Disruption and Diversity: understanding the impact of Alexander the Great through the material culture of the Hellenistic World

Alexander the Great’s twelve years of conquest, which took him from Macedon to the Punjab, have long been recognised as among the most disruptive periods in human history. On the one hand, Alexander’s campaigns led to significant destruction, not least of the Achaemenid Empire. On the other they brought about a period of intense interaction between Graeco-Macedonian and local cultures, known to modern scholars as the Hellenistic period. Scholarly attention has remained focused on Alexander the ruler and his campaigns, and only fitfully on the communities he encountered. Scholars have privileged literary sources produced centuries after Alexander’s death, with little attention paid to changes in the contemporary material culture.
This project will ask how these dramatic political and cultural changes brought about by the campaigns of Alexander can be seen in the material culture of the period, using objects to study the changes felt in everyday life. The findings will contribute to an original reassessment of the period for both public and scholarly audiences, enhancing the British Museum’s collections, redisplay, and contributing to the narrative of a major exhibition on Alexander and the Hellenistic World in 2030. It will provide a unique opportunity for the student to become an expert in the material culture of this period. Because of the breadth of objects required, this project could only be undertaken at the British Museum and will be a showcase of the unique richness of the collections and the ability of material culture to tell important stories from the ancient world.