“Beyond East and West”

International Conference of the Cluster of Excellence on Hellenistic Commagene

Poster
Poster
© Stefan Riedel

Hellenistic Commagene is the subject of an international conference of the Asia Minor Research Centre and the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” of Münster University from 29 November until 1 December 2018. The history and archaeology of Hellenistic Commagene forms a rich field of study, not in the least because of the remarkable monuments and inscriptions of king Antiochos I (who ruled between c. 70 and 36 BC) that could be said to dominate the Commagenean landscape and its archaeology until the present day.

The last decade has seen the publication of many important new books and articles on Hellenistic Commagene while fieldwork in the region continues to produce novel insights as well. From all this work a different picture of Hellenistic Commagene now seems to emerge; a picture in which Hellenistic Commagene it is no longer understood as peripheral and out-of-the-ordinary, as earlier scholarship tended to do, but rather as a central node in a global Hellenistic network - and in many regards exemplary of socio-cultural developments in the wider Hellenistic world.

Building on this exciting development, the conference aims at a critical evaluation of all these new ideas and simultaneously works towards a novel and state-of-the-art overview for the history and archaeology of Hellenistic Commagene, integrating various Anglo and Continental research traditions in Hellenistic archaeology and history with that. Day 1 will be devoted to the history and archaeology of Commagene proper; Day 2 will try and place Commagene in its wider Hellenistic context by presenting a wide variety of comparable case-studies.

Led by Engelbert Winter, and supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the international team of the Asia Minor Research Centre comprising archaeologists, historians, architectural historians, restorers, archaeozoologists and anthropologists, has been digging in Doliche since 2001. It has already uncovered, for example, the strong foundations of the first Iron Age sanctuary of the god of Doliche, architectural fragments from monuments of the main Roman temple of Jupiter Dolichenus, as well as the sprawling ruins of a major Byzantine monastery built on this site by followers of the Christian faith following the demise of the ancient sanctuary. (exc/sca)

The Asia Minor Research Centre

Since its foundation by Prof. Dr. Friedrich Karl Dörner in 1968, the Forschungsstelle Asia Minor (Asia Minor Research Centre) at the Seminar for Ancient History of the University of Münster has been dedicated to investigating ancient Asia Minor and its material remains. Interdisciplinary research approaches are always the cornerstone of its work. In the course of the last five decades, numerous projects have been undertaken on Turkish soil. Among these range e. g. epigraphical studies, excavations, field work and participation in exhibitions. The ongoing projects focus on the Commagenian city of Doliche and the Lycian metropolis of Patara.

The Research Centre has a well-developed network of contacts in Turkey, to Turkish researchers, universities, museums and other official institutions. Research stays of Turkish academics as well as the education of Turkish students are of great importance for the Research Centre. Regularly held conferences offer international researchers a forum to discuss their current work on the history and culture of Asia Minor. In the series Asia Minor Studien, which the Research Centre has been publishing since 1990 and whose 90th volume has just appeared, the results of these conference as well as other publications to specific aspects of the history and culture of ancient Asia Minor find their place. (exc/sca)