AIA: Stanford welcomes Prof. John Papadopoulos

Professor Papadopoulos will be joining our Stanford AIA Chapter on Friday, May 20 at 7:00pm. The lecture is free and open to the public.

John K. Papadopoulos is Distinguished Professor of Archaeology and Classics at the University of California at Los Angeles. His research and teaching interests include the Aegean, as well as the eastern and central Mediterranean from the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages into the Classical and later periods, the archaeology of colonization, and the integration of literary evidence with the material record in the study of the past. He has conducted fieldwork in Greece, Albania, Italy, and Australia, and has co-directed fieldwork projects at Torone and Methone in northern Greece, Lofkënd in Albania, and the repatriation project for Francavilla Marittima in South Italy. In July 2022 he will be Director of the Excavations in the Athenian Agora. He has authored or edited thirteen books, over 100 articles and some 50 book reviews.

Abstract:
Although long considered the most significant architectural project of Classical Athens, the Periklean building program still has much to reveal. In questioning modern conventions of viewing buildings on the Acropolis, Framing Victory: Salamis, the Athenian Acropolis, and the Agora reappraises how victory monuments were observed and perceived in the fifth century BCE. The presentation aims to show that the Mnesiklean Propylaia, the ceremonial gateway into the sanctuary on the Acropolis, is also a monumental exit that frames Salamis, the location of a watershed event in the history and topography of Athens—the defeat of the Persian armada in 480 BCE. Instead of seeing the Propylaia as an anomaly, I argue that it was instrumental to a new tradition of using architecture to orchestrate sightlines between monuments across the city. Buildings on the Acropolis worked in tandem with the stoas in the heart of Athens, the Classical Agora, to create a ritual topography that showcased Athenian heroism and triumph. This analysis therefore widens the canonical perspective of the Periklean program, proposing for the first time that it extended to and incorporated the Classical Agora of Athens.

For more information on Professor Papadopoulos, including a list of his publications:

Professor Papadopoulos' University site, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles