BRITISH MUSEUM BYZANTINE SEMINAR

BRITISH MUSEUM BYZANTINE SEMINAR
RECENT RESEARCH ON ENGRAVED GEMSTONES IN LATE ANTIQUITY, AD 200-
600

A three and a half day conference on Thursday 28th May, Friday 29th
May, Saturday 30th May and the morning of Sunday 31st May 2009 to be
held in the Stevenson Lecture Theatre, the Great Court, British
Museum

Thursday 28th May


9.00-9.45 Registration

Morning session Chair: Dr Helen Molesworth (Christie's, Geneva)

9.45-10.00 Introduction
Professor Sir John Boardman (University of Oxford)

10.00-10.30 `The origins of gemstones in the ancient world'
Lisbet Thoresen (Los Angeles, USA)

10.30-11.00 `Non-destructive gemmological tests on ancient gems'
Dr Cigdem Yule (London)

11.00-11.30 Coffee

11.30-12.00 tba
Dr Nöel Adams (London)

12.00-12.30 `The use of diamond in ancient and medieval gem engraving'
Dr Jack Ogden (Gemmological Association of Great Britain)

12.30-14.00 Lunch

Afternoon session Chair: Dr Ken Lapatin (Getty Museum, Los Angeles)

14.00-14.30 `Are there reliable criteria for dating magical gems? A
sceptical view'
Dr Richard Gordon (Munich)

14.30-15.00 `Text, image and medium: the evolution of Greco-Roman
magical gemstones'
Professor Chris Faraone (University of Chicago)

15.00-15.30 Tea

15.30-16.00 `The colours of magical gems'
Professor Attilio Mastrocinque (Venice)

16.00-16.30 `Magic and medicine: gems and the power of images'
Professor Véronique Dasen (University of Fribourg)

16.30-17.00 ``Phyge Podagra, Perseus se diochi' – Greek myths on
magical gems'
Dr Árpád Nagy (Dept. of Classical Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest)

18.30 Reception
Friday 29th May

Morning session Chair: Professor Chris Faraone (University of
Chicago)

9.30-10.00 `Studies on magical gems in the British Museum'
Dr Simone Michel (Germany)

10.00-10.30 `Grylloi'
Dr Ken Lapatin (Getty Museum)

10.30-11.00 `Love and passion: personal cameos in Late Antiquity'
Dr Martin Henig (Institute of Archaeology, Oxford) and Dr Helen
Molesworth
(Christie's, Geneva)

11.00-11.30 Coffee

11.30-12.00 `The Belgrade Cameo'
Dr Antje Krug (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Berlin)

12.00-12.30 `A cameo portrait of Numerianus (AD 283-84) and related
gems'
Professor Dr Erika Zwierlein-Diehl (Institut für Kunstgeschichte und
Archäologie, University of Bonn)

12.25-14.00 Lunch

Afternoon session Chair: Dr Gertrud Platz (Staatliche Museen, Berlin)

14.00-14.30 `Three degrees of separation: detail reworking, type
updating and identity transformation in glyptic Roman imperial
portraits in the round'
Dr Elisabetta Gagetti (University of Milan)

14.30-15.00 `Gods or mortals?' – Images on imperial portrait gems,
medallions and coins in the 3rd century AD'
Dr Adrian Marsden (Norfolk)

15.00-15.30 Tea

15.30-16.00 `Intaglios in military contexts in 2nd-4th century AD
Palestine: the case of Legio and Aelia Capitolina'
Dr Orit Peleg (The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem) And Dr Yotam Tepper (Israel Antiquities Authority)

16.00-16.30 `Selected antique gems from Israel'
Professor Shua Amorai-Stark (Beer-Sheba) and Malka Hershkovitz (The
Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

16.30-17.00 `Late Roman gems from Tilurium in Dalmatia'
Dr Bruna Nardelli (Venice)

Saturday 30th May

Morning session Chair: Professor Corby Finney (Princeton)

10.00-10.30 `The Christian gems from Portugal in context'
Dr Graca Cravinho (Lisbon) and Professor Shua Amorai-Stark (Kaye
Academic College of Education, Beer-Sheba)

10.30-11.00 `Recent excavated finds of gems from Gaul (3rd-4th
century)
Professor Hélène Guiraud (University of Toulouse)

11.00-11.30 Coffee

11.30-12.00 `Late Antique gems: some unpublished examples'
Dr Jeffrey Spier (University of Arizona)

12.00-12.30 `The argument from silence – iconographical statements of
1981 on faked gems reconsidered'
Professor Dr Josef Engemann (Vienna)

12.25-14.00 Lunch

Afternoon session Chair: Dr Jeffrey Spier (University of Arizona)

14.00-14.30 `The Constanza crucifixion gem and early Christian
iconography'
Dr Felicity Marley McGowan (University of Melbourne0

14.30-15.00 `Contexts in the study of Early Christian glyptics'
Professor Corby Finney (Princeton)

15.00-15.30 Tea

15.30-16.00 `Seals in transition: their change of function and value
in Late Antiquity'
Dr Gertrud Platz (Antikensammlung Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)

16.00-16.30 `On some Sasanian seals with `classical' motifs'
Dr Rika Gyselen (CNRS, Ivry)

16.30-17.00 `Transformations of the Roman gem'
Dr Genevra Kornbluth (Maryland, USA)

Sunday 31st May

Morning session Chair: tba

10.00-10.30 `The fight of Athena and Poseidon' and its depiction on
glyptics across the centuries'
Hadrien Rambach (London)

10.30-11.00 `Myth revisited. The re-use of mythological cameos and
intaglios in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages'
Professor Sena Chiesa (University of Milan)

11.00-11.30 Coffee

11.30-12.00 `The re-use and re-interpretation of gemstones in
medieval Hungary'
Dr Tamás Gesztelyi (Debrecen, Hungary)

12.00-12.30 Late Antique cameos and intaglios in 18th-century cast
collections'
Dr Lucia Pirzio Biroli (Rome)


Contact: Chris Entwistle, Curator, Late Roman and Byzantine
Collections, Department of Prehistory and Europe, British Museum, Gt
Russell Street,
London WC1B 3DG
Email: centwistle@thebriti shmuseum. ac.uk; Tel .no. 0207-323-8724

Conference fee: £60. Cheques payable to the British Museum