MAINTENANCE: THE USEFUL BARBARIAN IN THE AGE OF EMPIRE

Professor Adam T. Smith, Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies

No figure is as vital to the operation of the civilization machine as the barbarian, a conceptual figure that defines the boundaries of publics through the articulation of who is recognized and who is Other. Barbarians populate both the historical imagination of the “state of nature” and the “savage slot” that defines the antithesis of civility. They are also the quintessential Iron Age addition to the civilization machine. Taking the Kingdom of Urartu as a case study, this lecture will examine the role of nature and the barbarian in the technologies of alterity vital to the civilization machine in an age of empire.

in the Sir Charles Wilson Building, University of Glasgow, 1 University Avenue, Glasgow G12 8QQ

First published: 29 October 2019

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