Earthquakes and the Structuring of Greco-Roman Society

During the Spring of 2023, Boston University's Archaeology Program will be hosting a series of lectures. Our last lecture of the semester is Earthquakes and the Structuring of Greco-Roman Society and will take place Wednesday, May 3rd from 12:20 pm–1:10 pm. We are thrilled to have Dr. Amanda Gaggioli (Brown University) joining us to share their work

Abstract:

In this talk, I argue for the application of documentary records of earthquakes in archaeology to account for the complexities of social and political dimensions in human-environment relationships. Approaches to earthquake factors in archaeology, especially the Mediterranean, have been characterized by the application of ancient historical sources for the purpose of discovering particular disaster events. Historical earthquake texts have supported and guided an expectation of widespread material destruction and interpretations of social disruption, or disaster, in the archaeological record, despite the diverse and varied experiences of earthquakes at the intersection of and beyond material destruction and social disruption, which is also revealed in documentary records. Desires to discover the 373 BC earthquake event at the site of Helike in Greece exemplifies broader approaches to earthquakes in Mediterranean archaeology. Using the case of Helike, I discuss the value of ancient textual sources for reconstructing emic, or culturally specific, perspectives on earthquakes, rather than the historical realities of particular events. Applications of emic perspectives expand methodological and theoretical approaches to the material-geological record that capture the social and political dimensions of human-environment relationships in longue durée processes of resilience and political ecology, rather than disaster events.

Bio:

Amanda Gaggioli is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Brown University in the Joukowksy Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World. Last spring, Amanda completed her Ph.D. at Stanford University with a dissertation titled "Earthquakes and the Structuring of Greco-Roman Society: The Longue Durée of Human-geological Environment Relationships at Helike, Greece." Her publications, including in Geoarchaeology, Journal of Architectural Heritage, and Archaeology in the Smallest Realm, reflect the interdisciplinary orientation of her research, which draws on classics, anthropology, and environmental sciences to understand the resilience political ecology of human-environment relationships and earthquakes in the Greco-Roman world. Her fieldwork in Cyprus, Turkey, and Greece aims at understanding complexities of human-environment relationships in all aspects of ancient Mediterranean society and culture.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Gabel Museum of Archaeology, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, United States