Affiliation: University of Virginia
Tyler Jo Smith is Associate Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology with the McIntire Department of Art at the University of Virginia. She holds her degrees from Merton College, Oxford (D.Phil.) and Davidson College, and her areas of specialization are Greek vase painting and iconography, the art and archaeology of performance, the art and archaeology of religion, and Anatolian archaeology. Her current publication projects are The Art of Greek Religion (University of Pennsylvania Press), Greek Vases: Art, Society, and Meaning (Cambridge University Press), and Sir John Sloane’s Greek Vases (Archaeopress).
Sacred landscapes are a well-recognized aspect of Classical antiquity. But what about the objects and images that populated them and, in turn, the people who used them? This talk will feature case studies from ancient Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Anatolia to consider some of the ways material and visual culture played a key role in religious life across space and time. By using a broad definition of religion, including both urban and rural settings, the themes of memory, ritual and identity will emerge as vital to contextualizing the sacred in Greek, non-Greek, and combined settings.
Vases or pots? Art objects or archaeological artifacts? Ancient Greek figure-decorated ceramics produced in the city of Athens and elsewhere survive in abundance. Be they adorning the shelves of modern museums or tucked away in excavation site storage, these objects have long been appreciated for their geometrical perfection and thier dynamic images of ancient myths and ritual practices. At same time, our own perceptions of them have evolved over time. Focusing on collection practices and modern reception, excavation histories and digital accessibility, this talk traces the modern history of ancient Greek vases from antiquity up to today and highlights the importance of archaeological thinking and analysis.
See Tyler Jo Smith's work in the American Journal of Archaeology.
