Blog | Connected Contestshttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/2024-03-28T17:55:04.281774+01:00Blog
Updates regarding the project, the database, and the website are posted here regularlyAdded Strasser Mémoire de champions2023-02-19T08:04:48+01:002024-03-28T09:52:15.931172+01:00Onno1 vannijf1http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/Onnotest/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/added-strasser-m%C3%A9moire-de-champions/<p>We have now added references to Jean-Yves Strasser's magisterial corpus <em>Mémoire de champions. Corpus des palmarès d'Octavien à Valentinien Ier. </em>Athens, 2021 (École française d'Athènes). This wonderful work is available online via >> <a href="https://books.openedition.org/efa/13782?">https://books.openedition.org/efa/13782?</a><a href="https://books.openedition.org/efa/13782?lang=en">. Blang=en</a> <<</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>New feature: mapping who went where2022-08-24T08:24:11+02:002024-03-28T12:47:05.836349+01:00Onno1 vannijf1http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/Onnotest/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/new-feature-mapping-who-went-where/<p>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.</p>
<p>We are currenty working on the option to map the origins of the contestants for each individual festival.</p>
<p></p>
<p><img/></p>New feature! Distribution map of festivals2021-06-23T15:50:54+02:002024-03-28T12:25:24.287152+01:00Caroline van Toorhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/Caroline/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/new-feature-distribution-map-of-festivals/<p><span>Take a look at the first version of our </span><a href="http://www.connectedcontests.org/database/">geographically and chronologically determined distribution map</a> of festivals ((the link is also available via our homepage).<span> 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. </span></p>New content! Organizers and competitors in Boiotian contests centred on Rome2021-03-11T15:23:41.940194+01:002024-03-28T17:55:04.281774+01:00Caroline van Toorhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/Caroline/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/new-content-organizers-and-competitors-in-boiotian-contests-centred-on-rome/<p style=""><strong><span></span></strong>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<span> </span>and first centuries BCE: the<span> </span><em>Amphiaraia kai Rhomaia<span> </span></em>in Oropos, the<span> </span><em>Rhomaia<span> </span></em>in Thebes, and the alleged<span> </span><em>Erotideia kai Rhomaia<span> </span></em>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. </p>
<p style=""><span>Scrolling through the database you might notice that Boiotia was a region with a particularly dense festival calendar, at least from the third century BCE onwards. For example, you will see that several victors in these contests - such as the poet Demokles son of Aminias, and later probably his son, </span>who had participated in similar disciplines – were also active in other Boiotian games. Something else which might stand out is that while the<span> </span><em>Rhomaia<span> </span></em>in Thebes seems to have been a fairly local event other contests, such as the<span> </span><em>Amphiaraia kai Rhomaia</em>, had a much larger scope. This is evidenced by, among other things, the victory of the runner Demokles son of<span> </span>Hierokles. An honorary inscription found in his hometown Halikarnassos in Caria tells us that Drakontomenes began his career as an athlete at a young age. It records not only his victory at this Boiotian contest but also his many other victories throughout the wider Greek world. </p>CfP - Rooted Cities, Wandering Gods: Inter-Urban Religious Interaction2021-02-05T15:51:31.484883+01:002024-03-28T16:02:16.527499+01:00Caroline van Toorhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/Caroline/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/cfp-rooted-cities-wandering-gods-inter-urban-religious-interaction/<p><span>We are proud to announce that the members of the <i>Connecting the Greeks</i> 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 <a href="https://connectingthegreeks.com/rooted-cities-conference-2021/">full call for papers</a>. </span></p>New content! Competitors associated with Hellenistic dynasties2021-01-28T13:27:20.946548+01:002024-03-28T16:20:42.244706+01:00Caroline van Toorhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/Caroline/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/new-content-competitors-associated-with-hellenistic-dynasties/<p>Over the winter we’ve added a miscellany of competitors associated with the royal dynasties of the Hellenistic world. These range from actual royalty (the Ptolemies in particular were very fond of chariot-racing) to Greeks who came to take part in the new contests established by rulers eager for recognition and cultural authority. Particularly notable is Arsinoe II (Person ID 4178) - successively married to two of the most powerful rulers in the Hellenistic world and the first woman in Greek history to be declared a god, she won three races at the same Olympic festival in 272 BC. Also fun is an unnamed actor from Tegea (Person ID 4202). Known for outstanding performances in tragedies, he also managed to win a boxing contest at the newly-founded Ptolemaia festival at Alexandria. It’s still uncertain whether this means that the quality of the new competition was low, or whether he simply got very lucky!</p>Caldelli's Capitolian victors online2020-04-08T19:07:09+02:002024-03-24T21:35:45.793232+01:00Caroline van Toorhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/Caroline_student/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/caldellis-capitolian-victors-online/<p>All victors and participants collected by Caldelli (<em>L'Agon Capitolinus. Storia e protagonisti dall'istituzione domizianea al IV secolo, </em>1993) have been added to the Connected Contests database. Find out all about the strange story of Herakleides, whose dream that he butchered the audience and judges during his performance meant that he would lose - which he did (event ID 30166). Or about the enormously successful Marcus Aurelius Asklepiades (person ID 656), a.k.a. Hermodoros, who quit boxing in his prime (he was 25) because of 'dangers and envious people' in IG XIV 1102. </p>Spatial Data Support awarded to the Deep-Mapping Sanctuaries project2020-03-30T19:17:06+02:002024-03-27T21:30:38.066215+01:00Christina Williamsonhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/C.G.Williamson/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/spatial-data-support-awarded-to-the-deep-mapping-sanctuaries-project/<p><span>Christina Williamson's project 'Deep-Mapping Sanctuaries', a subproject of 'Connecting the Greeks', is the recipient of a competitive call for 5 days of support from the Geo-services at the University of Groningen. As a pilot, this support will focus on mapping the experiences of Aelius Aristides in the Asklepieion in Pergamon. </span><span>See also: </span><a href="https://deepmappingsanctuaries.wordpress.com/2020/03/30/support-grant-from-the-geodienst/">https://deepmappingsanctuaries.wordpress.com/2020/03/30/support-grant-from-the-geodienst/</a></p>Erfurt students learn about networking with ancient competitors2019-10-30T21:50:04+01:002024-03-27T14:53:10.685266+01:00Christina Williamsonhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/C.G.Williamson/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/erfurt-students-learn-about-networking-with-ancient-competitors/<p>Where did the victors in the Isthmian games come from in the Hellenistic period? What about the Roman period? What festivals did Pythokles, son of Aristarchos from Hermione, compete in? These were some of the questions that first-year digital humanity/archaeology students in <strong>Erfurt</strong> were able to answer after an introduction by <strong>Christina Williamson</strong> in network theory, ancient festivals, and the <em>Connected Contests</em> database. Students were interested to learn about festival culture in the post-classical world, how it spread and how inscriptions provide great sources of data for analyzing relationships ('Those lists aren't as boring as I thought' was overheard). We also learned that exporting files on csv works much better on a laptop than a tablet or smartphone, certainly if you want to do some geo-networking with Palladio! But they enjoyed the interactive component and working with the database. If you want to try out the practicum yourself, the instructions and files are available at <span><a href="https://github.com/cgwilliamson1/connectinggreeks_demo">https://github.com/cgwilliamson1/connectinggreeks_demo</a></span></p>New Search Option Available2019-07-17T07:39:00+02:002024-03-27T13:24:23.686793+01:00Onno van Nijfhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/O.van.Nijf/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/new-search-option-available/<p>We have added more sophisticated search option. Not only can you specify that you want to have a list of persons, rather than events, you also can use Boolean operators AND & OR. The find results are downloadable in CSV format for further processing. For instructions, click on the search database button.</p>The Cotswold Olimpicks2019-06-27T11:38:27.115731+02:002024-03-28T07:47:03.748129+01:00Onno van Nijfhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/O.van.Nijf/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/the-cotswold-olimpicks/<p>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<a href="https://wetenschap.nu/ander-licht-op-moderne-olympische-spelen/"> www.wetenschap.nu.</a> See also <a href="http://www.olimpickgames.co.uk">www.olimpickgames.co.uk</a>. Of cousre we would be very interested in finding out how many athletes took part, and where they all came from ...</p>Minor updates2019-06-03T10:05:26+02:002024-03-26T03:07:25.762697+01:00Onno van Nijfhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/O.van.Nijf/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/minor-updates/<p>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</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>New content2019-04-19T15:27:55+02:002024-03-15T21:33:42.834879+01:00Caroline van Toorhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/Caroline_student/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/new-content/<p>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!</p>Project Launch2019-02-03T09:06:48+01:002024-03-28T06:40:45.344459+01:00Onno1 vannijf1http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/Onnotest/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/project-launch/<p>On 1 February we have launched or new NWO-funded research project <em>Connecting the Greeks - multiscalar festival networks in the Hellenistic world</em>. 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.</p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://connectedcontests/static/media/uploads/database/people/launch_2.jpg" width="500"/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span>Left to right: Onno van Nijf, Adam Wiznura, Tom Britton, Robin van Vliet, Caroline van Toor, Pim Schievink, Christina Williamson.</span></p>Presentation of our Project in Warwick2019-01-19T09:40:10+01:002024-03-28T17:17:04.526597+01:00Onno van Nijfhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/O.van.Nijf/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/presentation-of-our-project-in-warwick/<p>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.</p>4 year NWO funding for Connecting the Greeks2018-06-17T14:18:13+02:002024-03-28T13:33:04.054195+01:00Onno van Nijfhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/O.van.Nijf/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/4-year-nwo-funding-for-connecting-the-greeks/<p><span>We have just received funding for our project<span> </span></span>Connecting the Greeks: multi-scalar festivals in the Hellenistic world. <span>We shall investigate the role of agonistic festivals in the crucial timeframe from the third to the first centuries BC when festivals with athletic and cultural contests flourished as never before. This festival explosion was not simply the outcome of the spread of Greek civilization, but it was rather a major contributor to the process of identity creation at local regional and global levels, and to the growing interconnectivity of the Hellenistic world. This project aims to subject this multi-scalar festival culture to a rigorous analysis with innovative tools, theories and methods derived from social sciences and digital humanities, including network analysis and agent-based modelling. There will be a central role for the connected contests database.<span> One focus area will be the development of a mapping tool to display the mobility of athletes and performers between festivals. </span></span>We shall also be recruiting two PhD students starting early 2019 to investigate the festivals and the representation of Hellenistic rulers and ruler cult, and the development of regional festival networks<strong>.</strong></p>Fellowships for Onno van Nijf2018-05-23T11:17:43+02:002024-03-26T00:42:18.536754+01:00Onno van Nijfhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/O.van.Nijf/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/fellowships-for-onnonvan-nijf/<p>Onno van Nijf is the recipient of a Visiting Fellowship of the British Academy that he will hold at Royal Holloway University of London from September 2018 to February 2019, together with a visiting fellowship at the Institute of Classical Studies. During the Fellowship Onno will work on a study of agonistic festivals, and continue work on the database.</p>
<p></p>Moretti's Imperial Olympionikai and Brunet's Ephesian athletes online2018-04-10T10:19:29+02:002024-03-28T15:50:34.705058+01:00Caroline van Toorhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/Caroline_student/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/morettis-olympionikai-and-brunets-ephesian-victors/<p>For the past two months, we have been entering data from two prosopographies, viz. the athletes from the Imperial period listed in Moretti's 'Olympionikai' (1957) and Brunet's collection of Ephesian athletes, from his 1998 dissertation, 'Greek Athletes in the Roman World: The Evidence from Ephesos'. Save some problematic cases, we are happy to announce that we will finish working on these lists this week. Users can now search through the data of over 500 athletes and musicians who won more than 3000 victories. And for those of you who wondered: no, these over 3000 victories are not largely made up of Emperor Nero's 1808 victories (as claimed by Cassius Dio). Only the victories by Nero that are linked to actual festivals in ancient sources have been added to the database as separate victories. The almost eighty recorded victories by Valerius Eklektos have of course been added separately.</p>
<p>Furthermore, our IT-colleagues have enhanced the 'Advanced Search' option on the website for you, and they have been finetuning the back-end of the website to improve data-entering possibilities for us. In the background, we are also busy updating some of the older entries to ensure consistency.</p>
<p>Let us know if you have suggestions!</p>Data on synod members to be added thanks to Bram Fauconnier2018-03-04T11:58:25+01:002024-03-27T16:06:13.499501+01:00Onno van Nijfhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/O.van.Nijf/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/data-on-synod-members-to-be-added-thanks-to-bram-fauconnier/<p>We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Bram Fauconnier has allowed us to include in our database the list of members of athletic and artistic synods of the Roman imperial period that he collected for his recent Amsterdam PhD. We shall add the data ASAP.</p>
<p>NB If you have a similar data that you want to make available via our database, please get in touch with us.</p>Farrington's Isthmionikai online2018-02-07T13:20:15+01:002024-03-27T17:16:41.053517+01:00Caroline van Toorhttp://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/author/Caroline_student/http://connectedcontests.webhosting.rug.nl/blog/all-farringtons-isthmionikai-are-online/<p>As of January 2018, all ca. 300 Isthmia-victors collected by Andrew Farrington (2012) are added to the online database. Apart from adding their victories at the Isthmia, we also added other known victories by these athletes and musicians. <br/>We are currently in the process of checking the consistency of these entries and updating them.</p>