CITYSCAPES & MONUMENTS
of remembrance in western Asia Minor

29-31 October 2014 – Aarhus University

Cityscapes are expressions of identity. They consist of houses, streets, temples, tombs and monuments left there by generations of inhabitants. Cityscapes are interpreted and reinter-preted as expressions of changing relations of power, of past lives and of present identity – they constitute places of remembrance.

This conference aims at exploring the cityscapes and their monuments as expressions of memories in the cities of western Asia Minor. They will be studied in four different, but not necessarily separable, spaces – private, public, sacred, and funerary. Chronologically the conference will cover the period c. 600 BCE to 500 CE, reflecting more than 1000 years of cultural diversity from the Lydian and Persian hegemony in the Archaic period over Athenian supremacy and Persian satrapal rule in the Classical period through auto-cratic kingship in Hellenistic times until finally more than half a millennium of Roman rule.

How did the inhabitants choose – deliberately or subconsciously – to commemorate their past and their ancestors, and how did they manage to maintain their identity under such changing political systems?

Please send a preliminary TITLE and an ABSTRACT (of max. 250 words) no later than 1 January 2014 to [email protected]

FOCUS
The significance of memory in ancient societies and how it was promoted, con-tested and even attempted destroyed will be the main focus of the conference. We invite papers focusing on aspects of re-membrance in the ancient cityscapes of western Asia Minor.

LOCATION
The conference will take place over three days at Aarhus University, and travel and accommodation expenses will have to be met by the participants.

LANGUAGE
English and German are the preferred languages of the conference.

CONTACT
For further information, please contact Eva Mortensen ([email protected]).