Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies

Teresa Shawcross (Hannah Seeger Davis Post-Doctoral Fellow, Program in Hellenic Studies)
Scheide Caldwell House, Room 103

In the wake of the Fourth Crusade and the capture of Constantinople in 1204, western invaders proceeded to occupy extensive territories formerly belonging to the Byzantine Empire. As a result, a pattern of permanent co-existence needed to be devised between conquerors and conquered. In turn, the discourses with which collective identity came to be represented in the subjugated lands were profoundly affected. This paper examines the oldest surviving text of the anonymous Chronicle of Morea, our single most important narrative source for the western occupation of Greece in the late Middle Ages. The interest of the text lies in the fact that it juxtaposes two very different approaches. Sometimes, the terms 'Frank' and 'Greek' appear to function as polarized categories. The existence of distinct ethno-religious groups is acknowledged and events are interpreted in terms of a confrontation between these rival groups. On other occasions, however, emphasis is put on the existence of an over-arching identity which both Franks and Greeks could share. This collective identity that of the people of the Morea, can be associated with the expression of a primitive sense of nationhood.

Teresa Shawcross received her B.A. (1998), M.Phil. (2001) and D.Phil. (2006) from Oxford University, together with a Maîtrise from the Université de Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle (1999). She held the position of Departmental Lecturer in Modern Greek Literature, Language, and History at Oxford (2003-2004), and she was awarded a Junior Research Fellowship in the Arts at Trinity Hall, Cambridge (2006-2009). Her interests are interdisciplinary, with her recent articles dealing mainly with the political, social, and cultural consequences of the fragmentation of the Byzantine Empire after the Fourth Crusade. Her doctoral thesis, a monograph on the Chronicle of Morea, is being revised for publication, and she is at present embarking upon a broader study of historical writings from the late medieval eastern Mediterranean. [last updated 2006]

Graeme Clarke (Australian National University, Visiting Fellow, Program in Hellenic Studies)
Respondent: Glen W. Bowersock (Institute for Advanced Study)
Scheide Caldwell House, Room 103

Excavation at Jebel Khalid has revealed an amphiprostyle, Doric, east-facing temple, the construction of which appears to have commenced about the second quarter of the third century BCE. Whilst the outward appearance of the structure is undoubtedly Greek (although the Doric order is somewhat modified), the internal layout and proportions of the cella of the temple conform more to a "quadratic" Mesopotamian formula, with a tripartite adyton. This hybridity was no doubt deliberate and the statuary recovered in the course of excavation reflects a similar duality, ranging from heroic-sized Parian marble in Hellenistic style, through local but hellenizing limestone to crude local images. What does this imply about the ethnic identity of the worshipping population? After the abandonment of the settlement of Jebel Khalid in the late 70s- early 60s BCE, the temple site continued to be visited as a sacred area at least until the end of the first century CE, a new temenos wall was constructed and 23 columnar incense altars were erected on the north, west and south sides of the temple. Does this imply a change in religious culture? The Jebel Khalid temple constitutes a very rare example of a Greek-style temple for the Seleucid period in the Levant but it nevertheless reveals some very individual features.

Graeme Clarke is currently Adjunct Professor in the School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, having been previously a Director of the Humanities Research Centre in the Australian National University (1982-1999) and Professor of Classical Studies, University of Melbourne (1969-1982). He publishes in Patristic Studies – his books include The Letters of St Cyprian of Carthage (4 volumes) and The Octavius of Marcus Minucius Felix, and he is preparing a new text and commentary on the De lapsis of Cyprian (for Sources chrétiennes) as well as a translation and commentary on the works of Dionysius of Alexandria. He has also been Director of Excavations for the last twenty years at the Hellenistic site of Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates in North Syria. Three volumes of Report have so far been completed and he is currently preparing material for the fifth volume. Graeme Clarke has been Honorary Secretary of the Australian Academy of the Humanities since 2000. [last updated 2006]

Program in Hellenic Studies and Department of History Lecture
Clive Foss (Georgetown University)
Scheide Caldwell House, Room 103

Clive Foss is one of the leading international figures in the history and archaeology of the late antique and early Islamic Near East. His studies of ancient and medieval Ephesos, Ankara, Sardis and others, his surveys in Asia Minor and in Syria, and his analysis of continuities and discontinuities in the early medieval landscapes of the region, have transformed appreciation of the role of archaeology in the cultural and political history of the late Roman and early Byzantine and Islamic worlds between the fifth and eighth centuries, and are a major influence on the modern scholarship of the region. [last updated 2006]