tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51132829272676324912024-03-13T04:54:03.678-07:00Networks in the Roman Near EastEH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-67678509302430966932017-06-23T11:38:00.000-07:002017-06-23T11:38:17.354-07:00Exhibition: Journeys to Tadmor: History and Heritage in Palmyra and the Middle East<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V77cpe5OtMU/WUWG4XdJqOI/AAAAAAAAD0I/kzksG8PQrs8oU8nbKkHibsTLREhLkcFWQCLcBGAs/s1600/Bymuseet_BM%2BA3plakat_Tadmor_juni2017_72.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1191" data-original-width="842" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V77cpe5OtMU/WUWG4XdJqOI/AAAAAAAAD0I/kzksG8PQrs8oU8nbKkHibsTLREhLkcFWQCLcBGAs/s640/Bymuseet_BM%2BA3plakat_Tadmor_juni2017_72.jpg" width="452" /></a></div>
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Our project is coming to an end. Most of our research finished last December, although publications will continue to come out for quite a while. Thanks to a special grant from our sponsor, the Research Council of Norway, we did, however, get a six months extension in order to work with communication and dissemination. Over the last months my colleagues Birgit and Håkon have been working hard together with colleagues from <a href="http://www.bymuseet.no/vaare-museer/bryggens-museum/" target="_blank">Bergen City Museum</a> and British artist <a href="https://www.amandachambers.co.uk/" target="_blank">Amanda Chambers</a> to plan and prepare for our final activity, the exhibition <i>Journeys to Tadmor: History and Heritage in Palmyra and the Middle East.</i><br />
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Last fall, while we were pondering how to to communicate the importance of social networks in the distant past of the Near East to a modern public, we were contacted by Amanda, who had been moved by the Islamic State's wanton destructions in Palmyra in 2015 to produce her artwork <i>Exhume. </i>Amanda were looking for possible venues to display her art in Norway. As we care deeply about Palmyra, a place around which much of my own scholarship revolves and from which we all have fond memories, we decided to tell our project-story about the networked past of the Near East focused through the city. We also wanted to highlight the relationship between past, present, and future, and the role og heritage and history. Thus, although our emphasis is certainly on the Roman period, we decided to use the Aramaic and Arabic name for Palmyra – Tadmor, and to follow this remarkable place through history.<br />
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To our luck, Bryggens Museum, a part of Bergen City Museum were able to accommodate us in their schedule this summer. Bryggens Museum main focus is Medieval Bergen, but they also have frequent special exhibitions and resident artists. As Bergen, like Palmyra, was build on long-distance trade the venue felt all the more relevant. Our project is funded by the Research Council of Norway <a href="https://www.forskningsradet.no/servlet/Satellite?c=Page&hits=30&pagename=samkul%2FHovedsidemal&cid=1253964329600&querystring=klimaforsk&spell=true&filters=langcodes%252Cno&param=globalprogramsitesearch&programsite=samkul&maalsetting=SAMKUL&isglobalsearch=true&configuration=nfrsearchersppublished" target="_blank">SAMKUL</a> program, which supports research addressing 'the cultural precondition of societal development'. Projects are encouraged to engage with stakeholders and the public and they generously agreed to cover most of the exhibition costs.<br />
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While we have done <a href="http://www.org.uib.no/palmyrena/" target="_blank">research on Palmyra in Bergen</a> for more than a decade, our otherwise fine city does not boast a collection of classical art. <a href="http://www.glyptoteket.dk/" target="_blank">Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek</a> in Copenhagen, however, has the largest collection of Palmyrene sculpture outside Syria, and generously agreed to lend us a funerary bust depicting the Palmyrene couple Atenatan and Salmat who lived in the second century CE along with three <i>tesserae – </i>clay tokens that were used as entrance tickets to religious banquets in ancient Palmyra. Our own university museum has coins from rulers that were involved in the dramatic events in Palmyra in the third century CE, including Vaballathus, Aurelian and Diocletian, along with ethnographic material documenting trade goods as well as Bedouin life in the Near East. The University library in Oslo kindly lent us their first edition of Robert Woods famous <i>Les Ruins de Palmyre </i>(1753), the book that made Palmyra famous throughout the world, and together with our own library they came up with books by Norwegian authors who have been inspired by the fate of Zenobia and Palmyra. With tourist memorabilia, 3D prints, digital models and lots of photos we have what we need to relate the story of Palmyra from the Bronze Age beginnings until todays sad destruction and debate on the role of cultural heritage in the Middle East as well as in the West. Through Palmyra we hope to show how networks connected people and places in the past, how they are sometimes and with dramatic consequences disconnected, and how networks also stretch across time.<br />
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The exhibition opens on June 30th and stands until September 17th in <a href="http://www.bymuseet.no/vaare-museer/bryggens-museum/" target="_blank">Bryggens Museum</a>. The catalogue will be put online after the exhibition period.<br />
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EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-42932285231510667662017-04-26T05:56:00.004-07:002017-04-26T05:56:47.243-07:00New book out: Sinews of Empire: Networks in the Roman Near East and Beyond<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-n_VwQOsSlq4/WQCV-ssWlnI/AAAAAAAADzY/3b-Xe5S-SiECPddev4HQ8pYR73V46ovTgCLcB/s1600/Sinews%2Bof%2BEmpire%2BCover%2BFull.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="395" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-n_VwQOsSlq4/WQCV-ssWlnI/AAAAAAAADzY/3b-Xe5S-SiECPddev4HQ8pYR73V46ovTgCLcB/s640/Sinews%2Bof%2BEmpire%2BCover%2BFull.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Our project is inevitably coming to an end, but we'll still have results to present for some time to come. Just today we sent our edited volume <i>Sinews of Empire: Networks in the Roman Near East and Beyond </i>to the press. It is already available for preorder at a special pre-publication price at<a href="http://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/sinews-of-empire.html" target="_blank"> Oxbow Books</a>.<br />
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Below is the cover-text and table of contents:<br />
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A recent surge of interest in network approaches to the study of the ancient world has enabled scholars of the Roman Empire to move beyond traditional narratives of domination, resistance, integration and fragmentation. This relational turn has offered tools to identify, map, visualise and, in some cases, quantify interaction based on a variety of ancient source materials. It also provides a terminology to deal with the everyday ties of power, trade and ideology that operated within, below and beyond the superstructure of imperial rule. Thirteen contributions employ a range of quantitative, qualitative and descriptive network approaches in order to provide new perspectives on trade, communication, administration, technology, religion and municipal life in the Roman Near East and adjacent regions.<br />
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Sinews of empire
and the relational turn in classical scholarship <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Håkon Teigen and Eivind Heldaas Seland<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Going mental.
Culture, exchange and compromise in Rome’s trade with the East<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Wim Broekaert<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Sinews of belief,
anchors of devotion: the cult of Zeus Kasios in the Mediterranean<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Anna Collar<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Numismatic
communities in the northern South Caucasus 300 BCE–300 CE: A geospatial analysis of coin finds from
Caucasian Iberia and Caucasian Albania<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Lara Fabian<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The diffusion of
architectural innovations: Modelling social networks in the ancient building
trade<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Henrik Gerding & Per Östborn<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Texture of
empire: Personal networks and the modus operandi of Roman hegemony<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Michael Sommer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Sinews of the
other empire: The Parthian Great King’s rule over vassal kingdoms<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Leonardo Gregoratti<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Speech patterns
as indicators of religious identities: the Manichaean community in late antique
Egypt<sup><o:p></o:p></sup></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Mattias Brand<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Networking beyond
death: Priests and their family networks in Palmyra explored through the
funerary sculpture<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Rubina Raja<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Trade networks
among the army camps of the Eastern Desert of Roman Egypt<sup>*</sup><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Yanne Broux<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Palmyrene
merchant networks and economic integration in competitive markets<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Katia Schörle</span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: FR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Businessmen and
local elites in the Lycos valley<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="DE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: DE;">Kerstin Droß-Krüpe<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The social
networks of late antique Western Thebes<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Elisabeth O’Connell and Giovanni R. Ruffini<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-61357866360913165622016-11-07T00:42:00.001-08:002016-11-07T00:42:02.646-08:00Roundtable: Social Aspects of Religion in Late Antiquity<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-shYwVSjcTds/WCA-GZG0EBI/AAAAAAAAFzc/SOIIEsl4sZ09zTYzkHjaVX3Tu884NdEFACK4B/s1600/Antikken_SocialRoundtable.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-shYwVSjcTds/WCA-GZG0EBI/AAAAAAAAFzc/SOIIEsl4sZ09zTYzkHjaVX3Tu884NdEFACK4B/s320/Antikken_SocialRoundtable.jpg" width="226" /></a>We are looking forward to the roundtable discussion we are hosting on Friday 11 November on Social Aspects of Religion in Late Antiquity. Besides members of the NeRoNE project and the research group Ancient history, culture and religion, we are happy to have some international guests with us around the table: René Falkenberg from Aarhus University, Giovanni Rufini from Fairfield University (Connecticut), and Mattias Brand from Leiden University.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243733497295755454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-71134911015675373552016-10-07T04:04:00.002-07:002016-10-07T04:05:50.062-07:00On dromedaries and the art of classifying diplomatic gifts<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By Birgit van der Lans</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5Sib_OBZAKM/V_dzj5jIPXI/AAAAAAAAFxg/i-rvEM3GFQQMgqO9Y7wLaSdyup6MPRsWQCLcB/s1600/Iran2016_MH-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5Sib_OBZAKM/V_dzj5jIPXI/AAAAAAAAFxg/i-rvEM3GFQQMgqO9Y7wLaSdyup6MPRsWQCLcB/s400/Iran2016_MH-6.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>At Persepolis. Photo: Magnus Halsnes</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Last month NeRoNE went to Iran, where
many of our individual interests came together.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Relief IV at Bishapur. Photo: Magnus Halsnes</i></td></tr>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A good example is this Sasanian rock
relief, located in the Tang-e Chowgang river gorge on the road leading to the
city of Bishapur. Bishapur was founded by Shapur I and built by Roman soldiers
who had been captured after the defeat of Valerian in 260 CE. The relief above,
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">The Arabian origin of the six envoys
was already established in 19<sup>th</sup> century French descriptions of the
Bishapur reliefs. Their long, belted garments, short moustaches, characteristic
head-cloths as well as the dromedaries all point in the geographical direction
of the Arabian desert. It is possible to be more specific about the provenance
of the embassy and about its date and occasion if a </span><span lang="NL"><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0471.2009.00313.x/abstract"><span lang="NL" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="NL">recent suggestion</span></span></a></span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> is followed that the relief depicts the coming of a
Himyarite embassy sent by king Shammar Yuhar’ish (287 – 311 CE). In the course
of his rule South Arabia was unified under the kingdom of Himyar. Shammar
Yuhar’ish is also reported to have established closer diplomatic relations with
the Sasanians, presumably in order to support his position vis-à-vis his
Ethiopian rivals at Axum, who were in turn backed by Rome. For the otherwise
not very successful Bahram II, to depict the arrival of the Himyarite embassy,
if this identification is correct, was to publicise a Sasanian step forward in
the competition with Rome over influence in the Red Sea region.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This was not the only instance we
saw of camels with one or two humps being presented to Persian rulers. In
various ways the iconography of the Sasanian reliefs harks back to the stone
carvings with which their Achaemenid predecessors represented their dynasty (c.
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<i><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">a) Bactrian camel with Bactrians </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o8z2Bf8G-VE/V_d-oG0cOiI/AAAAAAAAFx4/VOijE2_4ncU-AQDG3n8ZSiKyurDY7dasgCEw/s1600/Persepolis%2BArabians%2BBirgit-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="211" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o8z2Bf8G-VE/V_d-oG0cOiI/AAAAAAAAFx4/VOijE2_4ncU-AQDG3n8ZSiKyurDY7dasgCEw/s320/Persepolis%2BArabians%2BBirgit-2.jpg" title="" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 14.399999618530273px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">b) Arabian camel (dromedary) with Arabs. Photos: Birgit van der Lans</span></span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here the eastern stairs of the Apadana feature several camels being
presented to the great king at the occasion of the New Year’s festival by
delegations of nations subject to the Persian empire: the Bactrians, Arians,
Parthians and Arachosians bring Bactrian two-humped camels (fig. a) while the
Arabian team brings along a dromedary (fig. b). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">The appearance of camels and
dromedaries on such reliefs is not difficult to explain. After their
domestication in the early first millennium BCE the animals became crucial to </span><span lang="NL"><a href="https://www.academia.edu/28122277/Camels_camel_nomadism_and_the_practicalities_of_Palmyrene_caravan_trade"><span lang="NL" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="NL">the development of long-distance trade</span></span></a></span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> because of their ability to carry substantial loads
and to travel long distances in arid regions. Camels thus became valuable
commodities to those who herded them and to those who obtained them. The
association with the caravan trade turned them into symbols of wealth. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%;">Especially fine animals could fetch high prices, bring prestige to owners
and make good diplomatic gifts.</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yet value and meaning depend on the
context of representation. As on Bahram’s relief at Bishapur, the envoys in
Persepolis are led by the hand by a courtier, in this case towards the audience
hall where they would be received by the king. They are dressed in native
outfits and carry objects and animals that represent their origins. Despite
these similarities in iconography, the Persepolis camels are classified as
‘tribute’ rather than as ‘diplomatic gifts’. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although it probably did not matter
much to the camels themselves, it did make a difference whether they were handed
over as tribute or as gifts. The two types of exchange expressed and
constituted different types of social relations and distributions of power. Objects
that function as tribute signal an asymmetrical hierarchy of power between
rulers on the one hand and subjects, clients or vassals on the other. Whereas
tribute displays submission and can be demanded or imposed, diplomatic gifts
are associated with the voluntary and reciprocal exchange between equal or
nominally independent agents. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Despite its importance, the
distinction between tribute and gift (and booty, for that matter) could be
difficult to make out in individual cases, for instance when the context of
exchange is not articulated and all that survives are the (mostly material)
objects themselves. Moreover, the meaning of the exchanged goods and – by proxy
– the underlying social relations were subject to negotiation and rhetorical manipulation.
Some good examples can be found in </span><span lang="NL"><a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo3622184.html"><span lang="NL" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="NL">Marian Feldman’s study of luxury goods
in the diplomatic exchange in the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean</span></span></a></span><span style="line-height: 150%;">. She shows that goods could be called gifts even
though they amounted to tribute in the reality of power relations, while
conversely they could be presented as tribute when they had been intended as
gifts. The </span><span lang="NL"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarna_letters"><span lang="NL" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="NL">Amarna <span lang="NL">archive</span></span></span></a></span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> provides perhaps the best illustration of the
sensitivities when the distinction was misrepresented or ignored. In one letter
the king of Babylon complains that the Egyptian pharaoh had displayed the
Babylonian chariots he had sent as diplomatic gifts alongside chariots which the
pharaoh had acquired as tribute from Egyptian vassals. Here, failing to
distinguish between tribute and gift amounts to a public humiliation (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">EA</i> 1: 89-92; correspondence between Kadasman-Enlil
I and Amenhotep III). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Classifying diplomatic gifts is an
intricate art. Even when camels are not confused with dromedaries and gifts are
correctly distinguished from tribute, the camel may still </span><span lang="NL"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/world/europe/hollandes-camel-a-gift-from-mali-becomes-tagine.html?_r=0"><span lang="NL" style="line-height: 150%;"><span lang="NL">end up as dinner</span></span></a></span><span style="line-height: 150%;">. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243733497295755454noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-68548785178813254212016-09-28T11:31:00.002-07:002016-09-28T11:32:55.657-07:00New publication: The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: A network approach<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is a Roman period guide to trade and navigation in the Indian Ocean. Justly famous for offering a contemporary and descriptive account of early Indian Ocean trade, the work has been subject to and a point of departure for numerous studies. Its extensive influence on scholarship is, however, also problematic, as it reflects the limited information and cultural and personal bias of its unknown author. Network analysis allows us to map, visualize and measure interconnectedness in this text. Many of these connections are not explicitly mentioned in the text, but by connecting not only places with places, but also products with places that export and import them, we get a partly different impression of Indian Ocean trade from that conventionally gathered from the Periplus. It allows us to ask questions about the relationship between coastal cabotage and transoceanic shipping, to identify regional trading circuits, and unexpected centres of long-distance exchange.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.thearwh.org/journal/ARWH_4_2_Articles/arwh_4_2_Seland.pdf" target="_blank">Asian Review of World Histories // Volume 4, Issue 2/JULY 2016, pp. 191-205</a><br />
<br />
Zoomable figures and dataset are available from <a href="http://bora.uib.no/handle/1956/11470" target="_blank">Bergen Open Research Archive</a></div>
EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-54139154532144072042016-08-17T12:53:00.001-07:002016-08-17T12:53:24.192-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uGwnkJunwOA/V7TAOL5ymlI/AAAAAAAADuE/fFFop8nUVrkHrS7T78wbecj-WJPK9KqfQCLcB/s1600/Antikken_Jan2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uGwnkJunwOA/V7TAOL5ymlI/AAAAAAAADuE/fFFop8nUVrkHrS7T78wbecj-WJPK9KqfQCLcB/s640/Antikken_Jan2.jpg" width="453" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-66116702875759368072016-04-28T12:22:00.000-07:002016-04-28T12:22:00.582-07:00New publication on Palmyra<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F6BKep-Pr0E/VyJgsKOxJKI/AAAAAAAADss/YJSh5RVhLoUwjPwJkjNmfgsY3O_H-pt8QCLcB/s1600/Meyer%2Bcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F6BKep-Pr0E/VyJgsKOxJKI/AAAAAAAADss/YJSh5RVhLoUwjPwJkjNmfgsY3O_H-pt8QCLcB/s320/Meyer%2Bcover.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>
Together with colleagues Jørgen Christian Meyer and Nils Anfinset I have a new edited book out. Very little networks, but lots of Roman Near East. These are the proceedings of a conference we hosted at the Norwegian Institute in Athens in December 2012 as a part of a research project on <a href="http://org.uib.no/palmyrena" target="_blank">Palmyra</a>. It brings together results of international fieldwork and research on the Syrian caravan city until the start of the Syrian civil war. The book can be bought in paper or as e-book from <a href="http://archaeopress.com/ArchaeopressShop/Public/displayProductDetail.asp?id={4574F8B8-BEBF-43FA-B7B0-90F0DA0904F0}" target="_blank">Archaeopress</a>. See their web-site for full details on contents. </div>
EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-40463032285913531742016-03-29T13:06:00.001-07:002016-03-29T13:06:23.597-07:00Petition without Response: Diplomatic Language in the Christian Apologists<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z8cHZCpKWIQ/VvrfPCY-mBI/AAAAAAAADr8/sfMIUNqUOfEpZtiepgWvp5ljVfPqvR5hw/s1600/Paris_grec450_HadriansRescript_fol239.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="420" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z8cHZCpKWIQ/VvrfPCY-mBI/AAAAAAAADr8/sfMIUNqUOfEpZtiepgWvp5ljVfPqvR5hw/s640/Paris_grec450_HadriansRescript_fol239.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; text-align: start;">'a rescript from Hadrian in Justin Martyr's 1 Apology, in the medieval manuscript Parisinus graecus 450, fol. 239 <br />(Source: </span><a href="http://gallica.bnf.fr/" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; text-align: start;">gallica.bnf.fr</a><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; text-align: start;"> / Bibliothèque nationale de France)</span></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">By Birgit van der Lans<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The Easter break – when Norwegian cities depopulate but the traditional Påskekrimi
provides for some excitement – gave me opportunity to write a few words to
introduce myself and my research on this blog. For about two months now I have
very much enjoyed being associated with the NeRoNe project, after moving from
Groningen to Bergen to join the research group </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: JA;">"Ancient History, Culture and Religion" as a
guest researcher. The coming year I will be working on a project </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">(funded by a contribution from the Niels Stensen Fellowship) on the roles
and expressions of religion in the diplomatic networks of the early Roman
Empire. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X9lm_bGSCOs/VvrfPLgAMNI/AAAAAAAADr4/9YKgBenMVnoQzwesxBlbCoJ3eXdd0a38A/s1600/picture-22930-1457012534.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X9lm_bGSCOs/VvrfPLgAMNI/AAAAAAAADr4/9YKgBenMVnoQzwesxBlbCoJ3eXdd0a38A/s200/picture-22930-1457012534.jpg" width="160" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Birgit van der Lans joins the<br />NeRoNE group as a guest-<br />researcher for 2016.</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">When we think about ‘diplomacy’, we associate it with international relations,
with foreign affairs and with a professional diplomatic service to negotiate
relationships between autonomous nation states. In the context of the Roman
Empire – as Fergus Millar has made clear – the distinction between external
diplomacy and internal affairs is less appropriate. The relationship between
Rome and the local polities that had become part of the Empire was managed by a
system of ‘internal diplomacy’ in which the emperor and other Roman officials
received embassies and responded to the countless demands and requests by very
different types of subjects.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Just like contemporary diplomatic practice is no longer the exclusive
terrain of nation states, the social agents who took part in diplomatic
exchange were diverse: besides cities, provincial councils or client kingdoms,
embassies were dispatched by local religious associations, ethnic communities, and
the ‘world-wide’ organisations of athletes and theatrical performers. City
magistrates, high priests presiding over different sorts of associations and
skilled rhetors were selected as envoys and amassed prestige by acting as
brokers. Diplomatic connections were formed by such travelling persons, but
also by the exchange of written documents: petitions, honorific decrees and
imperial rescripts were copied, circulated, archived and displayed by
interested parties. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">This complex administrative system can be analysed as a social network
with nodes, hubs, edges and clusters and flows. I think that the network
perspective helps us to understand change and continuity in the imperial
administration, but I will be looking mainly for the religious practices, concepts
and agents that constituted – or impeded – diplomatic relations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">My chronological focus will be on the Hadrianic-Antonine period, when
Christians began to participate in diplomatic networks – or at least claimed to
do. From the second century onwards we hear of several Christians - Justin
Martyr, Melito of Sardis, Athenagoras of Athens, among others – who addressed
petitions to the emperor and used diplomatic forms and language to package
‘apologetic’ writings, in which they defended Christianity against accusations
of atheism, incest and cannibalism. I suspect that the activities of these new
diplomatic agents, who can be placed among other ‘intellectual’ diplomats
associated with the Second Sophistic, offer a fruitful entry point to
understand the intersection of religious and diplomatic networks in this
period.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I hope to give some updates on this blog about developments in research and
other planned activities – starting with my first talk for the research group </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: JA;">"Ancient History, Culture and
Religion"</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> this Thursday (the 31<sup>st</sup>). A few days later
I will travel to Canada for 6 weeks of research at York University, where I
will be working mainly on the diplomatic activities of Greco-Roman
associations, and a talk for the Ottawa Early Christianity Group. When I come
back to Bergen, the Påskehare is long gone, but the 17. Mai celebrations will soon
offer the next occasion to explore Norwegian traditions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-26085740881636724562015-12-01T09:18:00.001-08:002015-12-01T09:18:36.880-08:00Conference: Sinews of empire: Networks and regional interaction in the Roman Near East and beyond<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally the time has arrived for our project conference, which takes place a<span style="text-align: center;">t the Norwegian Institute in Athens over the next few days (Dec. 2nd-4th). </span><span style="text-align: center;">Proceedings will be published in due time. For now this is a list of our speakers:</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Vincent Gabrielsen, University of
Copenhagen: <i>Alongside the
State, Beside the Temple, Next to the Market: Exemplifying the Network as a
category of historical analysis</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Kasper Grønlund Evers, University of Copenhagen,
<i>Crucibles of collaboration: a comparative study of
associations and other organisations in ancient Near Eastern commerce<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Michael Sommer, University of Oldenburg, <i>The
mechanics of empire. Personal networks and the modus operandi of Roman hegemony<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Tom Brughmans, University of Konstanz, <i>Simulating Roman economic integration: correlations between transport
distance and price in a network model of tableware distribution in the Roman
East</i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Henrik Gerding and Per Östborn, University
of Lund, <i>Brick makers, builders, and
commissioners in the Hellenistic world: modelling social networks to fit
archaeological data<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lara Fabian, University of Pennsylvania, <i>Numismatic communities of the South
Caucasus: Geospatial analysis of 3nd c. BCE- 3th c. CE coin finds<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">Leonardo Gregoratti, Durham University, </span><i>Sinews of the
other Empire: Parthian Great King’s rule over vassal Kingdoms<span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">Kerstin Droß-Krüpe, University of Kassel,</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><i>Businessmen
and local elites in Roman Asia Minor</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yanne Broux, Leuven University,<i> Trade networks among the
army camps of the Eastern Desert of Roman Egypt<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rubina Raja, Aarhus University, <i>Networking beyond death: Social networks in Palmyra - the funerary
evidence</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ted Kaizer, Durham University, <i>Networks between Palmyra and Dura Europos<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Katia Schörle, University of Nice, <i>Mapping Economic Integrations in Palmyrene Networks </i> <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Giovanni
Ruffini, Fairfield University, <i>The Social
Networks of Late Antique Thebes</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Håkon Teigen, University of Bergen,<i> The Manichaean Church in Roman Egypt: church officials and their
networks<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mattias Brand,
University of Leiden, <i>Exploring speech
patterns in social networks as indicators of religious change: the Manichaean
community in late antique Egypt<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Anna Collar, Aarhus University, <i>Sinews of belief, anchors
of devotion: the cult of Zeus Kasios in the Mediterranean</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Taco Terpstra, Northwestern University, <i>Mediterranean
Connectivity, State Institutions, and Phoenician Trade.</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Eivind Heldaas
Seland, University of Bergen,<i> </i><i>Networks in the
Roman Near East: Cases, perspectives, lessons<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-28930189850144937062015-11-23T12:40:00.001-08:002015-11-23T12:40:30.834-08:00New publication: Writ in water, lines in sand<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've got a new article out. It is called <a href="http://cogentoa.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311983.2015.1110272" target="_blank">"Writ in water, lines in sand: Ancient trade routes, models and comparative evidence"</a> and deals with the problems of tracing connectivity in the distant past. It started as a paper at the workshop <i>A Thousand Worlds: Network Models in Archaeology</i>, Durham October 2013. Thanks to Rune Rattenborg for inviting me to the workshop and to Kristoffer Damgaard for his extensive comments to the manuscript.<br />
<br />
The article is published in<a href="http://cogentoa.tandfonline.com/page/aboutJournal?journalCode=oaah20" target="_blank"> Cogent Arts & Humanities</a>, a new Open Access mega-journal for the humanities, and can be dowloaded for free from their website. They demand a public interest statement for each article, explaining why it is interesting and important. I've pasted mine with the abstract below:<br />
<br />
Abstract<br />
<br />
Historians and archaeologists often take connectivity for granted, and fail to address the problems of documenting patterns of movement. This article highlights the methodological challenges of reconstructing trade routes in prehistory and early history. The argument is made that these challenges are best met through the application of modern models of connectivity, in combination with the conscious use of comparative approaches.<br />
<br />
<br />
Public Interest Statement<br />
<br />
Trade is a driving force in the global economy, and among the prime agents of wealth distribution as well as cultural and political change. Historical and archaeological research has demonstrated that this is no recent phenomena, but that forerunners of the processes today labelled as globalization have been at work within all spheres of society throughout human history. While acknowledging the central role played by long-distance trade in the past, I argue in this article that scholars often take connectivity for granted, overlooking the major physical and institutional obstacles to travel in the premodern period, as well as the problems inherent to reconstructing the dynamic process of trade from the static evidence of texts and archaeological data. By insisting that scholars should not limit themselves to observing that objects moved and changed hand, but also ask how, we may not only increase our understanding of premodern economies, but also be in a position to better appreciate the nature of contemporary exchange.</div>
EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-45914353200345692462015-10-13T10:58:00.000-07:002015-10-13T10:58:20.216-07:00Meanwhile in Bergen...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;">It's been too long since I updated this blog, which does not, however, mean that we have been idle. Here is a brief report on some of the things that has happened since May and that will take place over the next few months.</span><br />
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In late May I went to Singapore where I organised a panel at the <a href="http://www.thearwh.org/" target="_blank">Asian Association of World Historians </a> together with Japanese colleagues Masaki Mukai, Hisatsugu Kusabu, and Yasuhiru Yokkaichi. The session was called <i>Pax Romana and Pax Mongolica: New Approaches to the Anatomy of Pre‐modern Martitime Networks </i>(<a href="http://www.thearwh.org/data/aawh_booklet_0509.pdf" target="_blank">session 4.3 in the program</a>)<i> </i>and proceedings will eventually be published in the open access <i>Asian Review of World Histories, </i>pending peer review. The conference gave the opportunity to indulge in one of my other academic interests, namely world/global history, which interestingly looks different from an Asian perspective despite the disciplines aim to transcend old, Eurocentric paradigms of history. For my interest in networks a splendid session was <i>World Maps as Knowledge Aggregators: from Renaissance Italy Fra Mauro to Web Search Engines </i>(<a href="http://www.thearwh.org/data/aawh_booklet_0509.pdf" target="_blank">session 5.5. in the program</a>) where the panelists discussed renaissance texts and maps as early examples of hypertext, and how modern software can be used to mine them for information.<br />
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Summer started with the <a href="http://insna.org/sunbelt2015/" target="_blank">Sunbelt Conference om Social Network Analysis </a>in Brighton, where I presented on the social networks of so-called client rulers in the Roman Near East (an updated and hopefully improved version of the study I've written about <a href="http://neroneproject.blogspot.no/2014/04/case-study-social-networks-of-client.html" target="_blank">here</a>. This year there was one archaeological session and several on historical networks. Interest in historical and archaeological networks is certainly up only in the two brief years since I attended the Hamburg conference, and the Sunbelt is becoming a great place for thinking about and discussing methodology with people working with other periods and empircal settings, and for engaging with the social sciences in general, a useful exercice for scholars working with distant periods.</div>
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Next stop was in Konstanz, where Tom Brughmans had invited me to visit the Network Science group of professor Ulrik Brandes and to give a lecture on a network analysis of ancient Indian Ocean trade based on the Greek merchant handbook known as the <i>Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. </i>In addition to the opportunity to have a critical and constructive discussion of some of my case studies with a group of experts on network analysis and graph visualisation I was introduced to the <a href="http://visone.info/" target="_blank">Visone</a> graph visualisation software, which contains a lot of nice features for historical network analyses, such as animations of time sequences, which will come in very handy for the above study of ruler networks that I need to write out for publication soon.</div>
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One of the reasons that this blog has been silent over the summer is that the terrible events in Palmyra, Syria has taken time, attention and energy. I had the privilege of visiting Palmyra every year from 2004-2010, and did my postdoc on a project called Palmyrena: City, Hinterland and Caravan Trade between Orient and Occident (2009-2013). Suddenly and tragically expertise on the Roman Near East became much more relevant than I would ever have wanted it to be, and some of my time and much of my attention over the last months have been directed at trying to get information on what has been going on, and telling anyone who cares to listen what Palmyra is and why Palmyra is important. Some of this can be found under media on the <a href="http://neroneproject.blogspot.no/p/publications-and-talks.html" target="_blank">publications and talks page</a> or on my <a href="http://globalhistorie.blogspot.no/" target="_blank">Norwegian language blog</a>. On a more positive note the events of Palmyra prompted me to return to my half-finished book manuscript on the trade of the city. It is now finished and submitted. Depending on publisher and peer reviews I hope soon to be able to reveal how social networks is the key to understanding the rise and fall of the remarkable city in the Syrian Desert.<br />
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Håkon has also been busy, presenting his work on the Manichaean community in third century Kellis, Egypt at the <a href="https://historicalnetworkresearch2015.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Historical Network Research Conference</a> in Lisbon this September. He has some really exciting networks of the economic and religious interaction of this religious minority group, which I hope he'll blog about himself.<br />
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Lots of nice things are planned for the next months. I'll be giving two talks on Red Sea/Indian Ocean trade at two different conferences, one on trade in minerals, the other on textiles. In both cases network analysis provides opportunities for integrating archaeological and historical data, and arguably gives a better understanding of the interactive and mutual activity of trade than traditional approaches. In November Professor Nicholas Purcell (Oxford) will visit our research group <a href="http://www.uib.no/fg/antikken" target="_blank">Ancient History, Culture and Religion</a>. Purcell's work with Peregrine Horden on <i>The Corrupting Sea</i> has been instrumental in the surge of interest in network studies within classical and medieval studies, and I'm looking forward to hear hvis view on where the study of connectivity stands now. There's going to be a NeRoNE project conference in December. I'll post details on that when the abstracts are all in, and last but not least <a href="https://rug.academia.edu/BirgitvanderLans" target="_blank">Birgit van der Lans</a>, Groeningen, will come to Bergen for her postdoc on a Niels Stensen Fellowship. Birgit works on Jews and Christian in the Roman Empire, partly from a social network perspective. She will join our research group and also be associated with the NeRoNE project.<br />
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EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-46107108371332504322015-05-05T01:47:00.000-07:002015-05-05T01:48:45.960-07:00Seminar: Social Networks in Ancient and Medieval History<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Social Networks, not swords, civilised<br />
the northern barbarians, or so it appears.<br />
Italian WW1 war-bond poster.<br />
Photo courtesy of J.C. Meyer.</td></tr>
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Last week I was invited to take part in a small seminar organized by the research group for premodern history, department of archaeology, conservation and history, University of Oslo. The seminar was aimed at students writing their MA-theses within ancient and medieval history, in order to make them think about how different kinds of social network approaches could inform their research. I got to talk about my networks of <a href="http://neroneproject.blogspot.no/2014/04/case-study-social-networks-of-client.html" target="_blank">local rulers in the Roman Near East</a> and of <a href="http://neroneproject.blogspot.no/2014/07/from-palmyra-to-euphrates-tracing-trade.html" target="_blank">water sources in the Syrian Desert</a>, but more important to me I got to listen to some really great presentations on social networks in early medieval northern Europe.<br />
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Pierre Bauduin (Caen) spoke on "Social networks, mediation and competition in the Viking Age: the Frankish example", where he demonstrated how the Frankish elite and their Viking neighbours in present day Denmark cultivated ties by way of hospitality, and exchange of spouses, hostages and foster-children. This facilitated trust between groups who had common interest in peaceful relations, but who shared few institutional ties, notably the Danes were still mostly adherents of the pre-Christian Norse religion, and social networks paved the way for the first Christian missionaries to Scandinavia.<br />
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Philadelphia Ricketts (independent scholar) gave a talk on "Snorri Sturluson and his daughters". Snorri (1179-1241) is a famous poet, but was also a powerful chieftain in 13th century Iceland, and a key player in the bloody events leading up to the takeover of the island by the king of Norway in 1262. Philadelphia showed how Snorri, with variable success, married off his daughters as part of his political power games, but also how his daughters were not always willing to or able to play their part. The talk showed how women were instrumental in creating links between otherwise separate social networks in clan-based, pre-state Iceland, and how resourceful individuals were able to utilise this situation to improve their own position.<br />
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Richard Gaskins (Brandeis) addressed "Political Development in Early Iceland: Applying Network Theory to the Sagas", where he argued that Icelandic society in the settlement period (870-930) show the characteristics of a "small-world" network, while in the following period of chieftains (930-1080) networks were of the "distributed" kind, giving way to "hub and spoke" networks in the late pre-state period of larger domains (1080-1246). Gaskins use of network models gave very evocative descriptive accounts of the situation in premodern Iceland, and also opened the way for discussing how and why networks changed.<br />
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Apart from all papers giving insight into fascinating historical settings and source material, I was intrigued by the explanatory potential of social network approaches to pre-state societies. These were situations where few or no formal political and legal institutions were in existence, and social networks were thus allowed to operate undisturbed so to say. Part of the idea behind the seminar was to get the students interested in network approaches, and I hope we can look forward to some exciting MA-theses from Oslo in a year or so. Meanwhile I have to admit that I am a tad bit envious on the people researching medieval Iceland for their incredibly rich source material.<br />
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EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-2180385704748827922015-03-13T05:46:00.002-07:002015-05-05T00:03:18.760-07:00Publication: Palmyra-chapter in new Silkroad book<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo: <a href="http://acansrs.org/camb-press.html" target="_blank">ACANSRS</a></td></tr>
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I have a new book chapter out: "Preconditions of Palmyrene long-distance trade: Land, River, and Maritime routes in the first three centuries CE" in a book called <i>The Silk Road: Interwoven History, </i>edited<i> </i>by Mariko N. Walter and James P. Ito-Adler published by the <a href="http://acansrs.org/index.html" target="_blank">Association for Central Asian Civilizations & Silk Road Studies</a>. I will see if I can eventually post a PDF of my chapter. Meanwhile the book can be purchased from the publishers. Below is the table of contents:<br />
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Tim Williams “Mapping of the Silk Road”;<br />
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Leonardo Gregoratti “Parthian Empire and the Political Role of the Silk Road: Romans, Jews, Nomads, and Chinese”<br />
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Rachel Mairs “Heroes and Philosophers? Greek Personal Names and their Bearers in Hellenistic Bactria”<br />
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Eivind Heldaas Seland <a href="https://www.academia.edu/12100550/Palmyrene_Long-Distance_Trade_Land_River_and_Maritime_Routes_in_the_First_Three_Centuries_CE" target="_blank">“Preconditions of Palmyrene Long-distance trade: Land, River, and Maritime routes in the first three centuries CE.”</a><br />
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Ulrike-Christiane Lintz “Survey of Judaeo-Persion Tombstone Inscriptions from Djām, Cnetral Afghanistan"<br />
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Djamilya Kurbanova “History of Musical Culture of Turkmenistan: From Ancient Merv to Modern Times”<br />
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Borbala Obrusanszky “Nestorian Christianity in the Ordos in Inner Mongolia"<br />
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Bin Yang “Cowry Shells and the Emergent World Trade System (1500 BCE-1700 CE)”<br />
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Michael Laver “The Maritime Silk Road: Silver and Silk in Japan's Trade with Asia in the 16th /17th Centuries”<br />
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Gerald Roche “Village Ritual and Frontier History on the Northeast Tibetan Plateau: the Mangghuer Nadun.”<br />
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Update May 5: I've posted a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/12100550/Palmyrene_Long-Distance_Trade_Land_River_and_Maritime_Routes_in_the_First_Three_Centuries_CE" target="_blank">PDF of my chapter at academia.edu</a>. Several of the other chapters can also be found there.</div>
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EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-5617067956526544172015-02-10T06:13:00.002-08:002015-12-29T05:58:14.819-08:00The western networks of Palmyra<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Two weeks ago, I went to Copenhagen in order to attend the conference Palmyra and the Mediterranean that concluded the <a href="http://projects.au.dk/palmyraportrait/" target="_blank">Palmyra Portrait Project</a>. The Palmyra Portrait team, headed by Rubina Raja (Aarhus) and Andreas Kropp (Nottingham) have over the last years tracked down, measured, photographed and described more than 2000 of the Palmyrene portrait busts, that once sealed graves in the funerary towers, house-tombs and underground hypogea in the Syrian desert city. Their database will hopefully go online later this year. The database is, however, only part of their work. They are also editing the excavation diaries and notebooks of Danish archaeologist Harald Ingholt, one of the most important excavators of Palmyra, they are launching a new book series on Palmyra, and they have organized a series of workshops and conferences.<br />
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My own interest in Palmyra stems from my <a href="http://org.uib.no/palmyrena/" target="_blank">postdoctoral work on the trade of the city,</a> but Palmyra was also of course an important city in the wider context of the Roman Near East, and it is well suited to network studies for reasons of its epigraphic record of some 3000 inscriptions in Aramaic, Greek, and (a few in) Latin. At this conference I was invited to give a talk on the western networks of Palmyra, and below is a brief summary of the approach I took in that paper. What I wanted to demonstrate was how thinking in terms of networks can help explain the rather spectacular career and success of Palmyra, that emerged from obscure origins in the first centuries BCE to compete for leadership of the Roman Empire in the third quarter of the third century. Pending peer-review the paper will eventually appear in a conference volume in the book series launched by the Palmyra Portrait Project and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.</div>
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Palmyra is generally studied for its connections to the east or its situation on the eastern edge of the Roman world, alternatively for its distinctiveness, as something between east and west or something of its own. While I think these perspectives remain valuable and valid, I still appreciate the challenge to think about Palmyra in a Mediterranean context.</div>
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Sociologist Michael Mann, in his monumental Sources of Social Power (1986-2012), argues that power relations take the form of social networks. He identifies four sources of social power: Ideology, Economy, Military and Politics. Networks of course describe connections between people. It is quite possible to study power in the forms of institutions, as traditional social science does, but this misses the aspect that power is always exercised in relation to someone. Arguably Mann’s IEMP model provides a potent framework for understanding Palmyras remarkable trajectory of power, and by not treating power as a zero-sum game, it is also good at catching the dynamics between the multiplicity of tribes, city-states, principalities and empires with a stake in what was going on in the Near East in the Roman period.</div>
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Starting with politics, the most constant relation of Palmyra, spanning from some of the earliest inscriptions in the Temple of Bel to the coins of Zenobia and Vaballthus during the rebellion in 270-273, is that with Rome. The Palmyrenes dedicated monuments to the Roman emperors, honour individual Romans as well as Palmyrenes who have been generous on behalf of the city occasion of imperial visits, and of course they employ the Roman name of their city, Hadriana. This is a typical mode of attention seeking for local communities in the Roman World. The remarkable thing with Palmyra is of course that she goes from saying “listen Rome, we are here”, to saying “listen folks, we are Rome”.</div>
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Moving on to military power, we have at least 23 inscriptions attesting the presence of Roman officers, soldiers or military units in Palmyra. This of course is what we would expect in a border region like the Syrian Desert, more interesting is the well known fact that we find Palmyrene soldiers in Roman Service attested in several places in Dacia and Numidia, in Egypt, where we have Palmyrene archers at Berenike, and possibly at South Shields in Britain. We also have them at Dura Europos and in a number of other locations on the middle Euphrates. Of course during the third quarter of the third century, we find Palmyrene soldiers just about everywhere from Ctesiphon in the East to Egypt and Anatolia in the west. Through this tradition of Palmyrene military service a strong tradition of Palmyrene integration with the Roman Empire will have evolved, and there is a equal or larger military diaspora in the west, to the much more famous commercial diaspora in the east.</div>
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Economically, we get the impression that Palmyra interacts with her surroundingson at least five levels. We have the city itself, then we have the surrounding territory. Third, of course we have the Empire, with its tax and money systems, and movements of resources from the periphery towards the centre, and back towards the frontiers in military expenditure. Fourth, we have Palmyrene commercial activities, attested southwards to the Gulf of Aden, and Eastwards to India, westwards to Egypt, and I think we can assume also to Rome, although we only have indirect evidence in the Palmyrene temple there. Finally, of course, we have the ancient world exchange, spanning from Spanish Silver mines to silk-producing Chinese Mulberry groves, with Palmyra as one of the major gateways integrating the system.</div>
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The ideological networks that Palmyra tapped into are perhaps the most difficult to identify. I’ve argued elsewhere that it makes sense to characterise Palmyrene identity at ethnic, in the sense that it was based on perceived common descent, and that the main way of becoming Palmyrene is being born into the group. The Palmyrene community, attested from Mesopotamia and the Gulf of Aden to South Shields, Rome and Numidia shared a feeling of being Palmyrene, that we can trace by proxies such as religion, script, language, sculpture, clothing onomastics, citizenship and so on.</div>
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A strong group identity, however, did not prevent Palmyrenes from engaging with other ideological networks, and in my view that is perhaps the main key to understand their success. I have already mentioned how Palmyra competed for privilege and status within the Roman world. The bilingual nature of Palmyra is also interesting in this respect. Many people, and many communities in the Near East will have been bilingual, but the interesting and significant difference with Palmyra is that they make a point of it. They go into the Greek Hellenistic world saying “we are like you”, but at the same time they stand by their Aramaic identity. This will have given them common ground with people in the Eastern Mediterranean, in the Near East, and also far further afield in Mesopotamia and further to the East.</div>
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Finally, while some aspects of the Palmyrene religious landscape can surely be related to the Syrian identity that we are also looking at through the use of Aramaic language, others seem to have different connotations, like the mounted divinities, often characterized as caravan gods. These seem to relate to the world of nomads, of the steppe, and of aristocratic warrior life. There is also a well-documented Jewish presence in Palmyra, and Palmyrene Jews are attested from a handful of settings outside Palmyra. To use this latter group as an example, people who identified themselves as Palmyrenes and Jews, speaking Greek and Aramaic, being familiar with the ways of the Desert and of the sown, and being able to present themselves as Romans if need be, certainly had a wide register to draw on.</div>
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In conclusion, what I think is useful about Mann’s model of Ideological, Economic, Military and Political networks of power with regard to Palmyra is not only that it allows us to show how the city engaged with others in a local, regional and proto-global setting, but it also provides a framework for thinking about how this developed over time. In other words it helps us going from describing the success of Palmyra to also explaining it. This point can also be made for the wider field of network studies, where I think Mann's model is one of the qualitative approaches that has a great potential to explain the patterns revealed by quantitative network analysis.</div>
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EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-57142208147279556232015-01-06T12:21:00.001-08:002015-01-08T06:33:27.282-08:00Mani in China II: At the Temple<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
My hunt for the last remaining temple of the Manichaeans began in late July, from a hostel near the river and the old marked district of Quanzhou. Skipping breakfast (a hassle to arrange) I began my first stretch of walking, trying to find a taxi to get me to the correct bus-station. Doubt started to seep in after the tenth taxi roared by without slowing down. But at a small bus stop along the road I found a group of teenagers who decided to take me on as a surrogate child. With the help of their smart-phones, and a crucial piece of paper with the place-names in Chinese letters I had received from the hostelier the day before, we managed to sort out my intended destination. At first they tried to help me with the taxi-chase, but with the same dismal result. When a bus finally arrived they signalled for me to follow them on; and after ten minutes one of the girls got off, again signalling for me to follow. She then guided me through a crowd to the long-distance bus station, cheerily dragging me all the way to the Counter, where I
bought a ticket for "Anhai" and asked the driver to let me off at
"Cao'ansi". Communication was the usual: hand & head gestures, and the piece of paper. After a rather uneventful bus-ride out of town - though I couldn't really tell where the city stopped and the suburb began - I was let off on my own at the side of the high-way, in front of a long, empty and dusty road. A sign next to what looked like a pallet workshop had a temple on it and pointed down the road. Of course. I began my trek. The area looked rather poverty-stricken. In the distance I could see green hills.</div>
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I continued to walk in a straight line from the starting point, somewhat bewildered, meeting no further signs to point the way. I crossed another high-way. Having walked for about half an hour I finally passed someone, a man who rested in the shade of a tree, and tried to ask him for directions. He shook his head and waved me on. But after another twenty minutes, just as I was pondering whether I had taken a wrong turn (or rather, not taken a right one), I found a sign which said "Grass Temple," in the midst of a deserted intersection and next to a car wash. As it turned out it was also right next to the temple grounds, walled off from intruders and hidden by trees. Entering through the gate I came into a peaceful garden, violently green compared to the grey road I had been following so far.<br />
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Manichaeism is first attested in this area
around the middle of the 9th century, as related in <a href="http://neroneproject.blogspot.no/2014/08/the-temple-of-mani-in-caoan-and.html" target="_blank">part I</a>, and its adherents became a widely dispersed if often hard-pressed minority. Chinese scholarly works, official accounts, an even some poetry, show the vibrancy of the movement in the Medieval Age, along with inscriptions recorded in Quanzhou itself. Somewhat surprisingly, an inscription attest to a (probably brief) period of close administrative relations between Manichaeans and Christians in the area. Quanzhou was a cosmopolitan city, visited by among others Marco Polo, and housed adherents of both Islam and Nestorian Christianity at the time. Such cooperation would have been entirely in its spirit. However, through persecution and competition Manichaeism finally went into decline in this region as well. The last description of a living Manichaean temple and its adherents was given around 1600, by the Ming-scholar Ho Ch'iao-yüan: "<i>On the ridge
slope back of the</i> [Huabiao]<i> hill is a rustic shrine dating from the Yüan
period</i> [13th-14th century]. <i>There reverence is paid to Buddha Mani. The
Buddha Mani has for name 'Brilliant Buddha Mo-mo-ni'. He came from
Su-lin </i>[Assyria]<i> and is also a Buddha, having the name 'Envoy of
the Great Light, Complete in Knowledge'.</i>" Ch'iao-yüan also notes that: "<i>At present those among
the people who follow its </i><i>practices use formulas of
incantation called 'The Master's Prescription', (but) they are not much
in evidence.</i>" <br />
(translation by S. N. C. Lieu. See Lieu 1998, <i>Manichaeism in Central Asia and China</i>, pp. 194-95)<br />
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The shrine was rediscovered in the 1930s by Chinese scholars. By then it had probably long been empty of Manichaean activity. Instead it had become a Buddhist sanctuary, renovated by an entrepreneuring preacher. There were however still indications of its previous occupants; most strikingly a statue of "Mo-ni, Buddha of Light". The statue resembles traditional
Buddha-statues at a first glance, but bears several unusual features that testify to its Manichaean provenance: straight hair, the hint of a beard (the rest of it possibly shaved off by Buddhists), a fleshy
jowl, arched eyebrows, hands resting on the abdomen, and a double-knot
in its garment. The statue proved a boon not only for being one of the very few pictorial representations of Mani we possess, but also because it has allowed for the identification of further Manichaean material. Only a few years ago, at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, a painting in possession of a Japanese Buddhist monastery was shown to contain elements that pointed towards a Christian background. It was thus first taken to be of "the Church of the East" (the Nestorian Church), but has later been recognized as a Manichaean work. Though in the possession of a Japanese temple, the painting is of Chinese extraction, that is to say, from Fujian province.<br />
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Arriving, I got a glimpse of some monks disappearing into the temple. I looked around a bit before I walked up the stairs to the ridge on which temple-building was situated, past an outdoor-shrine to a deity I couldn't identify, and the incense-burner on the terrace, and peered into the entrance, where I finally got a look at the Mani-statue. Naturally, some disappointment was inevitable. The statue was shielded by a glass-cage, and besides another small shrine, there was little else to see. The roof was decorated with colorful swastika-banners. Music rattled from a small cd-player. An old lady watched over the divinities. While it seemed she was supposed to sell trinkets, she chose to consistently ignore my presence, for which I was grateful. The stark contrast between the dark interior, and the intense light that penetrated through the open entrance, made photographing pointless. I went outside again. <br />
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Then I wandered for a while beneath the green. The garden was very much in the Chinese tradition, with a clear lay-out, paved paths, and a small pond with a stream and a bridge. A door was hidden in the wall beneath the shrine itself. On a cliff next to the temple-building some Chinese symbols were written in blood red letters; I knew from my readings that they listed important Manichaean virtues. A stone-stairway led past the temple, through a small glenn, past another cliff-inscription, and to a new set of stairs - presumably leading up to the Huabiao-hilltop. I decided to follow it for a while. But after maybe half an hour of slow climbing and exploration, I suddenly felt the pangs of uneaten food. Without meaning to, although very much in the Manichaean spirit, I had yet to eat anything that day - and worse, yet to drink. I descended and rested for a while in the garden, next to a large solitary tree. While dozing off I tried to imagine how this place, half a millennium earlier, might still have been a focal point for nearby Manichaeans; a place for festivals and nightly vigils, as well as daily offerings - how it might have looked clad with lanterns and ribbons, while white-robed monks recited the Master's Prescription and chanted the light-particles of the soul up to the Moon Palace, where they rested before they travelled on to the divine Gardens of Light. <br />
<br />
Then I arose and hitched a ride back.<br />
<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06335059785484777362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-68407369673735023442014-11-30T11:31:00.000-08:002014-11-30T11:35:03.851-08:00New publication: Early Christianity in East Africa and Red Sea/Indian Ocean Commerce<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've got a new article out in a special volume of African Archaeological Review, on Africa and the Indian Ocean. Inspired in particular by Rodney Stark's work on early Christianity, and Michael Mann's on social power networks, the article makes use of social network perspectives in order to understand how religions spread into new regions, and how the process of conversion might have taken place. In my opinion the network perspective adds value, by reconciling our literary and archaeological sources with modern sociological models of conversion, and by showing how networks of ideology, trade and political power interact.<br />
<br />
Abstract:<br />
The ancient East African kingdom of Aksum gradually adopted Christianity from the early- to mid-fourth-century reign of Ezana onwards. The well-known narrative of the late Roman church-historian Rufinus relates a top-down process of conversion, starting with the ruler himself. The report, corroborated by the adoption of Christian symbolism on Ezana’s late coinage, and monotheistic as well as overtly Christian references in royal inscriptions, is generally considered trustworthy. While not challenging the significance of charismatic and powerful individuals, this article argues that Christianity was present in the region before Ezana, and that the introduction of Christianity should be situated within the context of early Red Sea/Indian Ocean commerce. Trade was the carrier of ideological impulses from communities in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean worlds and created the social infrastructure that expatriate believers, early converts, and later, church officials and local elites could draw upon.<br />
<br />
The article is open access, and can be downloaded from the <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-014-9172-5" target="_blank">journal website</a>. It is published online first, and volume and page numbers will be added when the printed version is out.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-79918830401353383432014-11-15T12:11:00.001-08:002014-11-30T11:33:15.169-08:00The social in the past, some reflexions <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm just back from a four-day workshop with colleagues at the <a href="http://www.cas.uio.no/" target="_blank">Centre for Advanced Study</a>, Norwegian Academy of Sciences, where both Håkon and I take part in the project Local Dynamics of <a href="http://www.stordalen.info/LDG/Home.html" target="_blank">Globalisation in the pre-modern Levant</a>, which is housed at the centre for this Academic Year. Our workshop was called <a href="http://www.cas.uio.no/research/1415LDG/workshop_nov2014.pdf" target="_blank">The Social in the Past. Things, Networks, and Texts: A Material Approach to the Pre-Modern</a> (description and program). Speakers came from a range of disciplines, including theology, religion, anthropology, archaeology, history, and cultural studies, but the unifying interest was in how we can move from our things and text – the material that we are all interested in and the signs that have come down to us from the past – to understanding the social associations between these things, texts and the people who made and used them. The workshop was way too varied and rich for me to do justice to all of it in a short blog post, nevertheless I'd like to put down a few points that relate to networks, which is of course my main interest in this, that we discussed in the first session, and that I continued to think about during and after the workshop.<br />
<br />
Our keynote was Professor <a href="http://www.ian-hodder.com/" target="_blank">Ian Hodder</a> from Stanford University. Hodder spoke about his work at Neolithic Çatalhöyük in present-day Turkey, one of the earliest (complex?) societies we know of, taking his recent book <i><a href="http://www.ian-hodder.com/books/entangled-an-archaeology-of-the-relationships-between-humans-and-things" target="_blank">Entangled</a> </i>as his point of departure. Neolithic people, of course, produced no texts, and we rely solely on things, in a wide sense of the word, when we try to understand their social world. Hodder showed us how things are associated with things and also reveal interaction with people, for instance clay and temper are obtained – balls are formed – balls are fired – then stored – then heated in oven – placed hot in a basket – meat is cooked – broken balls are discarded and so on. Reconstructing relationships of contingence and dependence, leading to reliance and dependency, he drew what he called tanglegrams, showing how things at the site related to each other, and in some cases led to what he characterised as entrapment, resembling the economic term of path-dependence.<br />
<br />
Hodder also shared examples of his ongoing cooperation with network analyst and archaeologist <a href="https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/AngusMol" target="_blank">Angus Mol</a> (Leiden), using the same dataset of thing-thing relations from Çatalhöyük in a computer based network analysis. Hodder argued that the tanglegram is different from network analyst in the sense that the network consists of dyads, whereas the entanglegram highlights chains.<br />
<br />
To me both methods represent ways of approaching networks. I think we need to do both. The tanglegram takes the thing as the point of departure, and tries to see how it associates to other things (or to human agents), following these associations creates entangled chains, that very well demonstrates the complexity that Hodder underlines. Network analysis looks at the whole structure (to the extent that we know it), and let's us ask how the things and the associations between them fit into that structure. It is true that it is an agglomeration of dyads, but series of dyads are also chains (or rather networks), and if we combine the quantitative analysis with a qualitative one, we could trace associations in much the same way. One advantage of network analysis might be that it could enable us to identify which parts of the network offer themselves, and are in need of qualitative analysis.<br />
<br />
These points illustrate what we are grappling with. During the workshop we discussed a number of theories, including those of Latour, Bordieu, Foucault, Braudel, Michael Mann, and Robert Redfield, and how they allow us to see the past through different lenses. Although I, as others, have my favourites, they all offer perspectives that allow us to interpret the relationship between things, texts and people. What I often miss are the models that enable us to make our assumptions explicit, and to test them. The tanglegram and network analysis are two examples of how one can develop or borrow models that make sense of some aspects of the data, but inevitably obscure or leave out others.<br />
<br />
Is it rewarding for scholars of the ancient world to engage consciously with theory and model building. To me the answer is a clear yes. Our sources don't speak for themselves. Theoretical perspectives allow us to situate our data in a wider context, models allow us to test our assumptions.</div>
EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-51718296430247681662014-10-13T01:12:00.002-07:002014-10-13T01:13:47.964-07:00New publications<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t263dApmSVw/VDuAw9ArY2I/AAAAAAAACeI/oNuwH2bfCFw/s1600/IMG_20141013_092628-kopi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-t263dApmSVw/VDuAw9ArY2I/AAAAAAAACeI/oNuwH2bfCFw/s1600/IMG_20141013_092628-kopi.jpg" height="436" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ancient West & East 13 / 2014 / Textile trade and Distribution in Antiquity, Kerstin Droß-Krüpe (ed.) 2014</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
As I got back from fall-break, the print versions of our two latest publications, one article and one book chapter, were on my desk. Call me old-school, but I enjoy holding the book in my hands, and book chapters are really best read in context with the rest of the volume.<span id="goog_367707712"></span><span id="goog_367707713"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><br />
<br />
Eivind Heldaas Seland (2014) Caravans, Smugglers and Trading Fairs: Organizing Textile Trade on the Syrian Frontier. Pages 83-90 in Kerstin Droß-Krüpe (ed.), Textile Trade and Distribution in Antiquity. Harrassowitz Verlag. <br />
<br />
Eivind Heldaas Seland (2014) The organisation of the Palmyrene caravan trade. Ancient West and East 13, pp. 197-211. doi:10.2143/AWE.13.0.3038738.<br />
<br />
As a word of warning to Network Analysis enthusiasts, there is nothing of that in these articles, both, however, address how networks operated, and how we can approach this by means of modern models, in this case New Institutional Economics.<br />
<br />
The AWE article is available online, the book chapter unfortunately not. Also, it was not possible to publish these open access. Preprints should appear in Bergen Open Research Archive (<a href="https://bora.uib.no/" target="_blank">BORA</a>) in time (they are not there yet). Meanwhile, <a href="mailto:eivind.seland@ahkr.uib.no" target="_blank">drop me a line</a> if your library does not have these and you require an offprint.</div>
EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-43687559297264919942014-09-26T12:23:00.000-07:002014-09-26T12:23:16.691-07:00SAMKUL conference 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Networks in the Roman Near East is funded by the Research Council of Norway's <a href="http://www.forskningsradet.no/prognett-samkul/Programme_description/1253964329665" target="_blank">SAMKUL</a> initiative, which brings together 24 projects from the humanities and social sciences, addressing societal development and social change. This years open <a href="http://www.forskningsradet.no/servlet/Satellite?c=Nyhet&pagename=samkul%2FHovedsidemal&cid=1253996388251" target="_blank">SAMKUL conference</a>, in Trondheim on November 3rd, addresses the technology, politics and culture of food, and boasts some really interesting keynotes addressing food from the Roman period until today. Follow the <a href="http://www.forskningsradet.no/servlet/Satellite?c=Nyhet&pagename=samkul%2FHovedsidemal&cid=1253996388251" target="_blank">link</a> for program and registration.</div>
EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-36498359423243961882014-09-05T04:37:00.002-07:002014-09-16T05:02:45.744-07:00Workshop: Networks and interaction in the Red Sea<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Together with colleagues from the research group "Ancient History, Culture and Religion", and the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, both University of Bergen, we are hosting an informal one-day workshop on the history and archaeology of the Red Sea in the pre-islamic and early Islamic period, bringing together scholars from Bergen with some really exiting international guests in order to discuss work in progress. The workshop is open to the public.<br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
<br />Networks and interaction: The Red Sea Region in history and archaeology</h2>
<br />
<br />
University of Bergen<br />
Department of archaeology, history, cultural studies and religion<br />
Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies<br />
<br />
Sep 18 2014<br />
<br />
Venue: Jekteviksbakken 31, Seminarrom 240 (Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies)<br />
<br />
<br />
The Red Sea connects the Indian Ocean with the Mediterranean, and has served as a corridor of exchange at least since the second millennium BCE. The sea, however, has also always been an arena of commercial, religious and military interaction between the people living along its coasts and in its hinterlands. This workshop brings together contributions addressing the Red Sea and the neighbouring regions in the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods, with the aim of transcending traditional scholarly divides based on period, region, and discipline, by focusing on the common relationship with the sea.<br />
<br />
09.00: Welcome<br />
<br />
09.15: Vasileios Christides, Institute for Graeco-Oriental and African Studies (IGOAS): The Countries around the Red Sea in the Hagiographic Works.<br />
<br />
10.00: Randi Haaland, University of Bergen: Meroitic Empire Sudan; cultural influences and trade in an Indian Ocean context.<br />
<br />
10.45: Coffee<br />
<br />
11.00: Alexandros Tsakos, University of Bergen: Christian Nubia and the Red Sea.<br />
<br />
11.45: Richard Holton Pierce, University of Bergen: Pharaonic Egypt and the Red Sea<br />
<br />
12.30: Lunch<br />
<br />
13.30: Zbigniew Fiema, University of Helsinki: To Hegra by Land - New Investigations<br />
<br />
14.15: Kristoffer Damgaard, University of Copenhagen: Political Imperialism or Mercantile Expansionism? An archaeological assessment of Islam’s osmosis into Northeast Africa (7th – 10th cent. CE)<br />
<br />
15.00: Kasper Grønlund Evers, University of Copenhagen: ‘No Man Is an Island’ — the role of networks, diasporas and associations in the organisation of long-distance trade passing through the Red Sea, 1st–3rd cent. CE<br />
<br />
15.45: Coffee<br />
<br />
16.00: Michaela Reinfeld, Phillips University, Marburg: Written Sources, Facts and Rumors. The Underwater Archaeology Project of the University of Marburg<br />
<br />
16.45: Eivind Heldaas Seland, University of Bergen: Routes, circuits, itineraries: A network analysis of the Periplus Maris Erythraei.<br />
<br />
<br />
19.30: Dinner (by invitation)<br />
<br />
<br />
Organizing committee: Anne K. Bang, Alexandros Tsakos, Eivind Heldaas Seland.</div>
EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-22588452976045878482014-08-11T04:00:00.003-07:002015-01-08T05:39:49.084-08:00Mani in China I: A Very Brief HistoryThis July I finally had the opportunity to travel to China, and to experience a country
which I have read much about but never previously visited. The
stay was somewhat short - I only had two and a half weeks - and hectic -
it included visits to five different cities, - which meant I only got to
witness a small fraction of a fraction of the great equation that is China.
But I did manage to fulfill one of the goals I set out with: a visit to
the world's last remaining Manichaean temple. It lies nested in a hillside at the outskirts of Quanzhou, a city long known in the west as Zaiton and one of the most important ports of China, eulogized by among
others Marco Polo. The temple was built in the 13th or 14th century when China was ruled by Kublai Khan's
Mongol dynasty (the Yuan) and thus about contemporaneously with Polo's stay. It seems in fact clear from his narration that Polo met with Manichaeans in Quanzhou, perhaps the very same who made use of the temple.<br />
<br />
Before I describe my own visit to the site, which will be published in part II of this post (now available <a href="http://neroneproject.blogspot.no/2015/01/mani-in-china-ii-at-temple.html" target="_blank">here</a>) , I want to give an account of the
Manichaeans of China, a largely forgotten chapter in the history of religions - so much so that even specialists long doubted claims of their existence. Finds in the early 20th century from western
China, and subsequent research on other Chinese sources, decided the issue. It has revealed a
Manichaean presence here that lasted at least a thousand years, and one that
included a flourishing indigenous Chinese Manichaean community.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>The initial spread</b><br />
Recent
evidence point to the existance of Manichaeans among the Western
traders in China already in the 6th century CE. These communites consisted of Sogdians, a people who controlled much of the trade between China and the Sasanid or Persian Empire, many of whom had been converted to Manichaeism by the early missionary work of Mani's apostles (see a <a href="http://neroneproject.blogspot.no/2013/12/a-manichaean-web.html" target="_blank">previous blogpost</a>). The first chronicled
presence is that of a mu-che (a Manichaean Teacher, one of their
most important clergy officials) that preached in China during
the mid-7th century, although little more is known of his activity. The
first official - that is, court-registered - preacher was a diciple of
this mu-che, a man named Mihr Ormuzd and designated as fú-to-tàn
("Attendant of the Law"; a Manichaean bishop), who visited empress Wu in
697 CE bringing with him a book named "The book of the two Principles".
Twenty years later, in 719, the king of Tokharistan (present-day
northern Afghanistan and Tajikistan) recommended a great mu-che and
astrologist to the Chinese court, and he seems to have been the first to
ask for permission to build a Manichaean temple in the country.<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Their
welcome was however a chilly one. Chinese government officials were
constantly wary of the new religion, which also had to contend with
hostile reactions from certain Buddhist authorities. In 732 an imperial
decree warned: "<i>The doctrine of Mòní is entirely a
perverse belief. Falsely they profess Buddhism. But since it is the
religion of the teachers of the western Hú-people and others, and
since its disciples are to be found among themselves, they shall not
be judged criminals.</i>" In other words, the religion could be
tolerated - as long as it was influential among the Western barbarians
only and did not try to reach out to Chinese people. The fact that the
government felt it necessary to issue this warning does point to a
degree of missionary propagation. With the conversion of an Uygur <i>khagan </i>(khan)
visiting China in the 760s, the Manichaeans received more clout in their dealings with
China, due to the temporary alliance between the empire and the Uygurs.
Manichaean clergy were used as representatives from the Uygur khagan to
the Chinese emperor, and they were allowed seven temples in China
proper, amongst them in the capitals Chang'an and Luoyang.<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Rp_x84lEm4M/U-uDSjARE-I/AAAAAAAAAE4/aiQ6bBznyI8/s1600/Chinese%2BManichaean%2Bsites2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Rp_x84lEm4M/U-uDSjARE-I/AAAAAAAAAE4/aiQ6bBznyI8/s1600/Chinese%2BManichaean%2Bsites2.jpg" height="462" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>A Move to the South</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But
the alliance did not last. With the collapse of Uygur power after defeat at the hands of a Kirghiz army, the
Chinese government decided to get rid of the Manichaeans. In the 840s, it
waged a campaign against various Western religions; first Manichaeism
in 843, then Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity and Zoroastrianism in 845.
The official Manichaean temples were closed, and Manichaean priests were shaved and dressed
as Buddhist shamans before they were executed. The remaining clergy was
either exiled to Uygur Territory, or fled to other parts of China. A
certain priest named Hulu in the sources escaped the persecution, and found a safe haven - and especially fruitful missionary soil - in the southern coastal province of Fujian
and its neighbours. It seems likely that he would have fled to a part of the country were he could already expect to find some support, but the presence of Manichaeans here before his arrival is undocumented. Certainly the religion flourished along the Southern coast in the subsequent
centuries. <br />
<br />
However, rumblings among Chinese officials and Buddhist
writers were often heard. Instances of violence were blamed on Manichaeans especially from the early 12th century onwards, as in the case of the Fang La-rebellion in the 1120-21. In
the medieval period Manichaeans were often labelled "vegetarian devil-worshippers", a
designation that was later extended to Buddhist sectarian or lay
groups that government officials deemed troublesome. The Manichaeans
attempted to adapt themselves to more indigenous Chinese religious
traditions, and seem to have drawn many supporters who thought of the religion as a kind of Taoism. Seeking legitimacy, one of their writings was for a time accepted into the Taoist scriptural kanon. Despite these attempts, harsh laws were put into place against the group, and they were
often suspected of formenting unrest. Yet there was also a high level of co-existance, especially in such cosmopolitan centres as Quanzhou. A curious, though little understood, connection existed at the official level between the Manichaeans and the recently arrived Nestorian Christians of
Quanzhou. <br />
</div>
<br />
<b>Decline</b><br />
After the fall of the comparatively religious pluralistic Yuan dynasty in 1368, Manichaeism began to face more active hostility from the Ming-emperors. A
major persecution broke out at the beginning of
their reign. The Chinese name for Manichaeism was <em>ming-chiao</em>, "Light sect", and the newly proclaimed emperor Zhu Yuanzhang did not like the Association of the sect with his dynasty. The sect was forbidden on penalty of death in 1370, along with a few other "dangerous sects" such as the lay White Lotus-movement. This renewed persecution will certainly have contributed to the religion's disappearance. But there were, as we shall see, still Manichaeans around at the turn of
the 17th century.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u><strong>Further reading </strong></u><br />
<br />
Grenet, F. 2007, "Religious Diversity among Sogdian Merchants in Sixth-Century China" in <em>Comparative studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East.</em> Vol. 27 nr.2, pp. 463-78<br />
<br />
Haar, ter B. J. 1999 (1992), <em>The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese History.</em> Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press<br />
<br />
Lieu, S.N.C. 1998, <em>Manichaeism in Central Asia and China. </em>Leiden: Brill Publishing<br />
<br />
See also: <a href="http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/chinese-turkestan-vii">http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/chinese-turkestan-vii</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06335059785484777362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-55191571182808744352014-07-17T08:17:00.000-07:002014-07-17T08:17:52.512-07:00From Palmyra to the Euphrates: Tracing trade routes as networks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
This post summarizes parts of a paper presented at the
<a href="http://connectedpast.soton.ac.uk/conference-2014/" target="_blank">Connected Past conference in Paris</a>, April 24 this year, and parts of a paper
offered together with my colleague Professor Jørgen Christian Meyer at the ARAM
conference in Oxford on July 14. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The challenge we’re dealing with is tracing the ancient
caravan route from the city of Palmyra to the Euphrates. This part of the Near
East is inaccessible to archaeologists, and has been so for a long time. Most
existing research dates back to the 1930s, when Antoine Poidebard and Aurel
Stein surveyed the route from the air and on the ground, from the Syrian and
Iraqi sides of the border respectively.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The network analysis is only part of the wider case study,
which besides publsihed archaeological work also considers GIS modelling,
satellite images, ethnographic accounts, travel descriptions, and the physical
environment of the Syrian Desert. Pending peer review, the study will be
published in a forthcoming volume of the journal <a href="http://www.peeters-leuven.be/journoverz.asp?nr=68" target="_blank">ARAM</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Step one of the Network Analysis was to locate all known
archaeological sites in the relevant part of the Syrian Desert (below). This was done on basis of archaeological reports as well as British, French, German and Soviet Maps of
the region, cross-checked with Google Earth, the Corona Atlas of the Middle
East and Bing Maps. These were plotted in Google Earth, and then imported into
Arcmap. <span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Still, considering the
scarcity of past archaeological work, we had no idea whether there were not
also other sites out there, that might equally well have been stations on the
trade route.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dETIqdUCLC4/U8fjeBVYscI/AAAAAAAACWM/chMRSm0YraI/s1600/Palmyrahit1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dETIqdUCLC4/U8fjeBVYscI/AAAAAAAACWM/chMRSm0YraI/s1600/Palmyrahit1.jpg" height="420" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We decided
to approach this by looking at hydrology. If you want to move through the
Desert with a caravan, you’ll need to know where to find water. Utilizing 1:100
000 maps imported as overlays into Google Earth we plotted all hydrological features in Google Earth. Imported into ArcGis they look like this (below). Altogether there are 244 of them, wells, springs, cisterns. Can we trust that they were the same in antiquity? To a large extent we think we can. The climate has not changed much.
Most wells draw on groundwater and are placed at the bottom of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wadis</i>, seasonal watercourses that were
the same in antiquity as they are today. Finally, our experience from the area
North of Palmyra, where we did survey for four years, is that these wells and
cisterns are associated with pre-Islamic pottery, and have thus been in
continuous use by the nomadic population.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-69Yjuv8oC3Y/U8fknsWgOsI/AAAAAAAACWc/8WuBMUvACh8/s1600/Palmyrahit2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-69Yjuv8oC3Y/U8fknsWgOsI/AAAAAAAACWc/8WuBMUvACh8/s1600/Palmyrahit2.jpg" height="352" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This, however,
still did not enable us to trace the route. In order to do that, we turned to
network approaches. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">First, I
added a 20km buffer to all hydrological features (below). 40 km is a long day’s march for people and
camels alike, and wherever two circles intersect, you can reasonably walk or
ride from one point to another within a day, if you know your way of course.
You see here that the region close to Palmyra has a high density of wells.
Also, close to the Euphrates, the availability of water is good. Whereas in the
middle, you have stretches of up to 100 kilometer without perennial water
sources. This is a strong argument that a caravan route needed to be created
and maintained, and this was something that the Palmyrenes needed to deal with
in their period, regardless of the actual age of the ruins that early explorers
in the Syrian Desert visited.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ObdJEymUSJ4/U8fmnGlqALI/AAAAAAAACWo/b0g5Dz331is/s1600/Palmyrahit3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ObdJEymUSJ4/U8fmnGlqALI/AAAAAAAACWo/b0g5Dz331is/s1600/Palmyrahit3.jpg" height="354" width="640" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">(The map also shows the routes proposed by Poidebard and Stein as well as the theoretical cost path suggested by Arcmap).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I then
wanted to turn this into a network. This I did in Arcmap, by automatically
creating lines from all hydrological points to all other hydrological points
within 40 kilometers. I then exported all points and lines as spreadsheets,
keeping information on geographic location intact. These I imported into the
Graph software Gephi, using the Geo-layout algorithm plug in developed by
Alexis Jacomy. Below you can see what the result looked like.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0vWLZdWW804/U8fnS0G6BvI/AAAAAAAACWw/pCTX1BJ8j0U/s1600/Palmyrahit4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0vWLZdWW804/U8fnS0G6BvI/AAAAAAAACWw/pCTX1BJ8j0U/s1600/Palmyrahit4.jpg" height="334" width="640" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I did the
same with the archaeological sites identified by earlier scholarship. Here,
inspired by Cyprian Broodbank and Anna Collar’s use of Proximal Point Analysis,
I added the minimum number of edges needed in order to connect nodes to their
closest neighbors on all sides. This, I admit, is probably the weakest point of
the analysis, as it involved a certain amount of personal judgment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I then
merged my two networks by combining the spreadsheets. This is the result, with
nodes sized according to betweenness centrality. We see very clearly how the
areas with good access to water, were connected by places where we find
archaeological evidence in the nature of defensive structures or inscriptions,
and that these nodes act as gateways, that serve to integrate the network.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5hMpj6RotFw/U8fnv2MvJ4I/AAAAAAAACW4/qRvAhhlH4Wk/s1600/Palmyrahit5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5hMpj6RotFw/U8fnv2MvJ4I/AAAAAAAACW4/qRvAhhlH4Wk/s1600/Palmyrahit5.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Calculating
shortest paths proved not to be so useful, because there are so many nodes very
close to each other and because this treats minor cisterns in the same manner
as large fortified stations and major wells, but the measure of
betweenness-centrality gives a very good indication that there are some places
you simply need to go if you want to have something to drink on your way from
Palmyra to Hit. By the way, the shortest path from Palmyra to Hit is 11,
coinciding very with recorded travel times of 10 to 14 days. Indicating that
the proximal point approach works fairly well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">So, in
conclusion. What did we learn from this, and what did Network approaches
contribute with?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In terms of
the identifying the trade route, it seems safe to say that Poidebard was
correct in Syria and Stein was correct in Iraq. What did we contribute with
then. Well, while they followed tracks on the ground, there was no guarantee
that there were not other tracks around that they never saw. We have made their
conclusion testable, by showing that there simply was no other feasible route
if you wanted to go the whole way between Palmyra and Hit in the dry season. In
that way the question about the date of the ruins in the desert becomes less
important, because whether there were fortifications there or not in the Roman
period, the network layout shows that the Palmyrenes needed to pass through
this places.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oMbP18MfKxI/U8foN6Sa28I/AAAAAAAACXA/LHskEZYkFCY/s1600/Palmyrahit6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oMbP18MfKxI/U8foN6Sa28I/AAAAAAAACXA/LHskEZYkFCY/s1600/Palmyrahit6.jpg" height="452" width="640" /></a></div>
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EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-10661912593308822362014-05-13T09:52:00.005-07:002014-05-13T10:39:39.973-07:00Some news from Mani's cornerWhile research certainly takes pride of place on the agenda of the NeRoNe-project, dissemination is another key item on our agenda. Friday last week I got to make a short presentation of my project, "<a href="http://neroneproject.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-manichaean-web.html" target="_blank">A Manichaean Web,</a>" for a group of present and former students and staff at UiB's <a href="http://www.uib.no/mofa/69312/alumnusdager-2014" target="_blank">Alumni event.</a> The presentation was, unfortunately, not recorded. However, a more thorough description of Manichaeism and the urban life of Kellis, as well as some preliminary thoughts on the Manichaeans' role in the city, can be found in an article I wrote for the latest issue of the magazine <a href="http://replikk.b.uib.no/about-2/" target="_blank">Replikk, </a>published on April the 25th (all in Norwegian). <br />
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Further updates on my progress with the network itself will unfortunately have to wait for another day - but the plot, as they say, is thickening.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06335059785484777362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-44253040621032637182014-04-17T14:15:00.000-07:002014-04-17T14:15:08.699-07:00Case study: The social networks of client-rulers in the Roman Near East<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John the Baptist before Herod Antipas,<br />
Albrecht Dürer 1509. Source: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jesus-och-Herodes.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></td></tr>
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This week I went to the annual meeting of the UK <a href="http://www.classicalassociation.org/" target="_blank">Classical Association</a>, which was hosted by the University of Nottingham this year. Colleagues <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/classics/staff/?id=11390" target="_blank">Leonardo Gregoratti (Durham)</a> and Eran Almagor (Ben Gurion University of the Negev) organized a session on "the Eastern Client States", where I took part. Client states in this context refer to polities in the Near East, that held a large degree of autonomy and were rued by local princes, but which were part of the Roman Empire or the Parthian Empire. Herod the Great, king of Judea 37-4 BCE and universally infamous due to the infanticide ascribed to him in the Gospel of Matthew, is perhaps the most famous of these rulers. In fact there were many of them, and even if there is a clear tendency towards direct and centralized rule over time, the Roman Empire always remained a patchwork of cities, tribes, and principalities with varying degree of autonomy, although there was never any doubt that the real power was in Rome and later in Constantinople.<br />
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The client rulers are one of the cases I am studying, with the aim of better understanding the fabric of Near Eastern society in the Roman period. In time I plan to make a study of them for the whole period of Roman rule in the Near East, but for the presentation in Nottingham I started in an end, and attempted a network analysis of the system in the first century BCE and the first century CE. Below is a short summary of my preliminary ideas and finds. Comments and advice on how I could develop this are greatly appreciated.<br />
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I started by plotting 163 members of ruling dynasties in the Near East from 63 BCE (the start of Roman Rule) until 125 CE and the 369 ties of full siblinghood, marriage and descent between them in Excel. The entries were based on Richard Sullivan's invaluable prosopographical articles for the <i><a href="http://www.bu.edu/ict/anrw/pub/index.html" target="_blank">Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt</a>, </i>bolstered with information from classical encyclopedias. The resulting spreadsheet was saved in csv-format and easily imported into the open-source graph visualization software <a href="https://gephi.org/" target="_blank">Gephi</a> using <a href="http://www.gbdh.sadiron.com/docs/gephi-tutorial" target="_blank">this great tutorial from University of Wisconsin Green Bay Digital Humanities blog</a>. After some time spent identifying and correcting errors in my database that became evident during the import-process, i got this unprocessed graph (below). It does not immediately make much sense. The thick lines represent connections between individuals sharing more than one tie, in effect people marrying their siblings, an unusual, but not unheard-of practice among royals at the time.<br />
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The next step was to find a good way of visualizing the whole network. I used the force atlas 2 algorithm in order to arrange nodes and edges in a pattern where they did not overlap. Then I assigned the different dynasties different colors, based on the dynasties people were borne into (as opposed to those they married into. This I did by assigning different series of node id's to different dynasties in my spreadsheet, for instance all individuals belonging to the Herodian dynasty got an id-numer starting with 3. In this way I was able to easily filter out all members of this dynasty in Gephi. Now the network looked like this:<br />
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Here, the network is organized according to dynasty, showing the different connections of marriage, descent and siblinghood for the period from 75 BCE until 150 AD and colored after which dynasty people were born into. On one hand of course this is problematic, because dead and living people are included in the same network, on the other hand it is useful, as dynastic connections were used for claims to legitimacy as well as territory and position, and it helps us see which families were important local players and who were more marginal. In that sense it gives us a more comprehensive picture than the stemma we usually look at when we study dynastic networks.<br />
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Then I wanted to see how the network changed over time. The problem with this is that we don't have secure information about when all the people in question actually lived. I've tried to overcome this by assigning them quarter centuries when they were politically active, either as rulers or simply as marriage partners and parents. Some were active in dynastic politics for almost 75 years, others only briefly. By assigning each period a unique value in Gephi and using the software's partition feature I was able to create time-series of the network. I've made a short movie of these (below).</div>
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Here individuals have been sorted into overlapping 25-years intervals, according to the periods in which they were active. Some of them were political figures for three quarters of a century, others only briefly The slides show how the different dynasties engaged with each other over time, making it possible to discuss questions of integration, fragmentation and marginalisation. It shows very well, for instance how the Herodian dynasty of Judea emerges as the regional power-broker in the late first century BC, and how Armenia is constant arena of dynastic competition, where different dynasties vie for influence. Dynasties such as Emesa never really becom important, while Commagene and Cappadocia remained in the game, but were marginalized over time.<br />
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Next, I used the really useful <a href="https://gephi.org/2010/map-geocoded-data-with-gephi/" target="_blank">Geo Layout algorithm developed by Alexis Jacomy</a> in order to arrange my nodes according to geographical position (which I had included in my spreadsheet). Now all nodes belonging to the same dynasty were gathered in one point, and thus indiscernible, but instead the geographical development of the network over time became visible:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/X4oX5HisvK4?feature=player_detailpage" width="640"></iframe>
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In this example we no longer see the individuals, but ties between the different dynastic centres instead. They move slightly because the scale of the network varies over time. In terms of geography, we have three main clusters, centered on Anatolia, Northern Mesopotamia and Judea, with Armenia and Commagene as not only the geographical, but also the main dynastical links between them. Also this allows us to look at interaction across the so-called border between the Parthian and Roman worlds or spheres of influence. Doing this, we see that these networks are geographically very expansive, spanning from Mauretania and Rome in the West, to Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia in the east at their greatest. We also see that the great rivals of the Romans, the Arsacid dynasty, by way of Parthia and Media Atropatene, are active participants in the dynastic networks of the Roman Near East, although they seem to become less important over time.</div>
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I had great fun while trying to model the client king system, but I also found it scholarly very rewarding. More on this at a later stage, but network perspectives allow us to move the focus from the imperial center to a multiplicity of peripheral points of view. Each of the 163 individuals in the network were at the centre of their own world, and approaching them as a social network allows us to appreciate this in a different manner. At this stage this is very much work in progress, and I'll continue to develop the technical as well as the scholarly side of this in months to come.</div>
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Thanks to the audience and my co-panelists in Nottingham for a good discussion!</div>
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EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113282927267632491.post-10207709239265080912014-04-08T12:54:00.000-07:002014-04-08T13:03:25.009-07:00NeRoNEproject in the news<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Latest issue of <a href="http://issuu.com/universitetet_i_bergen/docs/hubro1_2014_web" target="_blank">Hubro</a>, the University of Bergen Norwegian language magazine on research and education, features interviews with four historians on their research, among them me. Story starts on page 6.<br />
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<br /></div>EH Selandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16844174559784933499noreply@blogger.com0