A half-day programme of discussions on material culture and the study of religion in the ancient and late antique worlds run by TORCH, the British Museum and Oxford University based Empires of Faith project, and the student-run Talking Religion group, also based at Oxford University.

TORCH Book at Lunchtime
Seminar Room, Radcliffe Humanities Building, Woodstock Road, OX2 6GG

12.30-1: Lunch
1-2: Discussion of Images of Mithra
Chair. Dr Jo Quinn
Panellists: Prof Richard Gordon, Dr Peter Stewart
2-2.30: Coffee
For further details and to confirm attendance visit: torch.ox.ac.uk/images-mithra

Talking Religion: discussing religious materiality
loannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies 66, St. Giles, OX1 3LU

2.45-3: Introduction
3-4: Panel: Man-made artefacts: from silverware to stucco
Chair. Prof Richard Gordon, University of Erfurt
3-3.20: Dr Richard Hobbs, British Museum
`Silver for Senuna and other deities in Roman Britain’
3.20-3.40: Agnieszka Lic, University of Oxford
`Religious views of Zoroastrians, Christians and Muslims materialized in stuccoes of late antique Mesopotamia’
3.40-4: Discussion
4-4.30: Coffee
4.30-5.30: Panel: Harnessing nature: water in religion and ritual
Chair. Prof Jas Elsner, University of Oxford
4.30-4.50: Dr Eleanor Ghey, British Museum
`Fluid bodies: the role of water in Roman provincial religion’
4.50-5.10: Eris Williams-Reed, University of Durham
`Ecological approaches to religious life: some cases from the Roman Near East’
5.10-5.30: Discussion
5.30-6: Concluding remarks and general discussion
Chair: Prof Nicholas Purcell, University of Oxford
6:00 Drinks reception