Videos – British School at Athens

Poetry Readings: Michael Marks Awards – Ben Verinder (Environmental Poet of the Year 2024) and Professor Paul O’Prey (winner of the Publisher Award 2024 – Dare Gale press)

The BSA is delighted to host the Michael Marks Awards and its winning poets who stay at the BSA for a week as part of the programme. This year’s poets in residence are Ben Verinder, the Environmental Poet of the Year 2024, and Professor Paul O’Prey, winner of the Publisher Award 2024 (Dare- Gale press), who will give readings at the BSA Upper House.

Dr Maria Mina (University of the Aegean), “Sacred caves outside Crete: Daskalio Cave on Kalymnos and its connections to Minoan ritual practices”

We know from archaeological studies that occupied caves diachronically held prominent positions as visible landmarks or as nodal points in exchange networks and mobility routes. The lecture discusses the case of Daskalio Cave on Kalymnos as a site where Minoan ritual practices were performed outside Crete, and as a context where maritime identities were played out through an eclectic use of material culture.

Professor Eyjólfur Kjalar Emilsson (University of Oslo), “Idealist, dualist or something else? Plotinus on the status of the sensible world”

In this paper I shall discuss Plotinus’ views on causation of and in the sensible sphere—by “the sensible sphere” I mean the physical world around us. The main focus is on the question whether all causes are ultimately mental and, if so, what conclusions can be drawn from that about Plotinus’ ontology. Is he a dualist with respect to the mind and the body? Or is he perhaps…

Dr Georgia Flouda (Archaeological Museum of Heraklion), “Adventures in the Archives: Reconstructing archaeology in Nazi-Occupied Crete”

his presentation explores the institutional and political context of the Wehrmacht’s Kunstschutz (‘Art Protection’), established in 1941 following the conquest of Crete, through archival testimonies and the case studies of two young archaeologists, August Schörgendorfer and Ulf Jantzen. Recruited under the guise of protecting…

Dr Alessandra Ricci (Koç University), “How did it begin?: The Institutionalization of Byzantine Studies in Turkey and Sir Steven Runciman”

It was probably sometime in 1941 or early 1942 when İzmet İnönü, the second president of the Turkish Republic, summoned the minister of national education, Hasan Ali Yücel who confirmed – as İnönü had suspected – that Byzantine topics were not taught at the university level in the young Turkish Republic. Yücel was asked to immediately remedy the situation…