RAIA2025

SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF RAIA (ROMANIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE IN ATHENS)

 

GREEKS AND HYPERBOREANS

Cultural interactions between the eastern Mediterranean basin and the populations from the Pontic steppes and temperate Europe

(8th century BC – 4th century AD)

 

October 9-11, 2025

Timişoara, Romania

 

In the mythical geography of the Greeks, the Hyperboreans and their land occupied a hazy northern space beyond the home of Boreas in Thrace. The distant Hyperborea was seen as the embodiment of perfection, a land of perpetually sunny days where only blissful and virtuous people lived. The imprecise localization of the mythical land reflects the limited knowledge of the Greeks about faraway northern territories that had no seas to be crossed by skilful navigators. In the 5th century BC, Herodotus was still writing that the lands beyond the Istros were endless and uninhabited (V.9). When the Greeks began to expand their horizons and encounter more populations up north, this mythical space did not fade in their imagination, instead being pushed farther to the north.

Starting from this metaphoric Hyperborea, a mythical land far away from the more familiar ancient Mediterranean geography, the conference aims to bring into discussion the cultural interactions between the Greeks and the northern populations from the Pontic steppes and temperate Europe up to the Baltic Sea. These interactions were far from unidirectional, being diverse, dynamic and multifaceted. Several left at least some archaeological traces (manufactured goods, raw materials, built structures, inscriptions etc), while others (practices, beliefs, knowledge etc) remained apparently invisible archaeologically, thus requiring a contextual interdisciplinary approach to unearth them.

From this perspective, the conference proposes the following topics for discussions:

  1. Colonists and colonized – theoretical approaches regarding the Greek colonization, the role of emporia, and the development of colonial hinterland as a “middle ground” between the newcomers and the locals.
  2. The Greeks in the “Barbarian” imaginary versus the “Barbarians” in the Greek imaginary from antiquity until modern times.
  3. Material and immaterial dimensions of the interactions – the circulation of goods, technologies, practices, ideas etc; means and mechanisms of adoption and adaptation; their social, economic and cultural impact on both the Greeks and the “Barbarians”.
  4. The Greek colonies in the changing world – their role as regional social-political, economic and cultural factors of influence in the Hellenistic and Roman period.

 

Deadlines

23 April 2025 – Call for Papers opens

15 June 2025 – Call for Papers closes

1 July 2025  – Call for Papers deadline (extended)

9 – 11 October 2025 – RAIA2025 International Conference

31 December 2025 – Submission deadline for publication