Connected Context: Beyond Cultural Encounters, Entanglement, and Transmission at Augustan Karnak

April 17, 2018 - 12:00pm

Event Summary

Department of Classics and Pittsburgh Society of the Archaeological Institute of America Brown Bag Lecture

Erin Peters, Joint Lecturer in History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh and Assistant Curator in the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

While scholarly contributions towards hybridity, connectivity, entanglement, and network theory have launched vibrant studies of connections in the ancient world, they are largely tied to cultural interchanges centered on people in relation to objects/things. Through an exploration of Augustan Karnak, Peters adds dimension beyond cultural transmission by employing spatial analysis to recognize cultural products as parts of larger functioning environments that include many active units of experience and meaning.  Looking toward functioning environments, Peters approaches Augustan Karnak as connected context, an assemblage of forms and materials traditionally categorized as “Egyptian” and “Roman,” along with sensuous and ephemeral units of meaning like light, time, memory, performance, and space. The paper focuses on space as an interactive unit of meaning, and demonstrates divisions drawn in container-driven modes of scholarship become less clear when studying human engagement and use of the built environment through the roles of accessibility, movement, and visibility.

Location and Address

1517 Cathedral of Learning