The Centre for Classical Studies warmly invites you to attend a talk in its Classics Seminar Series by Prof. Elizabeth Minchin.

As usual, after the talk, we shall continue discussion in the ANU Classics Museum.

‘The tumuli in the Troad that are traditionally associated with the heroes of Troy – Achilles, Patroclus, Ajax – have been a focus of attention for hundreds of years. Apart from their attraction for tomb robbers across the millennia, these tumuli were for many visitors in the ancient world the object of pilgrimage and cult worship; in modern times they have been a curio in the landscape for those with antiquarian interests; and in the last few decades they have been excavated systematically and carefully studied, as archaeologists try to reconstruct the history of their presence (and, indeed, clarify their status) in the vicinity of Hisarlık/Troy.

‘My approach to these tumuli will be via two phenomena of memory: on the one hand, the memory system that cognitive psychology refers to as spatial memory – in particular, the capacity of spatial information to cue the recall of associated material, such as events and emotions; and, on the other, collective memory, which has the capacity to store and transmit the traditional memories that we associate with any culture. My aim in this paper is to bring together the work of scholars like Brian Rose and Michael Sage on the landscape of the Troad with research at that junction where mind and memory meet. I shall consider how the story of Troy and cultural values associated with it were shaped over centuries (long after the end of the Bronze Age) by the presence of these tumuli in the landscape; and I shall observe how a particular landscape can serve, not only in a pre-literate world but also in the modern world, as a significant repository for a culture’s traditions.’     [Photo: ANCH2020 on Achilles’ Tomb in 2011.]

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