Alexander Puk MPhil - Dissertation project
Continuity and change of ancient lived-in worlds with regard to games and entertainment in Late Antiquity.
The present doctoral project is a study of late antique spectacles and public entertainment, comprising east and west from the 3rd/4th until the 7th century. Insights about certain places or regions of the late ancient Imperium Romanum that have been made so far (Rome/Italy, Constantinople, Aphrodisias, Antioch, Edessa, Egypt), in particular in the Eastern part, shall be combined with new, more far-reaching research in order to present a comprehensive study on the development and change of classical spectacles in Late Antiquity.
This project involves a documentary collection of evidence from different regions of the Mediterranean, evidence most prominent in literary texts of pagan authors and patristic works. Furthermore, a special intention is to include and combine epigraphical evidence such as inscriptions or graffiti, papyrological texts and archeological evidence so that it may be possible to gain a more profound and chronologically differentiated picture.
Apart from the documentary account, the doctoral thesis shall particularly focus on the character of spectacles and public entertainment as a part of late ancient social spaces, thereby setting the dissertation within the thematic frame of the graduate academy: Some kinds of entertainment such as gladiatorial fights or agones seem to have undergone a decline while mimic presentations gained more popularity despite an opposition by the church. One therefore needs to investigate changes in the content or in the events themselves as well as to analyse the general organisation of different forms of entertainment and their significance and reception in late ancient daily life. Which levels of meaning for such events can be made out, spanning from a religious character to a political event or merely secular entertainment? And in which ways did this social meaning manifest itself in different places of the Roman Empire at different times? Which conclusions can be drawn from the development of public spectacles in relation to the increasing Christianisation of social structures? The comprehensive approach of this work, which will also include the development in the West after the political downfall of the empire, will thus allow research into the change and continuity of the social significance of late ancient games in their entirety as well as a more differentiated analysis of both general trends and regional divergences
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Christian Witschel, Prof. Dr. Tonio Hölscher
