BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

D.C.-Area Archaeology Event: Six Degrees of Pericles

On Sunday, May 22, 2016, Dr. Diane Cline, Associate Professor of History and Classics at the George Washington University, will deliver the lecture “Six Degrees of Pericles: Social Networks in Classical Athens” in the Washington, D.C. area. The event is hosted by the Biblical Archaeology Society of Northern Virginia (BASONOVA) and Biblical Archaeology Forum (BAF).

Around 450 B.C.E., a small town on a remote peninsula jutting out into the Mediterranean Sea was the loci of innovation, higher education, discovery, and invention. We don’t usually think of Athens in such terms, but with only perhaps 20,000 male citizens, it produced lasting works of literature, philosophy, architecture and fine arts that have had more impact on the evolution of Western Civilization than any other culture before or since.

What factors in ancient Greek society, and in Athens specifically, made it so open to creative people and their new ideas? How did their version of democracy provide a nurturing platform for innovations to develop and spread? In this illustrated lecture, we view the social fabric of classical Athens by using a research method called Social Network Analysis, which makes visible that which is usually invisible. By studying social relationships between Athenians as nodes and links in a network, we can see how the structure of Athenian society in the mid-fifth century B.C.E. enabled high creativity, productivity, innovation and an unparalleled legacy.

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Tracing the enigmatic, mystical genesis of the Greek Olympiad, The Olympic Games: How They All Began takes you on a journey to ancient Greece with some of the finest scholars of the ancient world. Ranging from the original religious significance of the games to the brutal athletic competitions, this free eBook paints a picture of the ancient sports world and its devoted fans.

Related reading in Bible History Daily:

Digital Humanities: How Everyone Can Get a Library Card to the World’s Most Exclusive Collections Online by Diane H. Cline

The Athenian Acropolis: Antiquity’s High Holy Place by Harrison Eiteljorg, II
As published in the November/December 2004 issue of Archaeology Odyssey

Stoa Poikile Excavations in the Athenian Agora

The Oracle of Delphi—Was She Really Stoned?

Amphipolis Excavation: Discoveries in Alexander the Great-Era Tomb Dazzle the World