I. THE NECROPOLIS AS MEMORY SCAPE
The Program’s 1st Workshop was held, as planned, in Alexandria between September 15 and 24 under the title “The Necropolis as Memoryscape”. A call went out in March 2024, and successful applicants had been notified by late May. The final list of Junior Participants included eight scholars affiliated with Egyptian Universities, seven from Greek Universities (six Greeks, one French), one from Serbia, and one from Turkey.
The Workshop’s two Senior Participants were Professors Tom Landvatter (Reed, USA) and Thomas Faucher (CEAlex, France). An additional seminar paper was offered by a French scholar resident in Alexandria, affiliated with the CEALex (Center for Alexandrian Studies).
A portion of the Workshop, consisting of three public lectures, was organized under the auspices of the Library of Alexandria and attracted significant attention by the local academic community and the general public.
The Workshop’s full program was as follows:
MONDAY 16 SEPTEMBER | 09:30 a.m.
Seminars
Mona Haggag (Alexandria), Two Third Century BCE Cemeteries, Two Phases of Funerary Art of Alexandria: Shatby and Mostapha Kamel
Nikolas Dimakis (Athens), The Hellenistic Necropolis
ASA Library
MONDAY 16 SEPTEMBER | 18:30 p.m.
Inaugural lecture
Dimitris Plantzos (Athens), Alexandrian Memoryscapes
Mona Haggag (Alexandria), Response
BA Conference Center
TUESDAY 17 SEPTEMBER | 09:30 a.m.
Site visit
Shatby Necropolis (Kyriakos Savvopoulos)
TUESDAY 17 SEPTEMBER | 18:30 p.m.
Lecture
Thomas Faucher (CEAlex), The Archaeology of Death in Alexandria. Past and Recent Works of the Centre d'Études Alexandrines
Nikolas Dimakis (Athens), Response
BA Conference Center
WEDNESDAY 18 SEPTEMBER | 09:30 a.m.
Seminars
Nikolas Dimakis (Athens), Funerary performance in Hellenistic Alexandria
Lauriane Lequette (CEAlex), The Justinianic plague in the Late Roman Egypt: The burials of the “garage Lux”
ASA Library
WEDNESDAY 18 SEPTEMBER | 18:30 p.m.
Lecture
Tom Landvatter (Reed), Ritual and Imagined Landscapes at Ptolemaic Abydos
Nikolas Dimakis (Athens), Response
BA Conference Center
THURSDAY 19 SEPTEMBER | 09:30 a.m.
Site visit
Kom El Shoqafa & Anfushi Necropoleis (Kyriakos Savvopoulos)
FRIDAY 20 SEPTEMBER | 09:30 a.m.
Site visit
Greco-Roman Museum of Alexandria (Dimitris Plantzos & Nikolas Dimakis)
SATURDAY 21 SEPTEMBER | 09:30 a.m.
Seminars
Dimitris Plantzos (Athens), Painted Stelai and their Owners
Tom Landvatter (Reed), Collective Burial in Hellenistic Alexandria and Cyprus
ASA Library
SUNDAY 22 SEPTEMBER | 09:30 a.m.
Seminars
Hussein Abd El-Aziz (Alexandria), Cremation: from Greece to Egypt
Fathia Gaber (Alexandria), Funerary Stelai
ASA Library
The Workshop proper was followed (on September 23) by a JPs colloquium, as follows:
MORNING SESSION
9:00 Welcome (Mona Haggag)
9:30 D. Grimanelis (Athens): Burial practices and society; The case of Hellenistic Paros.
10:00 M. Rapanakis (Rethymnon): Memento mortuorum; Identifying Cretan monumental tombs in the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods.
10:30 T. Kakamanoudis (Thessaloniki): Constructing Memory at the Necropolis of Aigai.
11:00BREAK
11:30 A. Leventis (Athens): Alexandrian Cemeteries through the Pottery Finds.
12:00 V. Lambrinos (Athens): A Gaul in Alexandria.
12:30 L. Betrancourt (Athens & Brussels): The expression of Greek-Alexandrian Social Identity in the Funerary Art of the Eastern and Western Necropoleis and its Socio-historical Implications.
AFTERNOON SESSION
14:30 M. Allah Hassan, D. Atta, and B. Khalil Mahmoud Ali Khalil (Alexandria): The Project of Restoration, Preservation, and Development of the Hellenistic Cemetery of Shatby (2020 – 2023); A Team’s Mission.
15:30 T. Taleb, (Minya): Church of the Virgin at St. Abahor’s Monastery Revisited; A Restructured and Reused Hellenistic Tomb.
16:00 M. Ashour (Alexandria): Depiction of Lion on Hellenistic Coinage; Funerary Symbolism.
16:30 BREAK
17:00 N. Sami Abd El Fattah (Alexandria): The Power of Water; A Reinterpretation of Water's Significance in Alexandrian-Cypriot Funerary Spaces.
17:30 A. Bassioni (Alexandria): The Ancient Egyptian Checkerboard Pattern Motifs in Hellenistic Funerary Practices.
18:00 A. Perysinaki (Athens): Coins for the dead: The case of Argos Orestikon in Northwestern Greece.
18:30 A. Veličković Kastratović (Belgrade): Exploring Burial Practices as Evidence of Ancient Hellenistic Influences in Coastal Montenegro.
19:00 N. Aslan (Hacettepe): Aftermath of Mortality; Hellenistic Funeral Representations and the Psychopathology of Death in Southern Anatolia.
It is our conviction that the Workshop proved extremely successful, and indeed beneficial for all involved, seniors and juniors. A cross-generational, cross-national and cross-disciplinary network is thus in the process of being formed, bringing together scholars from different countries, different generations, and different lines of expertise. During the Workshop, a number of ideas for future collaboration between the individual members were discussed, including the collaboration between the University of Athens, the Archaeological Society of Alexandria and the Greco-Roman Museum of Alexandria towards the digitization of the Museum’s Archives (going back to the late 19th century), or the collaborative study of Ptolemaic artefacts, bringing together scholars from Athens, Alexandria, and beyond.