Location: Wharton Room

The third lecture examines socio-political transformations in Iron Age Anatolia. It takes the case of Gurgum (modern-day Kahramanmaraş), exceptionally documented by a series of local inscriptions, as a representative microcosm for a broader analysis. The inscriptional evidence left by local political leaders illuminates not only the peculiar path to rulership walked by Gurgum’s ruling dynasty, but, most importantly, the changing and manifold nature of political leadership in Iron Age Anatolia as a whole. Key aspects include the rise of marginal figures to positions of power; the importance of genealogy as a means to legitimize status; the appropriation of martial ideology by new leaders of non-royal pedigree; and the diffusion of a rhetoric of justice among both rulers and subjects as a new standard of social recognition and political legitimation.

Location: Old Library

The second lecture analyzes Iron Age socio-political transformations in the Levant, with a special focus on early Israel. The social profile of the protagonists of political action is that of charismatic warlords, individuals able to recruit large groups of armed followers and to build networks of alliances with leaders of local communities, often in the form of patronage relations. This social type was already known during the Late Bronze Age, when it identified individuals who operated at the margins of the palatial systems. In the Canaanite highlands, rulership rested on unstable foundations until, by the mid-9th century, the Omrid family managed to establish a royal seat in Samaria. Stories which found their way into the Hebrew Bible provide the discursive foundations for the ethno-political identity of the newly consolidated kingdom of Israel and offer insights into contrasting views on the nature of political leadership that were current at the time.

Location: Old Library

The first lecture provides the historical and scholarly background for the entire lecture series. It first outlines the main characteristics of Late Bronze Age socio-political infrastructures, describing their collapse after the crisis of 1200 BC, and identifying general patterns in the reorganization of societies across Greece, Anatolia, and the Levant during the Iron Age. It then revises the models currently adopted to study and classify Iron Age Eastern Mediterranean political systems and asks whether they provide valid heuristic tools for an overarching interpretation of shared structural dynamics in socio-political development. The lecture concludes that the investigation should focus on the protagonists of political action and on the strategies they adopted in practice to foster social cohesion in their communities. It finally introduces the case studies that will constitute the core of the lecture series.

Poetry readings from Theodor Meron, in conversation with Professor Catriona Seth. Signed copies of his book, Poems on Being, on Love, and on Grief, will be available to purchase.

Location: All Souls College, Wharton Room

Link to register: Theodor Meron Poetry Reading

Authors: Dr Rebecca Buxton, University of Bristol, and Dr Samuel Ritholtz, University of Oxford

Location: The Old Library, All Souls College

Followed by a reception with discounted books for purchase

Part of the Refugee Studies Centre Public Seminar Series convened by Dr Catherine Briddick and Dr Uttara Shahani 

Forgotten fossils and hidden treasures: the early evolution of ray-finned fishes

Speaker: Sam Giles, University of Birmingham

Location: All Souls College, Old Library

Global change and extinction in the marine biosphere

Speaker: Seth Finnegan, University of California - Bekeley

Location: All Souls College, Old Library

400 million years of food transport in plants uncovered by taking a molecular palaeobotany approach

Speaker: Sandy Hetherington, University of Edinburgh

Location: All Souls College, Old Library