Lecture series of the Cluster of Excellence ROOTS

The Porta Asinaria, a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome. Photo: MrPanyGoff via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Walls are among the best-known features of historical cities. But this physical boundary was far from being the only one that characterized urban settlements in the past - economic, social, religious, cultural or legal boundaries existed as well, both externally and internally. What was the significance of these boundaries for cities since antiquity in Europe and beyond? This is the question addressed by the lecture series "Boundaries (in) the City", organized by the Cluster of Excellence ROOTS (Subcluster Urban) this winter semester at Kiel University.

Experts from Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland and the USA have been gathered for the lectures. The topics range in time from antiquity to the early modern period, and geographically from northwestern Europe to Italy, Greece, Palestine, and Mongolia.

The series will kick off on 7 November with a lecture by Prof. Dr. Ivo Van der Graaf, archaeologist at the University of New Hampshire (USA). He will focus on "Architecture, Ritual, and Power at the City Gates of Republican Italy." This will be followed on 14 November by a lecture on "Mittelalterliche Grenzen, Räume und Dimensionen in der Hansestadt Lübeck” (Medieval Boundaries, Spaces, and Dimensions in the Hanseatic City of Lübeck by Dr. Dirk Rieger, head of the Department of Archaeology of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck.

The lectures will be held Mondays from 19:15 to 20:45 in the lecture hall Wilhelm-Seelig-Platz 3, Room 9, 24118 Kiel.
All dates can be accessed at: https://www.cluster-roots.uni-kiel.de/en/calendar-events  

The lecture can be credited as a course by BA students in the subject supplement (UnivIS-No. 051455, module number: FE-GK-KA1).

Poster: here