Also online on Teams.
The first lecture provides the historical and scholarly background for the entire lecture series. It first outlines the main characteristics of Late Bronze Age socio-political infrastructures, describing their collapse after the crisis of 1200 BC, and identifying general patterns in the reorganization of societies across Greece, Anatolia, and the Levant during the Iron Age. It then revises the models currently adopted to study and classify Iron Age Eastern Mediterranean political systems and asks whether they provide valid heuristic tools for an overarching interpretation of shared structural dynamics in socio-political development. The lecture concludes that the investigation should focus on the protagonists of political action and on the strategies they adopted in practice to foster social cohesion in their communities. It finally introduces the case studies that will constitute the core of the lecture series.
The Evans-Pritchard Lectures 2026
Dr Marco Santini (University of Edinburgh)
Theme: 'The Reinvention of Rule: Political Leadership and Legitimacy in the Iron Age Eastern Mediterranean, ca. 1200–600 BC'
This series of five lectures proposes an overarching interpretation of key political developments that characterized Greece, Anatolia, and the Levant during the period called the Iron Age (ca. 1200–600 BC). By overcoming traditional disciplinary divides between Classical and Near Eastern Studies, the lectures will show that significant common patterns can be detected across the three regions, disproving widespread views that the political development of early Greece followed a peculiar and unparalleled trajectory. By emphasizing the Mediterranean dimension of early Greek history, and by positing the existence of a shared, coherent system of political thought and practice across Iron Age Eastern Mediterranean societies, the lectures will make the case for a new understanding of the so-called foundations of “western civilization.”
All welcome to join in person or online via this Teams link.
Wednesday 29 April (Week 1): ‘The Eastern Mediterranean in the Iron Age: Making Sense of a Fragmenting World’
Wednesday 6 May (Week 2): ‘War for Power and the Power of War: Charismatic Leaders in the Iron Age Levant’
Wednesday 13 May (Week 3): ‘Rulers of Many Names: Experiments with Power in Iron Age Anatolia'
Wednesday 20 May (Week 4): ‘Warriors, Traders, and Shepherds of the People: Versatile Heroes in Iron Age Greece’
Wednesday 27 May (Week 5): ‘Fragments Recomposed’
Lectures will take place at 5 pm in the Old Library, All Souls College, and on Teams, except for Week 3, which will be in the Wharton Room.
Open to the public, all welcome.
All Souls website
