São Paulo – Syria, Carthage, Egypt and Mesopotamia will be in discussion during the 2nd International Meeting on Language in the Ancient World: Globalization and Cultural Interactions. The event will run from June 11 to 14 at the ‘Valley Campus’ of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. The Syrian-born, Brazilian-based Ayman Esmandar (pictured), who holds baccalaureate and master’s degrees in Fine Arts and a doctorate in Art History from Damascus University, will be one of the lecturers.
At 5:30pm on June 14, the Syrian scholar will sit on the panel Visions from Abroad: East and West. He will give an overview of Syria’s history, its empires and reigns, from the third millennium BC to the present. “It can provide a very clear picture of what’s going on nowadays,” he said, stressing that History reveals a great deal about the future of a nation.
June 13, 7pm will see Esmandar deliver the lecture “Carthage and the seeds of globalization in the Ancient World,” on the Phoenician maritime empire, whose main base was Carthage – currently part of Tunisia. According to Esmandar, it was the Phoenicians who laid down the rules of trade in the Ancient World. As a case in point, he mentions that there used to be a seven- to eight-story building – which wasn’t common then – in the Byrsa neighborhood, from where they would regulate gold and silver prices.
Esmandar relates that some of the rules for trade are still in existence. The Phoenician rule lasted the 7th to the 2nd century BC. During that time, they used to have 300 trade entrepots across Northern Africa and Southern Europe, whose job was to give support to ships and sell goods. That was tantamount to a globalization of sorts.
Besides Esmandar, other speakers will touch on former or current Arabs. The life of Syria’s Júlia Domna, a Roman empress from the 3rd century AD, will be covered in a lecture on June 13 by Semíramis Corsi, a professor at the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM). Also on the 13th, Margaret Bakos, of the Londrina State University (UEL), will tell short stories about Ancient Egypt, and Katia Maria Paim Pozzer of UFRGS will speak on Mesopotamian art.
The event will be the statewide meeting of the Ancient History workgroup from the Rio Grande do Sul chapter of the National History Association (Anuph) Myriad aspects of Antiquity will be in discussion, including history, archaeology, Zoroastrianism (an ancient Persian religion) in connection with Afro-Brazilian religion, and the religious principles of Greek society, Rome and Universal History, and political rhetoric in contemporary Brazil, the Roman Empire of Tiberius, the culture of Iran’s Jiroft civilization, etc.
Speakers from various universities will be featured, including the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), the Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS), the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel) and the Federal University of the Pampa (Unipampa), UFRGS, UEL and UFSM. Also featured will be François Desset, who’s active at the University of Tehran, Iran and at the National Centre for Science Research (CNRS) in France.
Organizers said the goal is to bring together specialists on multiple fields and civilizations that make up the multifaceted scenario of the Ancient World, whose trade, diplomacy and art, often in connection with imperial rule, birthed a historical configuration that current peoples have inherited. Though intended for academia, the meeting is open to the general public and free of charge.
Quick facts
2nd International Meeting on Language in the Ancient World: Globalization and Cultural Interactions
June 11-14, 2019, 2pm-9pm
Campus do Vale – Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)
Avenida Bento Gonçalves, 9.500 – Porto Alegre – RS
Free of charge
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Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
