Death in the Greek World

Activity: Organising and attending an event Organising and contributing to an event Academic

Description

From 22 March to 1 April the course ‘Death in the Greek World’ took place at the Netherlands Institute Athens, organized by Sofia Voutsaki, Eleni Panagiotopoulou, Tamara Dijkstra and Winfred van de Put. Eleven students from various universities in the Netherlands joined the 10-day course which was aimed at providing an in-depth study of various themes related to death in the Greek world, ranging from Neolithic burials in the Alepotrypa cave to Byzantine mortuary practices and from notions of afterlife in Plato to the Amphipolis tomb as a tool in current political issues. A conference was held where various distinguished scholars from Greece talked about their research and projects and provided food for thought for the entire course. The rest of the program consisted of a mix of excursions, lectures and student presentations in Athens and beyond. To mention just a few of the activities: Dr. Jutta Stroszeck gave an excellent tour of the Kerameikos; at the First Cemetery of Athens we gazed upon Heinrich Schliemann’s megalomaniac tomb; a rainy day was spent at Mycenae’s famous grave circles and tholos tombs; and Michalis Gazis took the group to the relatively unknown Mycenaean sites of Portes and Voudeni in the interior of Achaia. Back in Athens, the beautiful lecture hall of the Archaeological Society was the setting for a lecture by Prof. Nadia Seremetakis, one of the foremost theoreticians on modern Greek anthropology. Dr. Stella Chrysoulaki allowed us a sneak peek in the depot of the archaeological excavations for the Peiraeus metro, and Dr. Giorgos Kavvadias shed light on the incredible collection of vases at the National Archaeological Museum.
Period22-Mar-20151-Apr-2015
Event typeWorkshop
LocationGreeceShow on map