Organizers: C. Jacob Butera (The University of North Carolina at Asheville) and Matthew A. Sears (The University of New Brunswick)
Scholarly and popular interest in ancient warfare has never been greater. This interest goes much deeper than the regrettable glamorization of violence and battle too often evident in popular culture – and even in some works of scholarship. Rather, questions of how, why, and where ancient battles were fought speak directly to broader issues in politics, society, and culture. These questions also incorporate the vast array of sources and methods available to the classicist, ancient historian, and archaeologist, rendering the study of ancient battle invaluable in terms of pedagogy and scholarly development. This panel will aim to show a way forward in the study of ancient Greek battle by inviting submissions from scholars taking a wide array of approaches, from close analysis of ancient texts to the study of battlefield topography, and from traditional scientific excavation to innovative experimental archaeology and war-gaming. The panel will address two important and timely questions: what is the scholarly merit of attempting to reconstruct ancient Greek warfare or particular battles, and can professional scholars exploit the popularity of ancient warfare to share the lessons of the classical world with a broader audience?
The primary scholarly inspiration for this panel is the late W. K. Pritchett, who combined his mastery of the ancient literary sources with an unmatched familiarity with the Greek landscape to advance countless arguments and new interpretations pertaining to the course of ancient battles and ancient Greek warfare in general. New approaches to the ancient sources and new technological tools promise to offer new answers to the old questions addressed by Pritchett and others in previous generations of scholarship. As such, we especially welcome submissions from scholars utilizing new tools and methods in the study of ancient Greek battle.
Please submit abstracts for papers of no more than 20 minutes. Anonymous abstracts of 500 words or less should be sent as PDF attachments by March 2nd, 2015, to scsmeetings@sas.upenn.edu. List AV requests and contact information in the body of the email. Anonymized abstracts will be sent by the SCS directly to the panel organizers, who will review them along with an a third, external assessor.