The Netherlands Institute at Athens, in collaboration with the Royal Museums of Art and History Brussels, The National Archaeological Museum Athens, The Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus, The École française d’Athènes and The University College Roosevelt (NL) are very pleased to announce the next event in the Lecture series and Discussion Forum TEXNH: Making, creating, and agency networks in the Ancient Mediterranean world.
8 January 2025
Hybrid lecture by Dr. David Lewis, Senior Lecturer in Greek History and Culture, University of Edinburgh
“Mining the textual sources for the economic history of crafts in Classical Athens”
Discussant: Dr. Helle Hochscheid, Assistant Professor of Antiquity, University College Roosevelt
For physical attendance please register by sending an email to: [email protected]. For online registration please visit: https://us06web.zoom.us/
Abstract
Archaeological evidence affords scholars insights into ancient crafts with a level of granularity far beyond what the textual evidence allows. This includes the remains of workshops (e.g., Sanidas 2013), the iconography of work (e.g., Vidale 2002; Chatzidimitriou 2005; Distler 2022), the remains of artisanal products that survive (e.g., Boardman 2001; Hochschied 2015; Sapirstein 2013) and the iconography of those that mostly did not (e.g., Andrianou 2005; Cohen 2014; Dercy 2015; Spantidaki 2016). But what the textual evidence lacks in granularity, it makes up for in breadth and complexity, providing us with insights into crafts that left little or no physical remains, as well as crucial information about the organisation of production and exchange. This paper will explore the contribution of the written sources to the economic history of crafts in
Classical Athens, as part of ongoing research into the vocabulary of work (e.g., Lewis 2020,
drawing on Harris 2002).