Archaeological Institute of America

New Light on King Herod's Harbor
2025-04-02 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Nashville Parthenon, 2500 West End Ave, Nashville, TN, 37203, United States
Anna Marguerite McCann and Robert D. Taggart Lectureship in Underwater Archaeology

The Past in the Past: Traditionalism in Archaic Crete
2025-04-06 08:00 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Santa Rosa Junior College Campus, Petaluma, CA
The Barbara Tsakirgis Memorial Lecture
Time and venue TBA

Archive Archaeology: The Invisible Hands of Colonial-Era Excavations in the Middle East
2025-04-07 16:30 - 17:30 (America/New_York) | Princeton University, East Pyne Building 010, East Pyne Hall, Princeton, NJ, 08544
The Elizabeth S. Ettinghausen Lecture

Augustus’ war against Antony and Cleopatra as Seen through the Coins
2025-04-08 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | University of Akron, Folk Hall 165, 150 E. Exchange St, Akron, OH, 44304
William E. Metcalf Lectures in Numismatics

Kush and the Roman World: Warrior Queens along the Nile
2025-04-08 18:30 - 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Reed College, Performing Arts Building 320, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd, Portland, OR, 97202
Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lectureships

The Past in the Past: The Power of Monuments in Ruin presented by Dr. Art Joyce
2025-04-09 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Denver) | Eaton Humanities Room 250, Pleasant Street 1610, Boulder, CO, 80302, United States
This presentation examines two ruined monumental architectural complexes in prehispanic Oaxaca, Mexico: The Main Plaza of the mountaintop city of Monte Albán in the Valley of Oaxaca and the acropolis of Río Viejo on the coastal floodplain of the Lower Río Verde. Both complexes were built during the Formative period and became the ceremonial centers of important cities and foci of politico-religious life for larger regions. The two complexes, however, had vastly different histories from their initial construction through their time as ceremonial centers and their afterlives as decaying ruins. Although both fell to ruin during the prehispanic era, they continued to be places of intensive affect that were central to the constitution and transformation of broader communities in their respective regions. Drawing on new materialist approaches as well as on Native American ontological perspectives in Oaxaca and elsewhere in Mesoamerica, I argue that even as ruins, both complexes were powerful animate beings linked to agricultural fertility, sacrifice, ancestors, and cycles of creation. The presentation considers how the material vibrancy of these ruins differed in ways that both brought together and destabilized community and hierarchy. After the abandonment of Monte Albán, its Main Plaza, viewed from afar by the people in the valley below, continued to assemble substances important to human well-being including rain, earth, mountain, sky, ancestors, and divinities. People from communities in the valley periodically journeyed to the plaza to make sacrificial offerings thereby constituting a broader identity and community, although one that was much changed relative to the time when Monte Albán was a city. In contrast, the earthen architecture of the acropolis, located in the center of Río Viejo, rapidly eroded and decayed in the tropical lowland climate. The Late Classic period reemergence of hierarchy in the lower Río Verde Valley activated material memories of rupture held in the ruins that threatened and resisted new forms of community and political authority. As a result, nobles were drawn back to the architectural complex to appropriate that power though the emplacement of a complex offering that may have healed and reanimated the building. The processes of ruination at the two monumental complexes discussed here therefore actualized different capacities contributing to the gathering of a new kind of community in one case, and its resistance and eventual dissolution in the other. This presentation makes the broader point that even ruined buildings can be powerful in ways that threaten, resist, empower, or transform human projects.

Augustus’ war against Antony and Cleopatra as Seen through the Coins
2025-04-09 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Augustana College, Hanson Hall of Science, Room 102, 738 35th St, Rock Island, IL, 61201

Archaeology of the Ọyọ Empire: Domesticity of Governance & Politics of Dependency, 1600-1836
2025-04-10 17:30 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | UMass Amherst, Integrated Learning Center S211, 650 N Pleasant St, Amherst, 01003, United States
Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lectureships
Dr. Akin Ogundiran, “Archaeology of the Ọyọ Empire: Domesticity of Governance and Politics of Dependency, 1600-1836”
Thursday, April 10 at 5:30pm EST
UMass Amherst, Integrated Learning Center S211
For Zoom attendance, register here: https://umass-amherst.zoom.us/meeting/register/UU0SqUeGS8mVuL6k98vAnA
Between ca. 1650 and 1800, the Ọyọ Empire was the largest political formation in West Africa, south of the River Niger. Over the past twenty years, Akin Ogundiran has conducted archaeological research in the capital, colonies, and provinces of the empire to understand the strategies of Ọyọ expansion and the everyday lives of different segments of its population. In this talk, Ogundiran juxtaposes the materialities of military conquest, colonization strategies, and household politics to tell an intimate story of one of the most important imperial formations in Africa during the Early Modern Period. Here, the regional and multi-sited scope and the residential contexts of the archaeological research allow for a fine-scale understanding of how domesticity, gender, class, labor, technology, mobility, and the landscape were manipulated to fashion the Ọyọ Empire. In the process, ideas about personhood, family, and sexuality were also transformed. The archaeology of the Ọyọ Empire contributes to a truly global understanding of the Early Modern Period.
About the Speaker
Akin Ogundiran is the Cardiss Collins Professor of Arts and Sciences, Professor of History, and Courtesy Professor of Anthropology and of Black Studies at Northwestern University. He is the current President of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists. His research interests include the topics of empire and community formation in West Africa and the African Diaspora over the past 2,500 years, with emphasis on the archaeology and cultural history of the Yoruba World. Professor Ogundiran’s publications include The Yoruba: A New History (Indiana University Press, 2020), recipient of the 2022 Vinson Sutlive Book Prize and the 2022 Isaac Oluwole Delano Prize for Yoruba Studies. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and a Member of the Nigerian Academy of Letters.
This year’s AIA National Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lecture is co-sponsored by the AIA–Western Massachusetts Society, UMass Amherst Department of Classics, UMass Amherst Department of Anthropology, and W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies

Kush and the Roman World: Warrior Queens along the Nile
2025-04-10 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Eugene Public Library, 100 W 10th Avenue, Eugene, OR, 97401, United States

Africans, Europeans, and Finding Castle Cormantine: Archaeology and Cultural Entanglement on the 17th Century Gold Coast
2025-04-10 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Valparaiso University, Room TBA, 1700 Chapel Drive, Valparaiso, IN, 46383, United States

Augustus’ war against Antony and Cleopatra as Seen through the Coins
2025-04-11 16:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago) | University of Oklahoma, Room TBA, Norman, OK, 73019

The world in between: Egypt and Nubia in Africa ∙Telling the story through museum artifacts
2025-04-14 16:30 - 17:30 (America/New_York) | Princeton University, East Pyne Building 010, East Pyne Hall, Princeton, NJ, 08544
Homer A. and Dorothy B. Thompson Lectureship

What Do We Owe To Already-Looted Objects?
2025-04-14 17:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | Cornell University, G22 Goldwin Smith Hall, Ithaca, NY, United States

The Past in the Past: Traditionalism in Archaic Crete
2025-04-14 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York)
The Barbara Tsakirgis Memorial Lecture
Co-sponsored by the Department of Classics, Yale University

Archive Archaeology: The Invisible Hands of Colonial-Era Excavations in the Middle East
2025-04-15 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)

The Hidden Dead: Bioarchaeology of Ancient Maya Cave Ritual
2025-04-16 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Rhode Island Hall, Brown University, 60 George Street, Providence, RI, 02912, United States
Doris Z. Stone New World Archaeology Lectures

Funerary Dining or Offerings for the Dead? Archaeobotanical Evidence from the Shaft Tombs at Petra, Jordan
2025-04-16 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Blvd, Cleveland, 44106, United States
The Frederick R. and Margaret B. Matson Lectureship for Near Eastern Archaeology and Archaeological Technology

Bound in Stone: the Captive Body in Ancient Maya Art
2025-04-17 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Jepson Hall, Room 118, Richmond Way 221, Richmond, VA, 23226, United States
Lecture by Dr. Caitlin Early, Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Washington and Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks (AIA’s Nadzia Borowski Lecture)

Uncovering the Lake George Battlefield
2025-04-17 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York)
Uncovering the Lake George Battlefield
Speaker: Siobhan M. Hart, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Chair Anthropology Department, Skidmore College
Location: Rye Free Reading Room, Rye, NY (Virtual)
Date: April 17, 2025
Time: 6:00 pm to 7:15 pm
The Lake George Battlefield State Park (Warren County, New York) contains the remains of twenty-five years of military action and encampment spanning the French and Indian War through the American Revolution. Within the park are the intact remains of notable battles and evidence of the daily life of soldiering in the 18th century. In 1776, the area became home to the largest smallpox hospitals in the American colonies, with several thousand smallpox patients brought and cared for here. This presentation will discuss past and current archaeological research at the Lake George Battlefield State Park and a shift towards the use of non-invasive geophysical techniques, limited excavation, and existing collections research.
Siobhan Hart (she/her) is an anthropologist and professor at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. Her work is concerned with using material culture, place, and community collaboration to address inequities in the world today. As an anthropological archaeologist, she is interested in what we know about the past, how we know it, and how it matters to people today. She is curator of the Skidmore Archaeological Collection and author of the book Colonialism, Community, and Heritage in Native New England (2019, University Press Florida).

Monumental Queens in the Hellenistic World
2025-04-23 17:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | University of Buffalo, Goetz Library, Academic Center 320, 155 Lee Rd, Amherst, NY, 14228, United States

Kush and the Roman World: Warrior Queens along the Nile
2025-04-26 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | University of North Florida, Building 51 (Social Sciences), 1 UNF Drive, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, United States

Cleopatra and the Queens of Meroë
2025-05-08 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Whitman College Maxey Hall 207, 173 Stanton St., Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
This lecture will focus on the many sole-ruling kandakas (‘queens’) of the ancient kingdom of Meroë (Kush/Nubia), including those who ruled contemporaneously with Cleopatra and with Roman aggressions and occupation along the Nile valley. We will learn about the Nubian warrior queens who led troops in battle (and to victory) against Rome, and deconstruct the reductive stereotypes often peddled about the powerful female rulers of the Nile. We will contrast the queens’ self-presentation with the ways in which Roman-imperial authors attempted to re-inscribe them. Please join us for this in-person lecture given by a leading scholar of ancient Nubia and Egypt.

Environmental Histories Of The Ancient Mediterranean In Ten Objects
2025-05-17 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Chicago) | Auditorium at the St. Louis Public Library, 1301 Olive Street, St. Louis, 63103, United States

Dr. Zoë Kontes (Kenyon College), Looting Antiquity: Greece’s Lost Marbles
2025-09-06 10:30 - 12:00 (America/New_York)
The Parthenon Marbles may be the most famous sculptures removed from an ancient Greek building, but they are far from the only ones. Marble sculptures from the Temple of Aphaia on the island of Aegina and the mountaintop Temple of Apollo at Bassae were spirited away and sold at auction in the 19th century; they have remained abroad ever since. This talk will discuss the adventures the sculptures have had in their modern history, consider the important question of where they belong, and review the current state of looting in Greece.
Please note: this is an in-person event only and it will not be streamed or recorded.

AIA Archaeology Hour September 2025: Beer in Mesopotamia
2025-09-17 20:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | https://www.archaeological.org/event/aia-archaeology-hour-2025-26-beer-in-mesopotamia/
Join the AIA for a fascinating evening with Tate Paulette as he kicks off this season of AIA Archaeology Hour with “Beer in Ancient Mesopotamia.”
This presentation will be given at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central/6pm Mountain/5pm Pacific.

Register here!

New Approaches to Roman Urbanism: The Excavations of the Falerii Novi Project (Lazio, Italy)
2025-09-25 17:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | University at Buffalo, Academic Center 320 (Goetz Library), 155 Lee Rd, Buffalo, NY, 14228, United States
Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lecture

Kentucky Society Lecture with Anne Duray
2025-09-25 17:00 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Transylvania University., Lexington, KY, 40508
Time TBD

Play Again: Combining Archaeological and AI Methods to Study Ancient Games
2025-09-25 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Phoenix) | https://www.archaeological.org/event/play-again-combining-archaeological-and-ai-methods-to-study-ancient-games/
Play Again: Combining Archaeological and AI Methods to Study Ancient Games
with
Walter Crist, PhD
Lecturer
Faculty of Humanities
Centre for the Arts in Society
New Media & Digital Culture
Leiden University
The archaeology of ancient play has recently undergone a renaissance, as researchers have couched previous culture-historical research on ancient games in anthropological and archaeological theory, demonstrating the importance of play in ancient life. Further advances in AI technology allow for new applications of this technology in the study of ancient games, and the possibilities of such methods are only beginning to be explored. This research explores two case studies where AI-simulated play, when combined with traditional archaeological methods, provide new insights about ancient games.
Biography
Walter Crist is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities at Leiden University. His PhD dissertation (Arizona State University, 2016) examined the archaeological context of Bronze Age game boards in Cyprus to explore the intersection between gaming activity and social complexity. He is the lead author on the book Ancient Egyptians at Play, and has researched ancient games in Cyprus, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Greece, Turkey, and the Netherlands. As a postdoctoral researcher on the ERC Digital Ludeme Project, he constructed the Ludii Games Database, which documents the knowledge of the rules for traditional board games globally over the past 5000 years. Recent explorations on the ways that AI can inform archaeological research on games continue through his position as Vice Chair of the COST Action GameTable: Computational Techniques for Tabletop Games Heritage.
Registration is required. Follow this link to register: https://asu.zoom.us/meeting/register/KMQBlfk-TYCqAMr0j6l21w#/registration

Replacing Empires. The Archaeology of Political Transformation and Spatial Dynamics in 1st Millennium BCE Mesopotamia
2025-10-02 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library, the Pennsylvania State University, 201 Old Main, University Park, PA, 16802, United States
Kershaw Lectures in Near East Archaeology

Archaeology and the Art Museum: How To Be an Archaeologically Informed Curator
2025-10-05 15:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
