Ancient Societies Workshop
The theme for the Ancient Societies Workshop in 2009-10 will be Religion and Law. It is chosen to reflect a confluence between the research agendas of many current students and faculty, as well as broader currents in the study of Near Eastern, Greek and Roman antiquity. It also represents a natural development on last year's theme, "Epigraphic habits." This is so for several reasons. First, many religious systems in the ancient world publicized the rules of cult, even occasionally deontological texts, on stone, and epigraphic work in recent years has brought much new material to light. Second, historical and linguistic investigation has in many areas allowed us to contextualize these legal documents more robustly than ever before. Finally and perhaps most importantly, ancient history (like other fields of historical inquiry) is witnessing a renewed emphasis, buttressed by new questions and new techniques, on the study of law. The time is ripe to bring the fruits of that labor to bear upon the role of discourses of law in the self-articulation of cultic communities, and likewise in the regulation of such by the political communities in which they existed.
Unless otherwise noted in the schedule, workshops take place on alternate Tuesdays at 3:30pm in Classics 21.