Report on Cultures of Ancient Science Conference
Institute of Classical Studies/ Petrire Museum/ UCL, 15-17 March 2013.
The Cultures of Ancient Science Conference, sponsored by BSHS, The Institute of
Classical Studies, The Department of Science and Technology Studies at UCL and The
Petrie Museum for Egyptology and took place from Friday 15th to Sunday 17th March
2013 at University College London. The main themes for the conference were the
diversity of science in the ancient world, how we should approach the study of science in
the ancient world and the possibility of making cross-cultural comparisons of ancient
sciences. A further theme was how the study of ancient science had changed in the
twenty years since three of the speakers (Rochberg, Lloyd, Bernall) had published
seminal papers in a special edition of Isis in 1992, especially in terms of ancient science
no longer being exclusively identified with ancient Greek science, along with prospects
for further development. There were speakers on ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, ancient
Babylonia, ancient China, ancient Rome, early Meso-America and the early Arabic/
Islamic culture. There was a most interesting reception for the conference on the Friday
evening at the Petrie Museum for Egyptology. Dr. Alexandra von Lieven, an expert on
ancient Egyptian science very kindly talked us through some of the exhibits relevant to
the study of science in ancient Egypt.
Dr. Alexandra von Lieven of The Freie Universistat Berlin gave the first paper on
the Friday afternoon, speaking on ancient Egyptian science, emphasising the wealth of
material now available and how the study of ancient Egyptian science is beginning to
flourish. She was followed by Prof. Vivien Nutton of UCL who spoke on how the study of
ancient medicine has changed in the last twenty years and is still changing.
On the Saturday morning Prof. Martin Bernal of Cornell University spoke on
aspects of interaction between ancient Egyptian and ancient Greek science. Dr. Andrew
Gregory of UCL spoke on how he had been influenced by von Staden’s paper in the
1992 special edition of Isis, on how evidence of religious and magical belief among the
Greeks had been marginalised and looked at some examples where this evidence had
been excluded from modern versions of ancient texts by their editors. Prof. Geoffrey
Lloyd of the University of Cambridge and Prof. Nathan Sivin of the University of
Pennsylvania both discussed ancient China and to a lesser extent ancient Greece and
discussed the possibilities for making cross-cultural comparisons of ancient sciences.
Prof. Francesca Rochberg of Berkeley University spoke on how the history of science of
ancient Mesopotamia had changed radically in attitudes and methods and the
implications of this for ancient science more generally. Dr. Eleanor Robson of the
University of Cambridge spoke on geographies of science and networks of knowledge
among the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians. Dr. Serafina Cuomo of Birkbeck College
spoke on Roman science and how it had now emerged from the long shadow thrown by
the assumption that all important ancient science emanated from the Greeks.
On the Sunday morning Dr. Stephanie Koerner of the University of Manchester
spoke on science in pre-Columbus Andean America and discussed issues of folkknowledge and where to find knowledge in ancient cultures. Prof. Charles Burnett of the
Warburg Museum closed the conference with a paper on science in the early Arabic/
Islamic civilization.
There was ample time for discussion of the papers and there were many
stimulating questions and comments from the audience. The conference was very well
attended with around 70 people attending over the three days. The possibility of a
volume of papers covering the historiography of ancient science emanating from his
conference was discussed with several publishers being interested.