CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 11, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
-- Fascination with Greco-Roman culture continues to drive
academic curricula and popular interest, in spite of recent data
signaling a decline in the study of the humanities. New
developments in the study of the ancient world—integrating
methodological, philosophical, and technological advances—have, in
some cases, revolutionized our understanding of the past, opening
up a new realm of classical studies for the twenty-first
century.
This period of discovery is due in large part to a new
generation of classicists who are reshaping our access to and
understanding of Greco-Roman culture. Innovative, multidisciplinary
approaches that often apply cutting-edge science and technology to
the study of the ancient world are yielding new questions and
altering our engagement with the past. For example, not only have
novel technologies enabled the discovery of new literary papyri,
but methodological changes have altered which texts scholars might
use to piece together ancient worldviews. This "new science of
antiquity"—including multispectral imaging, 3D laser scanning, and
bioarchaeology—is enabling researchers to reconstruct previously
inaccessible data and documents, revealing, for example, mysteries
about ancient ecosystems and deciphering papyri carbonized during
the eruption of Vesuvius.
As guest editor Matthew S.
Santirocco (New York
University) observes in his introduction to the issue, "the
past is still very much alive in the present." This is evidenced by
the major themes explored by the contributors to the Spring 2016
issue of Daedaluson "What's New about the
Old," including:
- The relevance of the old amidst the new—a continued focus on
classical texts, whether literary or technical, that demonstrates
the value of philology and other specializations (archaeology,
translation) to recover and contextualize these works.
- The methodological approaches and theoretical underpinnings
offered by a diverse, multidisciplinary network of scholars
studying Greco-Roman experiences.
- The role of technology in expanding the ways in which new
knowledge or theories are established.
In "What is Ancient History?" Ian
Morris (Stanford University)
and Walter Scheidel
(Stanford University) offer two
competing models of ancient history that have defined academic
discourse for the past three centuries: the classical model, which
recognizes ancient Greece and
Rome as the starting point of
human history; and the evolutionary model, which takes a more
global approach in looking at the origins of humanity. They propose
that the new evidence and methods available to scholars today may
allow these two schools of thought to engage with each other with
renewed coherence, in turn offering comprehensive new models of
ancient history.
Verity Platt (Cornell University), in "The Matter of Classical
Art History," presents a new lens with which Greco-Roman art may be
studied. Typically relegated to the larger discipline of art
history—which increasingly focuses on modern and non-Western
art—Platt explores how the "material stuff of antiquity can be most
effectively yoked to the thinking and sensing of the bodies that
inhabited it." She argues that closer study of these materials can
yield discoveries related to practices of art production, sense
perception, and interpretation.
In "Greco-Roman Studies in a Digital Age," Gregory Crane (Tufts
University) considers the role of classics in modern society
and looks toward the transformative power of technology as a way in
which "the shift from print to a digital space changes how the
classics can contribute to society as a whole." And using new
scientific data and approaches, Kyle
Harper (University of
Oklahoma) proposes that a cascade of ecological disasters
led to "The Environmental Fall of the Roman Empire." He illustrates
how the effects of climate change, including food crises in
Egypt resulting from the Nile's
inability to flood, and the Plague of Antonine and Plague of
Cyprian were, in a sense, "the revenge of [Rome's] giant imperial ecology."
Essays in the Spring 2016 issue of Daedalus include:
- Introduction: Reassessing Greece & Rome by Matthew
S. Santirocco (New York
University)
- Tragedy in the Crosshairs of the Present by
Brooke Holmes (Princeton University)
- Roman Literature: Translation, Metaphor & Empire
by Shadi Bartsch
(University of Chicago)
- Reception Studies: The Cultural Mobility of Classics
by Emily Greenwood
(Yale University)
- On Translating Homer's Iliad by Caroline Alexander (Author and
Journalist)
- Philosophy & Its Classical Past
by Phillip Mitsis
(New York University)
- The Matter of Classical Art History by Verity
Platt (Cornell
University)
- Materializing Ancient Documents by Roger S. Bagnall (New
York University)
- Memory, Commemoration & Identity in an Ancient City: The
Case of Aphrodisias by Angelos
Chaniotis (Institute for Advanced Study)
- The Environmental Fall of the Roman Empire by
Kyle Harper (University of Oklahoma)
- What is Ancient History? by Ian Morris (Stanford
University) and Walter
Scheidel (Stanford
University)
- Classics: Curriculum & Profession
by Peter T. Struck
(University of Pennsylvania)
- Greco-Roman Studies in a Digital Age
by Gregory Crane
(Tufts University)
Additional contributions to this issue of Daedalus
include:
- The New "Brothers Poem" by Sappho by Rachel Hadas (Rutgers, The State University of New
Jersey–Newark)
- Explicating Catullus by Michael C. J. Putnam (Brown University)
- The Scientific Study of Antiquity by Malcolm H. Wiener (Institute for Aegean
Prehistory)
Print and Kindle copies of the new issue can be ordered at:
http://www.amacad.org/publications/daedalus.
NOTE: Please credit Daedalus, the Journal of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, when citing this editorial
material.
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SOURCE American Academy of Arts & Sciences