Bryn Mawr archaeology graduate students at UC Boulder symposium "Space and Spectacle in the Ancient World"

Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology graduate students Katie Breyer and Yusi Liu presented research last week at the 2020 University of Colorado, Boulder, Classics Graduate Colloquium conference titled Space and Spectacle in the Ancient World. The two-day conference was held on January 31 – February 1, 2020. The keynote address was given by Dr. Sarah Levin-Richardson, of the university of University of Washington with the talk “Vision, Power, and Identity in Roman Culture.”

Yusi Liu presented her ongoing research in to the Peirene Fountain at the ancient Greek city Corinth. Her talk “Making a Space a Place: Eco-Cultural Readings of the Peirene Fountain at Ancient Corinth” was investigation into the importance of the fountain, and especially water, as a centerpiece of social life, myth, and ritual in the ancient city. Yusi’s work drew examples from geography, myth, religion, archaeology, and iconography to provide an eco-cultural reading of the fountain as a socially significant place for Corinthians. 

Katie’s talk “Expressions of Roman and Sasanian Legitimacy through their Political Landscapes” was a comparative study of political architecture of the Sasanian king Šāpūr I and the Roman emperor Galerius, two leaders who were at war. As case studies, Katie homed in on political rock reliefs of Šāpūr I at Naqš-e Rostam and Bīšāpūr in Iran as well as the triumphal arch of Galerius in Thessaloniki in Greece. In looking at these monuments she explored the ways in which images of military combat and political expressions shaped a politically significant space that asserted the imperial legitimacy of both the Sasanian and Roman rules.