If you would like to join us  for the keynote talk on September 11th at 18:15 p.m. CEST 

Please feel free to join us at LEIZA  or join us online. You can sign up for the online session at  mas@uni-mainz.de

Constructing Ancient Cities

11. & 12. September 2023

Venue: Leibniz Centre for Archaeology (LEIZA - RGZM), Mainz Germany

Cities represent the end of a long process of development; they are constructed materially, socially and scientifically, regardless whether they have evolved organically or are planned as ex novo foundations. The construction of ancient cities can be linked to organisational, infrastructural, economic, social, political and cultural challenges from an emic perspective; from an etic perspective it poses, amongst others, questions in the area of history and theory of knowledge. Key questions are what it takes and what it means to build cities, and how cities and their construction are themselves constructed as objects of knowledge. These various challenges have been discussed intensively in recent years in numerous individual disciplines ranging from ancient studies, art history, sociology to the history of knowledge, but mostly only in individual aspects or disciplinary contexts. The conference will bring together these different approaches and examine the construction of ancient cities interdisciplinary from three different perspectives:

1. How are ancient cities planned, designed, built and supplied? Which sources, methodological and theoretical approaches can be applied fruitfully? How has the perspective on these processes changed through the establishment of Digital Humanities and the inclusion of Big Data? How can ancient communities be better understood through the processes of construction and the accompanying social, economic and aesthetic decisions? For example, what role do construction techniques and materials play on the aesthetic perception of cities and their socio-cultural location?
2. How were cities and their construction negotiated or discussed in literature, epigraphy and visual culture? What role do foundations, reconstructions, ruins or the mise-en-scène of the building and supply processes play in different media? Can political, economic, social, religious or material decisions and the debates leading up to them be identified?
3. How have cities and their construction been and are modelled methodically, theoretically and as objects of knowledge? The construction of cities is not just a one-off, linear material process, but often involves iterative processes or non-linear transformations that take place in leaps. A number of different knowledge-historical and knowledge-theoretical practices can be taken into account here, which can range from classification systems and modelling to visualisations in diagrams, plans, 3D reconstructions, virtual reality, etc.

 

Scientific Organizers:

Dr. Paul Pasieka                                                       Dr. Mariachiara Franceschini

 

Event manager: Kumi Kost

11. September 2023

9:30 a.m. Registration

Welcoming Address by Dominik Maschek Head of Department: Roman Archaeology at LEIZA

Introductory Remarks:
New Approaches to the Construction of Ancient Cities. By Paul P. Pasieka (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz) and Mariachiara Franceschini (University of Freiburg)

Section 1: Materialities - Moderated by Johannes Lipps

11:00 a.m. Maria Cristina Biella (Sapienza University of Rome): The city in pre-Roman Italy: theory and practice
11:30 a.m. Mariachiara Franceschini (Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg ) - Paul P. Pasieka (JGU Mainz): Top Down? The role of terracotta roofs in the process of urbanization in Etruria
12:00 a.m. Dilrabo Tosheva (Yale University) - Muminkhon Saidov (Archaeology Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan): Baked brick in Central Asian Architecture: Tracing Early Origins and Distribution from Antiquity to the Medieval Era

13:30 p.m. Opeyemi Adewale (Independant Researcher Lagos, Nigeria): Ab Urbe Condita: The Tectonic Principles, The Planning and the Politics of Ancient Roman Cities in North Africa
14:00 p.m. Franziska Lehmann (DAI Athen): Craft Landscape: Topography of Production in Classical Athens
14:30 p.m. Jérôme André (Université de Lausanne/École suisse d’archéologie en Grèce): Investigating the Construction of a Greek City through Building Archaeology: A Case Study from Eritrea

 

Section 2: Narrating and Negotiating the Processes of Construction - Moderated by Dominik Maschek

15:30 p.m. Maximiliane Gindele (University of Tübingen): Constructing Neropolis: Nero’s Urban Projects after the Great Fire and Their Literary Echo

16:00 p.m. Nicole Kröll (University of Vienna): The City of Tyre in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis
16:30 p.m. Julia Heil (Kiel University): Constructing Ancient Cities - Hellenistic City Foundations: Planning, Design, and Urban Realities
17:00 p.m. Hagit Nol (Goethe University Frankfurt), Amṣār: Planned cities of the 7th-century Arab colonialists?

Keynote Talk - Moderated by Paul P. Pasieka
18:15 p.m. Seth Bernard (University Toronto):
The Case of the Missing Houses: what a construction-perspective reveals about urbanism in Middle Republican Italy

12. September 2023

09:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Section 3: Methodologies - Moderated by Mariachiara Franceschini

09:30 a.m. Andrzej Bruno Kutiak (Technical University of Munich): Grids and modules - the urban planning practices of the very late antiquity in Philoxenite (Mareotis)
10:00 a.m. Burkart Ullrich (Eastern Atlas) - Robert Kell (Eastern Atlas) - Jess Meyer (Eastern Atlas) - Wieke de Neef (Universität Bamberg): The whole is greater than the sum of its parts - Geophysical Prospecting of Ancient Cities

11:00 a.m. Melanie Jonasch (DAI Rom): Constructing, rediscovering and visualizing ancient Selinunte. Notes from a current field project

11:30 a.m. Curvers, Hans – Held, Winfried – Lehnert, Christoph – Wilkening-Aumann, Christine (Philipps-Universität Marburg): (Re)Constructing the Colonia Iulia Augusta Felix Berytus

12:00 a.m. Final discussion

14:00 a.m.: Guided tour of the restoration workshops

Constructing Ancient Cities

Call for papers for an international conference to be held at the Leibniz Centre for Archaeology (LEIZA - RGZM), Mainz (Germany), 11th-12th September 2023

 

Deadline for the submission of paper proposals (max. 300 words): Sunday 16th April 2023

 

Hagit Nol	Goethe -University of Frankfurt
Franziska Lehmann	DAI Athen
Maximiliane Gindele	Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
Dilrabo Tosheva	Yale University
Jérôme André	University of Lausanne
Opeyemi Adewale	Independent Researcher Lagos, Nigeria
Julia Heil	Christian-Albrechts- University Kiel
Nicole Kröll	University of Vienna
Christoph Lehnert	Phillipps University Marburg
Andrzej Bruno Kutiak	Technical University of Munich
Burkart Ullrich	Eastern Atlas - Berlin
Seth Bernard	University of Toronto
Melanie Jonasch	DAI Rom
Maria Cristina Biella	La Sapienza University of Rome
Dominik Maschek	Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie, Mainz
Muminkhon Saidov	Samarkand Institute of Archaeology, Uzbekistan
Jess Meyer	Eastern Atlas-Berlin

 

Constructing Ancient Cities

11-12 September, 2023

Venue: Leiza,  Mainz

Hotel: Favorite Hotel, Mainz

Cities are at the end of a long development process; they are constructed materially, socially, and constructed through the history of ideas, regardless of whether they have grown organically or are founded ex novo. From an emic point of view, the construction of ancient cities can be associated with organizational, infrastructural, economic, social, political and cultural challenges linked, from an ethical point of view, with those of the history and theory of knowledge. Central are the questions of what it takes to construct a city, what it means to construct cities, and how cities and their construction are in turn constructed as objects of knowledge. These various challenges have been addressed in recent years in numerous individual disciplines, ranging from the ancient studies, art history, sociology, and the history of knowledge, intensively, but mostly only in single aspects or disciplinary contexts. In the conference, these different approaches will be brought together and the construction of ancient cities will be illuminated from three different perspectives.

 

1) How are ancient cities planned, constructed, built, and supplied? Which sources,

methodological, and theoretical approaches can be made fruitful here, and how has the perspective on these processes changed by the establishment of Digital Humanities and the inclusion of Big Data? How can ancient communities be understood through the

construction processes and the accompanying social, economic, and aesthetic

decisions better understood? For example, what role do construction techniques and

materials play in the aesthetic perception of cities and their socio-cultural location?

 

2) How were cities and their construction negotiated or reflected literary, epigraphically, and visually? What role do (new) foundations, rebuildings, ruins or the staging of construction and

and supply processes play in different media? Can political, economic, social, religious, or material decisions and the debates leading up to them?

 

3) How were and are cities and their construction modeled methodically, theoretically, and as knowledge objects? The construction of cities is not just a single, linear, material process, but often equally iterative processes and non-linear processes that take place in leaps and bounds. Here a number of different knowledge, historical and theoretical practices can be taken into account, which can range from schemata of order, model formations to visualizations in diagrams and plans.

The conference will primarily focus on a period from the Bronze Age to the Early Middle Ages, with an emphasis on the wider Mediterranean region. Contributions are welcome from ancient studies, art history, human geography, sociology, and related disciplines that address one or more of the three central questions. Early career researchers are strongly encouraged to apply. Prompt publication of the conference will be sought.

Scientific Organizers: Dr. Paul Pasieka and Dr. Mariachiara Franceschini