Institute for Mediterranean Studies

SLaVEgents

Enslaved persons in the making of societies and cultures in Western Eurasia and North Africa, 1000 BCE - 300 CE

Principal Investigator: Kostas Vlassopoulos
Funding Body: European Research Council (Advanced Grant 2022, Grant Agreement 101095823)
Starting Date: 1 July 2023,   End Date: 30 June 2028
Total Budget: € 2,495,575
Host Institution: IMS-FORTΗ

SLaVEgents aspires to be a pioneering contribution to the study of antiquity, shifting the focus of research from the elites to the lower classes. The project aims to re-examine the social, economic, political and cultural history of antiquity on the basis of slave agency.

The project aims to analyse the role of slaves in the processes of transformation of ancient societies and cultures. In this context, it will study the multiple identities, communities and networks created by slaves based on family, kinship, work, ethnicity and cult and how these shaped their aspirations, expectations and strategies; the changes that slave agency brought about in the economic, legal, political and religious systems of antiquity; and the individual and collective participation of slaves in historical events and contexts such as wars, crises and revolutions. The project also departs from the usual focus on Greek and Roman slavery and will examine all ancient slaveholding societies across Western Eurasia and North Africa for which sufficient information survives: in addition to the Greek and Roman societies of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, the slaveholding societies of Assyria, Babylonia, Judea, Syria and Egypt.

The main objective of the project is to create a prosopography of all ancient slaves, freedpersons and potential slaves/freedpersons about whom evidence survives in ancient sources. The prosopography will take the form of a digital database open to researchers and the general public, and will include the relevant testimonies both in the original ancient text and in a modern English translation, together with photographs of all archaeological data (tombs, votive offerings, utilitarian objects) that can be attributed to slaves. At the same time, the database will include digital maps showing the places where slaves are recorded and their place of origin, and the material will be used to digitally enhance existing digital databases on antiquity. In this way it will be possible to study both the individual biographies of ancient slaves and the collective trends in their lives.

For the creation of the digital prosopography, the project team will study the literary, epigraphic, and papyrological data preserved in a large number of ancient languages (Greek, Latin, Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Hebrew, Aramaic), as well as the relevant archaeological data. The project will be carried out by an international research team of 21 people under the supervision of Dr. Vlassopoulos, with the IMS in Rethymnon as its centre and collaborating researchers from Brazil, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and USA. The team will create an open access digital portal including databases, abstracts, multimedia material, bibliographies and links to be used by the international academic community; it will also organise and participate in a series of academic meetings and international conferences, and produce several open-access publications - including three books, and four PhD theses.

Project Team

Kostas Vlassopoulos

Kostas Vlassopoulos

Professor of Ancient History
University of Crete
Curriculum vitae
Federica Gatto

Federica Gatto

Postdoctoral researcher
University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”
Davide Trivellato

Davide Trivellato

Postdoctoral researcher
Fernando Blanco Robles

Fernando Blanco Robles

Postdoctoral researcher
Cornelia Wunsch

Cornelia Wunsch

Senior researcher
Martijn Stoutjesdijk

Martijn Stoutjesdijk

Postdoctoral researcher
Clara María Ramos-Taboada

Clara María Ramos-Taboada

Postdoctoral researcher
Jason Porter

Jason Porter

Postdoctoral researcher
Anna Mária - Izabella Pázsint

Anna Mária - Izabella Pázsint

Postdoctoral researcher
James D. Moore

James D. Moore

Senior researcher
Juan Carlos Moreno García

Juan Carlos Moreno García

Senior researcher
Franco Luciani

Franco Luciani

Senior researcher
Juan P. Lewis

Juan P. Lewis

Postdoctoral researcher
Fabio Joly

Fabio Joly

Senior researcher
Elton Barker

Elton Barker

Digital Consultant
Eftychia Bathrellou

Eftychia Bathrellou

Postdoctoral researcher
Kyriaki Konstantinidou

Kyriaki Konstantinidou

Postdoctoral researcher
Milan Prodanovic

Milan Prodanovic

Ph.D. candidate
Ethan Bragg Rummel

Ethan Bragg Rummel

Ph.D. Candidate
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete
Mateu Portells Watson

Mateu Portells Watson

Ph.D. candidate
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete
Ioannis Diamantopoulos

Ioannis Diamantopoulos

Ph.D. candidate
Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete
Curriculum vitae
Anastasia Theologou

Anastasia Theologou

Research Assistant
Denise Pätzold

Denise Pätzold

Research assistant
Katerina Sarinaki

Katerina Sarinaki

Research Assistant
ERC
Funded by the European Union (ERC, SLaVEgents, grant agreement No. 101095823). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.