Crossing boundaries: ancient history explores its future
“Faculty of Classics, Cambridge. December 12th and 13th, 2012
All sessions will take place in the Faculty of Classics, Room G21.
Papers will run for 30 minutes each and be followed by 30 minutes of discussion.
Wednesday December 12th
9:15-9:30
Introductory remarks by William Harris and Robin Osborne
1. Genetics, population, health, disease, living standards, part I
9:30-10:30
Robert C. Allen (Oxford), “Real wages in Roman Egypt in the perspective of modern poverty lines and nutrition standards”.
10:30-11:00
Coffee break
11:00-12:00
Saskia Hin (Rostock), “Quantitative interdisciplinary research as the future of ancient history? Insights from spying on demographers”
12:00-1:00
Martin Jones (Cambridge), “From clarity to complexity: ancient history and genetic stories”.
2. Environment and environmental sciences.
2:15-3:15
Nicholas Purcell (Oxford), “Between katoikism and cataclysm: what ancient history can offer the history of the environment”.
3:15-4:15
Robyn Veal (Cambridge), “Environmental history and archaeology of the ancient forest economy”.
4:15-4:45
Refreshments
4:45-5:45
Susan Alcock (Brown), “Adjusting to a new climate: the need togreen ancient history”.
Thursday December 13th
3. Genetics, population, health, disease, living standards, part II
9:30-10:30
Rebecca Flemming (Cambridge), “New medical texts, old medical texts, plague, and maternal mortality”.
10:30-11:00
Coffee break
11:00-12:00
Kristina Killgrove (West Florida), “Embodying the empire: reading bones to understand Roman health”.
12:00-1:00
Peter Garnsey (Cambridge), “Bones and History”.
4. Ancient economies.
2:15-3:15
Alain Bresson (Chicago), “Economics for the ancient world? The challenge and its difficulties”.
3:15-4:15
Walter Scheidel (Stanford), “The future of the Roman economy”.
4:15-4:45
Refreshments
4:45-5:45
Kyle Harper (Oklahoma), “Beyond performance: what other differences do institutions make?”
Final discussion.
5:45-6:15
Invited discussants: Sitta von Reden (Freiburg), Greg Woolf (St Andrew’s), Giusto Traina (Paris Sorbonne), Andrew Wilson (Oxford), Marco Maiuro (Columbia), and Dorothy Thompson (Cambridge).”
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