Blog

Updates regarding the project, the database, and the website are posted here regularly

 

The Cotswold Olimpicks

Slightly tangential: last month witnessed the celebration of Robert Dover's Cotswolds Olympic games in rustic Chipping Camden in the Cotswolds.  These games have been regulalrly celebrated since 1612 and represent a crucial link in between the ancient Olympics and the Modern Games. Onno van Nijf wrote a blog about it (in Dutch), that can be found on www.wetenschap.nu. See also www.olimpickgames.co.uk. Of cousre we would be very interested in finding out how many athletes took part, and where they all came  from ...

Minor updates

There has been an update to the database: we have made some changes to the tables: Region and Age Category are now separate tables; new tables Role and Deme have been added. we have also fixed a problem with exporting ther esults as a CSV file. Please contact us if you experience any further problems

New content

Over 500 individuals have been added to the database, as all the Pythionikai collected by Jean-Yves Strasser in his 2001 volumes 'Pythionikai. Recherches sur les vainqueurs aux Pythia de Delphes' are now online, as well as all members of ecumenical synods collected by Bram Fauconnier for his 2018 dissertation 'Ecumenical Synods. The Associations of Athletes and Artists in the Roman Empire'. We want to thank both scholars for allowing us to add their data to the Connected Contests Database!

Project Launch

On 1 February we have launched or new NWO-funded research project Connecting the Greeks - multiscalar festival networks in the Hellenistic world. Adam Wiznura (MA Alberta) has started a PhD on festivals and regional identities and Tom Britton (MA Oxford) will focus on festivals and empire building. They are joined by Robin van Vliet (MA Utrecht) whose PhD on Rome oriented cults and festivals is funded by the OIKOS-Anchoring Innovation initiative. Christina Williamson will conduct postdoctoral research on festival sites and place making. Work on the database will of course continue. Caroline van Toor is our content manager; Cristian Marocico is responsible for database design and Pim Schievink is a student volunteer. We are also pleased that we have been joined from outside Groningen by Dies van der Linde (Royal Holloway, London) who has been entering the data for the Olympic victors (made possible by a grant from the British Academy). Mali Skotheim (Athens) will advise us on actors and paratheatrical performers, and Andrew Farrington advises us on the Nemeonikai.

Presentation of our Project in Warwick

On 29 January 2019 Onno van Nijf will present the Connecting the Greeks project at the University of Warwick. He is invited by Prof. Zahra Newby who directs a project on the Materiality of Graeco-Roman festivals. We are looking forward to further collaboration with our colleagues at Warwick.

Recent Posts

  • Added Strasser Mémoire de champions

    We have now added references to Jean-Yves Strasser's  magisterial corpus Mémoire de champions. Corpus des palmarès d'Octavien à Valentinien Ier. Athens, 2021 (École française d'Athènes). This wonderful work is available online via   >> https://books.openedition.org/efa/13782?. Blang=en <<

  • New feature: mapping who went where

    It is now possible to view the trajectories of individual athletes and performers: if you do a persons search you will get a map with registered victories.

  • New feature! Distribution map of festivals

    Take a look at the first version of our geographically and chronologically determined distribution map of festivals ((the link is also available via our homepage). The map shows cities in the ancient world where one or more festivals were organised. Sliding the bar below the map allows you to see the chronological development and popularity of the cities and their festivals. The size of the red bulb represents the number of participants in a particular period. By clicking the red bulbs you will see which festival(s) were hosted by this particular city, how many known participants it attracted, and the names of the athletes and musicians that were born in that particular city. We are working on improving the functionality of the map, i.a. by creating a map that shows the result of any query you might run. 

  • New content! Organizers and competitors in Boiotian contests centred on Rome

    The newest addition to the database includes ca. 150 competitors in and organizers of some Boiotian contests associated with the presence of Rome, that were being organized in the second and first centuries BCE: the Amphiaraia kai Rhomaia in Oropos, the Rhomaia in Thebes, and the alleged Erotideia kai Rhomaia in Thespiai. Like other contemporaries, the Boiotians seem to have used their association with Rome through these contests to claim their status in a rapidly changing world.   

  • CfP - Rooted Cities, Wandering Gods: Inter-Urban Religious Interaction

    We are proud to announce that the members of the Connecting the Greeks project are organising a conference on inter-urban religious contacts, to take place (hopefully in person!) at Groningen in the autumn of 2021. We invite anyone interested in cities, religious practices, and the ties between them to submit an abstract – you can read all about the conference theme and confirmed speakers in the full call for papers. 

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