Session: #1166

Content:

Crossroads are often considered emblematic representations of liminal spaces, places of passage rather than origin, often distinguished by their transient nature and multi-ethnic populations. Both Western and Classical epistemologies have produced a dichotomy between “crossroads” and “centres” for theoretical and heuristic purposes in describing many sites in the East. The adage “all roads lead to Rome'' has served as a metaphor for the intrinsic link between “central hubs” and their periphery. This adage also highlights, however, how in western thought, that neither the centre nor its periphery could exist without the “crossroads” that connected multiscalar networks of interaction and so, demand reconsideration.

Still, scholarship has largely characterised places such as Palmyra or Hatra, as “in between” Rome and the Arsakid empire. Similarly, rooted in 18th to 20th century ideas of cultural and racial purity, crossroads in the Hellenistic world are often envisioned as “in between places” defined by their “hybrid” or “syncretic” material and linguistic culture. These “in between” places have also historically been utilized to define and distinguish what “Hellenistic” is from what it is not. Through frameworks such as the “Silk Roads,” the same could be said of Central Asian communities, largely defined by their position between China, India, and Persia and so, operate in Classical scholarship as a crucial hinge between the so-called “East” and the Eastern Mediterranean.

In this session, we welcome papers that explore the material culture of the Hellenistic to Roman periods from perspectives that challenge the historical framework of “crossroads.” We hope to foster discussion with the aim of reimagining and re-centering “in between” places as fixed points of intersecting realities. Our goal is to undo the characterisation of “crossroads” as strictly points of transition in relation to and defined by “centres.”

Session: #1166

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