Trevor Van Damme (Ph.D. candidate, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA), “Food for Thought: The Granary at Mycenae Revisited”

The so-called Granary at Mycenae was one of the first structures excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876, even before his discovery of rich Early Mycenaean shaft graves in Grave Circle A. Although clearly an important and well-preserved structure, its function remained unclear. Its excavation was completed by Alan Wace in 1920, who, on account of abundant charred remains of cereals and vetches, suggested a public storage function for the structure and named it the Granary. 

In this paper, I re-examine the excavation records of both Schliemann and Wace and compare the recovered assemblage of finds to typical post-palatial households elsewhere. The presence of a large number of undecorated three-handled goblets in particular suggests ritualized drinking may have been integral to its function and offers tantalizing links between the LH IIIC Granary and the early Mycenaean Grave Circle A.

The 2017 Canadian Institute in Greece Biannual Student Conference: "Regional Identitites in the Greek World"

Keynote Lecturer: Craig Hardiman (University of Waterloo), "Micro-Regionalism, Macro-Regionalism and a Hellenistic Artistic Koine" 

The Hellenistic period is almost defined as non-Regional. The term, coined in the 19th c. means "to make Greek" and the subsequent history of the discipline suggests a cultural koine (commonality) that was consciously spread by Alexander the Great and supported by his successors. And yet the Hellenistic period was also a multi-cultural world where these very successors, their poets and artists, had to communicate to differing populations and were exposed to new ideas and traditions that were very non-Greek. Even within the established "old" Greek world, many scholars are examining regional differentiation and specializing in order to distinguish their region from a "generic' Greek experience. The work that the University of Alberta has done in Thessaly through the Canadian Institute in Greece is but one such example. But how far can regionalism as a methodology take us? Are we discarding a sense of the culturally communal, the very basis for the discipline of Classical Studies, by focussing on small regions and (perhaps) small differences? This paper will explore regionalism within the context of Hellenistic material (especially artistic) production in order to make us more aware of the issues surrounding regionalism as a methodology.

Location: University of Alberta, Business 1-5

Time: 6:00pm, Jan 27

All panels will be held on Jan 28, Tory 2-58

Panel 1: Studies on Material Culture (Chair: Margriet Haagsma)

10:00-10:30: Katherine Bishop, "The Interwoven Effects of Regionalism in Achaia Phthiotis"

10:30-11:00: Karey Thomson, "Utilitarian Pottery and Connectivity in the Late Hellenistic World: On Finding Cooking Pots from Asia Minor and Achaia Phthiotis"

11:00-11:30: Rachel DeGraaf, "Paximadi’s Past: Work on Early Canadian Excavations near Karystos in Euboia"

11:30 – 1:00 LUNCH

Panel 2: Dealing with the Written Sources (Chair: Dr Selina Stewart)

1:00 – 1:30: Jilene Tobin, "Plato’s Theory of Forms"

1:30-2:00: Adam Wiznura, "The Ambiguity of the Status of the Penestai in Thessaly"

2:00 – 2:30: Chris Lougheed, "Symmachus as Socrates: Greek and Roman in the Self-Presentation of a Late Roman Senator"

Panel 3: History and Archaeology of Greek Identity (Chair: Dr Frances Pownall)

2:30-3:00: Toryn Suddaby, "Behind the Artemis Orthia Masks: Engendering Spartan Identity"

3:00-3:30: Gino Canlas, "Roman Perceptions of Thessalian Identities: Philia and Pythion"

3:30-4:00: Kristen Millions, "The Invention of Minoan Religion: Implications of Modern Analyses on the Identities of Ancient Peoples"

Daryn Lehoux PhD (Queen’s University Kingston),  "The Antikythera Mechanism: An Ancient Astronomical Computer"

Professor Lehoux, author of Astronomy, Weather, and Calendars in the Ancient World (Cambridge University Press, 2007), will look at the history of the world’s oldest computer, its discovery and how its secrets were revealed.

Screening of the Canadian Movie, “Gunless” (2010; 1 hour 29 minutes; English)

When notorious American gunslinger, The Montana Kid, staggers into the tiny Canadian hamlet of Barclay's Brush, life for the town's 17 inhabitants is about to get exciting. The Kid immediately gets into an unfortunate altercation with Jack, the town's surly blacksmith, which leads to The Kid 'calling him out' for some good old frontier justice - a showdown. But in a place totally ill prepared to deal with a classic gun fight and without a single working pistol to be found, adhering to the code of the American Wild West may prove difficult. Not able to let go of the 'code', The Kid remains stuck in Barclay's Brush, getting drawn into a strange world of eccentric rituals and characters; among them Jane, a smart sassy woman who becomes his only hope of finding a way out...or perhaps his only reason for staying....