Released: August 20, 2010
Lincoln, Neb. - The Lincoln-Omaha Society of the Archaeological Institute of America announces the first lecture on archaeology for the 2010-2011 season. Professor Hazel Dodge, from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, will be speaking on the popularity of Roman spectacular shows in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Since the 19th century, the traditional perception has held that the Greek provinces of the Roman Empire were somehow more ³civilized² than the Western Provinces, and therefore could not have indulged in such bloodsports as the gladiatorial displays so typical of other parts of the Roman world. And yet there is a wealth of evidence from the Eastern provinces (particularly Greece and Asia Minor) for gladiatorial and other arena displays in the form of epigraphy, sculpted reliefs, and literary notices, as well as remains now of the gladiators themselves, with the discovery at Ephesus of the only known gladiator cemetery.
More recently Hollywood has perpetuated this notion in such films as Spartacus and Gladiator which emphasize the violence and barbarity of the Roman arena with little reference to the original social and political context of the spectacles. So the eastern Greek provinces of the Roman Empire enjoyed the spectacle of bloodsports just as much as their western counterparts. This lecture will review the evidence for Roman Spectacles in the Eastern Mediterranean as well as the venues which were developed to accommodate them.
Dr. Hazel Dodge is the Louis Claude Purser Senior Lecturer in Classical Archaeology at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Her publications cover a wide spectrum in Roman spectacle studies, including work on amphitheatres and bloodsports, circuses, and baths. She is currently involved in the excavations at the Roman city of Leptiminus in Tunisia. Professor Dodge's lecture is sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
Contact: Prof. Michael Hoff, Professor of Art History, UNL, (402) 472-5342 or e-mail mhoff1@unl.edu
What: Archaeological Institute of America (Lincoln/Omaha Soceity) Public Lecture
Presenter: Dr. Hazel Dodge, Trinity College, Dublin
Lecture Title: Roman Spectacle in the Greek East
Date: Monday, Sept. 13, 2010
Where: Room 15, Richards Hall, UNL Campus, Stadium Drive and T Street
Time: 7:30 p.m.
2010 - 2011 Lecture Schedule
Roman Spectacle in the Greek East
- Hazel Dodge, Trinity College, Dublin
- Sept. 13 - Mon., 7:30 PM
- Room 15, Richards Hall, Stadium Drive, UNL
Heroine of the Western Frontier: The Archaeology of an Early American River Steamboat Roman Spectacle in the Greek East
- Kevin Crisman, Texas A&M University
- Oct. 24 - Sun., 2:00 PM
- Room 15, Richards Hall, Stadium Drive, UNL
CSI: Archaeology
- Melissa Conner, Nebraska Wesleyan University
- Nov. 14 - Sun., 2:00 PM
- Abbott Lecture Hall, Joslyn Art Museum, 2201 Dodge Street, Omaha
Three Mysterious Portraits from Omaha's Joslyn Art Museum
- Greg Bucher, Creighton University
- Feb. 28 - Mon., 7:30 PM
- Room 15, Richards Hall, Stadium Drive, UNL
Tutankhamun: The Life and Death of a God King
- Lanny Bell, Brown University
- March 27 - Sun., 2:00 PM
- Abbott Lecture Hall, Joslyn Art Museum, 2201 Dodge Street, Omaha
Building the Parthenon
- John Younger, University of Kansas
- April 24 - Sun., 2:00 PM
- Abbott Lecture Hall, Joslyn Art Museum, 2201 Dodge Street, Omaha