From Artifact to History - An Afternoon Honoring Prof. Andrea Berlin

This half-day informal gathering is both tribute and think tank. It brings together Andrea’s students, colleagues, and friends to follow the arc that defines her scholarship: we open with an empire-wide lens, tighten the focus to regions and communities, and finish inside the household. Along that trajectory we ask—just as Andrea has throughout her career—how humble sherds reveal systems of power and local negotiation, how domestic ritual refracts social change, and how the study of ceramic fabrics redraws the routes of ancient trade. The program’s two sessions mirror this movement. Session I moves from broad theoretical and imperial questions to regional politics and, finally, household responses. Session II traces the life cycle of objects: local workshop craftsmanship, industrial-scale production, contextual adaptation, wartime disruption, ritual afterlives, and long-distance exchange. The gathering also serves as a living preface to the Festschrift From Artifact to History: authors preview their chapters, listeners probe the arguments, and the closing round-table reflects on the day’s themes and points toward future directions. This collaborative format embodies Andrea’s conviction that archaeological knowledge flourishes through open exchange. Taken together, the concise papers and generous discussion highlight her enduring insight that meticulous attention to ceramics can restore human stories—even the most intimate—to the grand narratives of antiquity.