Future activities 

5 March 2010
Official opening of the Velux-project, Faculty of Theology, 15.15 - 17.30  
The transformation of religious identity in the Hellenistic-Roman world, 100 BC - AD 600. The significance of conversion and initiation to the formation of religious identity
directed by Anders-Christian Lund Jacobsen and Rubina Raja

Opening lecture by professor Inge Nielsen, Universität Hamburg
Religious associations in antiquity

 

25 - 27 March 2010
Continuity and change: religious identities in the Levant from Alexander to Muhammad
International conference at the Danish Institute in Damascus, Syria
organised together with Achim Lichtenberger (Religion und Politik, Excellenzcluster, WWU Münster) and
in cooperation with DAI Research Cluster 4.1.
The conference is sponsored by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Carlsberg Foundation

 

Thursday 25th of March 

14.00-15.00 Introduction to the conference by the organisers
Rubina Raja, Aarhus University, Denmark
Achim Lichtenberger, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany

 

28 - 30 October 2010
International seminar at Aarhus University
Information to follow

 

 

 

1 - 3 December 2010
Continuity, discontinuity and change: afterlife and transformation of Near Eastern Religions in the Hellenistic and Roman periods
International conference at Münster University, Germany
organised together with Michael Blömer, Achim Lichtenberger and Engelbert Winter (Religion und Politik, Excellenzcluster, WWU Münster)

 

Earlier activities

 

 

14. - 16. May 2009:
Constructing religious identities. Space and texts in the pagan and early Christian Near East, AD 100-400
International conference organised together with associate professor Anders-Christian Lund Jacobsen, Faculty of Theology
The conference is sponsored by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Danish Research Council for culture and communication and Aarhus University's Research Fund  

http://www.relnorm.au.dk/en/theme1/events/spring2009/conferencefrontpage 

 

 

 

27. March 2009:
Transformation and spoliation of art and architecture in the Roman and Late Antique periods: 
Readings, meanings and interpretations 
(one-day seminar at the Department of Classical Archaeology, University of Aarhus)
Organised together with the project ”Honestiores and Humiliores. Art and Social Identities in Late Antiquity” (Troels Myrup Kristensen)

 

19. - 21. March 2009:
Redefining the sacred: religious identity, ritual practice, and sacred architecture in the Near East and Egypt, 1000 BC - AD 300
International conference at University of Oxford, England (organised together with Dr. Elizabeth Frood, university lecturer in Egyptology, University of Oxford)

 

 

Link to conference webpage: www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/conferences/redefining_the_sacred

 7 November 2008:
Elite villas in central Italy and their transformation in late antiquity
Guestlecture at the Department of Classical Archaeology, University of Aarhus by lecturer Annalisa Marzano, University of Reading, England
Organised together with the project ”Honestiores and Humiliores. Art and Social Identities in Late Antiquity” (www.lateantiquity.dk) 

18. - 21. September 2008:
Contextualising the sacred in the Hellenistic and Roman Near East: Religious identities in local, regional and imperial settings
International conference at University of Aarhus, Denmark

Speakers included:

Nicole Belayche (Paris), 'La construction des 'identités religieuses' dans des colonies romaines d'Orient (Anatolie et Proche-Orient)  

Kevin Butcher (Warwick), 'Patronage and resources in Lebanese temples' 

Frank Daubner (Stuttgart), 'Göttertransfer aus Makedonien: Athena Kyrrhestis, Zeus Bottiaos und andere?'

Jean-Marie Dentzer (Paris), 'Sanctuaries and political power in Southern Syria: the case of Si' 

Jacqueline Dentzer-Feydy (Paris), 'The Sanctuary of Qasr al-Bint in Petra: from Nabataean cult to Roman Imperial celebration' 

Susan Downey (Los Angeles), 'Evidence for ritual and religious communities in temples in Palmyra' 

Annie Sartre-Fauriat (Artois), 'La vie religieuse et son évolution à l'époque impériale romaine dans le Trâchon' 

Klaus Stefan Freyberger (Rome), 'The sanctuaries at Kanatha and Seeia: evidence for religiously sanctioning the power to use water' 

Michal Gawlikowski (Warsaw), 'Gods and places. Local and oecumenical cults in Syria of the imperial period'

Rudolf Haensch (Munich), 'Die Vertreter Roms im Osten und die indigenen Kulte' 

Ted Kaizer (Durham), 'Cult centres and local mythologies in Strabo's and Pliny's Near East' 

Andreas Kropp (Nottingham), 'Pre-Roman Heliopolis (Baalbek): cults and temples under the Ituraean tetrarchs of Chalkis' 

Achim Lichtenberger (Münster), 'Religious identities in late antique Judaea: the case of the Beit Nattif workshop' 

Jane Lightfoot (Oxford), 'Pseudo-Meliton on the local religions of the Near East: a couple of case studies and their implications' 

Volker Menze (Münster), 'Imperial control of belief and Christian identity in the sixth century CE' 

Joseph Patrich (Jerusalem), 'The Herodian temple at Jerusalem and its courts: new observations on architecture and rite'

Maurice Sartre (Tours), 'Les panthéons urbains du Hauran: Bostra, Canatha, Adraha' 

Michael Sommer (Liverpool), 'You shall not make for yourself an idol? - Elagabalus, Rome and the power of aniconism' 

Robert Wenning (Münster), 'Nabataean identity by sanctuaries and burial places' 

Sidsel Westh-Hansen (Aarhus), 'Religious identity and globalisation. The case of Uruk in the Hellenistic period'

  

Click to read the conference outline... 

Link to programme...

Link to poster...

Link to university plan...

23. April 2008:
Guestlecture by PD Dr. R. Haensch, 2. Direktor, kommission für Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, München
Title: The Roman army in the East between Roman and local cults

5. March 2008:
Guestlecture by Wiss. Ass. V. Menze, Ph.D., Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
Title: Simeon stylites and his afterlife: the pillar as a Christian symbol

27. February 2008:
Guestlecture by Professor Dr. K. S. Freyberger, wissenschaftlicher Direktor, 
Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Abteilung Rom
Title: The Sanctuaries of Kanatha in late Hellenistic and Roman Times: function and Significance 

9. November 2007:
The Novo Nordisk Foundation hosted the opening of the project at Aarhus University
The director of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Gert Almind opened the project.
Rubina Raja presented the research outline.
Professor Jörg Rüpke (Erfurt University, Germany) gave a lecture entitled "Religious pluralism and the Roman empire" and lecturer Ted Kaizer (Durham University, England) gave a lecture on "The creation of local religious identities in the Roman Near East".
Afterwards a reception was held in Antikmuseet, Aarhus University