The Herculaneum Society

Alison Cooley on Early Exploration of Herculaneum
2024-11-09 15:30 - 17:00 UTC | Ioannou Centre, 66 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 6LU, United Kingdom
The Society is very pleased to invite you to hear a talk by Prof. Alison Cooley on “Tales from the tunnels: the early years of Bourbon excavation at Herculaneum,” presenting research from her forthcoming book on Herculaneum. The talk will take place on 9 November 2024, 3:30 p.m. in the Ioannou Centre, 66 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LU and will be followed by refreshments. You can also tune in by Zoom; for the link please email herculaneum@classics.ox.ac.uk.

Conference on Herculaneum Papyri
2024-06-20 08:00 - 2024-06-21 17:00
The School of History, Classics and Archaeology of Newcastle University is delighted to announce the International Workshop ‘The Herculaneum Papyri: Texts and Interpretations’, organised by Dr Nick Freer and Dr Tom Coward. The event will take place at Newcastle University in the Armstrong Reception Rooms (ARMB.G.69-70) on the 20th and 21st June 2024.
All those interested in attending the event (in person or online) should fill out the following Google form (which includes the Zoom links for both days): [n/a]
If you have any further questions, please contact Nick Freer (nick.freer@newcastle.ac.uk) and Tom Coward (t.coward@ssmeridionale.it).

The Kentucky-Oxford Herculaneum Papyrus Research Project
2023-12-05 17:00 - 18:30 | Ioannou Centre, 66 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 6LU, United Kingdom
On Monday 5 December at the Ioannou Centre, 66 St Giles, Oxford, there will be an hour of talks starting at 17:00 hrs on the joint research project of the University of Kentucky and the University of Oxford scanning and digitising the Herculaneum Papyri.
Prof. Bob Fowler, Friends of Herculaneum Society: “Herculaneum: The Villa and its Papyri”
Prof. Tobias Reinhardt, University of Oxford, “What (little) We Know about the Contents of P.Herc. 118 (so far)”
Prof, Brent Seales, University of Kentucky “Digital Restoration and Scholarly Visualization of Herculaneum Papyri”
A drinks reception will follow. Please RSVP to herculaneum@classics.ox.ac.uk.

Society AGM and Talk by Dr Amin Benaissa
2022-11-05 14:30 - 17:00
The Society’s Annual General Meeting for members will take place on 5 November 2022, 2:30 p.m. After the meeting, at 3:30, Dr Amin Benaissa, Tutor in Classics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford (from October Associate Professor of Papyrology at Christ Church) will speak on “Mary Elizabeth Dicker: Britain’s first woman papyrologist”, whose contribution to the development of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri collection has been largely forgotten. As A.S. Hunt’s assistant from 1929 to 1933, she sorted through a large amount of Oxyrhynchus papyri and transcribed and identified a number of important pieces during that short period.
Owing to the railstrike on this day the event has been changed to online. For the details of the Zoom call, please contact herculaneum@classics.ox.ac.uk.

Symposium honouring Trustee Annalisa Marzano
2022-05-11 08:00 - 17:00
An afternoon of talks in honour of Herculaneum Society trustee Prof. Annalisa Marzano’s teaching and research is being held at the University of Reading 11 May 2-5 PM. The event is hybrid and the link to join remotely is [n/a].
Programme below. For more details, please contact Dr J. W. Hanson at j.w.hanson@reading.ac.uk.
Rome: City and country
A symposium in honour of Professor Annalisa Marzano

2.00 – 2.20
‘Introduction’
Barbara Goff and Amy Smith, University of Reading

2.20 – 2.40
‘Big data in the Roman countryside: The Roman Hinterland Project’
Rob Witcher, Durham University

2.40 – 3.00
‘Picking up the pieces’
Wim Jongman, University of Groningen

3.00 – 3.20
Break

3.20 – 3.40
‘Quantifying the built environment of Rome’
Jack Hanson, University of Reading

3.40 – 4.00
‘Recent research in South-East Rome: An introduction to the Rome Transformed Project’
Ian Haynes, Newcastle University

4.20 – 4.40
‘The Augustan horticultural revolution’
Annalisa Marzano, University of Reading

Pliny the Younger and Vesuvius
2022-02-26 14:30 - 16:30
Saturday 26 February 2:30-4:30 p.m. GMT: the Society is pleased to host two distinguished speakers to present the latest research on Pliny the Younger’s letters and the eruption of Vesuvius.
Prof. Pedar Foss, De Pauw University: “Ashy Tuesday-Wednesday: The date and sequence of the AD 79 Vesuvian eruption.” Prof. Foss is author of the forthcoming Pliny and the Eruption of Vesuvius (Routledge 2022), co-editor, with John J. Dobbins, of The World of Pompeii (Routledge 2007).
Prof. Roy Gibson, Durham University: “From Como to the bay of Naples: Pliny’s epistolary Italy.”. Prof. Gibson is author of Man of High Empire: The Life of Pliny the Younger (OUP 2020) and is preparing an edition of Pliny’s Letters book 6 for the Cambridge “Green and Yellow” series.
For details of how to connect by Zoom please contact the Society at herculaneum@classics.ox.ac.uk.

AGM Saturday 16 October 2021
2021-10-16 10:30 - 12:00
We are delighted to announce that we will be hosting Professor Estelle Lazer of the University of Sydney and Dr Erica Rowan of Royal Holloway College, London via Zoom at our AGM Meeting on Saturday 16 October. Prof Lazer will begin the proceedings with her talk at 10.30 BST on “Preserved in Ash: Victims of a Mass Disaster,” followed by Dr Rowan on “Diet and Daily Life in Herculaneum: The Finds from the Cardo V Sewer.” If you would like to attend these talks, please email herculaneum@classics.ox.ac.uk to register and you will be sent the Zoom login on the day before the talks (i.e. Friday 15 October).
Abstracts
Prof. Lazer: “The Pompeii Cast Project is a collaborative project between the University of Sydney and the Pompeii Archaeological Park to X-ray and CT scan the casts of the victims to study the skeletons that are encased within the plaster. The first casts of the forms of Pompeian victims of the AD 79 eruption of Mt Vesuvius were successfully achieved under the directorship of Giuseppe Fiorelli in 1863. To date, 106 individuals, including a dog, a pig and a horse, have been cast by restorers and archaeologists during the course of excavation. The methods used to obtain these casts were not well documented. It was always assumed that plaster or lime cement was merely poured into voids which preserved the impression of organic remains buried in the ash that covered the site during the catastrophe. It was also assumed that the undisturbed skeletal remains of victims were encased within the casts. The initial aim of the Pompeii Cast Project was to study these bones to build on and test the results of an earlier study of the large sample of Pompeian human remains that were not able to be cast and had not been stored well. Apart from providing information about the people who did not manage to escape the eruption, the project aimed to challenge previous interpretations of the lives and activities of these victims that were solely based on superficial inspection and circumstantial evidence. What was unexpected was the discovery that there was as much art as science in the creation of these casts. The study has been expanded to include research into restoration and archaeological practice in the 19th and 20th centuries.”
Dr Rowan: “This paper will explore the bioarchaeological remains from the Cardo V sewer, which ran beneath the shop/apartment complex of Insula Orientalis II in Herculaneum. The sewer was excavated by the Herculaneum Conservation project in 2006 and the analysis of the finds represent the first large scale study of food and diet in the town. A huge array of plant, fish and shellfish species were found, indicating that the non-elite inhabitants of Insula Orientalis II had a flavourful and varied diet. Subtle differences in diet are observable within the sewer assemblage, most likely related to differences in wealth. The variety of cereals, fruits and seafood indicate close connections with the nearby land and sea and consequently, the economic implications of such extensive resource exploitation will also be considered.”

Professor Steven Tuck: Can We Find Survivors From the Eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79?
2021-02-27 16:00 - 17:30 | Online
Join us for an online lecture by Professor Steven Tuck of Miami University, Ohio, on Saturday 27 February at 4:00 pm. To register please email herculaneum@classics.ox.ac.uk.
Abstract: This lecture proposes answers to the questions of who – if anyone – survived the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, and where any survivors relocated. After creating 8 categories of evidence that might indicate refugee resettlement, names from many Roman cities were analyzed. Analysis found that refugees resettled in Cumae, Neapolis, and Puteoli, more people survived from Pompeii than from Herculaneum, that most stayed in coastal Campania, and that government intervention and support came after resettlement, but did not drive it. Additionally, some refugees seem to have selected their refuge cities based on social and economic networks.
Steven L. Tuck is Professor of History and Classics at Miami University. He earned a PhD in Classical Art and Archaeology from the University of Michigan. His publications include works on Roman art and archaeology and Greek and Latin inscriptions. He has also created five courses on the ancient world for The Great Courses. In the summers he leads workshops and study tours in Italy for high school Latin teachers. He has received 9 awards for undergraduate teaching including the AIA Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award.

Recent Research in Imaging and Archaeological Science: Herculaneum and Beyond
2020-11-07 14:00 - 18:00 | Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU, United Kingdom
Please join us for this virtual conference on 7 November 2020 2:00-6:00 pm sponsored in conjunction with the Institute of Classical Studies, London. Programme:
Nigel Wilson, Oxford University and Herculaneum Society: “Digital restoration of classical texts: a parallel to the Herculaneum papyri”
Silvia Soncin, York University: “Diet at 79AD Herculaneum: A Metabolic Approach”
Ira Rabin, Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung, Berlin: “Black writing inks from the 3rd century BCE to the 5th-6th centuries CE: Detecting and Tracing their Evolution”
Brent Seales, University of Kentucky: “Virtual Unrolling of Herculaneum Fragments and Scrolls: Recent Results”
Admission is free.

Lecture by Michael Scott
2020-02-19 18:00 - 20:00 | Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU, United Kingdom
Join us for a special event being held jointly with the Institute of Classical Studies in London (Senate House, Malet St.) on Wednesday 19 February 2020 at 18:00.
Professor Michael Scott, who co-presented the BBC TV documentary series ‘Italy’s Invisible Cities’, is giving a talk on ‘Invisible Herculaneum’.
There will be a reception to follow.
Michael Scott, whose BBC series delved beneath Naples, Rome and Athens – amongst other cities – talks about his experiences at Herculaneum and examines what else may yet be uncovered. Academic, author and broadcaster, Michael is a Professor in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick.

Visions of Vesuvius
2017-05-13 14:15 - 15:15 | Lecture Theatre, Weston Library, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BG, United Kingdom
Professor David Pyle, Professor of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford and Curator, “Volcanoes” Exhibition, Weston Library, Oxford: “Visions of Vesuvius”.
