Wine culture in Parthia and Gandhara: Rewriting the Classical Narrative on Dionysus in the East

My project aims primarily to understand cross-cultural interactions by investigating the visual and material culture pertaining to wine in Ancient Parthia (Iran/Syria) and Gandhara (Pakistan/Afghanistan) from the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE. Art historical and archaeological scholarship on the topic has tended to focus on substantiating Classical influence on Eastern art in the aftermath of Alexander’s conquest of Persia and the resultant accelerated contact between west and east. Consequently, wine production and consumption scenes have accounted for one of the larger portions of “proof” used by scholars to assert the dominance of Classical art and culture in the areas of Parthia and Gandhara and to lend support to the theory that there was a rise in popularity of the Greek god of wine, Dionysus, in these regions. As such, my project’s objective is to use the wine-related scenes to critically evaluate Classics-oriented art history and archaeology (initiated in the 19th and 20th centuries) through a post-colonial framework. I propose instead that it is the local wine cultures that fostered cross-cultural interactions between various sites in Parthia and Gandhara, providing another thread connecting these localities independent of the Greek conquest.

Faculty Supervisor:

SeungJung Kim

Student:

Partner:

School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Other

University:

University of Toronto

Program: