Archaeological Institute of America

The Archaeology of Democracy: Recent Excavations in the Agora of Athens
2025-04-06 15:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | Brown-Alley Room, Weinstein Hall, 231 Richmond Way, Richmond, VA, 23173, United States
Lecture by Dr. John McKesson Camp, II (Stavros Niarchos Foundation Professor Emeritus of Classics, Randolph-Macon College; Director of Agora Excavations, Athens, 1994–2022; Winner of the AIA’s 2024 Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement). Co-sponsored by the University of Richmond Department of Classical Studies, this lecture is the 14th Stuart L. Wheeler Gallery of the Ancient World Lecture and will be followed by open house reception at the Ancient World Gallery, Humanities Building 419, University of Richmond.

Aegean Sea Odyssey: Cruise the Greek Isles & Historic Türkiye
2025-04-07 - 2025-04-15 | OH
Join Archaeological Institute of America lecturer and host Joanne Murphy, a classical archaeologist and an engaging professor, on a captivating journey cruising the Aegean Sea among the cultural coastal gems of Greece and Türkiye. Set out from Athens’ port of Piraeus for the sacred, uninhabited island of Delos, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Cruise into the iconic caldera of Santorini and visit the island’s haunting site of Akrotiri, which was buried yet preserved by a volcanic eruption around 1600 B.C. Wander through the medieval town of Rhodes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and perhaps take an optional excursion to the Acropolis at Lindos with its 4th-century B.C. temple; and then hop over to nearby Kuşadasi, Türkiye, for a visit to the vast Greco-Roman city of Ephesus, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our last port of call is Çanakkale, for an excursion to legendary Troy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, before we disembark in deeply historical Istanbul. Optional pre- and post- cruise extensions in Athens and Istanbul are available. Aboard ship a team of experts, including AIA lecturer/host Joanne Murphy, will share their knowledge through a series of enriching lectures and informal discussions. Our luxury vessel, Le Dumont-d’Urville, which has only 92 staterooms and suites, will be a floating sanctuary of sophistication and comfort, where you will indulge in gourmet dining, unwind in spacious staterooms, and savor panoramic views throughout the vessel.

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

In search of Artemis-Tyche: the cult and sanctuary of Artemis in the Decapolis city of Gerasa
2025-04-08 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Doe Library, Room 308A, Campanile Way, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
The AIA San Francisco Society is thrilled to welcome Dr. Rubina Raja (Aarhus University) back to Berkeley. Please join us to hear Dr. Raja speak about the archaeology and history of ancient Gerasa. This will be the final lecture of the AIA San Francisco Society’s 2024-2025 lecture series.
Abstract: The Antonine period Artemis sanctuary in the Decapolis city Gerasa is one of the largest sanctuaries in the Roman world. With its impressive architecture and central location in the city, which also was named Antioch on the Gold River, the sanctuary has received a lot of attention in scholarship for more than a century. What is less known, however, is the fact that the sanctuary had a forerunner, which has until now not been located. This presentation takes its point of departure in new research undertaken on the archaeology and history of Gerasa, which has been aimed at, among other things, reinvestigating the pre-Antonine Artemis cult in Gerasa.
Speaker: Dr. Rubina Raja, Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art, Director of The Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre of Excellence for Urban Network Evolutions, Aarhus University, Denmark

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

Research and Excavations at Sardis
2025-04-08 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
In this year’s Sardis Biennial Lecture, Professor Nicholas Cahill of the University of Wisconsin–Madison will discuss recent excavations at Sardis in Türkiye. The Archaeological Exploration of Sardis has been sponsored by Harvard University and Cornell University since 1958 and is authorized by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Discoveries include monumental remains of the early Lydian palace and a new sector of well-preserved houses destroyed by Cyrus the Great in 547 BCE. Work continues on the largest Roman arch in the world and on late antique houses built atop a sanctuary to the emperor Claudius. A protective roof was built over the Lydian fortification, and a team of local women conserved the mosaics of the Synagogue—the largest in the ancient world.
Speaker: Nicholas D. Cahill, Field Director, Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, and Professor of Greek and Roman Art and Archaeology, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Free admission, but seating is limited and registration is encouraged. For more information and to register, please click on the Event Website link noted below.
This lecture will be recorded and made available for online viewing; check the Event Website link after the event for details on how to view.

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

Family Matters: The Social Role of the Dionysiac Frescoes in the Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii
2025-04-08 18:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | George Washington University, Funger Hall 108 (2201 G St NW Washington, DC 20052), Funger Hall, Room 108 (2201 G St. NW), Washington, DC, 20052, United States
Professor Elaine K. Gazda, University of Michigan, delivers the DC-AIA Annual Howland Lecture in Classical Archaeology

Archaeology-Hour Livestream: Mark Aldenderfer. “Archaeology and the Tibetan/Himalayan Afterlife”
2025-04-09 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Walla Walla University, Admin Bldg 116, 204 S College Ave, College Place, WA, 99324, United States
Although historians and Tibetologists since the early 20th C have collected and interpreted religious documents describing in general terms rituals of death and safe passage to the afterlife among the early peoples of the Himalayas, the archaeological record offered little insight into them. But recent research by archaeologists across the region have made extraordinary discoveries that both challenge and corroborate current understandings as well as identifying previously unknown traditions for both commoners and kings. Please join us in-person to watch this live-streamed Zoom event.

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

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

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

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

Lecture: Susan Downie (Carleton University), "Sparta and Totalitarianism"
2025-04-10 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Concordia University, LB 322, 1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd, Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1M8, Canada
On Thursday, April 10th, at 600pm, Dr. Susan Downie (Carleton University) will deliver the lecture, “Sparta and Totalitarianism,” in room LB 322 of Concordia University’s Webster Library.
Abstract
The ancient Greek city-state of Sparta has never really left the imagination of western civilization. From political philosophers like Plato and Aristotle to modern political parties such as Greece’s Χρυσή Αυγή “Golden Dawn”, the Spartan state and its citizens have represented an “ideal” for which to strive. What elements of the ancient Spartan state and society have made it the poster-child for modern Totalitarianism? Given the significant problems with our sources about ancient Sparta, can we ever understand exactly how the state and its citizens functioned, or must we forever deal with the “Spartan mirage”?

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

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

Emeralds
2025-04-12 09:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Emeralds is a new, intimate collection of stunning crystals, gemstones, and jewelry on display in the Earth & Planetary Sciences Gallery.
Highly coveted by a wide variety of cultures, emeralds have played a significant role in shaping human history, helping to facilitate trade and even build empires. From rough stones to sophisticated jewelry, emeralds continue to captivate with their beauty and historical significance, symbolizing luxury and power across cultures and eras. While emeralds are rare, they can be found in countries throughout the world, including Colombia, Madagascar, and Egypt, to name a few. Emeralds formed inside rocks millions of years ago. Those from South Africa are known to be about 2.9 billion years old, while Colombian emeralds date back over 48 million years! The unique characteristics of emeralds provide valuable insights into the processes that formed them. With the use of new AI technologies, scientists are making major advances in unraveling their stories and tracing their origins.
Through November 30
Photo: Metamorphosis. Brooch created by Wallace Chan. Emerald 16 pcs 52.44 tcw. Diamond, Ruby, Amethyst, Citrine, Blue Topaz, Crystal, Butterfly Wings, Mother of Pearl, Tsavorite Garnet, Sapphire, Yellow Diamond, 18K. White Gold, Titanium. On loan from George and Sherry Huang Collection

Inside the Temple of Murals: Teen Saturdays Workshop
2025-04-12 13:00 - 15:30 (America/New_York) | Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
In-Person Youth Program
Join us for an immersive virtual reality workshop at the Harvard Peabody Museum, where teens can discover the fascinating art of the ancient Maya through the Bonampak murals located in Chiapas, Mexico. Through engaging activities and discussions, teens will explore the themes depicted in these murals, including dance, music, and ceremonial rituals. In a hands-on activity, they will recreate elements from the murals using similar pigments and traditional Maya art techniques, encouraging them to appreciate the materials and methods of Maya artists.
Teen Saturday Workshops are offered bilingually in Spanish and English. They are designed to build community and improve the museum experience for multicultural teens. Snacks provided!
$10 fee includes free admission to all HMSC museums following the workshop.
Advance registration required.
Teens receive a membership worth $100 after attending three or more Teen Saturday Workshops per semester. Or, receive a free admission pass (worth $15) for a return visit if you attend one of the four sessions.
February 8: Writing Maya Glyphs
March 8: Divine Maya Cacao
April 12: Inside the Temple of Murals
May 17: Cochineal Red
Presented by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture.

A DEM-onstration of Quantitative 3D Analysis: Lower Nubia in the Recent and Distant Past
2025-04-12 15:30 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | OH
Saturday, April 12
3:30 pm EST
Penn Museum, Classroom L2
In-person; no registration required
Speaker: Rolland Long, PhD Candidate, UPenn
Title: “A DEM-onstration of Quantitative 3D Analysis: Lower Nubia in the Recent and Distant Past”
Abstract:
Soon after the declassification of satellite imagery from the CORONA satellite spy-mission in the mid-1990’s, archaeologists working around the world recognized quickly recognized their value. The spy mission, which had originally been designed to provide intelligence on Soviet bomber and missile capabilities during the Cold War, also recorded the appearance of archaeological sites and landscapes heavily altered or destroyed by recent urban development. This talk focuses on a burgeoning new application of CORONA imagery: the generation of historical Digital Elevation Models (DEM) from such images, which can yield important quantitative insights about terrain no longer in existence.
Specifically, this talk will produce several DEM’s produced over Lower Nubia, which has been subject to flooding and rising water levels since the establishment of the Aswan High Dam about half-a-century ago. Though a heroic international effort had sought to salvage as much archaeological information as possible prior to its construction, much about the ancient history of the area has been swept away forever. These DEM’s will situate the Egyptian forts of several areas, including Semna and Askut, within their larger geographical context. Certain physical features of these fortresses, such as intervisibility between forts and their proximity to overland routes, can now be verified quantitatively with these DEM’s in conjunction with GIS toolkits.
Speaker Bio:
Rolland Long is a PhD Candidate in Egyptian archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to attending Penn, he earned his BA from the University of Chicago, where he graduated with honors in Egyptology. His research focuses on the post-Middle Kingdom occupation of Wah-Sut, on which he currently dissertates, as well as the general character of ancient urbanism in Egypt. He works primarily as a field archaeologist, and has worked 7 field seasons in South Abydos with Penn.
In addition, Rolland is interested in the larger, quantitative problems that concern ancient Egypt, such as demography, as well as remote sensing and the analytical utilization of 3D modeling. He also possesses a strong curiosity regarding philology and grammar; he worked several years as a research assistant at the Chicago Demotic Dictionary (CDD) during his graduate career.
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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.
Coffee, tea, and cookies 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.

Türkiye: Ancient Splendors of the Aegean & Mediterranean
2025-04-13 - 2025-04-26 | OH
Many of the most magnificent and best-preserved ancient Greek and Roman sites are found along Türkiye’s beautiful Aegean and Mediterranean coasts. Visit world-famous, plus little-visited yet spectacular, Greco-Roman sites, Byzantine churches, Crusader castles, and Ottoman palaces. Your engaging AIA lecturer/host, Yaşar Ersoy, teaches classical art and archaeology and has been doing fieldwork in Türkiye since 1980. Throughout the program he will offer illustrated talks and informal discussions about the sites you are visiting and their places within the larger ancient Mediterranean world. Along the way, you will enjoy delicious cuisine, comfortable accommodations, and the company of a small group of like-minded fellow travelers. An expert tour manager/local guide will handle logistics and smooth the way.
Highlights:
• Visit four UNESCO World Heritage Sites:
1. Historic Areas of Istanbul, including the 6th-century Byzantine church-turned-mosque of Hagia Sophia and Topkapi Palace, the imperial residence of the Ottoman sultans.
2. Ephesus, the best-preserved classical city in the eastern Mediterranean, whose treasures include ancient villas with splendid frescoes and mosaics, and the 2nd-century A.D. Library of Celsus.
3. Aphrodisias, whose Temple of Aphrodite, tetrapylon, large stadium, and baths of Hadrian are unforgettable.
4. Hierapolis-Pamukkale, where we see the ruins of the baths and temples of a famous 2nd-century B.C. thermal spa.
• Marvel at a variety of Greco-Roman sites, including:
1. Sardis, former capital of the Lydian Empire and King Croesus, who was defeated by Persian king Cyrus the Great in 546 B.C.
2. Didyma’s 7th-century B.C. Temple of Apollo, one of the leading oracles in the ancient world; and the 4th-century B.C. Temple of Athena at Priene, which became the classical model of Greek city planning.
3. Magnesia on the Meander, renowned for its Artemis cult, which has the ruins of a well-preserved theater and a stadium that could seat 30,000 spectators.
4. Kibyra, with its magnificent stadium, odeon covered with a Medusa mosaic, late Roman bath, and underground tombs.
5. Sagalassos, a rarely visited and recently excavated site at an elevation of 5,000 feet, with breathtaking views.
6. Aspendos, with one of the best-preserved ancient theaters in the world, renowned for its acoustics; and Perge, with its splendid theater, stadium, and enormous Hellenistic and Roman gates.
• Explore several fine museum collections, including Istanbul’s Archaeological Museum, Denizli Atatürk House and Ethnographic Museum, Burdur’s Archaeological Museum, and the Antalya Archaeological Museum.
•An optional extension to central Türkiye is also available, including three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia, Hattusha: the Hittite Capital, and the Neolithic Site of Çatalhöyük; Ankara, with its superb Museum of Anatolian Civilizations; and Konya, the famous center of Sufi mystic Rumi and his followers.

Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East Tours Led by Harvard Students
2025-04-13 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.

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

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

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

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

11th Century Turkey Management in the Mimbres Valley
2025-04-15 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Denver) | Lisbon, Lisbon, 1000004, Portugal
Lecture. Sean Dolan (Los Alamos Laboratories). For nearly two millennia, people in the US Southwest and Mexican Northwest have maintained a significant relationship with turkeys, a bird they domesticated for their feathers, meat, and other resources. Recent archaeological studies reveal diverse regional and temporal patterns in turkey management, but how and why did people in the Mimbres Valley of southwestern New Mexico from CE 1000-1130 manage and interact with these birds? In this presentation, Sean Dolan incorporates Mimbres pottery iconography, bone isotope analysis, and ancient DNA to explore the role and treatment of turkeys in this region.

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

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

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

Exploring Human Origins at Kenya’s Lake Turkana
2025-04-17 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Free Public Lecture – Online & In Person
2025 Hallam L. Movius, Jr. Lecture Series
Louise Leakey, Director, Koobi Fora Research Project; Research Professor, Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University; National Geographic Explorer at Large
Kenya’s fossil-rich Turkana Basin has been—for over five decades—a cornerstone in unraveling the story of human origins in Africa. In this lecture, renowned paleoanthropologist Louise Leakey will delve into the groundbreaking discoveries at Lake Turkana, including hominins and fossil fauna that have reshaped our understanding of human ancestry. She will discuss the challenges of early exploration, and the impact of the Koobi Fora research camp, the National Museums of Kenya, and the Turkana Basin Institute, in advancing paleoscience. In closing, she will address opportunities to enhance research, collections care, and capacity-building at Lake Turkana through innovative funding, collaborations, and citizen science projects.
Advance registration recommended for in-person and online attendance. Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.
Presented by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, and the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University.
Louise Leakey is a third-generation Kenyan paleoanthropologist who is carrying on the legacy of the famed Leakey family in the search for human origins in Kenya’s fossil-rich Turkana Basin. A National Geographic Explorer at Large, Leakey, daughter of Meave and Richard Leakey, and granddaughter of Louis and Mary Leakey, all renowned paleoanthropologists, became actively involved in fossil discoveries at age five when she was proclaimed the youngest documented person to find a hominid fossil. Educated in the UK, she earned a PhD in Biology from University College London in 2001. Leakey also serves as a research professor in Anthropology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a research associate at the National Museums of Kenya. Louise directs the paleo-anthropological expeditions of the Koobi Fora Research Project in northern Kenya. New discoveries by her team in recent years include multiple hominin fossils, as well as the 1.5 million-year hominin trackway published in Science in 2024. A new species discovered at Lake Turkana in 1999 extended human fossil diversity back to 3.5 million years and, according to the New York Times, “overturns the prevailing view that a single line of descent stretched through the early stages of human ancestry.” Additional fossils recovered from this time period in recent years have contributed to the understanding of the diversity in the hominin fossil record. In addition to her long-term field studies in the Turkana Basin, Leakey also works closely with local communities and alongside wildlife authorities to preserve Kenya’s unique plants and animals of Kenya’s north. A lively lecturer, she gives talks and distributes science stories to Kenyan school children as part of the outreach efforts of her research project through her organization Leakey Journeys and Expeditions. Born and brought up in East Africa, she has travelled widely throughout the continent. Her family has been involved in the field of human origins for several generations and has contributed enormously to the understanding of our African origins through their work in both Kenya and Tanzania. Her family has been involved in politics and government, national museums, and wildlife conservation. Her husband, Emmanuel de Merode, is Director of Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s oldest national park and home to endangered mountain gorillas. His team has worked tirelessly to secure the future of this protected area through significant investments in renewable energy in this war-torn region. Louise is a mother of two adult daughters, a pilot, and an educator. She has many colorful experiences and insights to share.
