Archaeological Institute of America

Blending Art, Minds, and Artifacts: Understanding How We See What We See by Maurizio Forte
2025-03-07 18:15 - 19:10 (America/New_York)
Maurizio Forte, Ph.D., Duke University
This event is kindly hosted by the Embassy of Italy, Washington, D.C.
In the DC-area and wish to attend in person? Register here: https://embassyofitaly2.swoogo.com/etruscanAI
This lecture looks at how art, archaeology, and artificial intelligence come together, focusing on how our
minds perceive and understand ancient artifacts. It also explores how experiencing historic spaces can en-
courage cultural exchange. Using AI tools like neural networks, we can rethink archaeological sites and monuments as ever-changing
rather than fixed objects, evolving each time they are observed and interpreted. Examples include the fa-
mous Etruscan Sarcophagus of the Spouses (housed at the Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome), which has now
been digitally reconstructed using AI models and brainwave (EEG) analysis to study how people respond to
virtual simulations. By combining AI and biometric tools to measure engagement, this approach shows how
technology can help us see the ancient world in new ways. Dr. Forte challenges us to think differently about
what it means to view something, suggesting that seeing is an active process that creates rich, layered sto-
ries shaped by memory, context, and technology.
A pioneer in digital and cyberarchaeology, Maurizio Forte is the William and Sue Gross Distinguished Pro-
fessor of Classical Studies Art, Art History, and Visual Studies at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
Joining in the discussion following the talk will be P. Gregory Warden, Ph.D., president of the Etruscan
Foundation, who has worked in Mediterranean archaeology for over 50 years.

Power and Palace at Pylos, Southwestern Greece: The Relationship between the Living and the Dead in Late Bronze Age Greece
2025-03-08 11:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Graham Hall, Smith College, 22 Elm St., Northampton, MA, 01060, United States
The 31st annual Phyllis Williams Lehmann Lecture will take place on Saturday, March 8, at 11:00 am at Graham Hall, Smith College. Our speaker will be Joanne Murphy, Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Archaeology at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and Director of the Irish Institute for Hellenic Studies at Athens.
Free and open to the public. Reception to follow in the Brown Fine Arts Center Atrium. For disability access information or accommodations requests, please call 413-585-2407. To request a sign language interpreter, call 413-585-2071 (voice or TTY) or send an email to ods@smith.edu at least 10 days before the event.
The 31st annual Phyllis Williams Lehmann Lecture is sponsored by the Western Massachusetts Society of the Archaeological Institute of America.

Merchants and Mercenaries: Greeks in Egypt in the Late Period
2025-03-08 12:30 - 13:30 (America/Denver) | Mead Community Room at the Virginia Village Branch Library, 1500 S Dahlia St, Denver, CO, 80222, United States
The Frederick R. and Margaret B. Matson Lectureship for Near Eastern Archaeology and Archaeological Technology

Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East Tours Led by Harvard Students
2025-03-09 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, 6 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Available during the Harvard academic year Sundays at 1:00 pm, October 6, 2024–April 27, 2025. See blackout dates.*
*Blackout dates: December 1, 2024–January 26, 2025; and March 16–23, 2025.
This free tour, led by Harvard students, explores the Mediterranean Marketplaces: Connecting the Ancient World exhibition and how the movement of goods, peoples, and ideas around the ancient Mediterranean transformed the lives and livelihoods of people at all levels of society. Touch replicas and smell “ancient” scents as the students bring the past alive.
Visitors may drop in at the scheduled times. No reservation is required. Tours meet in the lobby and last approximately 45 minutes.
Tours for groups of ten or more may be scheduled at other times. Tours may be available by advance request in these languages: Hindi, Bengali, and Mandarin.

Society Sunday 2025 Public Lecture
2025-03-09 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1017393752749/WN_JEJr9-9PRRmkt5yHSzCmOw
Communal Government and Forms of Dependency in the K’iche’ State
Join us as the AIA Societies Committee presents a virtual presentation and Q&A with Iyaxel Cojtí Ren. This presentation will also be available in American Sign Language.
In the Maya highlands during the Late Postclassic period (1250-1524 CE), the K’iche’ created an expansive state able to subdue various nations and form a network of dependent polities. Join archaeologist Iyaxel Cojtí Ren as she explains how the key to this lies in the K’iche’ forms of local community organization and how they were integrated into the larger K’iche’ political unit.
Learn about the most common forms of community organization: chinamit and amaq’. Their members practiced communal solidarity and forms of communal government, which were vital for reproduction, problem-solving, and territorial defense. The K’iche’ state’s strength resulted from incorporating these communities, chinamit and amaq’, and adopting some of their values and forms of government. For example, in the Colonial-period K’iche’ texts, the term tzuq “to sustain, to feed” appears frequently to describe the relationship of mutual dependence that existed between rulers and K’iche’ communities. This means that the rulers also had obligations to take care of the population under their authority. And while reciprocity between rulers and those they ruled was far from equal, the communal form of government employed by the K’iche’ allowed representatives of the people to exert sufficient influence to prevent oppressive rulers and defend the people’s interests.
Iyaxel Cojtí Ren, originally from Chichicastenango, Guatemala, is a K’iche’ cultural archaeologist. Iyaxel completed her PhD in the department of anthropology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. Since 2021, she has worked as an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She serves as director of the Baja Verapaz Regional Archaeological Project (PARBEZ) and as co-investigator of the Mayalex Project. Her research and publications focus primarily on the archaeology, history, and culture of the Maya highland nations of Guatemala, especially from the Postclassic period. Cojtí Ren received a fellowship from the Newberry Library in Chicago for 2024-2025 to focus on her forthcoming publications.
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.

Recycling for Death: Coffin Reuse in Ancient Egypt and the Theban Royal Caches
2025-03-09 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | https://www.archaeological.org/event/recycling-for-death-coffin-reuse-in-ancient-egypt-and-the-theban-royal-caches/
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. Kara Cooney, UCLA:
Recycling for Death: Coffin Reuse in Ancient Egypt and the Theban Royal Caches
Sunday, March 9, 2025, 3 PM PDT
This virtual lecture will be recorded.
Register in advance for this lecture:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/CwscA3JIRcqFh9owR0q6_Q
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, I recommend that you 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 me at arcencZoom@gmail.com.
Glenn Meyer
ARCE-NC ePublicity Director
About the Lecture:
In this lecture Kara Cooney will discuss her latest book, Recycling for Death, a meticulous study of the social, economic, and religious significance of coffin reuse during the Ramesside and early Third Intermediate periods. Funerary datasets are the chief source of social history in Egyptology, and the numerous tombs, coffins, Books of the Dead, and mummies of the Twentieth and Twenty-first Dynasties have not been fully utilized as social documents, mostly because the data of this time period are scattered and difficult to synthesize. This book is the culmination of fifteen years of coffin study, analyzing coffins and other funerary equipment of elites from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-second Dynasties to provide essential windows into social strategies and adaptations employed during the Bronze Age collapse and subsequent Iron Age reconsolidation.
About the Speaker:
Kara Cooney is a professor of Egyptology at UCLA and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. Specializing in social history, gender studies, and economies in the ancient world, she received her Ph.D. in Egyptology from Johns Hopkins University. Her popular books include The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut’s Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt, When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt, and The Good Kings: Absolute Power in Ancient Egypt and the Modern World. Her latest books include Ancient Egyptian Society: Challenging Assumptions, Exploring Approaches (Routledge, 2023) and Recycling for Death: Coffin Reuse in Ancient Egypt and the Theban Royal Caches (The American University in Cairo Press, October 2024).
About ARCE-NC:
For more information, please visit https://facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaArce, or http://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.

Far from Home: Diaspora Networks, Religion, and Identity Abroad on the Ancient Indian Ocean
2025-03-10 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Education Building, Room 173, California State University, Fresno, CA, 93740, United States
The George F. Bass Lectures
Zoom Link: https://fresnostate.zoom.us/j/87222241660

Joanne Baron - Painted Nightmares: Wahys on Classic Maya Ceramics
2025-03-12 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus, Baltimore, Maryland, 21210, United States
Painted Nightmares: Wahys on Classic Maya Ceramics
Joanne Baron
Dumbarton Oaks – Post-Doctoral Fellow, Pre-Columbian Studies
New discoveries about wahy, a category of supernatural entity that the ancient Maya believed caused diseases and misfortunes.

Normalizing Loot: A Case Study of a Plundered Imperial Shrine
2025-03-12 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Denver) | Eaton Humanities Room 250, Pleasant Street 1610, Boulder, CO, 80302, United States
Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lectureships

The Search for The Endurance: The Amazing Story of How Archaeology and Technology Were Used to Make History
2025-03-14 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | 114 Lake Michigan Hall, GVSU Allendale campus, Allendale, MI, 49401, United States
Timothy Jacob, Crew member of the SS Algulhas 2, will speak about his experience as part of the expedition to find the lost ship of Sir Ernest Shackleton in the Antarctic.
This presentation starts at 4pm in 114 Lake Michigan Hall, GVSU Allendale Campus.

Dying as a Macedonian in Egypt: Styling Social Identity through Hellenistic Burial Practices
2025-03-17 18:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Institute of Fine Arts–NYU, Lecture Hall, 1 East 78th Street, New York, NY, 10075, United States
Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship
Co-Sponsored by the New York University, Institute of Fine Arts

Sailing in the Wake of Hatshepsut: How to build a Punt Ship
2025-03-18 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
Anna Marguerite McCann and Robert D. Taggart Lectureship in Underwater Archaeology

Archaeology and the Tibetan/Himalayan Afterlife
2025-03-18 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Denver) | Pecos Trail Café, 2239 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, NM, 87505, United States

“Freedom and Family at Boyd Cabin (Buncombe County, North Carolina)” -- Dr. Scotti Norman
2025-03-18 19:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Davidson College, 315 North Main Street, Semans Auditorium, Belk Visual Arts Center, Davidson, NC, 28036, United States
“Freedom and Family at Boyd Cabin (Buncombe County, North Carolina)”
Lecture by
Dr. Scotti M. Norman, Assistant Professor of Material Culture and Archaeology at Warren Wilson College
March 18, 2025
7:30 p.m. ET
Davidson College
Belk Visual Arts Center 117
Davidson, NC
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
About the lecture:
This talk will discuss the collaborative efforts of work at Boyd Cabin, one of the first nineteenth and twentieth-century freedman homesteads in North Carolina. Through the integration of documentary research, archaeological excavation, and oral histories from the Boyd family, this project attempts to forge new ties between archaeologists and descendant communities in the region. Preliminary excavation results indicate that the 14-person Boyd family maintained a thriving agricultural farm and built a communal space for family during a radically challenging post-emancipation, post-bellum period in Appalachia.
About the speaker:
Dr. Scotti M. Norman, Assistant Professor of Material Culture and Archaeology at Warren Wilson College, has investigated colonialism and the repercussions of intersectional and structural inequality in Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and the United States. Her current research focuses on the forging of familial and communal ties in historically Black sites in North Carolina. More broadly, she focuses on ethical archaeological practice through collaboration with local communities.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Please support out AIA Central Carolinas Society 333 with your membership in AIA.

Archaeology-Hour Livestream: Rosemary Joyce. “Complex Society Without Rulers”
2025-03-19 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Whitman College Maxey Hall 207, 173 Stanton St., Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
For many people, the word “archaeology” conjures up images of monuments, often interpreted as traces of the lives of powerful rulers who can seem to be inevitable parts of any urban, agricultural society. But there are other stories archaeology can tell about societies in which there was no apparent ruler, but nevertheless show the hallmarks of “complexity.” This lecture explores one such society, the ancient Ulúa culture of northern Honduras, neighbors to Classic Maya states. In Ulúa culture, people used religion to reinforce social relations in a society of wealthy farmers who enjoyed artworks of extraordinary beauty… without rulers. Please join us in-person to watch this livestreamed Zoom lecture.

Dying as a Macedonian in Egypt: Styling Social Identity through Hellenistic Burial Practices
2025-03-20 17:30 - 18:30 (America/Chicago) | Nebraska Wesleyan University, Smith Curtis, Room 103, 5111 Madison Ave, Lincoln, NE, 68504
Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship

Collecting the Ancient World: Early Explorations, Encyclopedic Museums, and World's Exhibitions
2025-03-20 17:30 - 18:30 (America/Chicago) | University of Missouri, Swallow Hall Auditorium, 507 S. 9th St., Columbia, MO, 65201
Kershaw Lectures in Near East Archaeology

Spring 2025 National Lecture by Dr. Kiersten Neumann: Collecting the Ancient World: Early Explorations, Encyclopedic Museums, and World’s Exhibitions
2025-03-20 17:30 - 19:00 (America/New_York)
Where is this artifact from? Who does it belong to? How did it get here? Who’s telling its story? Critical inquiry into the practice and politics of museums has reached a new zenith in contemporary discourse. From discussions of acquisition and repatriation to provenience (archaeological findspot) and provenance (an object’s ownership history) and the ethics of curation and modes of display, museum and art professionals—and the general public alike—are deliberating on the concept of museums and the responsibilities of such institutions towards the collections in their care. This talk will explore the early history of museums and collecting practices with a focus on cultural heritage collections from West Asia—beginning with the archaeological explorations of “the Orient” and colonial collecting practices dating back to the nineteenth century, followed by the creation of the “encyclopedic museum,” the popularity of world’s exhibitions, and the politics of representation and reception.
Short bibliography and/or website on lecture topic:
Kevin McGeough. 2015. The Ancient Near East in the Nineteenth Century: I. Claiming and Conquering; II. Collection, Constructing, Curating; III. Fantasy and Alternative Histories. 3 Volumes. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press.
Edward P. Alexander, Mary Alexander, and Juilee Decker. 2017. Museums in Motion: An Introduction to the History and Functions of Museums. Third Edition. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield.
James Cuno. 2008. Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle Over Our Ancient Heritage. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Kershaw Lectures in Near East Archaeology

Archaeology, its Colonial Past, and its Collaborative Future: A Community Project in El-Kurru, Northern Sudan
2025-03-20 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Jepson Hall, Room 118, Richmond Way 221, Richmond, VA, 23226, United States
Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lecture

Remembered Places, Significant Spaces: Room Closure Practices in the Pueblo Southwest
2025-03-20 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA, 99201, United States
Dr. Samantha Fladd, Washington State University., is an anthropological archaeologist who focuses on the Southwest United States, specifically the Ancestral Pueblos of the Four Corners region.
Architectural spaces create and are created by the social practices of and relationships among the people who occupy and interact within them. Just as spaces become places, people become communities through the accumulation of these actions. Because of this intimate relationship, modifications to spaces make physically manifest negotiations of identities and memories that occur within their walls. In this talk, I examine two ways modifications to space can be seen in the archaeological record of the Pueblo Southwest: architectural alterations and material deposition. Drawing largely on examples from Chaco Canyon and the Homol’ovi Settlement Cluster, I utilize detailed excavation records from the Chaco Research Archive and Homol’ovi Research Program to identify patterns of room modifications. By combining traditional architectural analyses with depositional, the full trajectory of a space, from foundation and occupation through closure, can be analyzed as it relates to constructions of identity and memory. I argue that the accumulation of practices of spatial preparation, modification, and closure speak to the identities of groups in the past and continue to manifest tangible connections with descendent communities today.

Alternate Realities: Reconsidering Power, History, and Representation - Mary L. Cornille
2025-03-21 09:00 - 2025-03-22 17:00 (America/New_York) | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 465 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
The 41st Annual Mary L. Cornille (GRS ’87) Boston University Graduate Symposium on the History of Art & Architecture
Submissions due: February 1st, 2025
Symposium dates: March 21st – 22nd, 2025
Alternate Realities: Reconsidering Power, History, and Representation
The 41st anniversary of the Mary L. Cornille (GRS ’87) Boston University Graduate Symposium in the History of Art & Architecture invites proposals for papers exploring themes of alterity through critically interrogating dominant historical narratives, canonical art prejudices and hegemonic power structures in visual and material culture, and in the field of art history.
Alternate realities exist beyond the accepted canon and the archive within the field of art history. This symposium will give emerging scholars a platform to unearth, illuminate, and honor those narratives and voices that have been marginalized, silenced, or erased within the dominant historical record. As educators and museum professionals, we are constantly at risk of reifying the elite and hegemonic potential of cultural institutions. Mining the museum and excavating the archive are at the heart of this symposium, but to combat complacency and ignorance, histories and realities that have been pushed to the margins must also be recognized. We seek papers that center alternative, subversive and resistance-oriented worldviews proffered by artists and communities through strategies that amplify community truths, cultural beliefs, and oral traditions, while questioning accepted canonical and archival structures. In the pursuit of expanding our perception of what is real and true, some of the questions we may ask include: which people and places have been left out of the art historical narrative? What accepted ideas in art history can be dismantled, expanded, or eradicated? How can we, as scholars in the field, be proactive and shape the field to handle alterity?
Possible subjects include but are not limited to: critical fabulation, global modernisms, reassessing archives, restitution and repatriation, collecting practices and institutions, the innovation of institutional pedagogical practices; art academies; workshops; counter-colonial and decolonial practices; south-south alliances; reclaiming visual autonomy; myth-making; alternate mediums; alternate time frames.
Submissions should align with the goal of this symposium to center BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, feminist, and counter-colonial voices, fostering a space for these perspectives to resonate within the academy and beyond. We encourage interdisciplinary approaches, bringing together art history, philosophy, architectural history, cultural studies, literature, and more. We welcome submissions from graduate students at all stages and from any area of study in the global history of art and architecture. Papers must be original and unpublished. Please email as a single Word document: title, abstract (250 words or less), and CV to artsymp@bu.edu. The deadline for submissions is February 1st, 2025. Selected speakers will be notified in early February. Presentations will be 15 minutes in length, followed by a question-and-answer session and keynote lecture. The symposium will be held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, on Friday, March 21st and Saturday, March 22nd, 2025.
This event is generously sponsored by Mary L. Cornille (GRS ’87). For more information, please visit our website or email artsymp@bu.edu.

2025 Mesoamerican Symposium
2025-03-22 09:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Cal State LA, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90032, United States
Cal State LA’s Art History Society presents the 2025 Mesoamerican Symposium on Saturday, March 22, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., at the University-Student Union Theatre. The full-day event is organized as a homage to acclaimed archaeologist John M. D. Pohl and art historian Manuel Aguilar-Moreno.
John M. D. Pohl is an adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology at Cal State LA. A specialist in ancient Mesoamerican art and writing systems, Pohl has directed numerous archaeological excavations and surveys in Canada, the United States, México, and Central America as well as Europe. He is the author of several books on the ancient worlds of Mesoamerica including Exploring Mesoamerica, The Aztec Warrior: 1325-1519, and The Legend of Eight Deer. His unusual background in archaeology, art history, theater, and film production have taken him from museum exhibition design and development to writing, producing, designing, and directing feature and television productions.
Manuel Aguilar-Moreno is a professor in the Department of Art at Cal State LA. An expert in the art and culture of Latin America, he conducts research in the art and history of pre-Columbian and Colonial Latin America. He has co-directed an interdisciplinary research project about “Ulama: The Survival of the Mesoamerican Ballgame” and the research project, “Walls of Passion: The Murals of Los Angeles,” that featured documentations and analysis of approximately 500 murals of the city of Los Angeles. He also has written countless articles in edited books, journals, magazines, and newspapers on the history of Mexican art as well as world art in the United States, Mexico, and Europe.
Both Pohl and Aguilar-Moreno will be presented the Tlamatini Awards honoring their invaluable contributions to the field of Mesoamerica during the 4:45 p.m. closing ceremony. The awards presentation will include Stephen Trzaskoma, dean of the university’s College of Arts and Letters, and Carlos González Gutiérrez, Consul General of Mexico.
The theme for this year’s symposium is “At the Crossroads of Civilizations: The Cultures of West Mexico Through Time.” This conference will present a spectrum of interdisciplinary research through innovations in archaeological methods and historical and ethnographic studies, revealing West Mexico’s critical role in over two millennia of Pacific coastal influence extending from the Greater American Southwest, through northern Mexico to Mesoamerica and beyond.
Speakers include Diana Magaloni Kerpel of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mary Miller of the Getty Research Institute, Lorenza López-Mestas of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in Jalisco, Mexico, Susana Ramírez-Urrea of the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, Michael Mathiowetz of the Getty Research Institute, José Luis Punzo of INAH – Mexico, Johannes Neurath of INAH – Mexico, Christian De Brer of UCLA -Fowler Museum, and Khristaan Villela of the Getty Research Institute.
As part of the symposium, the Treasures of West Mexico exhibition will be on display in the Special Collections and Archives reading room of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library at Cal State LA.
This event is free to the public and is organized by the Art History Society, the Anthropology Film Club, College of Arts and Letters, and College of Natural and Social Sciences at Cal State LA. It is made possible in part with the generous support of the Getty Research Institute and the Arvey Foundation.
Advanced ticket reservation is required. Please register online to attend the symposium at https://www.calstatela.edu/arthistorysociety. For additional information, please call Elizabeth Poz of the Art History Society at 310-302-7121.

Excavating Notre-Dame in Paris, France
2025-03-22 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Chicago) | Auditorium at the St. Louis Public Library, Olive Street, St. Louis, MO, 63103, United States
A fascinating lecture by Dr. Christophe Besnier (Director of Archaeology Excavations) and Dr. Dorothee Chaoui-Derieux Chief Heritage Curator, the Ministry of Culture). Learn about the first, and only, archaeological excavations that will ever take place inside Notre Dame in Paris, France. See truly remarkable photographs and hear first hand from the archaeologists directly involved with this project. A lecture given only to members of the St. Louis and Houston societies of the AIA.

Looking for Lucy: Revisiting the Foundation of Race & Gender in Historical Archaeology
2025-03-23 11:30 - 12:30 (America/New_York)

“Barbarians” and Bronzes: The Origins of Civilization in Ancient Vietnam
2025-03-23 14:00 - 15:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | AIA-LA, 1201 9th St., Manhattan Beach, United States
Two thousand years ago, China’s Han Empire stretched its imperial grasp beyond the mountains far to the south of the Central Plains, reaching into the domains of “barbarians”. Along its southernmost periphery lay the Red River Valley (RRV) of present-day Vietnam. In their chronicles, the Han claimed that they “civilized” the RRV’s “barbarians”. In contrast, many Vietnamese believe this time and location represents the birthplace of an indigenous, Vietnamese civilization that predates Han arrival. This view has been traditionally based on colorful tales and legends. One of the most enduring accounts tells of the Au Lac Kingdom and its capital city, known as Co Loa. Thus, at the heart of ongoing, intense, and sometimes nationalistic debates are two contrasting views. One sees “civilization” as a byproduct of Han arrival, while the other sees it as the outcome of local, indigenous cultural traditions. This lecture presents new and ongoing archaeological research that addresses these themes and questions. Specifically, it highlights recent investigations at the Co Loa site, considered to be the first capital and earliest city of ancient Vietnam.
Dr. Nam C. Kim
Professor, Dept. of Anthropology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
This talk will be hybrid: in-person with a Zoom streaming component.

Drunken Women with Spears? Funerary Practices and Female Identity in Pre-Roman Apulia
2025-03-24 18:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | College of the Holy Cross, Rehm Library, 1 College Street, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States

Egyptian Conceptions and Manifestations of Borders and Cultural Hegemony in the Late Bronze Age Southern Levant
2025-03-24 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | University of Georgia, Park Hall, Room 265, 200 Baldwin St., Athens, GA, 30602, United States

Out from Shadows: Painting the Human Face in Classical Greece
2025-03-25 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Penn Museum, 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship
Penn Museum

Rituals of Death : The Tombs of Tibet’s First Kings
2025-03-25 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Anthropology Building AP130, University of Toronto St. George Campus, 19 Russell Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 2S2, Canada

Murder, Poetry, and Scribes in Ancient Egypt
2025-03-26 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Free Public Lecture – Online & In Person
Margaret Geoga, Assistant Professor of Egyptology, The University of Chicago
“The Teaching of Amenemhat” is the only ancient Egyptian literary work to describe the assassination of a king. Told from the perspective of the murdered Pharaoh Amenemhat I, the poem is remarkable for its grim subject matter and popularity in ancient Egypt and Nubia. While previous scholarship on “Amenemhat” has focused on the poem’s composition, Geoga’s lecture will focus on its enduring legacy after 1,000 years in circulation. Margaret Geoga will explore who read “The Teaching of Amenemhat,” how they understood it, and how ancient interpretations differ from those of modern Egyptologists.
Advance registration recommended for in-person and online attendance. Free event parking at 52 Oxford Street Garage.
Margaret Geoga is assistant professor of Egyptology at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures and the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at The University of Chicago. Her research focuses on ancient Egyptian literature, scribal culture, textual transmission, and reception in both ancient Egypt and later periods. Her other research interests include ancient Egyptian intellectual history, translation, literary theory, and the history of Egyptology. Her work has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, and the American Philosophical Society. She is also a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (2023–25). Geoga holds a PhD in Egyptology from Brown University, where she also completed a concurrent MA in Comparative Literature. Prior to The University of Chicago, she was an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities at the Wolf Humanities Center of the University of Pennsylvania. She also taught at Brown University and Providence College. Her current book project focuses on “The Teaching of Amenemhat,” an enigmatic Middle Egyptian poem depicting the murder of a pharaoh. Combining textual criticism, material philology, and reception theory, the monograph investigates how this unusual and highly popular text was passed down, edited, and reinterpreted over the course of approximately 1,000 years by its many ancient readers in both Egypt and Nubia.
