The Ancient Art Council is dedicated to supporting Ancient Art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
For all those who share an interest in ancient art and the preservation and promotion of antiquities and culture of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, the Ancient Art Council offers lectures by noted archaeologists, curators, and historians; exclusive tours of the permanent collection and special exhibitions; travel to other museums and ancient sites; receptions and opportunities to meet fellow enthusiasts of ancient art.
Learn more about the Ancient Art Council online.
UPCOMING PROGRAMS
Identity Theft in the Ancient Mediterranean
Date and Time: Saturday, November 5, 2011 - 2:00pm
Location: Florence Gould Theater, Legion of Honor
Presented by: Dr. Erich Gruen, Gladys Rehard Wood Professor of History and Classics Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley
This lecture addresses the question of how ancient peoples conceived or expressed a sense of their own national identity. In the polyglot and multicultural world of the Mediterranean, the values and features that gave identity to a group were constantly in flux and evolving. The construct of a collective identity depends on distinguishing one’s own nation or culture from that of the “Other,” a form of denigration or demonization of the “alien” in order to establish distinctiveness and superiority. Such conceptualizing and stereotyping led Greeks to disparage “barbarians,” Jews to deprecate gentiles, Egyptians to scorn lesser societies, and Romans to presume divine sanction for subordinating all inferior peoples to themselves. The lecture, however, endeavors to see another side to this story and to tease out of the texts signs of a more open-minded attitude in which ancient peoples saw themselves as part of a larger cultural heritage, in which they stressed links with others and even couched their own historical memories in terms of a past (often legendary) borrowed or appropriated from other societies. That is what I term “identity theft.
Cost: Lecture is free and open to the public: Donations are always welcome
Cyrus the Great in History and Art History
Date and Time: Saturday, December 3, 2011 - 2:00pm
Location: Floernce Gould Theater, Legion of Honor
Presented by: Dr. Antigoni Zournatzi, Senior Researcher, Institute for Greek and Roman Antiquity, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens
Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire, has left a lasting legacy as a world conqueror but also as a statesman whose religious and cultural tolerance and superior administrative skills provided inspiration for ancient and modern political philosophy. The lecture explores this legacy with reference to Cyrus' famous Cylinder text, a document composed following his conquest of Babylon in 539 BC and often labeled today the "first charter of human rights," and Cyrus' palatial constructions at Pasargadae, celebrating through a complex synthesis of elements originating in different artistic and architectural traditions this monarch's multicultural vision of his vast imperial realm.
Cost: Free / AAC members; $5 suggested donation / non-members
