The Trendall Lecture was made possible through a bequest made by Professor A.D. (Dale) Trendall AC CMG FAHA (1909–95), a Foundation Fellow of the Academy. He envisaged the lecture series as ‘an annual lecture or lectures by a scholar on some theme associated with classical studies’.
Distinguished scholarship in the classics
The Trendall speaker alternates between an Australian and an international scholar who is selected, where possible, on the basis of their scholarly ties to Professor Trendall or to his research interests.
Dale Trendall, of course, in a lifetime of scholarly endeavour demonstrated only too brilliantly the historical, social, and artistic significance of Greek pottery.Michael Osborne, Trendall Lecture, 1997
The first Trendall Lecture was given by Professor Michael Osborne, then Vice-Chancellor of La Trobe University, in 1997. Read the full text of Professor Osborne’s inaugural Trendall Lecture, titled The gadfly of Greek history (The infuriatingly opaque nature of inscriptions as sources for Greek history).
The 23rd A.D. Trendall Lecture, February 2021
The 23rd Australian Academy of the Humanities’ A.D. Trendall Lecture will take place on 8 February 2021 from 6.30pm to 7.30pm . The lecture, presented as an online event, will be delivered by Dr Estelle Lazer (University of Sydney) and is part of the 42nd Australasian Society for Classical Studies Conference (ASCS). If you have already registered for ASCS 42 (Online) you will automatically receive the zoom link with the rest of your conference materials.
If you are not attending the conference, but wish to attend the lecture, please register now via this link and details will be emailed to you on or before 5 February.
Dr Estelle Lazer (University of Sydney)
“In the Garden of the Fugitives”
In 2019, the Pompeii Cast Project team X-rayed and CT scanned the thirteen casts that were made by Amedeo Maiuri’s team in 1961 and are displayed near their find spot in Pompeii. This tragic group, which includes adults and very small children, has captivated generations of visitors to the site and their lives and deaths have been eloquently imagined by scholars and in popular culture. The results of our examination of the skeletal and other elements preserved in the plaster enable us to test some of these reconstructions of the unknown lives of unnamed people.
As well as providing some insights into the identity of the victims and how they met their fate, our research has revealed that the casts were not achieved by simply pouring plaster into voids and waiting for it to dry. They were heavily manipulated to increase their storytelling potential and their impact on visitors to Pompeii. There is another twist to the story.
In 2018, the presenter was herself the basis for the leading character of a novel that focused on these very casts. So in presenting the team’s most recent research for the first time to the general public, Dr Lazer will speak not only about what we now know of these victims, but also (and from a more personal point of view) the important ethical questions that arise from their treatment by professional archaeologists and popular writers alike.