The 1st Labeca International Symposium, entitled Khoríon – Space in the Greek World, held from 25 to 28 June 2013 in the History Amphitheatre, brought together a number of leading names in Mediterranean archaeology to debate key questions on the theme.
Brazilian and foreign speakers addressed subjects considered central to the discussion of space in Greek antiquity: the urban grid, the layout of public buildings and military arsenals in the city, the importance of inscriptions and sources for understanding the organisation of urban space, and the role of necropoleis and sacred spaces in the dynamics of the poleis of Greece, Magna Graecia and Sicily.
In addition, the movement of the Greeks to the West, the foundation of cities by them, the physical and symbolic delimitation of land and the contacts with local peoples were also discussed; four very productive days in which the Laboratory for the Study of the Ancient City was also able to present the results of its research, as well as its new unified database, Nausitoo.
Nausitoo, named after Homer's Odyssey, was presented on its two platforms, internal and external – the latter accessible from the Labeca website. Besides the data themselves – images, terms, bibliography, among others – the structure and tools of the database were also highlighted at the launch of Nausitoo, on the opening day of the symposium.
During the four days of Khoríon, a poster exhibition on the projects of the laboratory's researchers, from undergraduate research to postdoctoral level, was held in front of the amphitheatre. The proceedings of the symposium, with the full texts of the lectures and the discussions, will be published by the first semester of 2014.
We thank all Labeca researchers for their collaboration, as well as the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (MAE) and the University of São Paulo (USP) for their support in organising the event.
