Archaeological Institute of America

The Shipwreck at Gnalić – Gagliana Grossa (1569-1583)
2025-11-11 18:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Math & Science Center, W201, 400 Dowman Dr NE, Atlanta, 30322, United States
The George F. Bass Lectures

Decoding the Pyramid Statues of King Menkaure
2025-11-12 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Speaker: Florence Dunn Friedman, Visiting Scholar, Department of Egyptology and Assyriology, Brown University
King Menkaure’s Fourth Dynasty pyramid temples at Giza were once filled with statues. The surviving statues represent some of the finest in ancient Egyptian sculpture. Crafted for eternity, these statues served as “bodies” through which the king could function in this life and the next. The iconography, inscriptions, figural groupings, stances, gestures, and even the damage of these statues have stories to tell. While these stories rarely involved ordinary Egyptians, certain statue details hint at far-reaching economic ties that did. This talk dives into the mysteries behind Menkaure’s sculptures—exploring their symbolism, damage, and relocation—and reveals how much they still have to say, even after thousands of years.
Advance registration recommended for online and in-person attendance.
Free admission. Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage starting at 4:00 pm. Presented by the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East and the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture.

AIA Archaeology Hour November 2025: The People's Arena
2025-11-12 20:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1117571134992/WN_obR16xWNSO6l2B2JHgfShg
Join the AIA for a fascinating evening with Alison Futrell as she gives the International Archaeology Day month AIA Archaeology Hour talk “The People’s Arena.”
This presentation will be given at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central/6pm Mountain/5pm Pacific.

Register here!

The Shipwreck at Gnalić – Gagliana Grossa (1569-1583)
2025-11-13 16:00 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Wellesley College, Founders Hall 120, 106 Central St, Wellesley, MA, 02481, United States

The Rape of the Sabines: Myth and History in the Urban Development of Republican Rome
2025-11-13 17:00 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | TBA (Hartford 1), Hartford, CT, United States
Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lectureship Time TBA

Ancient Egypt In Its African Context and at a Crossroads
2025-11-14 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Architecture School, UVA, CAM 160, 110 Bayly Dr, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, United States
Shomarka Keita, a biological anthropologist affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution and the Institute for Historical Biology, William and Mary, has written extensively on identity and biology in Egypt and Nubia. Egypt is in the northeastern corner of Africa, in essence a 930 mi linear oasis in the eastern Sahara. Due to the history of Egypt’s exploration and reception by the European gaze, it has traditionally been regarded as ‘Western’ or ‘Near Eastern’, divorced from its place of emergence and cultural connections with Africa. This lecture will address the origins of ancient Egyptian culture including aspects of its interconnections with Nubia. Evidence from linguistics, biology and archaeology will be explored.

The Second Style at Saqqara during the Late Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period: Results of an Investigation and New Observations
2025-11-15 15:30 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | PA, United States
Saturday, October 15
3:30 pm EST
Penn Museum, Anthro Classroom 345
In-person; no registration required
Speaker: Dr. Valentina Anselmi, PhD, UPenn
Title: The Second Style at Saqqara during the Late Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period: Results of an Investigation and New Observations
Abstract:
In the late Old Kingdom, an unusual corpus of artistic production, royal and non-royal, appeared on the scene. Funerary statuary and reliefs from that time display atypical proportions when depicting aspects of the human form: limbs appear longer, eyes and heads seem larger. Overall, these changes, which appear to distort traditional canons, exude pervasive dynamism and expressiveness. In the past, art historians and Egyptologists dismissed the phenomenon as “bad art” resulting from political decentralization and cultural decline. Then two scholars in particular, Edna Russmann and Edward Brovarski, reevaluated these artistic productions, assessing them as voluntary innovations. Such manner of representation has been called the “Second Style.” The research for my dissertation set out to review the phenomenon in theoretical terms and determined its existence, assessing and verifying known occurrences of the style in statuary and relief at Saqqara, as well as surveying the archaeological context for unreported occurrences. The finds revealed an early onset of the style with diffused use of its idiosyncratic elements during the Fifth Dynasty, which seemingly emerged in the royal workshops as early as the reign of Raneferef, per Prakash’s previous assessment of the phenomenon in the royal realm. During the Sixth Dynasty, the style found favor with the courtiers, with its employment in private statuary reaching its peak during the reign of Pepy II. The Second Style then continued to exert its influence on the production of statuary and relief of the Middle and Upper Egyptian sites, in particular during the First Intermediate Period and well into the early Middle Kingdom, when the artistic representations of the upcoming Theban dynasty show some of the style characteristics. This lecture will cover the finds of my research, which has further extended to investigating female representation during the same time period, as well as the appearance of nude statues that is also associated with the Late Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Valentina Anselmi is a recent PhD in the Graduate Program in Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Her dissertation, An Investigation of the So-Called Second Style at Saqqara in the Later Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period, examines shifts in artistic conventions during a critical time in ancient Egyptian history. With an M.Phil. in Egyptology from Penn and a B.A. from the American University in Cairo, she has also received the Felix J. Korsyn Prize in Egyptology. Her teaching experience includes courses on Art and Architecture in Ancient Egypt and Coptic. Her research and public engagement work include fieldwork at Abydos, a recently published article on a Ka-statue at the Glencairn Museum, and ongoing museum experience at the Penn Museum. Her work has also explored the use of 3D imagining to better understand the nature of Egyptian art.
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Lectures are FREE to ARCE Members, $7 for University of Pennsylvania Museum Members and UPenn Staff and Faculty, $5 for Students with ID, and $10 for the general public.
Light refreshments served starting at 3pm.
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The American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) is a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1948 by a consortium of educational and cultural institutions to support research on all aspects of Egyptian history and culture, foster broader knowledge among the general public, and strengthen American-Egyptian cultural ties. The ARCE Pennsylvania Chapter (ARCE-PA) is the local branch of the national institution. We host monthly events including scholarly lectures, Egyptian-themed workshops, social events, and guided tours of the Penn Museum’s Egyptian galleries. For more information or to learn about the perks of membership, please send an e-mail to info@arce-pa.org, or visit our website at www.arce-pa.org.

How the Inkas built Sacsayhuaman, Revisited
2025-11-18 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | MA
About the lecture:
This lecture will discuss new ideas about how the Inkas constructed their megalithic walls, such as those of Sacsayhuaman above Cusco in Peru. Although scholars know the technology the Inkas used to quarry, transport, and shape the stones that were used in their high-quality structures, the exact process of how they maneuvered and fit the building blocks of their megalithic walls has long been elusive. Proposed solutions have remained speculative. Fieldwork in 2024 involving excavation and observation of unfinished terrace walls at the site of Sacsayhuaman in Cusco provided direct evidence for how blocks were put into place.
About the speaker:
A member of AIA Society 333, Dennis Ogburn is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and an affiliate of the Latin American Studies Program at UNC Charlotte. His research focuses on archaeology of the Andean region of South America, where he specializes in the use of geochemical analysis, ethnohistory, and radiocarbon dating to study the expansion and maintenance of the Inka Empire. His interests include the development of political power in ancient empires, the role of monumental architecture in state societies, and Inka warfare. He is conducting a long-term investigation of sources of Inka building stones in the Cusco region of Peru and is part of a multinational team conducting excavations at Sacsayhuaman on the edge of Cusco.

What is Industrial Archeology: Its Past and Future
2025-11-19 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation, 154 Moody Street, Waltham, 02453, United States
The field of industrial archeology (IA) is now about 70 years old and has passed through stages of life, from an exuberant youth filled with discovery – the period when the Charles River Museum of Industry was founded – to its sedate present. Interest in the field seems to be waning, judging from declining membership in IA groups, and even the name of the field confuses people. Those of us who would like to see the field survive and flourish wonder how it can be re-energized, in what direction should it go?
This presentation will explain what industrial archeology is. It will trace the history of the field, from its beginnings in England in the 1950s and the founding of the U.S. Society for Industrial Archeology in 1971, to the present, and describe some of its contributions, like the early surveys of historic textile mills. It will cover its connections to allied history and practice fields, like history of technology and historic preservation. Sara Wermiel will conclude by presenting her ideas for what the field might focus on, to have a purpose that can sustain it.
Speaker Bio:
Sara E. Wermiel is an independent scholar, historic preservation consultant, and teacher. Her research focuses on nineteenth century building technology, construction history, building types, and industrialization. She currently teaches Preservation Planning in the Preservation Studies Program at Boston University.

Poggio Civitate’s Etruscan Workshop: A Cross-Craft Perspective
2025-11-20 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA, 99201, United States
Dr. Nora Donoghue, Gonzaga University visiting professor, will present her research into Etruscan workshop crafting interrelationships at Poggio Civitate.
Abstract:
Craft production in the ancient world is frequently analyzed by specialists who concentrate on a specific material or class of artifact. This approach overlooks the strong probability that ancient production processes were interrelated through shared resources, technological knowledge, or common workspaces. In this talk, Dr. Donoghue considers these cross-craft relations within a 7th-century BCE Etruscan workshop at the site of Poggio Civitate. This structure preserves a wide variety of evidence, including artifacts related to glass, ceramic, and metal production, alongside animal butchering, bone carving, and the assembly of composite objects like furniture. Focusing on production occurring within and around this structure, the talk will demonstrate that labor within this workshop was highly specialized and was ultimately carried out by craftspeople who worked in multiple media or maintained collaborative relationships with craftspeople of other related crafts.

Navajo/Dene Rock Art
2025-11-22 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Chicago) | Longview Park, 13525 Clayton Road, Town and Country, MO, 63141, United States
Powerpoint presentation by Richard Jenkison (Independent Researcher) who has spent decades studying the Navajo rock art sites in New Mexico.

Battlefield Archaeology
2025-11-23 08:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago)
Zoom lecture by Douglas D Scott (Retired Supervisory Archaeologist with the Natinal Park Service). He will discuss theoretical and practical concerns in Battlefield Archaeology and bring examples from his field work at Little Bighorn and various Civil War battlefields.

More Than a Cosmetic Fix: How Experimental Archaeology Can Address the Issue of Burial Goods in the Museum Setting. Talk and Workshop
2025-12-13 14:30 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | Penn Museum, 3260 South St, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Saturday, December 13
2:30 pm EST
Penn Museum, Classroom L2
In-person; RSVP required for workshop: https://forms.gle/FTwpThdMhwV7gPhS6
Talk and Hands-on Workshop
Holiday Party to follow!
Speakers: Isabella Pilla and Dr. Jane Hill
Title: More Than a Cosmetic Fix: How Experimental Archaeology Can Address the Issue of Burial Goods in the Museum Setting. Talk and Workshop
Abstract:
The Egyptian mummy as a cultural artifact has for more than a century been a focal point of interest within the Egyptological community and the museum-going public. In more recent years, however, the public has begun to raise concerns over the display of human bodies as museum objects. Is there another way to share with the public the richness of Egyptian funerary belief and tradition without invading the bodies of the individuals who were at the center of these practices? In this talk and workshop the authors will argue that by using the imaging, scanning, and 3-D printing technologies available to us today, it is possible to both scientifically study Egyptian mummification practices and share those findings with the public while still respecting the humans who provide us that information.
Lecture attendees will be invited to create their own Predynastic Egyptian style cosmetic palette. All the necessary tools and materials will be provided, but we ask that you RSVP (https://forms.gle/FTwpThdMhwV7gPhS6) for this event to be sure we have enough materials!
Speaker Bios:
Dr. Jane Hill
Dr. Jane Hill holds a doctorate in Egyptian Archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. She also holds masters degrees in anthropology and art history/Egyptology from the University of Memphis. She has excavated and done epigraphic work on archaeological projects at the sites of Giza, Abydos, el-Amra, Saqqara, and Karnak Temple in Luxor Egypt. At el-Amra she discovered evidence of a Predynastic Egyptian town and cult center. In the U.S., Dr. Hill has excavated Native American sites of the Mississippian Period in the southeast region. Currently Dr. Hill teaches anthropology, archaeology and Egyptian Archaeology at Rowan University where she serves as curator of the Museum of Anthropology at Rowan University (MARU). Her research interests include co-development of major elite cemeteries and urbanism in Upper Egypt’s formative period, and the development of Egyptian administrative and writing systems.
Isabella Pilla
Isabella is an emerging museum professional and recent graduate from Rowan University, where she earned a dual degree in Anthropology and Psychology. During her time as a research assistant at Rowan’s Museum of Anthropology, she curated a project to explore the ancient Egyptian material culture and public engagement through archaeology. Her research focuses on the ethical concerns of ancient mummified displays and the application of experimental archaeological to research ancient artifacts in a non-invasive manner. Isabella currently works at Edelman Fossil Park and Museum where she continues to support educational programming and visitor engagement.
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Refreshments are served beginning at 2pm. The ARCE-PA Holiday Party will follow the workshop. You do not have to attend the workshop or party to attend the lecture.
Lectures are FREE to ARCE-PA chapter members, $7 for University of Pennsylvania Museum Members and UPenn Staff and Faculty, $5 for Students with ID, and $10 for the general public.
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The American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) is a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1948 by a consortium of educational and cultural institutions to support research on all aspects of Egyptian history and culture, foster broader knowledge among the general public, and strengthen American-Egyptian cultural ties. The ARCE Pennsylvania Chapter (ARCE-PA) is the local branch of the national institution. We host monthly events including scholarly lectures, Egyptian-themed workshops, social events, and guided tours of the Penn Museum’s Egyptian galleries. For more information or to learn about the perks of membership, please send an e-mail to info@arce-pa.org, or visit our website at www.arce-pa.org.

Dreadful were the vestiges of (the Revolutionary) War.
2025-12-27 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Chicago)
ZOOM lecture by Douglas Scott (Retired Supervisory Archaeologist with the National Park Service); A study of surviving bullet struck structures and objects from the first day of the American Revolution: Employing Forensic Firearm Examination Techniques to Historic Contexts.

Zoom Lecture: Forgotten Saint-Simonian Travelers in Egypt
2026-01-11 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | https://www.archaeological.org/event/zoom-lecture-forgotten-saint-simonian-travelers-in-egypt/
The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, and the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures invite you to attend a Zoom lecture by Dr. John David Ragan, Independent Scholar (PhD, NYU):
Forgotten Saint-Simonian Travelers in Egypt
Sunday, January 11 2026, 3 PM PST
Register in advance for this lecture:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/cAzvIld9RvanelhVxNRq1A
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
There are a few things you should know before you join the lecture:
* Advance registration is required. When you click on the link to “Register in advance for this lecture” you will receive instructions by email on how and when to join, along with a link on which you will click to join the meeting. Save the email, as you will need the link it contains to join the meeting. Please register now. Please do not share the join link with anyone, it is unique to your email address. Try to join at least 10 minutes before the meeting. When you do join the meeting, be prepared to be put in the waiting room until the lecture starts at 3 pm. This is a security measure.
* If you haven’t already installed Zoom, you should download and install the Zoom program (app) well before you try to join the meeting. There IS an option to use your web browser to join the meeting instead of the Zoom program, but the browser interface is limited and depends greatly on what browser and what operating system you’re using.
* For tutorials on how to use Zoom, go to https://learn-zoom.us/show-me. In particular, “Joining a Zoom Meeting” should show you what you need to do to join our lecture.
* All meeting attendees can communicate with everyone, or with individual participants, using the chat window, which can be opened by clicking on the chat button and which you can probably find at the bottom middle of your Zoom viewing screen. Participants will be encouraged to hold their questions for the speaker until after the lecture, and will also be encouraged to address their questions for the speaker to everyone, not just to the speaker, so that all can see them. “Everyone” is the default chat option.
If you have any questions, please email glenn@glennmeyer.net or arcencZoom@gmail.com.
About the Lecture:
This lecture and a book with the same title tell the stories of two French women and a French African man, travelers connected to the Saint-Simonian utopian socialists, who came to work for the Egyptian government in the 1830s. They have been marginalized and excluded from the historical record, because they were women, not part of the colonial elite, or of mixed racial heritage. This history brings them alive through extensive archival research and vibrant storytelling.
There is Suzanne Voilquin, a practicing midwife in Cairo who was involved in left-wing popular politics in Paris and became the editor of one of the first feminist newspapers ever published (1832–34). The second traveler, Thomas Ismayl Urbain, was born in French Guyana, where his mother was born a slave and his father was a French sea captain. “Jehan d’Ivray” is the pen name of the third traveler, a teenage woman who married an Egyptian studying medicine in France, and traveled with him to Egypt in 1879. She wrote more than twenty books, including a retrospective look at Suzanne Voilquin and women in the Saint-Simonian movement, bringing the story full circle to another generation.
Their stories brilliantly illustrate the paradoxes of nineteenth century colonialism in Egypt. Suzanne Voilquin grew up in the Parisian working class and sympathized deeply with Egyptians but initially exoticized the differences between Egypt and her home country, while Urbain, a literary pioneer in black pride, nevertheless joined the French army and saw his role in the colonial occupation as a means of helping indigenous people. These characters transcend the neat binary of East and West and offer a rich, nuanced window onto the experiences of French travelers in Egypt during the nineteenth century.
About the Speaker:
Dr. John David Ragan has a PhD in history from New York University and degrees from the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne, the University of Cincinnati, and Binghamton University. He has traveled in fifty countries, across Europe, North Africa, Latin America, New Zealand, Australia, Southeast Asia and the Himalayas, studying French in Paris, Arabic in Cairo and Tunis, German in Berlin, and Spanish in Salamanca and Mexico City. He is a working member of Laborers Union Local 942, Fairbanks, Alaska, and has published two books and numerous articles.
About Northern California ARCE:
For more information, please visit https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://www.facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://arce-nc.org, https://bsky.app/profile/khentiamentiu.bsky.social, and https://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/membership/ and select “Berkeley, CA” as your chapter when you sign up.

Early Peoples in the Plateau: Nimíipuu Knowledge and Landscape Adaptation in the Bitterroot Mountains
2026-01-15 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA, 99201, United States
Join us for a lecture by WSU grad Student Jordan Thompson on early Northwest culture.
Abstract: Mountain environments and resources have played a significant role in Indigenous cultural and subsistence lifeways and knowledge systems yet remain underrepresented in landscape research. Recent archaeological evidence points to the Southern Columbia Plateau as an early entry point for the Peopling of the Americas. Understanding the landscape is essential to adaptation in new and changing environments, and archaeological methods combined with Indigenous knowledge are uniquely positioned to investigate these human-environment relationships. Indigenous oral narratives, correlated with geologic processes, reveal a deep record of landscape knowledge that may offer insight into early migration, environmental adaptation, and landscape exploration. In this talk, I will present on collaborative research which integrates geoarchaeology and ethnogeology to examine how land use, mobility, and placemaking shaped the establishment of seasonal subsistence cycle among the Nimíipuu (Nez Perce). Ethnogeology foregrounds Indigenous perspectives of place, complementing archaeological investigation by contextualizing the cultural meanings of stone artifacts. This talk will focus on Nimíipuu subsistence in an understudied portion of the western Bitterroot Mountain uplands, a segment of the Northern Rockies, in the North Fork Clearwater River watershed of Idaho by examining toolstone sources, their distribution across the landscape, and how these features acquire meaning. By combining geoarchaeological and ethnogeological frameworks, this talk explores how people come to know, understand, and connect to landscapes while developing a sense of place with reciprocal subsistence systems.

10,000 years of Oaxaca Cuisines from Mesquite Pods to Mezcal
2026-01-20 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | TBA (Santa Fe), Santa Fe, NM, United States
Doris Z. Stone New World Archaeology Lectures Time TBA

TBA (North Alabama (Huntsville))
2026-01-20 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Chicago) | TBA (North Alabama (Huntsville)), Huntsville, AL, United States
Kershaw Lectures in Near East Archaeology Time TBA

Life, Death, and Disease: Insights form Petra’s Tombs and Cemeteries 2
2026-01-21 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Chicago) | TBA (Nashville), Nasvhille, TN

Into the Mani: Death, Burial, and Legend on the Southern Greek Mainland
2026-01-22 16:30 - 17:30 (America/New_York) | Remote (Pittsburgh), Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship
Register for Zoom: https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/6xRhkuW-ScGmMN4GpWaPKA

“She is the Son of Bastet”: Gender in Papyrus Louvre 32308
2026-01-25 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | ARCE-NC Lectures, Rm 126 Social Sciences Bldg., UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, and the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures invite you to attend a lecture by Rachel Barnas, UC Berkeley:
“She is the Son of Bastet”: Gender in Papyrus Louvre 32308
Sunday, January 25, 2026, 3 PM PST
MELC Lounge, Room 254 Social Sciences Building, UC Berkeley
Because of nearby construction, please allow extra time to park your vehicle.
This is an in-person lecture and is not virtual. No registration is required.
The lecture will be recorded for later publication on the chapter’s YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE
About the Lecture:
Magic was a tool for dealing with a host of everyday problems in ancient Egypt, from headaches and snakebites to bad luck and nightmares, and employed a wide variety of strategies accordingly. Underlying many of these different strategies was a shared reliance on the power of analogy, which was used to impose a desirable mythological template on immediate, everyday reality. To accomplish this superposition, tools, problems, and even the speaker or subject of a spell could all be assigned mythic identities, ensuring that success was already predestined.
What happened, though, when there was a mismatch between the divine identity needed and some aspect of the subject’s everyday self? This situation presents itself in the case of one amuletic papyrus, Papyrus Louvre 32308, in which a female patient is cast as multiple male deities. Such casting raises a number of questions: Was this gender conflict seen as a problem? How does the text navigate this apparent conflict? Why not just pick some female deities and avoid the problem altogether? Exploring the answers to these questions through close reading of the Louvre papyrus and comparison to similar spells can help us refine our notions of when the bounds of gender could or could not be pushed in ancient Egypt and why, revealing just how much ancient magical texts can tell us about their users.
About the Speaker:
Rachel Barnas is a PhD candidate in the Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures department at UC Berkeley. She received her B.A. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from Yale University in 2013 and her M.A. in Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations from the University of Toronto in 2020, both with a focus in Egyptology. Her dissertation project examines patterns of literary and grammatical device usage in Ramesside non-funerary magical texts, as a means of analyzing the relationship between how the ancient Egyptians used language and how they experienced and understood their world. She has also worked in both curation and epigraphy, including as Terrace Research Associate at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and as a member of the IFAO team documenting the tomb of Padiamenope (TT33).
About Northern California ARCE:
For more information, please visit https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://www.facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://arce-nc.org, https://bsky.app/profile/khentiamentiu.bsky.social, and https://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/membership/ and select “Berkeley, CA” as your chapter when you sign up.

Boxes, Banks, Bags, and Bones: Carrying and Storing Money in Ancient Rome
2026-01-27 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Semans Auditorium (Room 117), Belk Visual Arts Center, 315 N. Main St., Davidson, NC, 28036, United States
About the lecture:
How did the Romans carry, store, and save their money? This talk surveys the archaeological evidence for the wallets, purses, bags, boxes, and chests in which the ancient Romans placed their coined money at home and on the go. From reused cooking pots to bronze arm purses and ceramic “piggybanks,” we will explore what the methods and means of containing coined money reveal about Roman daily life, religious practice, and the social and cultural norms around the function of physical currency in the ancient world.
About the speaker:
Dr. Robyn Le Blanc, Assistant Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Archaeology at UNC Greensboro, specializes in the archaeology and coinage of the Roman provinces. Her current research explores how Roman colonies used their coinages to negotiate a local identity. She is also developing a project on Roman money boxes. In 2021-2022 Dr. Le Blanc was the Kershaw Lecturer in Near East Archaeology for the Archaeological Institute of America, and she has recently given invited talks for the American Numismatic Society and the Oxford Numismatic Society. She has participated in excavations in Israel, England, and Montenegro, and she is co-director of WIRE: Women in the Roman East (see more at wireproject.org).

AIA Archaeology Hour January 2026: NAGPRA as a Path to Healing and Reciprocity
2026-01-28 20:00 (America/New_York) | MA
Join the AIA for the first AIA Archaeology Hour talk of the new year as new AIA President Brian I. Daniels hosts Danyelle Means for “NAGPRA as a Path to Healing and Reciprocity.”
This presentation will be given at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central/6pm Mountain/5pm Pacific.
Have you noticed empty exhibit cases at museums over the past two years as museums move to comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)?
Means’ presentation reframes NAGPRA not as a legal obligation but as a vital opportunity for healing, reciprocity, and relationship-building between archaeologists, museums, and Indigenous communities. Drawing from Indigenous perspectives, the talk explores how NAGPRA challenges institutions to move beyond compliance and toward practices rooted in respect, sovereignty, and shared stewardship. By centering Native voices and experiences, this session invites the audience to consider how honoring ancestors and returning cultural items can transform the field into one of accountability, trust, and long-term collaboration.
Register here!

Dr. Stephen Humphreys zoom lecture about the Camden Revolutionary War battlefield.
2026-01-31 14:00 - 15:30 (America/Chicago)
Dr. Stephen Humphreys is the CEO of American Veterans Archaeological Recovery program. One of his projects involves the Camden Revolutionary War battlefield.

Founding the City: Carved Orthostats and Architectural Experimentation in Anatolia
2026-02-03 18:30 - 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Reed College, Performing Arts Building (PAB) 320, 3017 SE Woodstock Blvd., Portland, OR, 97202, United States
Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship

Provenance Research in the Fight Against Looting
2026-02-07 08:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | ARCE-NC Lectures, Rm 126 Social Sciences Bldg., UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, and the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures invite you to attend a Zoom lecture by Sara Aly, Griffith Institute:
“Provenance Research in the Fight Against Looting”
Sunday, February 22 2026, 3 PM PST
Register in advance for this lecture:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/MvauTi1wT0OHniyDLJXJHw
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the lecture.
There are a few things you should know before you join the lecture:
* Advance registration is required. When you click on the link to “Register in advance for this lecture” you will receive instructions by email on how and when to join, along with a link on which you will click to join the meeting. Save the email, as you will need the link it contains to join the meeting. Please register now. Please do not share the join link with anyone, it is unique to your email address. Try to join at least 10 minutes before the meeting. When you do join the meeting, be prepared to be put in the waiting room until the lecture starts at 3 pm. This is a security measure.
* If you haven’t already installed Zoom, you should download and install the Zoom program (app) well before you try to join the meeting. There IS an option to use your web browser to join the meeting instead of the Zoom program, but the browser interface is limited and depends greatly on what browser and what operating system you’re using.
* For tutorials on how to use Zoom, go to https://learn-zoom.us/show-me. In particular, “Joining a Zoom Meeting” should show you what you need to do to join our lecture.
* All meeting attendees can communicate with everyone, or with individual participants, using the chat window, which can be opened by clicking on the chat button and which you can probably find at the bottom middle of your Zoom viewing screen. Participants will be encouraged to hold their questions for the speaker until after the lecture, and will also be encouraged to address their questions for the speaker to everyone, not just to the speaker, so that all can see them. “Everyone” is the default chat option.
If you have any questions, please email glenn@glennmeyer.net or arcencZoom@gmail.com.
About the Lecture:
Since the days when the pharaohs ruled over Egypt, funerary materials have been affected by the greed of people. An enormous amount of wealth was invested in preparations for the afterlife, but often this richness represented by gold and precious minerals in the funerary equipment became the booty of many, rather than the resting place for one. Unfortunately, the scale of destruction due to the ongoing looting is greater today than ever and several illegally sourced artefacts from Egypt constantly appear on the art market. Authorities consistently work to detect these objects by tracing the activity of dealers and galleries, but a lot still needs to be done. Source countries require tougher laws and international legislation needs to become stricter. Moreover, the knowledge of specialists must be employed in a systematic way to assist in the rescue of these objects. Museum curators should implement due diligence, learn about the art market, and understand how to conduct provenance research. This practice helps with the identification of looted artefacts by analysing an object and comparing it with published examples of the same kind, allowing its origins to be identified and some lost archaeological context to be recovered.
About the Speaker:
Sara Aly’s research focuses on the circulation of illicitly sourced Egyptian artefacts on the art market, following a collaboration that started 6 years ago with the Circulating Artefacts project at the British Museum. Her MA dissertation at the University of Manchester (2023) examined upper coffin fragments appearing on the art market. Since 2023, she has been a member of the Franco-Egyptian Archaeological Mission of Western Thebes, working at the Ramesseum, where she analyses coffin and cartonnage fragments. From 2023 to 2025 she worked as an Art Market Expert at the British Museum helping to identify and recover missing items from the museum’s collection. Now based at the Griffith Institute, Sara is studying the archival material of J.J. Clère related to his documentation of Egyptian objects in the possession of antiquities dealers and collectors between the 1930s and the 1980s.
About Northern California ARCE:
For more information, please visit https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://www.facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://arce-nc.org, https://bsky.app/profile/khentiamentiu.bsky.social, and https://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/membership/ and select “Berkeley, CA” as your chapter when you sign up.

“What Do We Owe to Already-Looted Objects?”
2026-02-09 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Jepson Hall, Room 118, Richmond Way 221, Richmond, VA, 23226, United States
Lecture by Elizabeth Marlowe, Professor of Art History and Chair of the Art department at Colgate University
(https://www.archaeological.org/lecturer/elizabeth-marlowe/)

Daniel Healey, Provenance Researcher, Worcester Art Museum: "Orphaned Antiquities & Cold Case Files: Investigating Provenance in the New Era of Museum Restitution"
2026-02-09 18:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | MA
The Clarence and Anne Dillon Dunwalke Lecture
Provenance refers to an artwork’s history of ownership, from the time of its creation or archaeological discovery to the present. Provenance researchers track down a wide range of sources—scholarship, auction catalogs, financial records, inventories, correspondence, photographs, markings on artworks themselves, and more—to reconstruct an object’s past and retrace its path to the museum. This work has been compared to that of an investigator, and provenance researchers routinely described as “art detectives.” Over the past decade, these metaphors have become increasingly relevant as law-enforcement agencies across the U.S. have arrested dealers, seized antiquities from the nation’s leading museums, and made hundreds of repatriations to countries around the world—all to great fanfare and press coverage. The collision between the worlds of law enforcement and museums has revolutionized the field of provenance research and redefined the standards of ethical and legal collecting in this country. As a former Antiquities Trafficking Analyst for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and now the Provenance Research Specialist at the Worcester Art Museum, I will share stories from the frontlines of provenance research—stories of looting, forgery, and repatriation—that explain why museums need “art detectives” now more than ever.

COZA/COSANO/COZANO: Socio-Economuc Interactions among Middle Republican Cities in Central Italy
2026-02-12 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Kirkhof Center, room 2270, Grand Valley State University, Allendale campus, Allendale, MI, 49401, United States
Join us for discussion of innovative new approaches to the study of ancient coins! Dr. Melissa Ludke will discuss her numismatic work at early Roman Cosa and beyond. Dr. Ludke serves as Numismatic Specialist at the the Cosa (Terme) Excavations. She has published several papers on numismatics and is working on a book about Cosa during the Middle Republic.
The Latin colony of Cosa has long experienced archaeological investigation and, more recently, re-analysis, but Cosa’s earliest history remains elusive. However, new numismatic evidence from Cosa is raising interesting questions. Who was minting these coins, why do they appear at certain regional centers and nowhere else, and do these small objects represent larger processes of network connectivity? Dr. Ludke addresses these questions and more, using a geospatial network-based approach through QGIS, and a Least-Cost Path analysis to track potential socio-economic interactions between Cosa and contemporaneous regional centers.

Linda Cordell and Her Many Contributions to Southwest Archaeology
2026-02-17 18:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Pecos Trail Café, 2239 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, NM, 87505, United States
(Lecturers: Dr. Maxine McBrinn and Dr. Judith Habicht Mauche) Linda Cordell was extraordinarily active in southwestern archaeology during her resources in the work of others. Because of this, her influence extended well beyond her own students to those of many of her colleagues. One of her last personal endeavors was working with the Tijeras Pueblo Ceramics Project. Examples of her prodigious influence on archaeological research will be presented.
