Craven Seminar 2025: ‘Classical Attic Stelai in and Beyond Athens’

CravenSeminar 2025: ‘Classical Attic Stelai in and Beyond Athens’

Classics Faculty, University of Cambridge, 15-17 December 2025

‘Classic Attic Tombstones’ have long been a core corpus for approaching (among other things) Athenian social history, stylistic developments of fourth-century BCE sculpture and Greek ideas about death and, most recently, the ontology of the image. The Craven 2025 seminar aims to build on existing strains of scholarship whilst airing new ways of approaching the art and archaeology of the ‘stele’ form. One dominant theme will be about the movement of Attic stelai beyond Attica: how ‘Athenian’ is the cultural currency of this material outside Athens, and how might responses to this question fit within grander narratives of cultural contact and exchange in the ancient Mediterranean? Another will concern the categorisation of the ‘stele’ itself – thinking not just about the relationship between written and visual materials (and hence epigraphy, ancient history and classical archaeology), but also the generic relationship between ‘funerary’ stelai and other sorts of related relief. By thinking about stelai in various sorts of material cultural contexts, and across various subdisciplinary frames of reference, our aim is also to contribute to larger conversations: on the one hand, to bridge perceived divides between the study of Greek ‘art’ and ‘archaeology’; on the other, to explore how a specific corpus of objects can speak to larger debates about modes of cultural interpretation and interaction.

Participation is free, but pre-registration is required for catering purposes. Please contact the workshop organisers by email: Jane Rempel (jer75@cam.ac.uk) and Michael Squire (mjs73@cam.ac.uk).

Programme: 

Monday 15th December
Old Combination Room, Trinity College, Cambridge
(Enter via Trinity Street)

Coffee from 13:30

14:00 Introduction
(Michael Squire, University of Cambridge)
14:20: ‘Death the leveller? Repetition in and beyond the Classical Attic stele’
(Emily Clifford, University of Warwick)

15:20 Afternoon tea

15:45 ‘Thoughts on the development of the Classical Attic grave relief’
(Richard Posamentir, Universität Tübingen)

Tuesday 16th December
Room G.21, Faculty of Classics, Sidgwick Avenue

Coffee from 08:45 (G.22, Faculty of Classics)

Chair: Jaś Elsner (Corpus Christi College, Oxford/ University of Chicago)
09:15 ‘Reading the language of gesture on Classical Attic Grave stelai: a comparative approach’
(Robin Osborne, University of Cambridge)
10:15 ‘Keys, coins and kalathoi. Women’s crafts and agency on funerary stelai’
(Helle Hochscheid, UCR, Middelburg)

11:15 Coffee

Chair: Alessandro Launaro (University of Cambridge)
11:45 ‘Enfolding loss in the space of death: The kolpos on Classical grave stelai’
(Verity Platt, Cornell University)

12:45 Lunch for all participants, room G.22

Chair: Jeremy Tanner (University College, London)
14:15 ‘Grief in and beyond Athens: Art and emotion in Classical stelai’
(Seth Estrin, Harvard University)

15:15 Afternoon tea

15:45 ‘What do we make of Nana? ‘Maid and mistress’ stelai from Sinope’
(Jane Rempel, University of Cambridge)

Wednesday 17th December
Room G.21, Faculty of Classics, Sidgwick Avenue

Coffee from 08:40 (G.22, Faculty of Classics)

Chair: Nigel Spivey (University of Cambridge)
09:00 ‘The view from the road: Peribolos tombs in the commemorative landscape’
(Susanne Turner, University of Cambridge)
10:00 ‘The Attic paradigm far afield: Mimesis and metamorphosis’
(Myrina Kalaitzi, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens)

11:00 Coffee

Chair: Yannis Galanakis (University of Cambridge)
11:30 ‘Attic grave stelai and the gods’
(Caroline Vout, University of Cambridge)
12:30 Closing reflections (Jane Rempel, University of Cambridge)