scholarly journals Cultural identity in the Roman Near East: An historiographical exercise

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Michael Desmond Coleman
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Near East ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Cultural Imperialism ◽  
Alternative Framework ◽  
Provincial City ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
Court Life ◽  
The One ◽  
Roman Near East

<p>The central premise of this thesis is that the concepts of hellenisation and romanisation are no longer useful as interpretive models of the Graeco-Roman Near East. Through most of the twentieth century they did good service generating research questions and providing innovative explanations of both existing and new data. On the one hand the notion of hellenisation focused attention on the historical importance of cultural change in the Hellenistic period, while the concept of romanisation focused scholarly attention on life in the provinces rather than on the court life of the imperial city and highlighted the importance of epigraphy and archaeology as against the philological study of literary texts. But the underlying assumptions of both concepts — the superiority of Graeco-Roman culture, the 'civilising' role of the intrusive powers, the passivity of the indigenous peoples of the region, the notion that Greek, Roman and Semitic cultures are bounded entities — are now dated.  In the first part of the thesis I deconstruct the concepts of hellenisation and romanisation in detail and then develop an alternative framework which is avowedly postmodern and interdisciplinary, eschews eurocentrism, and uses postcolonial concepts as well as insights from modern social theory.  In the second part of the thesis I use the alternative framework to review the evidence relating to the provincial city of Gerasa in the Roman province of Arabia. Looked at through this alternative prism it has been possible to offer some different readings of the evidence not apparent in earlier interpretations. In particular, in using the concepts of resistant strategy and cultural imperialism to discuss the emergence of the Antonine period city plan, I challenge the traditional view of Hadrian's urbanisation policy.</p>

scholarly journals Cultural identity in the Roman Near East: An historiographical exercise

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Michael Desmond Coleman
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Near East ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Cultural Imperialism ◽  
Alternative Framework ◽  
Provincial City ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
Court Life ◽  
The One ◽  
Roman Near East

<p>The central premise of this thesis is that the concepts of hellenisation and romanisation are no longer useful as interpretive models of the Graeco-Roman Near East. Through most of the twentieth century they did good service generating research questions and providing innovative explanations of both existing and new data. On the one hand the notion of hellenisation focused attention on the historical importance of cultural change in the Hellenistic period, while the concept of romanisation focused scholarly attention on life in the provinces rather than on the court life of the imperial city and highlighted the importance of epigraphy and archaeology as against the philological study of literary texts. But the underlying assumptions of both concepts — the superiority of Graeco-Roman culture, the 'civilising' role of the intrusive powers, the passivity of the indigenous peoples of the region, the notion that Greek, Roman and Semitic cultures are bounded entities — are now dated.  In the first part of the thesis I deconstruct the concepts of hellenisation and romanisation in detail and then develop an alternative framework which is avowedly postmodern and interdisciplinary, eschews eurocentrism, and uses postcolonial concepts as well as insights from modern social theory.  In the second part of the thesis I use the alternative framework to review the evidence relating to the provincial city of Gerasa in the Roman province of Arabia. Looked at through this alternative prism it has been possible to offer some different readings of the evidence not apparent in earlier interpretations. In particular, in using the concepts of resistant strategy and cultural imperialism to discuss the emergence of the Antonine period city plan, I challenge the traditional view of Hadrian's urbanisation policy.</p>

A Greek Christian World?

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fergus Millar
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Literary Culture ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Local Context ◽  
The West ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
Roman Near East

The great temple of Artemis at Gerasa (Jerash) in Jordan is one of the finest expressions of Greco-Roman culture in the Near East. Built in the second century, it includes a church that was erected on top of another building. This chapter explores the combination of Greek and Hebrew or Aramaic that characterised the mosaic floors of synagogues of the period from Palestine, across the Jordan to the west, where the roles of the two languages tend to be reversed: Hebrew or Aramaic was used for the strictly religious components while Greek was used for the names of benefactors. More specifically, it considers the combination — or alternation — of co-existence and hostility between Christians and Jews. After providing a background on the Roman Near East, the chapter analyses the language that Jews possibly used in daily life, and whether pagans of the Roman Near East spoke Aramaic. It then examines documentary evidence that offers insights into Greek culture in the Near East in its local context before concluding with a discussion of Greek literary culture in the region.

The Latrine in the Roman Bathhouse at Humayma, Jordan

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Near East ◽  
Archaeological Excavation ◽  
The One ◽  
Roman Near East

In the summer of 2010 an archaeological excavation, under the direction of Dr. Reeves of the Classics Department at Queen’s, uncovered the remains of a latrine at the Roman site of Humayma, Jordan. This latrine was part of a larger bathhouse which was associated with a nearby Roman fort. Typical of Roman latrines, the one at Humayma was a large room with seats for up to seven people built over a waste channel. The latrine also had a smaller channel for personal cleaning after using the latrine. Both these channels were fed from overflow water from the bath. This paper examines the latrine in relation to similar Roman facilities in the Near East. The paper also looks at the larger picture of the latrine’s place in the complex system of water management and use implemented by the ancient inhabitants of the Jordanian desert. Comparative research reveals that the latrine at Humayma followed typical designs oflatrines in the Roman Near East. Similar features from other sites also allow for the development of theories regarding archaeological features no longer extant in the latrine at Humayma. The construction of the facility shows to what extent the Roman garrison influenced local building and the presence of a drain hints at the reusing of water vital for survival in the desert at Humayma

Challenging Gender Hierarchies in Narratives of the Nation: Representations of Women in Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon and Hard Choice

Imbizo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Epongse Nkealah ◽  
Olutoba Gboyega Oluwasuji
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Gender Differentiation ◽  
Hard Choice ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Gender Hierarchies ◽  
The Face ◽  
The One ◽  
Representations Of Women ◽  
Do So

Ideas of nationalisms as masculine projects dominate literary texts by African male writers. The texts mirror the ways in which gender differentiation sanctions nationalist discourses and in turn how nationalist discourses reinforce gender hierarchies. This article draws on theoretical insights from the work of Anne McClintock and Elleke Boehmer to analyse two plays: Zintgraff and the Battle of Mankon by Bole Butake and Gilbert Doho and Hard Choice by Sunnie Ododo. The article argues that women are represented in these two plays as having an ambiguous relationship to nationalism. On the one hand, women are seen actively changing the face of politics in their societies, but on the other hand, the means by which they do so reduces them to stereotypes of their gender.

Liturgical Poetry in the Late Antique Near East

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 336-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ophir Münz-Manor
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Near East ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Biblical Poetry ◽  
Contemporary View ◽  
Cultural Dialogue ◽  
The One

The article presents a contemporary view of the study of piyyut, demonstrating that Jewish poetry of late antiquity (in Hebrew and Aramaic) was closely related to Christian liturgical poetry (both Syriac and Greek) and Samaritan liturgy. These relations were expressed primarily by common poetic and prosodic characteristics, derived on the one hand from ancient Semitic poetry (mainly biblical poetry), and on the other from innovations of the period. The significant connections of content between the different genres of poetry reveal the importance of comparative study. Thus the poetry composed in late antiquity provides additional evidence for the lively cultural dialogue that took place at that time.

Alessandro Grandi: A Case Study in the Choice of Texts for Motets

1988 ◽  
Vol 113 (2) ◽  
pp. 274-305
Author(s):  
Jerome Roche
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sacred Music ◽  
Vocal Music ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way ◽  
Musical Styles

It is perhaps still true that research into sacred types of music in early seventeenth-century Italy lags behind that into madrigal, monody and opera; it is certainly the case that the textual aspects of sacred music, themselves closely bound up with liturgical questions, have not so far received the kind of study that has been taken for granted with regard to the literary texts of opera and of secular vocal music. This is hardly to be wondered at: unlike great madrigal poetry or the work of the best librettists, sacred texts do not include much that can be valued as art in its own right. Nevertheless, if we are to understand better the context of the motet – as distinct from the musical setting of liturgical entities such as Mass, Vespers or Compline – we need a clearer view of the types of text that were set, the way in which composers exercised their choice, and the way such taste was itself changing in relation to the development of musical styles. For the motet was the one form of sacred music in which an Italian composer of the early decades of the seventeenth century could combine a certain freedom of textual choice with an adventurousness of musical idiom.

The Aphrodite of Emesa: miniature marble sculpture and religious life in Roman Syria

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 193-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas J. M. Kropp
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Art Market ◽  
Julius Caesar ◽  
Unique Character ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Comprehensive Study ◽  
Roman Syria ◽  
Roman Near East

The sculpture of Roman Syria is a mighty tree with roots so deep and branches so far-flung that they have defied all attempts at systematic and comprehensive study. This article deals with one of these branches of artistic traditions, a series of unusual marble Aphrodite statuettes found in Roman Syria, and in particular at Emesa . In what little attention these statuettes have received, scholars have listed up to 10 extant specimens, but a closer look has uncovered dozens, many of which have surfaced on the art market in recent years. In all likelihood, they reproduce a cult statue of Aphrodite at Emesa. They merit attention on a number of levels. Unlike much of the marble statuary of the Roman Near East, they do not reproduce an opus nobile from the Graeco-Roman canon; the Emesa Aphrodites, although based on Graeco-Roman divine iconography, draw on a Roman Venus type, while their style has much in common with local sculpture made of basalt, sandstone and limestone. This study examines, first, the character, origins and development of this statuary type and its links to well-established Graeco-Roman Aphrodite types. Many years ago, M. Bieber identified these statuettes as miniature versions of the statue of Venus Genetrix created by Arkesilaos for the Temple of Venus in the Forum of Julius Caesar. As there is still no consensus on the exact appearance of that famous statue, I will also comment on this question. Second, I look at the statuettes in context. Through their unusual style, format and iconography, they portray an Aphrodite of a distinct and unique character that raises questions about the significance of marble sculpture in the religious life of Roman Syria.

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