Pressly Forum: Prof. Emily Egan, "Into the Field of (Papyrus-) Reeds: Painting the Afterworld in Late Bronze Age Greece"
Pressly Forum: Prof. Emily Egan, "Into the Field of (Papyrus-) Reeds: Painting the Afterworld in Late Bronze Age Greece"
Please join us Wednesday, April 2nd at noon, when Emily Egan, Assistant Professor of Eastern Mediterranean Art and Archaeology in the Department will deliver a talk about her ongoing research, "Into the Field of (Papyrus-) Reeds: Painting the Afterworld in Late Bronze Age Greece." A light lunch will be served at 11:30.
Since its re-discovery by archaeologists in 1939, the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1300-1200 BCE) Palace of Nestor in western Messenia, Greece, has been a focus of scholarly discussion and debate. Of particular interest has been the functionality of this multi-building edifice, and of the utility of a suite of three rooms, the so-called megaron, situated at the palace core. Routinely, the megaron is interpreted through the lens of Homeric epic (from which the term "megaron" itself derives), resulting in narratives that emphasize the suite's association with the activities of the living, including feasting and the reception of visitors. This talk re-examines this canonical reading by interrogating the megaron's painted surface decoration, which originally covered both its walls and floors. It is proposed that this decoration, while highly fragmentary, attests to a different utility for the Pylian megaron - one associated with death and rebirth and one that rendered the cosmos in miniature - the land of the living, the land of the dead, and the space in between.
The Pressly Forum offers members of Department faculty and selected speakers to give a talk to members of the Department (faculty, staff, students) in an effort to create bonds of intellectual and collegial community. The forum is the brainchild of Professor Emeritus William L. Pressly, after whom the forum now is named.
Please join us Wednesday, April 2nd at noon, when Emily Egan, Assistant Professor of Eastern Mediterranean Art and Archaeology in the Department will deliver a talk about her ongoing research, "Into the Field of (Papyrus-) Reeds: Painting the Afterworld in Late Bronze Age Greece." A light lunch will be served at 11:30.
Since its re-discovery by archaeologists in 1939, the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1300-1200 BCE) Palace of Nestor in western Messenia, Greece, has been a focus of scholarly discussion and debate. Of particular interest has been the functionality of this multi-building edifice, and of the utility of a suite of three rooms, the so-called megaron, situated at the palace core. Routinely, the megaron is interpreted through the lens of Homeric epic (from which the term "megaron" itself derives), resulting in narratives that emphasize the suite's association with the activities of the living, including feasting and the reception of visitors. This talk re-examines this canonical reading by interrogating the megaron's painted surface decoration, which originally covered both its walls and floors. It is proposed that this decoration, while highly fragmentary, attests to a different utility for the Pylian megaron - one associated with death and rebirth and one that rendered the cosmos in miniature - the land of the living, the land of the dead, and the space in between.
The Pressly Forum offers members of Department faculty and selected speakers to give a talk to members of the Department (faculty, staff, students) in an effort to create bonds of intellectual and collegial community. The forum is the brainchild of Professor Emeritus William L. Pressly, after whom the forum now is named.