Classics Department Hosts Semple Symposium

  
South Italian archaeology will be the subject of this year’s Semple Symposium, taking place Nov. 12-14 on UC’s campus.

“Semple Symposia are international conferences sponsored by the Classics department about revolutionary or watershed topics that are important in our field,” says Kathleen Lynch, archaeology graduate director in the department and co-organizer of the symposium.

The symposium, made possible through the Semple Fund at University of Cincinnati, happens every few years. This year’s theme is “Beyond Magna Graecia: New Developments in South Italian Archaeology – The Contexts of Apulian and Lucanian Pottery.”

“It’s an area of archaeology that is blossoming in southern Italy,” Lynch explains. “It’s a topic that is not well known in America, and this will be the first conference on this subject in English and in North America.”

Apulian pottery has long been considered to be produced and used by Greeks in Italy, but recent excavations show that Italians are more likely to be the consumers of the objects.
 
Guest speakers include academics from universities in Italy, as well as members of the governmental archaeological services in Italy. While the keynote address requires registration, the Friday and Saturday presentations are free and open to the public.

For more information on the Semple Symposium, visit the Web site at http://classics.uc.edu/apulian.