Remembering the Bronze Age in the Iron Age
Memory, Material Culture, and the Past as Resource in the Ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean
Tübingen: 08.-10.10.2015
The aim of this two-day conference, which was held at the Eberhard-Karls Universität, Tübingen and with the generous support of the Volkswagen Foundation, was to bring together international experts in the material culture of the Mediterranean and ancient Near East to address from different vantages the question of how Iron Age communities interacted materially with the(ir) Bronze Age past. The Bronze Age in particular saw the formation of literature, art, architecture, and political systems that for later states would represent classical expressions to be emulated or coopted. In particular, the focus of this conference was on how states and individuals in the Iron Age re-used, erased, appealed to, rejected, and otherwise transformed Bronze Age material culture and history as part of their own ongoing identity formation. The conference also dovetailed with the University of Tübingen Sonderforschungsbereich 1070, “RessourcenKulturen”, and especially with Teilprojekt A06 on control of resources across the LB/IA transition. Conference participants included scholars of ancient Greece, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia, coming from North America, Europe, and the Middle East.
Organsation and information: Prof. Dr. Cory Crawford (crawfoc1@ohio.edu)
