March 8, 2018 – The Italian Archaeological School of Athens will host an international congress from 13-14 June 2018 dealing with ‘Monetary and Social Aspects of Hellenistic Crete’.
Congress aim
Current research on Crete is opening new views on the historic and economic context of the island and on its relations within the broader Mediterranean. Studies published in recent years have begun to reconstruct the urban and territorial organisation, developing a more complex profile for the Hellenistic period than had been previously theorised. However there remain notable difficulties in interpreting the social and economic phenomena.
The congress provides an opportunity for encounter and reflection, serving in further analysing the signs of development that determined transformations in the monetary, administrative, urban and political areas.
In the past, the overall themes were addressed by studies in different areas, exploring the specificities and effects of phenomena such as mercenarism, commercial and military relations, and the internal and external political dynamics.
In recent years there has been a trend towards research concerning individual cities or regional contexts, which has provided important advances. These individual studies give rise to the need for correlation and comparison between the different data and knowledge advancements. The aim of the congress is to promote the integration of the different analyses, and so gain further understanding of phenomena related to urbanism, the economy, and commercial policies, with particular attention to evaluating the influence of contacts between the great centres of the Mediterranean and the Cretan context.
The congress is organised in thematic sections, opening with a presentation on the archaeological context for the island, evidencing the specificities of the urban and territorial conditions and identifying the problems in understanding the processes of economic and social transformation in the Hellenistic era.
The next session focuses on the analyses of historic and epigraphic data, useful in investigating the evolutionary processes in administrative and economic systems.
Following this will be an encounter on the monetary economy. Recent numismatic research has dealt with this matter both at the internal level and as regards influences from external contexts on Cretan monetary aspects, focusing on revealing the peculiarities of the local systems of use and on aspects of production.
The congress is an occasion to advance the study of the different data sources, and their interpretation via multidisciplinary approaches. It represents an opportunity to delineate an overall vision of the phenomena influencing the island in the Hellenistic area, going beyond the traditional models of scholarship.
For this reason, the congress organisers call for the presentation of new studies, on themes of socio-economic relevance, deriving from analysis of specific contexts or on the regional scale. The proposed integration of knowledge will assist in:
- identifying significant moments of transformation in the social, political and economic spheres;
- evaluating the economic relations between the Cretan context and the other Mediterranean centres.
The congress will close with final discussions and debate on the identification of synergies and programmatic lines in research, for the study of the problems emerging during the various sessions.
Call for posters
Given the number of young researchers now active in analyses related to the Cretan context in the Hellenistic era, the organisers are launching a call for posters, intended to elicit new information and stimulate new lines of thought. Presenters should note that there will be a specific section in the program devoted to discussion and debate on the whole of the poster presentations.
Posters can include presentations of material, topographic elements, quantitative data, or interpretive syntheses, and must be in the format indicated by the conference organisers, with text not to exceed 3,000 characters. To propose a poster, send an abstract of 500-800 characters, within 15 March 2018, to Federico Carbone. Proposals will be evaluated by the Scientific Committee (Renata Cantilena, Federico Carbone, Giovanni Marginesu, Emanuele Papi).
For further information on the venue go to the website of the Italian Archaeological School of Athens.