Grafted Trees atop Mt. Nebo: Byzantine Art and Practice Amongst the Trees
By Matthew Westermeyer, Cornell University
On the peak of Mt. Nebo (near Khirbet el-Mukhayyat, Jordan), amidst a desert landscape, people were baptized amongst mosaics of flowers, hunting scenes, and grafted trees (Piccirillo, 1998). The floors of this 6th-century baptistry parallels the region’s tendency for a profusion of so-called natural imagery (Kitzinger, 1976; Britt, 2011). Scholars use Nebo as a case-study in the trends of late antique art, as an example of changing styles from classical to Byzantine periods (Maguire 1987, 2012). From this vantage point, this space is a rare instance of plant portrayal prior to iconoclasm.
Roman Plaster: The Semantics and Mechanics of a Craft Ecology
By Jessica Plant, University of Cambridge
This paper explores the semantic and infrastructural dimensions of plaster in antiquity. As an artificial composite, plaster was a mixture of earth, fire, water, and air. Labourers manufactured plaster by firing limestone or marble to produce quicklime, which was treated with water to release heat, forming slaked lime. The powder was then suspended in water and mixed with selected earthen grits like sand, marble powder, and crushed terracotta (Vitr. De Arch. 7.6.1).
The Purity of Sacrificial Ornament: A Ritual-Ecological Framing of the “Boukrania and Fillets” Motif
By Mary Danisi, Cornell University
Harnessed by scholars seeking to understand stylistic development in terms of both increasing naturalism (Brückner; Homolle) and as a purely internal formal development (Riegl; Hauglid), acanthus ornament occupies an unstable position in Greek art. Unlike geometric patterns such as meanders and saltire squares, which lack a clear referent in nature, acanthus ornament, characterized by serrated edges, is readily recognized as the distinct plant found throughout the Mediterranean.
Floral Ornament at the Grave: Acanthus Plants between Nature and Facture
By William Austin, Princeton University
Harnessed by scholars seeking to understand stylistic development in terms of both increasing naturalism (Brückner; Homolle) and as a purely internal formal development (Riegl; Hauglid), acanthus ornament occupies an unstable position in Greek art. Unlike geometric patterns such as meanders and saltire squares, which lack a clear referent in nature, acanthus ornament, characterized by serrated edges, is readily recognized as the distinct plant found throughout the Mediterranean.
Burning Mortal Materials: the Transformation and Reassemblage of the Body in Homeric Funerals
By Collin Moat, University of California, Los Angeles
In this paper, I will explore how the harvesting of wood in Homeric poetry is inextricably linked to the topic of human mortality. In particular, while scholarship has explored how Iliadic tree similes use tree death and the production of wood for craft production to highlight the ambivalence of heroic death, I will focus on how the harvesting of wood for heroic funerals associates wood with a different component of human mortality, collapsing the simile’s boundaries between vehicle and tenor by uniting the mortal material of humans and trees in a process of cremation.