Organized by Nicola Laneri
The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
February 17–18, 2006
1155 East 58th Street, Chicago, IL

Final program
Friday 17th February 2006

9:00–9:15 Opening by the Director of the Oriental Institute (Gil Stein)

9:15–9:30 Introduction (Nicola Laneri—University of Chicago)

Session 1—A Powerful Death: Exercising Authority Through the Enactment of Funerary Rituals
Chair: Jonathan Hall (University of Chicago)

9:30–9:50
Ellen Morris—Columbia University
Human Sacrifice, Pageantry, and Power in at the Dawn of the Egyptian State

9:50–10:10
Glenn Schwartz—Johns Hopkins University
Ideology and Memory in a Third Millennium BC Royal Cemetery at Umm el-Marra, Syria

10:10–10:30 Bob Chapman—University of Reading, UK
Mortuary rituals, authority and identity in Early Bronze Age Southeast Spain

10:30–11:00 Coffee break

11:00–11:20
Massimo Cultraro—Ist. per i Beni Archeologici–CNR, Catania, Italy
Combined Efforts till Death. Funerary Ritual and Social Statements in the Aegean Early Bronze Age

11:20–11:40
Meredith Chesson—Notre Dame University
Early Bronze Age Mortuary Practices, Identity and Social Complexity on the southeastern Dead Sea Plain, Jordan

11:40–12:00
Alessandro Naso—University of Molise, Italy
Etruscan Style of Dying. Funerary Architecture, Tomb Groups and Social Range at Caere (Cerveteri) and His Territory in the 7th–6th Centuries BC.

12:00–12:20
Michael Dietler—University of Chicago
A Relational Approach to Funerary Ritual and Colonial Encounters in Mediterranean Gaul: Performance, Persona, Politics, and Space-Time Comparison

12:20–12:40 Respondent Adam Smith (University of Chicago)

12:40–1:00 Discussion

1:00–2:00 Lunch break

Session 2: Memoralizing the ancestors: Death as form of cultural and social transmission
Chair: Theo van den Hout (University of Chicago)

2:00–2:20
Stephen Harvey—University of Chicago
Visiting The House on Earth: The Ancient Egyptian Domestic Nexus Between This World and the Next

2:20–2:40
Dina Katz—NINO, Leiden University, Holland
Funerary Ritual in Context

2:40–3:00
Seth Richardson—University of Chicago
Death and Dismemberment in Mesopotamia: Social Discorporation between the Body and Body Politic

3:00–3:20 Coffee Break

3:20–3:40
Susan Pollock—Binghamton University
Death of a Household

3:40-4:00
Ian Rutherford—Florida State University
Achilles and the Sallis Wastais-Ritual: Performing Death in Greece and Anatolia

4:00–4:20
Anthony Tuck—Tufts University
Burial Practices of Emerging Communities in Early Central Italy

4:20–4:40
John Pollini—University of Southern California – Ritualizing Death in Republican Rome: Religion, Portraiture, Class Struggle, and the Origin of the Aristocratic Wax Funerary Mask Tradition

4:40–5:00 Respondent Emily Teeter (University of Chicago)

5:00–5:20 Discussion

Saturday Feb 18th February 2006

Session 3: Archaeology of Funerary Rituals: A Theoretical Approach Chair: David Schloen (University of Chicago)

10:00–10:20
John Robb—University of Cambridge, UK
Burial Practices in Mediterranean Prehistory: Processualism, Post-processualism, and Post-post-processualism

10:20–10:40 James Brown—Northwestern University
1966–2006: Approaches to the Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices in the Third Millennium AD

10:40–11:00
Maurice Bloch—The London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Conclusive Remarks: A Socio-anthropological Perspective

11:00–12:00 Discussion