Co-Sponsorship: Between and Beyond Empires: From the Seleucids to the Sasanians (2nd c. BC – 7th c. AD)

Between and Beyond Empires:
From the Seleucids to the Sasanians (2nd c. BC – 7th c. AD)

Wrocław/Breslau, December 3–6, 2024

Organized by Robert Rollinger, Krzysztof Nawotka,
Agnieszka Wojciechowska and Florian Schwarz

As a follow-up of the conference in Obergurgl (The Achaemenid Persian Empire and Imperial Transformations in the Ancient Near East, 7th – 2nd c. BCE, July 3-7, 2023) the one in Wrocław will continue to focus on the phenomenon of imperial transformations in the framework of a longue durée perspective and within a transdisciplinary approach. On the one hand, empire as phenomenon should no longer be thought as an organic biological “creature” with a clearly defined beginning and end. Moreover, the various paths of transformation processes that occur in phases of turmoil and crisis ought to be followed. On the other hand, special attention should be drawn on the agency of the vast imperial borderlands as these areas in particular are often entangled actively in these processes of transformation. 

The central focus of this conference lies on western Afro-Eurasia within a broad chronological framework that runs from the “Hellenistic” period to the early Islamic era. The various contributions are asked to address transformation processes as well as phenomena of imperial heritage and imperial “argumentation” through time and space. Although the Eastern Mediterranean, Western Asia (Near East) and the Iranian highlands are regarded to represent key zones of the inquiry, their outreach towards Central Asia, the Steppe, the Balkans and the Arabian Peninsula is not to be neglected. Therefore, the conference intends to develop a broad and transregional understanding of the various transformation processes involved as well as their spatial and chronological dimensions.

Download the program here.