Performing Death: Social Analyses Of Funerary Traditions In The Ancient Mediterranean
Organized by Nicola Laneri
The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
February 17–18, 2006
1155 East 58th Street, Chicago, IL
Final program
Friday 17th February 2006
9:00–9:15 Opening by the Director of the Oriental Institute (Gil Stein)
9:15–9:30 Introduction (Nicola Laneri—University of Chicago)
Session 1—A Powerful Death: Exercising Authority Through the Enactment of Funerary Rituals
Chair: Jonathan Hall (University of Chicago)
9:30–9:50
Ellen Morris—Columbia University
Human Sacrifice, Pageantry, and Power in at the Dawn of the Egyptian State
9:50–10:10
Glenn Schwartz—Johns Hopkins University
Ideology and Memory in a Third Millennium BC Royal Cemetery at Umm el-Marra, Syria
10:10–10:30 Bob Chapman—University of Reading, UK
Mortuary rituals, authority and identity in Early Bronze Age Southeast Spain
10:30–11:00 Coffee break
11:00–11:20
Massimo Cultraro—Ist. per i Beni Archeologici–CNR, Catania, Italy
Combined Efforts till Death. Funerary Ritual and Social Statements in the Aegean Early Bronze Age
11:20–11:40
Meredith Chesson—Notre Dame University
Early Bronze Age Mortuary Practices, Identity and Social Complexity on the southeastern Dead Sea Plain, Jordan
11:40–12:00
Alessandro Naso—University of Molise, Italy
Etruscan Style of Dying. Funerary Architecture, Tomb Groups and Social Range at Caere (Cerveteri) and His Territory in the 7th–6th Centuries BC.
12:00–12:20
Michael Dietler—University of Chicago
A Relational Approach to Funerary Ritual and Colonial Encounters in Mediterranean Gaul: Performance, Persona, Politics, and Space-Time Comparison
12:20–12:40 Respondent Adam Smith (University of Chicago)
12:40–1:00 Discussion
1:00–2:00 Lunch break
Session 2: Memoralizing the ancestors: Death as form of cultural and social transmission
Chair: Theo van den Hout (University of Chicago)
2:00–2:20
Stephen Harvey—University of Chicago
Visiting The House on Earth: The Ancient Egyptian Domestic Nexus Between This World and the Next
2:20–2:40
Dina Katz—NINO, Leiden University, Holland
Funerary Ritual in Context
2:40–3:00
Seth Richardson—University of Chicago
Death and Dismemberment in Mesopotamia: Social Discorporation between the Body and Body Politic
3:00–3:20 Coffee Break
3:20–3:40
Susan Pollock—Binghamton University
Death of a Household
3:40-4:00
Ian Rutherford—Florida State University
Achilles and the Sallis Wastais-Ritual: Performing Death in Greece and Anatolia
4:00–4:20
Anthony Tuck—Tufts University
Burial Practices of Emerging Communities in Early Central Italy
4:20–4:40
John Pollini—University of Southern California – Ritualizing Death in Republican Rome: Religion, Portraiture, Class Struggle, and the Origin of the Aristocratic Wax Funerary Mask Tradition
4:40–5:00 Respondent Emily Teeter (University of Chicago)
5:00–5:20 Discussion
Saturday Feb 18th February 2006
Session 3: Archaeology of Funerary Rituals: A Theoretical Approach Chair: David Schloen (University of Chicago)
10:00–10:20
John Robb—University of Cambridge, UK
Burial Practices in Mediterranean Prehistory: Processualism, Post-processualism, and Post-post-processualism
10:20–10:40 James Brown—Northwestern University
1966–2006: Approaches to the Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices in the Third Millennium AD
10:40–11:00
Maurice Bloch—The London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Conclusive Remarks: A Socio-anthropological Perspective
11:00–12:00 Discussion
