New Worlds from Old Texts

Revisiting Ancient Space and Place

Edited by Elton Barker, Stefan Bouzarovski, Christopher Pelling, and Leif Isaksen

Presents a multidisciplinary and internationally derived study of ancient space, considering literary, philosophical, and archaeological studies
Combines classical scholarship with geographical theory, providing invaluable insight into different methodological approaches
Incorporates maps into the analysis, aiding understanding of underlying spatial patterns
Explores the benefits to, and limitations of, the latest technology through experimentation with digital tools and methods

New Worlds from Old Texts

Revisiting Ancient Space and Place

Edited by Elton Barker, Stefan Bouzarovski, Christopher Pelling, and Leif Isaksen

Description

Maps dominate the modern sense of place and geography. Yet, so far as we can tell, maps were rare in the Greco-Roman world and, when mentioned in sources, are mistrusted and criticized. Today, technological advances have brought to the fore an entirely new set of methods for representing and interacting with space. In contrast to traditional "topographic" perspectives, the territorial extent of economic and political realms is increasingly conceived though a "topological" lens, in which the nature and frequency of links among different sites matter more than the physical distances between them.

New Worlds from Old Texts focuses on the ancient Greek experience of space, conceived of in terms of both its literature and material culture remains, and uses this to reflect on modern thinking. Comprising twelve chapters written by a highly interdisciplinary range of contributors, this edited collection explores the rich array of representational devices employed by ancient authors, whose narrative depictions of spatial relations defy the logic of images and surfaces that dominates contemporary cartographic thought. The volume focuses on Herodotus' Histories--a text that is increasingly cited by Classicists as an example of how ancient perceptions of space may have been rather different to the modern cartographic view--but also considers perceptions of space through the lens of other authors, genres, cultural contexts, and disciplines. In doing so, it reveals how a study of the ancient world can be reinvigorated by, and in turn help to shape, modern technological innovation and methods.

New Worlds from Old Texts

Revisiting Ancient Space and Place

Edited by Elton Barker, Stefan Bouzarovski, Christopher Pelling, and Leif Isaksen

Introduction, Elton Barker, Stefan Bouzarovski, and Leif Isaksen
Part 1: Texts, Maps, Ideas: Ancient Greek Representations of Space
1. Greek Hymnic Spaces, Oliver Thomas
2. The Waters at the Ends of the World: Herodotus and Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, Donald Murray
3. Map, Catalogue, Drama, Narrative: Representations of the Aegean Space, Paola Ceccarelli
4. An Uneasy Smile: Herodotus on Saps and the Question of How to View the World, Mathieu de Bakker
5. Mapping Spatial and Temporal Distance in Herodotus and Thucydides, Tim Rood
6. From Herodotus to a 'Hellenistic' World? The Eastern Geographies of Aristotle and Theophrastus, Kathryn Stevens
Part 2: The Hestia Project: Towards a Narrative Geography of Herodotus' Histories
7. Between East and West: Movements and Transformations in Herodotean Topology, Stefan Bouzarovski and Elton Barker
8. Telling Stories with Maps: Exploring Herodotean Geography through Digital Tools, Elton Barker, Leif Isaksen, and Jessica Ogden
9. Space-travelling in Herodotus Book 5, Elton Barker and Christopher Pelling
Part 3: Technologies, Methodologies, Theories: Contemporary Approaches to Mapping Space
10. Pots in Space: An Exploratory and Geographical Network Analysis of Roman Pottery Distribution, Tom Brughmans and Jeroen Poblome
11. Tracing Networks: Technological Knowledge, Cultural Contact and Knowledge Exchange in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond, Lin Foxhall and Katharina Rebay-Salisbury
12. Verbal Expressions of Geographical Information, Oyvind Eide
Epilogue: A View from the Boundary, Christopher Pelling
Bibliography
Index

New Worlds from Old Texts

Revisiting Ancient Space and Place

Edited by Elton Barker, Stefan Bouzarovski, Christopher Pelling, and Leif Isaksen

Author Information

Elton Barker is a Reader in Classical Studies at the Open University.

Stefan Bouzarovski is a Professor of Geography and Director of the Centrer for Urban Energy and Resilience at the University of Manchester.

Christopher Pelling is Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford.

Leif Isaksen is a Lecturer in Archaeology and Co-Director of the Web Science Center for Doctoral Training at the University of Southampton.

Contributors:

Mathieu de Bakker, University of Amsterdam
Elton Barker, The Open University
Tom Brughmans, University of Konstanz
Stefan Bouzarovski, University of Manchester
Paola Ceccarelli, University of Cambridge
Øyvind Eide, University of Passau
Lin Foxhall, University of Leicester
Leif Isaksen, University of Southampton
Donald MurrayDR, Durham University
Christopher Pelling, University of Oxford
Jeroen Poblome, University of Leuven
Katharina Rebay-Salisbury, University of Vienna
Tim Rood, University of Oxford
Kathryn Stevens, University of Durham
Oliver Thomas, University of Nottingham

New Worlds from Old Texts

Revisiting Ancient Space and Place

Edited by Elton Barker, Stefan Bouzarovski, Christopher Pelling, and Leif Isaksen

Reviews and Awards

"New Worlds from Old Texts is an excellent example of the integration of thoughtful humanistic inquiry and digital methods. It would serve as a fine example for anyone curious about digital classics. Moreover, several of the papers in Part I make a strong claim for inclusion in a classical geography syllabus and the volume is essential reading for anyone considering the spatial dimension of Herodotus." --Hamish Cameron, New England Classical Journal

"Readers will come to this volume for diverse reasons - Herodotean scholarship, literary criticism, spatial theory, and/or new "mapping" technologies - and the editors are to be commended for seeing through their initial vision for a volume that brings together various strategies for re-imagining how the ancient Greeks and Romans conceived of their world." --Rebecca K. Schindler, Classical Journal Online