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Medieval & Ancient Research Seminars

Spring Semester 2012

Friday 24th February
Dr. Marilina Cesario (English),
‘Ovidian’s influences in Aldhelm’s Enigmata’

Friday 2nd March
Professor John Thompson (English),
‘Imagining the British History in an Irish and Welsh setting: chapters in the lives and careers of James Ussher and a Welsh deputy herald’

Friday 9th March
Duncan Berryman (GAP),
‘How many buildings make a farmstead? A study of fourteenth-century manorial agricultural buildings’
 
Ciaran Arthur (English),
'Ploughing Through Cotton Caligula A VII: Establishing Connections between the Heliand and the Æcerbot through Incantation'

Friday 16th March
Professor Mariken Teeuwen (Utrecht),
‘The Margin in Carolingian Manuscripts – A Place for Debate and Dissent’
20-22 April 2012

Borderlines XVI
Humanities  PG Centre
Guest speaker: Prof Paul Strohm (Columbia)

Friday 27th April
Eamon Byers (English),
‘“Come all ye rolling minstrels” - The Medievalism of Modern Folkmusic’

Friday 4th May
Dr. Alice Jorgensen (Trinity College Dublin), ‘'Translating Emotion in the Paris Psalter'

Friday 11th May
Dr. Malte Urban (English),
Title TBC

Friday 18th May Dr. Stuart McWilliams (Edinburgh),
"The Inscription of Enchantment: Magical Books in Theory and Practice"

All seminars will be held at 4pm in 16 University Square, rm.101, unless stated otherwise. For Information, contact Dr Sinead O'Sullivan: s.osullivan@qub.ac.uk. All welcome.

Postgraduate Student Initiatives
School of History & Anthropology, Queen's University

Medieval & Ancient
MARS Reserach Initiative Logo 
 Research Seminars
 Exploring crossover themes common to Ancient and Medieval society.
Papers will last forty minutes and be followed by lively discussion.
  Everyone welcome. For more information visit http://www.marsatqueens.co.uk/

 

Autumn/Winter 2008 

19 September 2008, 9.30 am
Room 207, Peter Froggatt Centre, Queen's University Belfast

‘Et credidit populus.
The role and function of beliefs in early societies.’

The conference focuses on interdisciplinary discussion and exchange of research results relating to the above theme in the areas of ancient and medieval history, archaeology, history of philosophy, art and languages.
Completed booking forms should be returned to the conference organisers by 31st July 2008 to the address marsatqueens@gmail.com or jszacillo01@qub.ac.uk

Call for Papers [download - word doc]
Conference Programme [download - pdf file]
Conference Registration Form [download - word doc]
Accommodation Information [download - pdf file]
Travel & Tourism Information [download - pdf file]

Spring/Summer 2008

16 April 2008, 2 pm
Seminar Room, AHSS Faculty Postgraduate Research Centre
College Green

Don Miller (Newcastle University)

Monumental Motives: The Art of Public Commemoration in Republican Rome
This paper will discuss motives for the erection of public memorials such as arches, statues, columns, paintings and temples in Republican Rome. Scholarship has traditionally assumed that these monuments were erected primarily out of private ambition, both as a means of self-aggrandizement and to publicize individual achievements. This assumption is largely a result of the methodological approach advanced by modern studies, which tend to focus on individual monument types, rather than monuments as a collective. Also common is the view that few senatorial regulations, if any, were in place to prevent the Roman elite from indiscriminately setting up monuments in public areas. This paper will argue that, in spite of the apparent lack of senatorial control, certain parameters were in place to govern the erection of public memorials. 

Don is about to finish a PhD in Ancient History under the supervision of Jerry Paterson at Newcastle University.  His thesis is tentatively titled "Si Monumentum Requiris, Circumspice: The Art of Public Commemoration in Republican Rome", and focuses on public commemorative monuments set up by the Roman elite at Rome during the Republican period, in particular, the votive temple, honorific column, honorific statue, historical painting, as well as the public display of captured war booty.


April 30th 2008, 2 pm
Seminar Room, AHSS Faculty Postgraduate Research Centre
College Green

Dr Renate Kurzmann (Open University)

Here is the fortress: where are the prata? – The interpretation of ancient military territories and their terminology

Many publications refer to the term ‘prata legionis’ as the military territory, adjacent to the forts and fortresses of the Roman army but the extent of this area is not always clear. In spite of the fact that the term is mentioned in inscriptions from first-century Spain and Dalmatia, it leaves us with little knowledge about how much territory was included and if there were topographical and chronological variations. Some of the modern literature on the topic is ambiguous. Different scholars use different terms, interpret them in different ways and sometimes misunderstand each other, which may be due to the fact that archaeologists often use epigraphic terms without further questioning. This paper attempts to explain both ancient terms for military territories, including regional and chronological differences, and their modern interpretations and tries to relate them to the archaeological evidence. It wants to propose guidelines for interpreting areas surrounding military structures, of which it is unclear if they were of military or civilian nature. The evidence of military inscriptions and brick stamps, which are often used for the definition of the ‘prata legionis’ are considered as well as the topographical evidence. The paper attempts to answer if it is possible to differentiate between different types of ‘military’ or ‘military dominated’ areas in the former Roman Empire and tries to move away from the traditional terms.

Dr Kurzmann finished her PhD on Roman military-brick stamps in 2005 at University College Dublin, as part of a three-year research fellowship. Since September 2007 she has been working for the Open University as an assistant lecturer and also teaches evening classes on Roman archaeology and history in UCD. Her research interests are the archaeology and epigraphy of the north-western Roman provinces, with a focus on military territories and also the Roman material in Ireland.

May 28th 2008, 2 pm
Seminar Room, AHSS Faculty Postgraduate Research Centre
College Green

Dr James Thorne (NUI Maynooth)
The Aedui in the Gallic War: ‘A powerful people, unbowed by battle, since they had joined our alliance of their own accord

As part of a broader attempt to write a history of the Gallic War in which Gauls are endowed with agency, this paper examines the Aedui.   First, it will assess Caesar’s relationship with this most important of Roman allies in Gaul: it argues that the degree to which Caesar was interdependent with, rather than dominant over, them has been underestimated, thanks to both Roman and modern ideology.   It will then turn to the causes of the war(s), arguing that regional conflict for hegemony between the Aedui and the Arverni was an important motor, and that this gives a new perspective on the ‘revolt’ of 52.

Dr Thorne graduated from the Institute of Archaeology at UCL in 1995.   After four years away from academia, he undertook postgraduate study at Manchester under Tim Cornell.   His PhD thesis (2004) was entitled ‘Caesar and the Gauls: Roman imperialism and iron-age society’.   Dr Thorne has taught at Manchester and NUI Maynooth and is primarily interested in Roman imperialism, particularly in the middle and late republic, but has also published on warfare and society in classical Greece.   Forthcoming publications include a chapter in Phiroze Vasunia and Edith Hall’s Greece, Rome, and Colonial India, and Dexter Hoyos’ Companion to Roman Imperialism for Brill.

 

 

Autumn/Winter 2007 

November 12th 2007, 5.15 pm
Seminar Room, School of History
16 University Square


 Dr Raoul McLaughlin (Queen’s University Belfast)

'Ancient Diplomacy, Trade and Travel: Contacts between Rome, India and China'

Dr McLaughlin will discuss evidence for Roman diplomatic involvement with the distant East, including trade contacts and travel to the ancient lands of India and China.

Raoul McLaughlin is currently a teaching assistant at Queen’s with academic interests in Roman commerce and the ancient economy. He has been offered a contract by Continuum Publishers to produce the first part of his doctorate under the title: “Rome and the Distant East: Trade routes to the ancient lands of Arabia, India and China”. In their January issue, History Today are publishing an article by Dr McLaughlin on Roman knowledge of China.


 

Spring/Summer 2007

 5.15 pm, 30 April, Room 303 Peter Froggatt Centre


Colmán Etchnigham: "The case of Uraicecht na Ríar
- Were early Irish poets really house-trained by the Christian clergy?”


Colmán Etchingham is a lecturer at Maynooth where he specialises in the history of pre-Norman Ireland. He has written about the society of early Ireland, the church organisation in medieval Ireland, as well as the value of the Irish annals as an historical source.

At the forthcoming M.A.R.S. seminar, Dr Etchingham will discuss an enigmatic medieval Irish text called the Uraicecht na Ríar. This work considers the status of bards and poets in early Ireland.


 Febuary 12th 2007 - Room 307 Peter Froggatt Centre

Richard Warner: 'Did the Romans invade Ireland?'

Richard Warner has worked extensively on the archaeology of Iron Age Ireland and has published a number of important articles interpreting the material evidence for our ancient past. He was the Keeper of Antiquities at the Ulster Museum until his retirement last year.

Dr Warner will ask: "How should Roman finds in Ireland be interpreted?

Could the accounts of ancient events found in Irish Medieval myths preserve an element of history? Do the Roman sources support the case for military involvement in Ireland?

 

Autumn/Winter 2006 

November 13th 2006
 Patrick McCafferty (Queen’s University Belfast)

COMETS, MYTHS and HISTORY – unlikely bedfellows with shocking stories
MYTHS, those fantastic stories of gods and warriors, invented to express deep-seated human fears, have nothing to do with HISTORY, do they? And as for COMETS, what connection could they possibly have to either history or myth?

A recent approach to myths has suggested that these are, in fact, describing catastrophic collisions between earth and the debris from a nearby comet. This approach offers an exciting new insight into the distant past. Furthermore, it sheds surprising new doubts on the nature of many events in ancient, Roman and medieval times that have traditionally been accepted as historically accurate. Myths, history and comets are shockingly intertwined.

 December 4th 2006
Geraldine O'Neill (Queen’s University Belfast)

'Eat, Drink and be Merry' - Plato's Symposium
Gender issues
      - What was a symposium?
       - Why was it such an important feature in Greek society?
- Why did so many rituals grow up around a group of men meeting to eat and drink?