Hellenistic Alexandria: Celebrating 24 Centuries' presents the proceedings of a conference held at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, on December 13–15, 2017, and includes high-level dialogues and philosophical discussions between international experts on Hellenistic Alexandria. The goal was to celebrate the 24 centuries which have elapsed since its foundation and the beginning of the Library and the Museum of Alexandria. The conference was divided into two parts, to include in the first part archaeology, history, philosophy, literature, art, culture and legal issues and in the second part science, medicine, technology and environment. A total of 28 original and peer-reviewed articles point to the importance of the brilliantly-original ideas that emerged during the Hellenistic age and the curious modernity of the whole atmosphere of the time. The range of presented topics covers a variety of new data on the foundation of Alexandria to comparison between Ptolemaic Alexandria and Ptolemaic Greece through philosophy, culture and drama to the forgotten revolution of science, medicine and the prevailing climatological and geophysical conditions throughout the Hellenistic Period. The conference and its proceedings were co-sponsored by the Μarianna V. Vardinoyannis Foundation, the Acropolis Museum, the Alexandria Center for Hellenistic Studies at Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the Mariolopoulos-Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences. The Publication also celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Alexandria Center for Hellenistic Studies, a joint collaboration between the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Vardinoyannis Foundation and the University of Alexandria. Scholars from around the world follow the Center’s programme in various specialisations, ranging from historyliterature- art, to archaeology and architecture-philosophy, and science.
Table of Contents
Opening of Hellenistic Alexandria Conference
Wednesday 13 December 2017
Address by Mrs Marianna V. Vardinoyannis
Address by the Honorable Dr Mostafa El Feki
Address by Professor Ashraf Farrag
Address by Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis
Why Hellenistic Alexandria?
Address by Professor Christos Zerefos
Address by His Beatitude Theodoros II
Address by H.E. Prokopios Pavlopoulos
Part 1: Archaeology, History, Philosophy, Literature, Art, Cultural Heritage and Legal Issues
New data concerning the foundation of Alexandria – by Jean-Yves Empereur
The navy of Ptolemaic Alexandria – by Emad Khalil
Twenty years of underwater archaeological and geophysical surveys in Alexandria by the Greek Mission (1998-2017) – by Harry E. Tzalas
Macedonian elements in Alexandria – by Angeliki Kottaridi
The early Greek presence in Alexandria – by M. Abd El–Maksoud, A. Abd El–Fattah and M. Seif El–Din
Italian archaeology in Alexandria – by Mohamed Kenawi and Giorgia Marchiori
‘Crumbs from the Table’— archaeological remains of Hellenistic Alexandria – by Grzegorz Majcherek
Believing in afterlife in Hellenistic and Roman Alexandria. A study of some funerary paintings – by Anne-Marie Guimier-Sorbets
Graeco-Egyptian elements in Alexandrian architectural mouldings – by Mona Haggag
Alexandria in the ‘Corpus of Ptolemaic inscriptions’ – by Kyriakos Savvopoulos
From Macedonia to Ptolemaic Alexandria: the cult of Dionysos Pseudanor – by Emmanuel Voutiras
Hellenistic drama and Alexandrian culture – by Georgia Xanthaki-Karamanou
The Alexandrian cradle of philological science – by Theodore D. Papanghelis
Egyptian and Egyptiote literature as a bridge between two cultures – by Shaker Moussa
From Alexandria to Venice: Remembrances of Alexandria in the cultural treasures of Venice – by Chryssa Maltezou
The destruction of libraries in the course of history and the international law on the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict – by Artemis Papathanassiou
Is the possession of the Parthenon Marbles lawful according to the contemporary English law? – by Christos Mylonopoulos
Part 2: Science, Medicine, Technology and Environment
A very brief introduction to Hellenistic Alexandrian technology – by T. P. Tassios
Royal catasterisms: Arsinoe II and Berenice II translated to the stars – by Dee Clayman
Antikythera Mechanism as evidence for Hellenistic technology excellence – by Xenophon Moussas
Gigantic and structurally sound: the lighthouse on the island of Pharos and the minarets of western Islam – by Paolo Vitti
Philon’s automatic servant. A reconstruction with a description of S. Economopoulos’ air-valve mechanism – by Manolis Korres
The Hellenistic mathematician Archimedes and his Renaissance admirer Kepler – by Eberhard Knobloch
Ancient Greek optical instruments and the Pharos of Alexandria: insights on its functions and technology – by Moussas, Vitti and Zerefos
Space – Time – Matter – Motion: John Philoponus: a prelude to Galileo, Descartes and Newton – by Emmanuel Floratos
Hellenistic medicine and the Library of Alexandria: its influence in the west and the east – by George P. Chrousos
Palaeoclimatic conditions during the Hellenistic period in the Eastern Mediterranean – by J. Luterbacher and E. Xoplaki
A tentative methodology of sea-level change based on fish tanks from Hellenistic Alexandria, vis-a-vis, the submerged el Hassan rock provide a new look for subsidence estimates – by N. Evelpidou, C. Repapis, H. Tzalas and C. Zerefos
