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The Impact of the Ancient City

Objective

The aim of the project is to re-examine the impact of urbanism in the Greco-Roman Mediterranean on subsequent urban history, both locally, in the impact of individual cities that survive into modern times on their development, and globally in the impact of ideas of ancient urbanism derived both from writings and the visible remains of ancient cities on urban formation and development, both within and beyond the Mediterranean area. What leaves this field wide open for investigation is the collapse of an older thesis that saw orthogonal planning as the most distinctive and significant contribution of antiquity to subsequent urban development. The explicitly colonialist underpinnings of that thesis, which saw the Roman empire as a model for modern imperialism, and which rejected the urbanism of the Islamic world as the antithesis to its form of 'civilization', have rendered it unsustainable. This project aims to rethink the issue fundamentally. There is evident discontinuity between the cities of antiquity and their medieval and modern successors, variously represented as a catastrophic collapse or a creative transformation: resilience theory provides a framework within which to see both catastrophe and continuity as parts of a cycle of adaptive response to ecological change. The project aims to investigate patterns of response and adaption across time in areas of the Mediterranean with contrasting subsequent histories, most obviously across the divide between Christian Europe and the Islamic world, by taking a series of detailed case histories in Italy, the western and eastern Mediterranean, and asking a set of questions about how changing urban form responds to changing social needs. It will also re-examine the role of Greek and Roman writing in the history of thought about and representation of urbanism in the European and Islamic traditions. Finally it will use Rome and Constantinople/Istanbul as major case studies of the role of social memory in urban continuity.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-ADG - Advanced Grant

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2015-AdG

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Host institution

THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 2 483 075,00
Address
TRINITY LANE THE OLD SCHOOLS
CB2 1TN Cambridge
United Kingdom

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Region
East of England East Anglia Cambridgeshire CC
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 2 483 075,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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