A Showcase for the Australian Research Council Funded Project:
‘Forging Antiquity: Authenticity, Forgery & Fake Papyri’
2–6pm, 19 September 2019
Australian Hearing Hub, Level 1 room 602, Macquarie University
Every interpretation of the past involves some creative imposition and, yet, folk understandings of the historian’s task admit no room for this rich dynamic between known and unknown, us and them. The idea that the past is made and made through our engagement with it seems to threaten the integrity of our sense of where we come from and who we are.
The stakes are even higher when it comes to antiquity understood as material remains, as object of art or inquiry. Particular ire is reserved for those who compromise the guarantee of truth and immediacy offered by the physical reality of the material by adjustment, appropriation, or downright fabrication. Looted or forged artefacts packaged up with false declarations of authenticity and fictional accounts of provenance speak to the criminal underbelly of our engagement with the ancient world. These objects exploit the vanity of our confidence in scientific technique and expertise. Deviant artefacts upset traditional assumptions about the protection afforded the past by the academy. They open up the past to contributions made by marginalised groups and to creative interventions which demonstrate how porous, how live, and how important the past is today.
From Thucydides to the New Testament, Zoroaster to hieroglyphs, from Egypt to e-Bay, this showcase will highlight research undertaken as part of the Australian Research Council-funded Project ‘Forging Antiquity: Authenticity, forgery, and fake papyri’, featuring presentations from Macquarie staff and students, and our overseas partners.
Funding for this showcase has been provided by the Australian Research Council and the MQ Centre for Ancient Cultural Heritage and the Environment.
Registration
Attendence is free but registration is essential for catering purposes: please register here.
Speakers and paper titles
(all speakers from Macquarie University except where noted)
Richard Bott, ‘Assumed Authenticity: Expertise, Authentication, and the Sheikh Ibada Fakes’
Malcolm Choat, ‘Constantine Simonides and his New Testament Papyri’
Lauren Dundler, ‘#antiquitiesdealers – The Construction of Dealer Persona in the Internet Antiquities Market’
Isabelle Marthot-Santaniello (University of Basel), ‘The challenges of Writer Identification on papyrus’
Vanessa Mawby, George Topalidis, and Penny Blake, ‘Theopompus (of Chios?) and his Hieroglyphs: Constantine Simonides and 19th century Egyptology’
Rachel Yuen-Collingridge, ‘Forgery as an act of creative decolonisation: Constantine Simonides between Thucydides and Zoroaster’
Program
(all speakers from Macquarie University except where noted)
2.05–2.15pm Opening remarks
2.15–2.20pm Rachel Yuen-Collingridge, An introduction to the theme
2.20–2.45pm Malcolm Choat, ‘Constantine Simonides and his New Testament Papyri’
2.45–3.10pm Vanessa Mawby, George Topalidis, and Penny Blake, ‘Theopompus (of Chios?) and his Hieroglyphs: Constantine Simonides and 19th century Egyptology’
3.10–3.35pm Isabelle Marthot-Santaniello (University of Basel), ‘The challenges of Writer Identification on papyrus’
3.35–4..00pm Afternoon Tea (served in Level 3 Room 202, the ‘Recreation Room’)
4.00–4.25pm Lauren Dundler,’#antiquitiesdealers – The Construction of Dealer Persona in the Internet Antiquities Market’
4.25–4.50pm Richard Bott, ‘Assumed Authenticity: Expertise, Authentication, and the Sheikh Ibada Fakes’
4.50–5.15 pm Rachel Yuen-Collingridge, ‘Forgery as an act of creative decolonisation: Constantine Simonides between Thucydides and Zoroaster’
5.15–6.30pm Reception (Level 3 Room 202, the ‘Recreation Room’)