANQUET (at the Hope Club, 6 Benevolent Street)
Sunday April 29th 2012
9:00-10:45am: Roman Religion
Laetitia LaFollette, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
“Why erect a statue of a Vestal? Piecing together Roman attitudes towards the Priestly Body”
John Bert Lott, Vassar College
“A Prophet of the Dea Syria”
10:45-11:15am COFFEE BREAK
11:15-12:45pm: Roman Ritual
Lydia Herring-Harrington, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
“Musical Performance and Animal Sacrifice in Roman Private Rituals: The Evidence of Painted Images”
Blair Fowlkes Childs, New York University
“Cult Site(s), a Proscaenium cum columnis, and Rituals at the Aventine Dolichenum in Rome”
12:45-2:00pm: Late Antiquity
Seamus O’Neill, Memorial University (Newfoundland)
“Reconstructing Platonic Demonologies: A Case Study in Augustine”
Andromache Karanika, University of California at Irvine
“Reconstructing the Greek Wedding Rituals in Late Antiquity and Early Byzantium”
