Archaeologist Maura Heyn discusses ancient conceptions of the “ideal” woman in a lecture held at UNC Asheville’s Ramsey Library on Thursday, April 2.
Press release from UNCA:
Archaeologist Maura Heyn will examine ancient conceptions of the “ideal” woman in her lecture, Ladies Who Lunch: Female Portraiture in Roman Palmyra, at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 2 in UNC Asheville’s Ramsey Library, Whitman Room. This event is free and open to the public.
Heyn, associate professor of classical studies at UNC Greensboro, will focus on the relief portraits that were used to seal the burial niches in Palmyrene tombs, and the way in which women were distinguished from men in these portraits. Gender-specific characteristics, such as the gestures, attributes, and dress found only in the female portraiture, indicate the features of the “ideal” woman in ancient Palmyra.
Heyn’s scholarly work on social identity and cultural change in the ancient world has appeared in A Companion to Women in the Ancient World and American Journal of Archaeology. Among her current writing projects is a book titled Provincial Life, Roman Death: The Funerary Portraiture of Palmyra. Heyn received a Ph.D. in archaeology from University of California Los Angeles in 2002, where she studied the art and archaeology of the eastern Roman provinces.
This talk is co-sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History, the Department of Classics, and the WNC Chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America. For more information, contact Laurel Taylor at ltaylor@unca.edu
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