Research

Research Interests: Greek and Roman Archaeology; Hellenistic, Roman, and Late Roman history; Ancient Anatolia/Asia Minor; Cultural identity and memory.

Reconstruction of the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias

Broadly speaking, I am interested in questions of cultural identity and engagement with the past (cultural memory) evident in the material remains and archaeological landscapes of the ancient Mediterranean.  My particular focus is on the communities of the Eastern Mediterranean in Hellenistic, Roman, and Late Roman periods, especially the urban centers of Asia Minor.

I recently completed my PhD in Classical Archaeology in the Department of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin.  My dissertation examines developments in elite self-fashioning and the evolution of the reciprocal relationship between a community and its benefactors in the first three centuries of Roman rule at the city of Aphrodisias.  Based on my analysis of the references to ancestry and familial connections in the honorific inscriptions, I argue that the Aphrodisian elite deployed epigraphic formulations that make mention of family background and Roman connections in order to construct composite cultural identities and to indicate their place among the city’s aristocratic factions. (Abstract)

My Master’s report at the University of Texas contextualized references in Latin literature concerning the Gallic people with the archaeological record from that province. This report detailed a literary depiction of Gaul which developed from the worthy enemies of Caesar’s conquest to people worthy of Roman citizenship and senatorial rank in Tacitus–a depiction that deviates from the traditional, barbaric representation. The increasing ‘Romanness’ of Gauls in literature coincides with the increasing appearance of Roman material culture in the archaeological record in Gaul from the time of Roman conquest to the end of the first century CE.

For more on my research, presentations, and articles, please visit my academia.edu page: https://wm.academia.edu/AnnMorgan