Outline

The recently initiated Locally Crafted Empires (LoCiS) project situates its point of departure in the region of the ancient world that provides undoubtedly the richest material for this purpose: the portrait cultures of Western Asia (defined here as the region from Anatolia to Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula, and from the river Tigris to the Mediterranean Sea) and will survey and chart those portrait cultures across six hundred years, from 100 BCE to 500 CE. Within the project research is undertaken on intersecting identities under changing imperial regimes through analysing locally produced representations of individuals in all materials (stone, mosaics, paintings, wood).

This first conference organised within the framework of the Locally Crafted Empires project will focus on the project’s core questions: how do local and regional entanglements with, and responses to, different and shifting imperial hegemonies express themselves in the several thousand extant portraits of individuals crafted in local materials by local communities? And what do these portraits tell us, when studied in a longue durée perspective, about intersecting identities on individual, local and regional levels?

Presentations are invited to take their point of departure in locally produced representations of individuals (portraits) in Western Asia and Egypt between 100 BCE – 500 CE and to consider the questions above critically taking their point of departure in local and regional case studies of groups of material/clusters or single contexts (i.e. materials: stone, painting, mosaics, metal; i.e. case studies: graves, domestic contexts, public spaces). The intention is to contribute to a contextualised discussion of these issues in a cross-regional perspective bringing overlooked and underutilized evidence to the forefront and to engage with how this changes our perspectives and understanding of local portrait cultures.

Portraits, defined here as representations of the individual, are the art historical category par excellence that expresses the complexity of the individual human being, while at the same time being an expression of broader local, regional and even global trends. Therefore, portraits form the ideal group to be studied as responses to changing regimes and as material that ordered knowledge, shaped and expressed identities. Ancient portraits created in Western Asia and Egypt in the period between 100 BCE and 500 CE, have usually been studied as direct responses to core-imperial traditions and developments, and they have often been seen as merely passive absorbers of these. This conference will turn the tables on this traditional approach. Local portrait-images will be investigated not merely as pale reflections of imperial values generated at the distant centre but rather analysed as the primary evidential basis through which imperial systems and their societal impacts can be studied.

Speakers and discussants

• Asja Müller (Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel)
• Barbara Borg (Scuola Normale Superiore)
• Bilal Annan (University of Groningen)
• Joshua Thomas (Royal Holloway, University of London)
• Julia Steding (Aarhus University)
• Kutalmış Görkay (Ankara Üniversitesi)
• Lindsey Anne Mazurek (Indiana University)
• Marianne Bergmann (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
• Maura Heyn (University of North Carolina at Greensboro)
• Michael Blömer (Universität Münster)
• Michael Koortbojian (Princeton University)
• Olympia Bobou (Aarhus University)
• Rachel Wood (Cardiff University)
• Rubina Raja (Aarhus University) - organiser
• Will Wooton (King's College London)

Practical information for speakers

Travel

For invited speakers we will cover travel (economy class only) and up to 3 nights of accommodation. Please book your own travel to Copenhagen, and we will reimburse you after your stay (please book your ticket directly through an airline and not via a travel search engine). We would appreciate it, if you could book sooner rather than later in order to get a reasonably priced flight.

You will receive a link to Aarhus University's travel reimbursement form. Please keep your receipts as you will be asked to upload documentation for your expenses.

NOTE: As soon as you have booked your flight, please forward your itinerary to Sine Saxkjær (saxkjaer@cas.au.dk), so that the hotel booking can be finalised.

Accommodation

Comfort Hotel Vesterbro
Vesterbrogade 23/29
1620 København
Website

Dinner and diet

A speakers’ dinner will be held 1 December, and we will of course cater for you during the conference. 

If you have any dietary restrictions (incl. allergies), please let Sine Saxkjær (saxkjaer@cas.au.dk) know no later than 1 November, so that the restaurant/caterers can be notified.

Photographs

We will take photographs during the conference, which we store and use for e.g. reporting purposes. If you do not want us to use photos in which you are depicted, please contact Sine Saxkjær: saxkjaer@cas.au.dk.

Registration

If you wish to participate in the conference, please send an email to Sine Saxkjær (saxkjaer@cas.au.dk).

Note that lunch is only provided for speakers, but everyone is welcome to participate in the coffee breaks.

Registration deadline: Friday 14 November 2025

Programme

BoA

Venue

The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
H.C. Andersens Boulevard 35
DK-1553 København V
Denmark