Archaeological Institute of America

Dressing for Death: How to make and wear ancient Egyptian flint bangles
2023-11-11 15:30 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Penn Museum, 3260 South St, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
In-Person Lecture
Saturday, November 11 at 3:30pm
Penn Museum, Classroom L2
Speaker: Dr. Elizabeth Hart, Lithic Specialist, University of Vienna Middle Egypt Project; Kom el-Hisn Provincialism Project
Lecture Topic: Dressing for Death: How to make and wear ancient Egyptian flint bangles
Abstract:
Ancient Egyptian flint bangles are practically unique in the world, and they are significant for being an undeniable example of flaked-stone items made for symbolic uses. This paper explores how these bangles were made, and their use as jewelry. Drawing on observations of ten examples from the Metropolitan Museum, new data from the flint-mining site of Wadi el-Sheikh, and an inventory of published examples, this talk will consider their chronology, how they were made, and possible meanings of the bangles. Outlining the steps of bangle production highlights the skill of ancient Egyptian craftsmen. Furthermore, an analysis of the find contexts and properties of the bangles forms the basis on an argument that the bangles were made specifically for the afterlife. Context data also provides insight into how they were worn, and who wore them in terms of sex, age, and status. Finally, this study suggests possible meanings of these delicate items that are a testament to the creativity and skill of Early Dynastic flaked-stone craftsmen.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Elizabeth Hart’s research focuses on understanding ancient economies. Looking beyond the grand temples and tombs of Ancient Egypt, she became especially interested in settlement sites, and what they can tell us about how ordinary ancient Egyptians lived their lives. She studies stone tools because they are particularly good at answering these questions about daily life along with broad questions about ancient economic change. Dr. Hart earned her PhD in Anthropological archaeology from the University of Virginia in 2017. She is the lithic specialist for a number of ongoing field projects in Egypt and has worked as an archaeologist in Egypt yearly since 2004, at sites including Giza, Abydos, and the Valley of the Kings. Her research has been supported by grants from the University of Virginia, the American Research Center in Egypt, and the National Science Foundation. She has shared Egypt’s cultural heritage by teaching courses on Ancient Egypt at the University of Virginia and University of Michigan, as a research fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as a Research Affiliate at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, by working for the non-profit organization the American Research Center in Egypt, and through talks and publications for both academic and general audiences.
Lectures are FREE for ARCE members. For non-ARCE members admission is as follows: $10 general admissions; $7 for Penn Museum members, Faculty & Staff; $5 for Students with ID (12 and under FREE).

The Bioarchaeology of the Distinctive Burials of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece
2023-11-14 19:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Davidson College, 315 North Main Street, Semans Auditorium, Belk Visual Arts Center, Davidson, NC, 28036, United States
Aviva Cormier, “The Bioarchaeology of the Distinctive Burials of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece”
THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. If you’re interested in archaeology, please join us!
About the lecture:
The world’s attention has been captured by the 7th century BCE finds that emerged from the coastal sands of Faliro, the ancient Port of Athens. Most often discussed are the seventy-nine young men who had been violently executed and interred in three trenches. They lived and died during the political upheavals that culminated in the foundational democracy of Classical Athens. These, however, are but a fraction (<10%) of those excavated between 2012 and 2017 at the site of Phaleron. Most of the 1000+ individuals buried nearby fall within an expected range of burial forms, including pits, cists, and jars. In this talk, I focus on those that fall outside of that range, individuals with mortuary contexts that suggest distinctive experiences in life and death. These distinctive burials include those who were interred collectively in mass graves or buried prone or tightly flexed in single graves, with some bound at the wrists and/or ankles. I present osteobiographies of these individuals- contextualized life histories from their skeletal remains- and emphasize how their potentially violent life and death experiences may have impacted their identity construction, physical wellbeing, and resulting mortuary treatment.
About the speaker:
Dr. Aviva Cormier, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department at Davidson College, is a bioarchaeologist who studies human culture, behavior, and society through human skeletal remains and their archaeological or historical contexts. She focuses on potentially marginalized individuals, those whose bodies or mortuary contexts fall outside of what is expected. She studies individuals with physical differences—those whose bodies do not conform to notions of a normal body or to the normal of the society being studied. She pays particular attention to the lived experiences of these individuals, how they might have navigated their physical and social environments, and how they might have self-identified or been identified by their community. Currently, she is a bioarchaeologist with the Phaleron Bioarchaeology Project.
Our lectures are sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America, with funding from the Davidson College Public Lectures Committee, the Dean Rusk Program, and the departments of Africana Studies, Anthropology, Art, Classics, Educational Studies, History, and Latin American Studies.
Please support us by joining the Archaeological Institute of America for $50 (students $25), which includes a subscription to Archaeology magazine. Be sure to join Society 333, Central Carolinas!
Join – Become a Society Member

Caring for Navajo Culture: In Museums and Beyond
2023-11-15 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Stephanie Mach (Diné), Curator of North American Collections, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University
Cynthia Wilson (Diné), Native and Indigenous Rights Fellow, Religion and Public Life Program, Harvard Divinity School
Wade Campbell (Diné), Assistant Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology, Boston University
Join Stephanie Mach (Diné), Peabody Museum Curator of North American Collections and Diné (Navajo) guests for a panel conversation about the ways they each care for Navajo cultural heritage within their various areas of work and interest. This event provides an opportunity to hear from Navajo scholars who will share their experiences protecting and stewarding cultural heritage in museums and in community.
Following the panel conversation, attendees are encouraged to visit the Hall of the North American Indian at the Peabody Museum—from 7:15 to 8:00 pm—where Harvard students will be available to share information about key cultural items on display.
Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.
Presented by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture in collaboration with the Center for the Study of World Religions and the Religion and Public Life Program, Harvard Divinity School; the Harvard University Native American Program; and The Constellation Project of the Planetary Health Alliance.
Image: Wedding basket. Gift of Mrs. William Whitman, 1930. Courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University, 30-9-10/98459

AIA Archaeology Hour with Katherine L. Chiou
2023-11-15 20:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | WI
Join the AIA for a fascinating evening as Katherine L. Chiou (University of Alabama) presents Cuisine and Crisis: An Edible History of the Moche of Ancient Peru.
This presentation will be given at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central/6pm Mountain/5pm Pacific.
Imagine stepping into the shoes of an ancient Peruvian, tasting the flavors and savoring the meals of a time long past. In this talk, we’ll journey into the rich culinary history of the Moche people, who thrived along the desertic northern Peruvian coast from AD 100-800.
But it’s not just about what was on the plate; it’s about what those meals can tell us about the lives, struggles, and joys of two very different parts of Moche society. By exploring both a grand feast preparation area and a humble commoner’s home, we’ll dig into what food reveals about wealth, status, and daily life during a turbulent time marked by drought and political tension.
How did food contribute to social unrest? Were the rich and poor eating the same meals or were there stark differences? What does a simple dish tell us about a person’s identity? These questions and more will be served up in this delicious journey into the past, blending archaeology, technology, and a good pinch of culinary intrigue. Whether you’re a foodie, history buff, or simply curious about how meals connect us to our ancestors, this talk is a feast for the mind you won’t want to miss.

“Discoveries at Cooper’s Ferry Increase our Knowledge of Early PNW Peoples” by Loren G. Davis PhD, Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University
2023-11-16 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Vancouver) | Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (MAC), 2316 West 1st Avenue, Spokane, Washington, 99201, United States
Archaeological excavations at the Cooper’s Ferry site reveal a long record of repeated human occupation beginning sometime before 15,785 cal BP and extending to ~2,000 years ago. This site, which is the location of an ancient village known to the Nez Perce Indian Tribe as Nipéhe, bears the earliest well-dated evidence of people in the Pacific Northwest and is one of the best lines of proof about early peoples in the Americas. In this presentation, we will review the basis for how the age of the site has been established and how the archaeological record there informs our understanding of what the early period of human presence looks like and where else such evidence might be found in the Pacific Northwest.
The lecture will broadcast in realtime via Zoom.
Join Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84120684037?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 841 2068 4037
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Archaeology and Conservation: The Tombs at Rio Azul, a Treasure in Guatemala
2023-11-17 15:00 (America/New_York) | WEBINAR (Albany), Albany, NY
Joukowsky lecture

Ancient Roman Concrete: Let's build an Empire!
2023-11-17 19:30 (America/Halifax) | Provincial Archives Building, UNB Campus, 23 Dineen Drive, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 5H1, Canada
Norton lecture

The Ever Changing Face of Indigenous People
2023-11-18 10:30 - 12:00 (America/New_York) | Science Center Auditorium (SC 114) at The University of Dayton., 450 East Stewart St, Dayton, OH, 45409, United States
The second presentation in the Archaeological Institute of America’s Dayton Society 2023-2024 Lecture Series presented by Guy Jones, President of the Miami Valley Council for Native Americans..
The Ever Changing Face of Indigenous People
The identity of Indigenous people has and will probably change again and again as new discoveries come to light. As the relationship of Native and Non-Native develops various perceptions become a part of the cultural, historic and spiritual identity. The advancement of science has also impacted the narrative and validated traditional stories. As time moves on the various perceptions influence the narrative especially the experience of academics, traditional values, stories and the experience of all Natives.
This lecture is currently scheduled to take place in person in the Science Center Auditorium (SC 114) at The University of Dayton.
For those planning to attend in person please see UD’s COVID-19 Protocols page: https://udayton.edu/studev/ud-families/covid-19_protocols.php?fbclid=IwAR3v0CWid_X_ht37mjKItwIviUdVEL48hIeF_9cEfrb1BeS2uP9I7cjLiRY
For a campus map with building and parking information visit https://udayton.edu/map/
Thanks to the Archaeological Institute of America’s Lecture Program and its Dayton Society members this lecture is free and open to the public.

Art expressions of the intimate life in Pompeii, the Lupanare Grande" by Cyril Dumas (Curator at the Musee Yves Brayer Baux de Provence)
2023-11-18 14:00 (America/Chicago) | WEBINAR (St. Louis), St. Louis, MO
18 November 2023, Saturday at 2 PM (Central Standard Time Zone). ZOOM lecture: “Art expressions of the intimate life in Pompeii, the Lupanare Grande” by Cyril Dumas (Curator at the Musee Yves Brayer Baux de Provence). Zoom room opens at 1:45 and lecture promptly starts at 2 PM. Sign in at 1:45, please…

Rome "Urbs Pensilis": A Hanging City and its Hanging Gardens
2023-11-19 14:00 (America/New_York) | Carleton University 303 Paterson, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5B6, Canada

Bones, Stones & Genes – Seven Million Years of Human Evolution with Geoffrey Clark, PhD
2023-11-30 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Phoenix) | Arizona State University Tempe, Design North Buidling, Room CDN 60, 810 NS Forest Mall, Tempe, AZ, 85281, United States
Bones, Stones, & Genes: Seven Million Years of Human Evolution
Geoffrey A. Clark, Ph.D.
Regents’ Emeritus Professor
Arizona State University School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Institute of Human Origins
Perhaps the greatest story ever told is how we became the last and sole surviving member of our lineage, the hominins – modern humans, extinct human species, and all our immediate ancestors. The human career is a long one, extending back at least 6 million years and marked by a number of major transitions, including the shift to life on the ground, habitual bipedality, increases in brain size and social complexity, the first technologies, and the emergence of language. Untangling the complicated relationships amongst these transitions is the principal task of paleoanthropology, and over the past 25 years, there have been many new and exciting discoveries, and the picture changes – is changing now – with every one of them. Prof. Clark will discuss the human paleontology and archaeology of our lineage in ‘deep time’ – the past 4 million years. He will present the broad outlines of these transitions, but it should be kept in mind that full consensus is – so far – beyond our reach. How we became the highly intelligent, technologically sophisticated, socially complex animals we are today will probably never be known with certainty, but with every new discovery, the picture changes a little, or a lot, and hopefully becomes a little clearer.

Henry T. Rowell Lecture
2023-12-01 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | The Johns Hopkins University (Homewood campus), Gilman Hall 50, Baltimore, MD, 21210, United States
Please join the AIA Baltimore Society for the Henry T. Rowell Lecture. Dr. Marie-Lys Annette (The Johns Hopkins University) will be speaking on “Tattooed Mummies and Female Figurines from Ancient Egypt: New Results from Deir el-Medina.”
To attend virtually, please use the following link: https://towson-edu.zoom.us/j/98825554469?pwd=[REDACTED]

Landscapes of Predation: Exploring Hostile Social Environments in Small-Scale Societies presented by Dr. Catherine Cameron (CU Boulder, Anthropology)
2023-12-06 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Denver) | WI
Ancient social environments are difficult to reconstruct, and archaeologists have a much poorer grasp of how the social environment affects where and how people live. One sort of social behavior that is often visible archaeologically is violence: raiding and warfare. Using ethnohistoric cases, I identify “landscapes of predation” created by intense social violence. I will describe the archaeological signatures that violence produces and illustrate the utility of this concept with examples from the American Southwest and Southeast.

Contexts and Circumstances in Designing the Divine in Ancient Egypt
2023-12-10 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | ARCE Egyptology Lectures Room 20 Social Sciences Building, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California Chapter, and the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California, Berkeley, invite you to attend a lecture by Dr. Jennifer Miyuki Babcock, Pratt Institute:
“Contexts and Circumstances in Designing the Divine in Ancient Egypt”
Sunday, December 10, 2023, 3 PM Pacific Standard Time
Room 20 Social Sciences Building (formerly Barrows Hall), UC Berkeley
This lecture will be recorded.
About the Lecture:
How do we decide what a god looks like? Some ancient Egyptian texts describe the gods generally, and others are more precise. Yet a divinity’s true, underlying form is unknown. Nonetheless, depictions of deities on monumental and small-scale artworks are seen throughout ancient Egyptian history.
In this talk, we will look at some basic, common forms that ancient Egyptian gods adopt, and uncover the reasons behind these design choices. We will not only consider how the images illustrate a god’s specific divine power, but also how their representation may be determined by the context and placement of the god’s image.
About the Lecturer:
Dr. Jennifer Miyuki Babcock is Assistant Professor and Coordinator for the History of Art and Design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and at the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY. Before teaching, Dr. Babcock was a Postdoctoral Curatorial Associate at The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU, and has held research and fellowship positions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Brooklyn Museum. She earned her Ph.D. at the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.
Among Dr. Babock’s extensive list of publications is the book Animal Fables in Ancient Egypt: Tree Climbing Hippos and Ennobled Mice (Brill 2022), which examines how drawings of anthropomorphized animals are linked to oral folklore and the religious environment of New Kingdom Thebes. Her interests include the cross-cultural and temporal transmission of artistic iconography in the ancient world, and studying cultural parallels between ancient and modern and contemporary lives.
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Parking is available in UC lots all day on weekends, for a fee. Ticket dispensing machines accept debit or credit cards. Parking is available in lots around the Social Sciences Building, and in lots along Bancroft. A map of the campus is available online at http://www.berkeley.edu/map/
About ARCE-NC:
For more information, please visit https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://arce-nc.org, https://twitter.com/ARCENCPostings, or http://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/join-arce/ and select “Berkeley, CA” as your chapter when you sign up. See less

“We Are For Egypt”: A Multi-faceted Public Outreach Project On Southern Illinois’ “Egyptian” Past
2023-12-16 15:30 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | WI
Virtual Lecture on Zoom; Registration required
Saturday, December 16 at 3:30pm
For Zoom link, email: vp@arce-pa.org
Speaker: Dr. Stacy Davidson, Adjunct Faculty, History and Continuing Education at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, KS
Lecture Topic: “We Are For Egypt”: A Multi-faceted Public Outreach Project On Southern Illinois’ “Egyptian” Past
Abstract:
It is increasingly apparent that Egyptologists must make a concerted effort to bridge the gap between “traditional” modes of communication and engagement with the general public. In the case of Southern Illinois, an area called “Egypt” or “Little Egypt” for the last 200 years, the legacy of what “Egypt” meant to the inhabitants of the region and who “Egyptian” Illinoisans were has been difficult to understand due to a dearth of concise, easy-to-obtain information and a lack of engagement from the Egyptological community in blending studies in the reception of ancient Egypt with regional American history and culture.
To this end, the project, “We Are For Egypt: The History, Culture, and Legacy of Egyptian Southern Illinois,” was developed. Backed by a Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellowship, the project consists of three components designed with community outreach in mind. First, an educational Handbook collates geographic and historical information from the portion of Illinois known as “Egypt” or “Little Egypt” along with ancient Egyptian material—allowing residents to contextualize Southern Illinois’ Egyptian identity. Secondly, a musical album provides a platform for multi-genre musicians from Southern Illinois to showcase the region’s musical heritage. The album consists of five traditional songs as well as five newly-commissioned songs that express what “Egypt, Illinois” means to the musicians today. Lastly, a virtual exhibition housed at the Special Collections Research Center at Southern Illinois University’s Morris Library, provides an accessible platform for the handbook, album, and regional photographs—as well as additional commentary by Davidson and her producer Jenny Pape for a behind-the-scenes look into the process of developing the project.
In this presentation, Davidson elucidates the outcomes of this project: encouraging community engagement in local history and arts, showcasing the creative and artistic talent of the region, increasing awareness of “Egypt, Illinois” among the Egyptological community, offering pertinent Egyptological resources to the residents of Southern Illinois, stimulating the local economy, and modeling an avenue for scholars to utilize a traditional funding source, a national non-profit grant, in a way beneficial to public history and an underserved community.
Link to the digital exhibition: https://scrcexhibits.omeka.net/exhibits/show/egypt
Link to Davidson’s JAEI article: https://scribespalette.com/publicationsmedia/
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Stacy Davidson, a native of “Egypt/Little Egypt,” Illinois, is the resident Egyptologist and Adjunct Assistant Professor of History at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, KS. She established an Egyptology specialization in the Continuing Education Department at JCCC to further her goal of making Egyptology accessible to any who wish to learn. She is the co-founder and first President of the Missouri Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE-MO) and the founder and Team Lead of the Egyptology State of the Field Project. Through the International Studies Department at JCCC, she has co-led a student study trip to London, Oxford, and Berlin to examine Egyptian and Mesopotamian artifacts and collections. Davidson’s article, “Untangling the 19th-century Roots of Southern Illinois’ Egyptian Regional Identity,” published in the Journal of Egyptian Interconnections (Dec 2022) is the first scholarly article written by an Egyptologist on the topic of “Egypt/Little Egypt,” Illinois. Professor Davidson is a 2020-2021 Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellow, a 2020-2021 JCCC College Scholar, and a 2021 NI
Lectures are FREE for ARCE members. For non-ARCE members admission is $10
Zoom registration is required, please email vp@arce-pa.org
If you are an ARCE member not on the ARCE-PA Mailing list, please email vp@arce-pa.org. For more information, visit arce-pa.org or email us at info@arce-pa.org

"Archaeological Narratives and the First Nations of Australia"
2023-12-30 14:00 (America/Chicago) | WEBINAR (St. Louis), St. Louis, MO
30 December 2023, Saturday at 2 PM (Central Standard Time Zone). ZOOM lecture by Dr. Harry Allen, Fellow at the University of Auckland in New Zealand: “Archaeological Narratives and the First Nations of Australia”. Zoom room opens at 1:45 and lecture promptly starts at 2 PM. Sign in at 1:45, please…

Connecticut Office of State Archaeology Year-in-Review Lecture
2024-01-11 17:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | University of Connecticut, 91 North Eagleville Road, Storrs, CT, 06269, United States
Dig into the new year with a lecture hosted by the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History (CSMNH) and the Office of State Archaeology.
The frozen winter ground puts most archaeological excavations on hold… but on Thursday, January 11th, State Archaeologist Dr. Sarah Sportman will be digging into Connecticut archaeology… in the form of a lecture! Dr. Sportman will highlight recent field work, research, and other activities undertaken by the Office of State Archaeology.
The lecture is free and open to the public! We hope to see you there!
If you require an accommodation to participate in this event, please contact the CSMNH at 860-486-4460 or CSMNHinfo@uconn.edu by Friday January 5.

The Molly House of the Late 18th century
2024-01-14 11:30 (America/New_York) | WI
a lecture by Dr. Megan Rhodes Victor
One of my current research projects focuses on homosexuality and the 18th-century taverns which were known as molly houses in England and English Colonial North America. These molly houses served as clandestine locations for gay men and cross-dressers to interact, to socialize with others ‘like them’, to engage in more intimate relations, and to perform in elaborate gendered performances of marriage and birth. Taverns were largely male drinking spaces in the 18th century, and yet these were also one of the few places where women – especially unmarried or widowed women – could not only work but manage the business affairs. It is striking that these locations were the ones chosen for molly houses, rather than other, more gender-ambiguous locations. Currently, no archaeologists have excavated a known molly house or identified a tavern assemblage as possibly being connected to mollies – those homosexual males who frequented the molly houses.

Accept No Imitation? Amphora Packaging and Roman Wine Consumption on the Bay of Naples
2024-01-17 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | Roger’s Park Social, 6920 N Glenwood Ave, Chicago, 60626
Talk by Jennifer L. Muslin (Loyola University Chicago, Classical Studies)
Most ancient Romans enjoyed wine and believed that everyone, from emperors to enslaved peoples, should drink it daily. To meet such high demand, viticulture, winemaking, packaging, and trading happened all over the Mediterranean, with the highest quality vintages coming from Central and Southern Italy and Sicily. Roman wines were stored and traveled in large, ceramic containers called amphorae that were durable, heavy, and built to withstand multiple fillings. Winemaking regions in the Empire often manufactured their own versions of these vessels, perhaps to insure brand identification, and refurbished and reused amphorae from other regions to store and export their products. When different wines were packaged using the same recycled amphorae, how could a buyer trust that she was getting a good quality vintage and not a hangover in disguise? New research at the first century C.E. packaging facility of Oplontis B near Pompeii is changing what we know about the social history of Roman wine, amphora use and reuse, and consumer choices on the Bay of Naples and the ancient Mediterranean world.
**The event is free and open to those who are 21 and over** Please register at eventbrite
Dr. Jennifer L. Muslin (PhD, University of Texas at Austin) is the Director of Pottery Studies and Finds at the Roman industrial site of Oplontis B for the Oplontis Project, a UT Austin-sponsored archaeological excavation based in Torre Annunziata (NA), Italy. She has published articles and book chapters on Roman pottery, Roman houses, and Pompeian wall painting and is currently writing two books on more 1,500 amphorae that the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei excavations of Oplontis B recovered from 1973-1991. She teaches classical studies at Loyola University Chicago.

From Fish Skin Bags to Coconut Fiber Armor: Revitalizing Anthropological Collections in an Era of Climate Change
2024-01-20 10:30 - 12:00 (America/New_York) | University of Dayton, 300 College Drive Ave, SC 114, Dayob, OH, 45469, United States
A lecture by Amy Margaris, Oberlin College
Specimen collecting was a cornerstone of 19th century science and anthropology. 150 years later anthropological collections can still be found at many colleges, lingering in closets or forgotten on storeroom shelves. Using cultural heritage items at Oberlin College as my starting point, I’ll explore the question: What use are they today, and for whom?

Recent Work at Memphis and the Fayum: An Overview of Methodologies and Results
2024-01-21 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WI
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 Raghda (Didi) El-Behaedi, University of Chicago:
“Recent Work at Memphis and the Fayum: An Overview of Methodologies and Results”
Sunday, January 21, 2024, 3 PM Pacific Time
Zoom Lecture. This meeting will not be recorded. A registration link will be automatically sent to ARCE-NC members. Non-members may request a registration link by sending email with your name and email address to arcencZoom@gmail.com. Non-members, please send any registration requests no later than Friday, January 19. Registrations are limited to 100, so the sooner you register, the better.
About the Lecture:
This lecture will present an overview of two cases studies, Memphis and the Fayum, to illustrate different methodologies of site exploration in Egypt. Memphis, the first capital of unified Egypt and one of the ancient world’s most recognizable cities, continues to be an enigma in the present day. Located at the confluence of Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt, Memphis’ strategic placement evoked the symbolic and geographic union of a once fragmented country. Despite its profound historical significance over more than 3,000 years, very little is known about the city itself. This is especially true for the area of Kom el-Fakhry, which houses the oldest in-situ remains found at Memphis so far. A preview of the results from the 2023 excavation season conducted at Kom el-Fakhry will be presented.
The Fayum, a natural depression located 100 km southwest of Cairo, is bounded by the Sahara Desert except for in the east, where a branch of the Nile River once fed its massive freshwater lake, Lake Moeris. For thousands of years, anthropic activity in the form of settlements, religious centers, harbors, and quarry sites continued in the Fayum, along the very shores of Lake Moeris. However, starting in the Holocene epoch, changing environmental and climatic conditions caused fluctuations of floodwaters from the Nile, which in turn caused drastic instabilities in the lake’s water level. The present work attempts to understand how the ancient Egyptians adapted to the shrinking lake from the Neolithic to Ptolemaic period, using cutting-edge satellite remote sensing, GIS, and geophysical techniques.
About the Speaker:
Didi El-Behaedi is an Egyptian Archaeology PhD candidate at the University of Chicago and a National Geographic Explorer. Her research interests include understanding ancient Egyptian settlement patterns and ancient landscapes through the lens of remote sensing, GIS, and 3D modeling. Didi is the co-director of the Memphis-Kom el-Fakhry Archaeological Project (MKAP) and has conducted archaeological fieldwork at several other sites in Egypt, including Tell Edfu, Deir el-Bahri, Asasif, and Hermopolis. She has also previously served as a research consultant at NASA Langley Research Center and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
About ARCE-NC:
For more information, please visit https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE/, http://www.arce-nc.org, https://twitter.com/ARCENCPostings, and https://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/join-arce/ and select “Berkeley, CA” as your chapter when you sign up.

Archaeology-Hour Livestream: Jeff Altschul. "Cultural Resource Management: What Most Archaeologists Do For A Living"
2024-01-24 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Whitman College, Olin Hall 129, 920 E Isaacs, Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
Today, there are about 12,000 archaeologists working in the US with less than 10 percent of them employed by universities. While university anthropology and archaeology departments are shrinking, the applied sector, known as cultural resource management (CRM) is growing. This lecture explores what accounts for these opposing trends and what, if anything, can we do about it.
Please join us for this livestream presentation.

AIA Archaeology Hour with Jeff Altschul
2024-01-24 20:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | WI
Join the AIA for a fascinating evening as Jeff Altschul presents Cultural Resource Management: What Most Archaeologists Do For A Living.
This presentation will be given at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central/6pm Mountain/5pm Pacific.
Today, there are about 12,000 archaeologists working in the US with less than 10 percent of them employed by universities. While university anthropology and archaeology departments are shrinking, the applied sector, known as cultural resource management (CRM) is growing. What accounts for these opposing trends and what, if anything, can we do about it.

Everything but a Bath?: The Small Bath at Antiochia ad Cragum
2024-01-25 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Phoenix) | Zoom, 4985 SW 74th Court, Miami, FL, 33155, United States
“Everything but a Bath?: The Small Bath at Antiochia ad Cragum” with Dr. Leticia R. Rodriguez, UC Berkeley, Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Excavations at the Small Bath at Antiochia ad Cragum began in 2018. With now five seasons completed, our efforts have not only provided insight into the general structure and use of this particular bath type (a Hall Bath); we have also uncovered a wealth of information about the complex after it was retired as a bath. More precisely, each season has presented us with a series of questions with regard to the ways in which the various rooms of the bath were adapted to meet industrial needs, if and how the installations and finds from distinct rooms relate to each other, and their respective chronologies. This lecture will present findings to date, current and evolving hypotheses about the function(s) of the complex in its post-bath phases, and also consider the discovery of several sets of human remains in non-burial contexts.

Everything but a Bath?: The Small Bath at Antiochia ad Cragum with Dr. Leticia R. Rodriguez
2024-01-25 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Phoenix) | WI
Everything but a Bath?: The Small Bath at Antiochia ad Cragum
Leticia R. Rodriguez, PhD
Visiting Scholar
University of California, Berkeley
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Excavations at the Small Bath at Antiochia ad Cragum began in 2018. With now five seasons completed, our efforts have not only provided insight into the general structure and use of this particular bath type (a Hall Bath); we have also uncovered a wealth of information about the complex after it was retired as a bath. More precisely, each season has presented us with a series of questions with regard to the ways in which the various rooms of the bath were adapted to meet industrial needs, if and how the installations and finds from distinct rooms relate to each other, and their respective chronologies. This lecture will present findings to date, current and evolving hypotheses about the function(s) of the complex in its post-bath phases, and also consider the discovery of several sets of human remains in non-burial contexts.

Disrupting the Market in Antiquities, Saving Archaeological Heritage for the Future
2024-01-25 20:00 (America/New_York) | Dodd Hall Auditorium (DHA 103), Florida State University, 282 Champions Way, Tallahassee, FL, 32306, United States

"Cahokia Mounds - new research" by Dr. Mary Vermilion
2024-01-27 14:00 (America/Chicago) | St. Louis University, Morrissey Hall Rm 0400, 3700 Lindell Blvd, St. Louis, MO, 63108, United States
20 January 2024, Saturday at 2 PM (Central Standard Time Zone). ” Cahokia Mounds – new research” by Dr. Mary Vermilion, Associate Professor of Anthropology at St. Louis University. Lecture location to be arranged on SLU campus.

Self-Fashioning in a Roman Province: Gender, Dress, and Difference in the Isiac Funerary Reliefs from Athens
2024-01-29 17:00 (America/New_York) | WEBINAR (New Haven), New Haven, CT
Tsakirgis lecture

Dignity and Social Control Through Burial Practices in Ancient Rome
2024-02-01 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Holden Hall 104, 2500 Broadway, Lubbock, TX, 79409, United States

Society Sunday 2024 Public Lecture
2024-02-04 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | WI
Watch recorded lecture on YouTube
“Be(com)ing Assyrian”: Navigating Imperial Power from the Bottom-Up
Join us as the AIA Societies Committee presents a virtual presentation and Q&A with Petra Creamer. This presentation will also be available in American Sign Language.
At its height, the Assyrian Empire (c. 1350-600 BCE) stretched from modern-day Iran in the east to Egypt in the west, controlling more territory than any entity the world had yet seen. This talk will delve into the profound impact of the Assyrian Empire and its administrative structures on the lives of individuals under its hegemony. Drawing from archaeological and historical evidence, the discussion explores the intricate web of socio-economic, cultural, and political transformations experienced by the non-elite populace under Assyrian rule, focusing on the core area of the empire (the Assyrian “Heartland”) along the Tigris River. Insights from ongoing research illuminate how the empire’s administrative policies influenced Assyria’s subjects – from those residing in urban centers to rural communities. Petra will particularly dive into the implementation of massive infrastructural projects across the landscape, the establishment of centralized governance systems, and the navigation of personal identities that shaped the idea of “be(com)ing Assyrian”.
Petra Creamer is an archaeologist of the Ancient Near Eastern world researching the genesis and growth of empires and the impact of these empires on the non-elite populations under their hegemony. She is director of the excavation and remote sensing project Rural Landscapes of Iron Age Imperial Mesopotamia (RLIIM) in Iraqi Kurdistan, where her ongoing fieldwork addresses long-term settlement patterns and lifeways in the ancient Assyrian imperial core (c. 1350-600 BCE). She is an Assistant Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Emory University.
The lecture will also be available in American Sign Language and we will also enable auto captioning on Zoom. Due to Zoom limitations on mobile devices and tablets, participants interested in accessing ASL interpretation should log in using the desktop version of Zoom.
