Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 5, 2002

Volume 30, Number 24

Conference to explore innovations
in study of ancient Aegean

The ways in which cutting-edge technology can shed light on the ancient Aegean world will be the topic of a four-day international conference taking place on campus, April 18-21.

"METRON: Measuring the Aegean Bronze Age" will explore the innovative approaches, both technological and methodological, being used to study Aegean Bronze Age material culture and environment, according to Karen Foster, a lecturer in Near Eastern languages and civilizations, who is co-organizing the conference with Robert Laffineur of the Université de Liège in Belgium.

Scholars from Europe, the United States and Canada will describe how they have used such technologies as digital Geographic Information Systems, laser spectroscopy, chemical and petrographic analysis and X-ray testing, among others, in their research on Bronze Age Aegean society, art, architecture, environment and history.

Among the technological applications they will discuss are the use of a geoarchaeological approach for detecting prehistoric Aegean harbors, methods for extracting ancient DNA from excavated human remains to detect infectious diseases such as malaria in ancient Aegean populations, and laser plotting and three-dimensional reconstruction of Aegean archaeological remains.

"Many scholars active in Aegean studies are interested in the application of new technology," says Foster. "A lot of our participants are people who have never met each other before; they have been working independently in their own laboratories in Greece or elsewhere. This is an opportunity for them to get together to share some of the exciting work they are doing using new technologies and methods."

In addition to Foster, Yale participants include Dimitri Gutas, chair of Near Eastern languages and civilizations; anthropologist Thomas Tartaron; Catherine Sease, a senior conservator at the Peabody Museum of Natural History; and David S. Reese of the Peabody Museum.

The keynote speaker is James Muhly, director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, who will discuss "Archaeology and Archaeometry: Why We Need (and Should Want) to Work Together." His talk will take place on Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Graduate Club, 155 Elm St.

Several special events are planned in conjunction with the conference. On Friday, April 19, interested participants will take a bus excursion to Mystic, Connecticut, for visits to the Mystic Seaport and the Mystic Aquarium as part of an exploration of technological and replication issues and marine environments. On Saturday, April 20, at 8:30 p.m. noted Greek saxophonist Dimitrios Vassilakis and his band, the Daedalus Project Band, will perform music from their latest album, "Labyrinth," at Battell Chapel, corner of Elm and College streets. The band fuses Balkan and Greek musical traditions with modern jazz, performing on traditional Balkan instruments. The concert is free and open to the public.

In addition, two exhibitions will be offered in conjunction with the conference. "Mapping the Mediterranean" will feature rare and unusual maps of the Aegean region from the Yale Map Collection and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. "METRON and Mesopotamia" highlights cuneiform tablets dealing with measurement drawn from the Yale Babylonian Collection, as well as a series of duck weights from the Streeter Collection of Weights and Measures in the Yale Historical Medical Library. The exhibitions will be on view at the Beinecke Library, Wall and High streets, and in the nave and corridor cases of the Sterling Memorial Library, 120 High St.

Registration is required for all conference events with the exception of the Saturday jazz concert. Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday in the lecture hall of the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St. The basic registration fee is $120, waived for Yale undergraduates and faculty and for graduate students of sponsoring departments. For further information on registration, call Yale Conference Services at (203) 432-0465.

"METRON: Measuring the Aegean Bronze Age" is sponsored by the Departments of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, History of Art, Classics and Anthropology, and by the Middle East Studies Council of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies. Additional support for the event comes from the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Fund of Yale and the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation.

A full conference program and abstracts of papers are available at www.ulg.ac.be/42metron.html. .

For further information, call (203) 432-4113.

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