Bringing together specialists of the Ancient Near Eastern and Ancient Greek worlds, this international congress will discuss the appearance during the Iron Age I-II of new figures of power and of power management, opposing or presenting political alternatives to the ideologies and socio-economic functioning of the dominant power systems, thus leading, at times, to significant political changes. The debate may highlight the transformative capacity of ancient political systems, going beyond the usual opposition between the extreme conservatism recognized in Near Eastern despotisms, centralized but also often imperialist, and, on the other hand, the evolutionary tendency attributed to the political systems of the Greek world.

Organisation

 Maria Grazia Masetti-Rouault (EPHE-PSL, UMR 8167 Orient & Méditerranée) and Ilaria Calini (EPHE-PSL, UMR 8210 AnHima).

Argument

Bringing together specialists of the Ancient Near Eastern and Ancient Greek worlds, this international congress will discuss the appearance during the Iron Age I-II of new figures of power and of power management, opposing or presenting political alternatives to the ideologies and socio-economic functioning of the dominant power systems, thus leading, at times, to significant political changes. The debate may highlight the transformative capacity of ancient political systems, going beyond the usual opposition between the extreme conservatism recognized in Near Eastern despotisms, centralized but also often imperialist, and, on the other hand, the evolutionary tendency attributed to the political systems of the Greek world. Such a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective will allow to assess whether we can compare the emergence of these “emerging figures of political power” in Ancient Eastern Mediterranean also on a historical level and, while taking account of chronological shifts between sources and of limited evidence of contacts and exchanges, it may prove useful in shaping a new image of these ancient societies, represented as parts of a connected world, evolving together.

Programme

Friday, 24th May 2024

FMSH, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, 54 Boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris, EPHE-PSL, Room 15, first floor underground, 9am - 5pm

• 9h Welcoming address: Cecilia d’Ercole (Prof. EHESS, Director UMR 8210 – Anhima); Gabriella Pironti (Prof. EPHE-PSL, UMR 8210 – Anhima)
• 9h15 Introduction: M. G. Masetti-Rouault & Ilaria Calini
• 9h30 Maria Grazia Masetti-Rouault (Prof. EPHE-PSL, UMR 8167 – Orient et Méditerranée, Paris): Eternity of Mesopotamian Kingship and the Irruption of Time in the Assyrian Royal Institution during the 8th-7th Centuries BCE.
• 10h Nino Luraghi (Prof. New College, Oxford): Personal Power and Political Institutions in Archaic Greece: Towards a Historical Sociology of Greek Tyranny.

10h30 Coffee break

• 11h Federico Giusfredi (Prof. University of Verona, Italy): Further Considerations on the Syro-Anatolian Polities of the Ist millennium BCE.
• 11h30 Yifat Thaerani (Prof. University of New York / Tel Aviv): Encounters of the Third Kind: Interfacial Relations and Iron Age II Levantine Kingship.

12h30 Lunch

• 14h Marco Santini (Research Fellow, Magdalen College, Oxford): Para-Institutional Figures and Institutional Ambiguity in the Iron Age Eastern Mediterranean.
• 14h30 Lionel Marti (Research Associate, CNRS, UMR 7192 – Proclac, Paris) & Olivier Rouault (Associate Member, UMR 5133 – Archéorient): Tell Masaïkh / Kar-Aššurnaṣirpal, de la colonie assyrienne au putsch : une évolution politique visible dans la documentation épigraphique ?
• 15h Paola Poli (Associate Member, University of Pavia, Italy): Iconographic Aspects of the Representation of Political Power in the Neo-Assyrian World in the 8th Century BCE: The Case of Kar- Aššurnaṣirpal.

15h30 Coffee break

• 16h Aline Tenu (Research Associate, CNRS, UMR 7041 – ArScAn, Paris): Émergence des pouvoirs araméens et syro-hittites en Haute Mésopotamie : nouvelles figures royales et nouvelles capitales.
• 16h30 Philippe Clancier (Prof. University Paris I Sorbonne, UMR 7041 – ArScAn, Paris): Exister entre Assyrie et Babylonie. L’émergence de la figure royale dans le Suhu du VIIIe siècle.
• 17h Discussion

Saturday, 25th May 2024

INHA, 2 rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris, Salle Vasari, 1st floor, 9am - 12am

• 9h Marko Vitas (Research Fellow, Brown University – Providence, USA): La tyrannie babylonienne ? Les visions grecques de la souveraineté proche-orientale.
• 9h30 Lucio Maria Valletta (Indipendent Researcher, EPHE/UMR 8210 – Anhima, Paris): Faire preuve de pouvoir en Grèce : quelques observations à propos de Cléomène Ier.

10h Coffee Break

• 10h30 Ilaria Calini (Associate member, UMR 8210 - Anhima, Paris): Of Fear and Trembling. The Making and Breakdown of Social Structures and Political Powers in the Assyrian World of the 1st Millennium BCE.
• 11h Sébastien Wallerand (Indipendent Researcher, EPHE/Sciences Po Paris): Polythéisme, politique et société : un problème à trois corps ?
• 11h30 Silvia Roman (Associate Member, UMR 8167 – Orient et Méditerranée, Paris): The Image of the King in Assyrian Art History: Monumental Decoration and Political Discourse.
• 12h Final discussion