Archaeological Institute of America

Climate Change and Resilience in Medieval Anatolia
2026-03-12 16:00 - 17:30 (America/Edmonton) | Business Building 2-09, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
AIA’s George H. Forsyth, Jr. Memorial Lecture (Link: https://www.archaeological.org/endowment/george-h-forsyth-jr-memorial-lectures/)
Dr. Marica Cassis, Department of History, University of Calgary
What does climate resilience mean in the context of the Late Roman and Medieval World of Anatolia? Current excavations at the site of Çadır Höyük in Yozgat province, central Türkiye provide insight into how communities adapted and changed in response to a variety of climate and social changes over the course of these periods. In examining this evolution, we gain a greater sense of how medieval society made sense of their changing environmental conditions through changes to their physical environments and their use of natural resources.

Public Lecture: Dr. Alexander Dale (CMLL Department, Concordia University)
2026-03-12 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Concordia University, H420, 1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd W, Montreal, QC, H3G-1M8, Canada
On Thursday, March 12th, Dr. Alexander Dale (CMLL Department, Concordia University) will deliver a presentation entitled, Two Lesbian Brothers: the quest for fortune and glory in the Archaic Greek East. The talk will take place at 600pm in Hall Building 420. It is sponsored by the Concordia Classical Students Association and the Archaeological Institute of America, Montreal Society.

Prof. Debby Sneed, Assistant Professor of Classics, California State University, Long Beach, "Disability and the Greek Ideal: A Case Study in Marble"
2026-03-12 18:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | College of the Holy Cross, Hogan Campus Center, Room 401 (an accessible space), 1 College Street, Worcester, MA, 01610, United States
The study of Greek art is heavily influenced by the notion of the ideal and idealized human body, which has long been assumed to exclude aspects of bodily difference and disability. In this talk, I consider a collection of 6th century BCE sculptures of maidens (korai) that were found on the Athenian Acropolis. As traditionally interpreted, these statues all stood together as representations of the feminine ideal in Greek art, but scholars tend to separate one maiden from her sisters because her body does not fit into modern definitions of beauty. By returning her to her rightful place in this collection, I present a reassessment of Greek sculptural ideals and, with it, of our understandings of Greek art, display, and dedication in late 6th century BCE Athens.

Escape from Pompeii: Tracing survivors from the 79 CE eruption of Vesuvius
2026-03-14 11:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Richard and Carole Cocks Art Museum at Miami University, 801 S. Patterson Ave, Oxford, Ohio, 45056
Escape from Pompeii: Tracing survivors from the 79 CE eruption of Vesuvius
Dr. Steven Tuck, Archaeologist and Professor in the History Department at Miami University
Dr. Tuck will change the story of Pompeii from one of death and destruction to one of survival and hope. Through his research, he has traced those Romans who escaped the eruption of Vesuvius and discovered how and where they rebuilt lives, families, and businesses, while carrying with them reminders of their former lives.
About the Speaker:
Steven L. Tuck is Professor of History and Classics at Miami University. He has been recognized eight times for his undergraduate teaching and is the author of A History of Roman Art and many articles and chapters on Roman art, especially the art of gladiators and spectacle. He has also published extensively on disasters and disaster response in the Roman world. He has also created five courses for The Great Courses and some of his work has been featured in the recent PBS documentary “Pompeii: The New Dig” and in a recent episode of NPR’s Radiolab. His current research involves tracing those who escaped Pompeii during the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, which appears in his new book Escape from Pompeii: The Great Eruption of Mount Vesuvius and its Survivors Oxford University Press, 2025.

The Problem of Distinguishing the Coronado Expedition’s Multiple Routes Across Southeastern Arizona
2026-03-17 18:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Pecos Trail Café, 2239 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, NM, 87505, United States
(Lecturers: Richard and Shirley Flint). There has been recent reporting of the discovery of what appear to be traces of sixteenth-century European presence in extreme south-central and southeastern Arizona. As a result, assertions have been made that those traces are indications of an outpost of the Coronado Expedition, called Suya in the surviving documentary record and San Gerónimo III by many modern scholars. Re-examination of sixteenth-century written records, however, shows that identification of that particular archaeological site as Suya is far from the only possibility. There are a total of at least eighteen known expeditionary episodes dating from the sixteenth century that could have left behind part or all of the material traces that have to date been identified in southern Arizona. The small, short-term occupation of Suya was dwarfed by the passage of the whole expeditionary force. Yet the current investigation claims to have located multiple sites associated with the minor Suya event and none linked to the vastly larger full expedition or any of its other sub-units. The evidence for Suya is thin, mostly conjectural, and not distinguishable from other events of the expedition.

TBA (Mississippi/Memphis)
2026-03-18 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Chicago) | TBA (Oxford MS/Memphis TN), United States
Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship

From Money to Metal: How to Operate a Civic Mint in the Roman Empire
2026-03-18 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Chicago) | Joseph Merrick Jones Hall 108, Tulane University, Freret Street, New Orleans, LA, 70118, United States
Speaker: Dr. Kenneth W. Harl, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Tulane University
Based on analysis of the coins themselves, Professor Harl reconstructs how Greek cities in the Roman Empire manufactured and distributed bronzes coins. Not only do the coins reveal the stages of production by workers and the engraving of dies by artists, but they also offer a means of calculating the output of money. The scale of production and organization of labor are both far more impressive than hitherto realized. The coins struck by mint of Marcianopolis (today Devnya, Bulgaria) in the reign of the Emperor Macrinus (217-218) offer the test case for explaining how metal was turned into money.

Horace and Rodolfo construct the Esquiline: examining garbage and graves at Rome and beyond
2026-03-19 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA, 99201, United States
Join us for a lecture by Dr. Kevin Dicus, University of Oregon at Eugene, discussing investigations at Rome’s Esquiline Hill.
Abstract:
Archaeologist Rodolfo Lanciani captivated the public with his account of excavations on Rome’s
Esquiline Hill. No doubt influenced by Horace’s Satire 1.8 about the same region, his portrayal
of mass graves (puticuli) embedded within a vast field of municipal waste offered a thrilling,
dystopian vision that continues to resonate nearly 150 years later. Ancient Rome’s reputation has
yet to recover, as his report continues to shape perceptions of the metropolis as filthy and
mismanaged.
This talk revises Lanciani’s portrayal of the Esquiline as a wasteland of rotting corpses and
garbage and offers a new interpretation of Horace’s Satire 1.8. I argue that Horace describes not
mass graves on the hill but rather a modest cemetery where multiple graves shared the same plot
of land that also received the city’s refuse. The misreading that these were instead puticuli
originated with his imperial scholiasts and persisted to directly influence Lanciani.
Archaeological comparanda from across the Roman world demonstrate that individual, modest
graves dug into suburban municipal dumps were a common and legitimate form of burial for the
urban poor. This intersection between the city’s dumps and its dead provides new insight into
Roman attitudes toward waste: although the disposal of refuse beyond the city walls transformed
the suburban landscape, it did little to alter the cultural meaning of the extramural zone. People
continued to use these areas much as they had before their appropriation for refuse, including the
symbolically charged act of burying loved ones.

AIA Special Event: Eric Cline is coming to Emory! (March 19)
2026-03-19 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Emory University, White Hall, Room 101, 1672 North Decatur Road, Atlanta, GA, 30322, United States
What: Dr. Eric Cline is coming to Emory!
This lecture is NOT to be missed by archaeology enthusiasts or anyone with an interest in ancient Egypt.
This is a special presentation sponsored by the Atlanta Chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA).
Who: Dr. Cline wrote the single best-selling archaeology book of the last 15+ years: 1177 B.C: The Year Civilization Collapsed. He may well be the American archaeologist best-known to the general public today, while also maintaining his “day job” as professor of archaeology at George Washington University.
Why: Dr. Cline will be sharing a brand-new lecture with us! He just published a new book, which will be the topic of the lecture: Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed.
Extra Credit: Includes book signing! The campus bookstore will be selling a selection of Dr. Cline’s books at the event, and he will sign books for anyone who purchases them there.
When: Thursday, March 19, at 7:00pm
(Be on time! Due to Emory’s security policy, the venue doors will be locked at 7:15pm)
Where: Emory University, White Hall, Room 101
Address: 301 Dowman Dr, Atlanta, GA 30322
( see event website for venue details: http://tiny.cc/clineAIA )
How: FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!
RSVP at http://tiny.cc/clineAIA
To guarantee a seat, you must RSVP by Tuesday, March 17. (RSVP is not required but is appreciated to ensure we plan accordingly.)
Everyone who RSVPs by March 10, will be entered in a raffle to win a signed copy of Dr. Cline’s new book! (Must be present to win.)
Parking :
Fishburne Parking Deck at 1672 North Decatur Road, Atlanta, GA 30322
( see event website for venue details: http://tiny.cc/clineAIA )
Lecture Title: “Speak to the King, my lord and my Sun god”: Love, War, and Diplomacy in Canaan during the Amarna Age”
by Eric H. Cline
Event Website: http://tiny.cc/clineAIA
Synopsis
In 1887, a cache of nearly 400 clay tablets inscribed in cuneiform was discovered at Tell el-Amarna, the capital city of the heretic Pharaoh Akhenaten. Dating to the fourteenth century BCE, it is the only royal archive that has been discovered from New Kingdom Egypt so far. Within the archive are fifty letters exchanged with the other great powers of the day, including the Hittites, Babylonians, and Assyrians. However, there are also nearly three hundred letters sent by vassal Canaanite rulers, such as Biridiya, the king of Megiddo; Abdi-Heba, the king of Jerusalem; and Rib-Hadda, the king of Byblos. The letters offer a glimpse into the vibrant diplomatic world of the Late Bronze Age, revealing royal marriages, elaborate negotiations, and exchanges of luxury gifts between the great kings, as well as political maneuvering and appeals from the vassal kings of Canaan, including Biridiya, who sent six letters to the Egyptian pharaohs. They also, however, provide a window through which we can glimpse the competition among antiquities dealers and museums to acquire the tablets; the scholarly race between British and German teams to decipher them; and the colonial-era context in which they were unearthed.
Speaker’s Bio
Eric H. Cline is Professor of Classics and Anthropology, the former Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and the current Director of the Capitol Archaeological Institute at George Washington University, in Washington DC. A two-time Fulbright Scholar, National Geographic Explorer, NEH Public Scholar, Getty Scholar, and member of the Explorers Club, with degrees from Dartmouth, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania, he is an active field archaeologist with more than thirty seasons of excavation and survey experience in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, Greece, Crete, and the United States, including ten seasons at Megiddo (1994-2014), where he served as co-director before retiring from the project in 2014, and another ten seasons at Tel Kabri, where he currently serves as Co-Director. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books and nearly one hundred articles; translations of his books have appeared in twenty-three different languages. He is perhaps best known for “1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed”, but also for “Digging Up Armageddon: The Search for the Lost City of Solomon”, which tells the story of the 1925-1939 University of Chicago excavations at Megiddo, a century after they first began.

The Shipwreck at Gnalić—Gagliana Grossa (1569-1583)
2026-03-22 14:00 - 15:30 (America/New_York) | https://www.archaeological.org/event/the-shipwreck-at-gnalic-gagliana-grossa-1569-1583-2/
The George F. Bass Lectures

Breaking Bronze for Demeter: Indigenous Religion and the Making of Greek Sicily
2026-03-24 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Mount Holyoke College, Skinner Hall, Room 216, 9 Blanchard Circle, South Hadley, MA, 01075, United States
Dr. Alex Moskowitz – Breaking Bronze for Demeter: Indigenous Religion and the Making of Greek Sicily
Tuesday, March 24, at 5:30pm
Mount Holyoke College
Skinner Hall, Room 216
Alex Moskowitz is a classical archaeologist and historian interested in rewriting conventional narratives of colonization in the Archaic Mediterranean through the lens of the experiences of communities indigenous to the sites subject to Greek and Phoenician settlement. His current research focuses on Sicily and explores the development of metallurgical knowledge and craft communities throughout the first half of the first millennium BCE. With a theoretical perspective underpinned by postcolonial studies and anthropological approaches to the study of craft production and community, he investigates how metal tools and artisanal practices document the choices made by populations navigating changing social, political, and economic conditions. Alex is currently preparing a monograph based on his dissertation work, entitled The Origins of Greek Sicily: Communities, Metals, and Colonization. Beyond the material culture of Sicily and the Greek world, Alex is also interested in studying articulations of cultural identity within Archaic lyric poetry and Greek historiography.
Alex received a PhD in Classical Art and Archaeology at the University of Michigan. Before that, he completed an MA at the University of Georgia and a BA at Swarthmore College. Alex is an active field archaeologist who has conducted fieldwork with various projects in Greece, Italy, and Kosova. He is a long-time staff member of the American Excavations at Morgantina, where he co-directs the Khora of Archaic Morgantina Project and supervises fieldwork for the Agora Valley Project. He is excited to talk with students interested in learning about archaeology and participating in archaeological field projects.
This year’s Ellen and Charles S. La Follette Lecture is sponsored by the Western Massachusetts Society of the AIA and the Mt. Holyoke College Department of Classics and Italian.

Landscapes of Time and Memory: Foragers in the Mojave Desert 3
2026-03-24 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Carraway Building (CAR), 315, 909 Antarctic Way, Tallahassee, FL, United States
Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lectureship

Beauty, Power, and Presence: The Neo- Assyrian Queens of Nimrud’s Northwest Palace, c. 865-705 BCE
2026-03-24 19:00 - 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
DC Society Annual Louise Davison Lecture, delivered by Professor Amy Rebecca Gansell, St. John’s University.
Reception at 6:15 pm; DC Society Business Meeting at 6:45 pm; Lecture at 7:00 pm. Location and hybrid Zoom registration link TBA.

New Approaches to Roman Urbanism: The Excavations of the Falerii Novi Project (Lazio, Italy) 3
2026-03-25 17:00 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | TBA (Buffalo), Buffalo, NY, United States
Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lectureship Time TBA

Homo sapiens Meets Neanderthals: The End of a World
2026-03-25 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Free Hybrid Lecture
Wednesday, March 25, 6:00–7:00 pm
Homo sapiens Meets Neanderthals: The End of a World
Advance registration recommended for in-person and online attendance
Speaker: Jean-Jacques Hublin, Professor at the Collège de France (Paris), Emeritus Professor at the Max Planck Society
Hallam L. Movius, Jr. Lecture Series
The arrival of Homo sapiens in the mid-latitudes of Eurasia 48,000 to 45,000 years ago and the disappearance of the Neanderthals some millennia later mark one of the most pivotal episodes in human evolution. Drawing on cutting-edge work in archaeology, paleogenetics, and palaeoproteomics, Jean-Jacques Hublin’s lecture will illustrate how this process was neither sudden nor uniform. In Western Europe, early modern humans entered the Neanderthal world far earlier than once believed, at times encountering and interbreeding with local populations. Instead of a simple geographic expansion, the evidence points to a complex mosaic of migrations, contacts, and extinctions. This led to a gradual reconfiguration of human populations from a world shared by multiple human forms to one inhabited by a single surviving lineage.
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA. Free admission. Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage starting at 5:00 pm. Presented by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, the Harvard Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard Department of Anthropology, and the American School of Prehistoric Research, Harvard University.
Image: The Zlatý kůň woman, modern pioneer in Europe, © Tom Björklund for Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

AIA Archaeology Hour March 2026: Dating Australia’s Oldest Rock Art
2026-03-25 20:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | MA
Take a virtual trip Down Under with the AIA as we catch up with Helen Green (University of Melbourne) as she presents the March edition of AIA Archaeology Hour: “Dating Australia’s Oldest Rock Art.”
This presentation will be given at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central/6pm Mountain/5pm Pacific.
Register here.

Microdebris and room functions at Olynthos
2026-03-26 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | MA
Dr. Britt Hartenberger will discuss microarchaeological approaches to life at the northern Greek city of Olynthos. Her research has included archaeological excavation and lithics and ceramics analysis at urban sites in Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, and Iraq. Her specialty is craft production and household organization in the Bronze and Iron Ages, as attested by numerous published papers.
Her work at Olynthos (Greece) focused on household analysis, based on the study of microdebris (microscopic remains of human activity) and how these materials illuminate our understanding of domestic life in this vibrant ancient city.

Tour of the Princeton Cemetery – Nassau Presbyterian Church
2026-03-28 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Princeton Cemetery, 29 Greenview Avenue, Princeton, NJ, 08542, United States
Join us for a tour of Princeton Cemetery, a burial ground established in 1757 that is presently operated and maintained by the Nassau Presbyterian Church. The cemetery serves as the final resting place for a President and a Vice President of the United States, most of the Presidents of Princeton University and the Princeton Theological Seminary, as well as soldiers from the Revolutionary War, professors, politicians, musicians, scientists, business executives, writers, a Nobel Laureate, Pulitzer Prize winners and many who have called the Princeton area home. Participants on this tour will learn about many of the cemetery’s historic inhabitants from Princeton Cemetery historian and guide Linda Gilmore. The tour will begin at the Princeton Cemetery entrance at Witherspoon Avenue and Green Street. You do not have to be a member of the AIA to attend, and there is no charge to attend this event, but participants are asked to RSVP in advance.
This event has been graciously supported by the AIA’s Society Outreach fund.

New Archaeological Research in the Republic of North Macedonia.
2026-03-28 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Chicago)
ZOOM Lecture by Prof. Barbara Klesig, Dept. of Anthropology at Cal Poly Humboldt discussing new archaeological discoveries in the Republic of North Macedonia.

Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East Tours Led by Harvard Students
2026-03-29 13:00 - 13:45, 2026-04-05 13:00 - 13:45 (America/New_York) | Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, 6 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, 6 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, 02138
Available during the Harvard academic year Sundays at 1:00 pm, October 5, 2025–April 26, 2026. See blackout dates.*
*Blackout dates: November 30, 2025–January 25, 2026, March 15, 2026 and March 22, 2026
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.
Groups of 10 or more may contact reservations to request other times. Please complete the reservation request form.

Stress, Sex and Death: Health and Survival in the Context of Medieval Famine and Plague
2026-03-29 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | 303 Paterson Hall, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
The Ann Santen Endowed Lecture

“The Search for Coffins and Carpenters: Insights into Technology and Religion in Ancient Egypt”
2026-03-29 15:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | Jepson Hall, Room 118, Richmond Way 221, Richmond, VA, 23226, United States
Lecture by Carrie Arbuckle MacLeod (University of Saskatchewan). 15th Stuart L. Wheeler Gallery of the Ancient World Lecture, followed by open house reception at the Ancient World Gallery, Humanities Building 419.

Diving the Pyramids: Underwater Tombs and Excavation at the Royal Cemetery of Nuri, Sudan
2026-03-31 17:30 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | TBA (Northern New Jersey), Montclair, NY, United States
The Frederick R. and Margaret B. Matson Lectureship for Near Eastern Archaeology and Archaeological Technology

Justinian’s Tree: Underwater Environmental Histories in Byzantine Harbors
2026-03-31 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | UT San Antonio, Downtown Campus, Durango Building, Room 1.116, La Villita, Durango Building, San Antonio, TX, 78207, United States
Anna Marguerite McCann and Robert D. Taggart Lectureship in Underwater Archaeology

Next to Turquoise Domes: Archaeological Investigations in the City of Bukhara
2026-03-31 19:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Semans Auditorium (Room 117), Belk Visual Arts Center, 315 N. Main St., Davidson, NC, 28036, United States
About the lecture:
Five extensive seasons of archaeological fieldwork have yielded a veritable treasure trove of new information about the long, complex history of the city of Bukhara, which was once a key node along the fabled “Silk Roads.” This presentation will introduce new data derived from finds and observations made at a series of fortifications, various kinds of dwellings, workshops, and burial contexts. They speak to a wide range of historical phenomena and problems, such as the potential existence of a Seleucid military colony in the area of the later city during the 3rd century BCE, the roots and stages of Bukhara’s urban growth as an important node within the Sogdiana trading networks during Late Antiquity (3rd to 8th centuries CE), transcontinental connections during the city’s heyday under the Samanid dynasty during the 10th century, and the health status of the urban populace on the eve of the Mongol invasion (late 12th/early 13th century).
About the speaker:
Dr. Sören Stark, Professor of Central Asian Archaeology at New York University, has close to two decades of experience in conducting and directing archaeological fieldwork in Central Asia. His current research interests are, among others, on Hellenistic and Late Antique/Early Medieval Sogdiana and the archaeology and history of nomadic groups close to oasis territories in Western Central Asia. His publications include a monograph on the archaeology of the 6th-8th century Türks in Inner and Central Asia, an exhibition catalogue on Early Iron Age kurgans from Kazakhstan, and numerous articles and book chapters on the history and archaeology of Sogdiana between the Hellenistic and the Islamic periods.

Justinian’s Tree: Underwater Environmental Histories in Byzantine Harbors 2
2026-04-01 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Chicago) | TBA (Austin), Austin, TX, United States
Anna Marguerite McCann and Robert D. Taggart Lectureship in Underwater Archaeology Time TBA

Archaeology-Hour Screening: Dating Australia's Oldest Rock Art
2026-04-02 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Whitman College Maxey Hall 207, 173 Stanton St., Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
Please join us for an in-person screening and informal discussion of the Archaeology Hour talk by Helen Green (University of Melbourne).
Australia hosts the world’s oldest continuing culture, and Aboriginal rock art represents one of its most significant records of knowledge. These paintings and engravings remain of deep importance to Aboriginal people today and provide valuable evidence for researchers seeking to understand long-term human-environment interactions. Yet one of the greatest challenges in rock art research is determining age. Without knowing how old the paintings and engravings are, it is difficult to understand how the artworks relate to past changes in climate, environment, or culture. In this talk, Dr. Helen Green will outline the latest scientific techniques used to establish the age of Australia’s oldest rock art, and the innovative, multi-disciplinary projects that bring together traditional Indigenous knowledge and Western science to deepen our understanding of these remarkable cultural records and how we might protect them into the future.
This event is free and open to the public.

TBA (Kansas City/Lawrence)
2026-04-02 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Chicago) | TBA (Kansas City/Lawrence), Lawrence, KS
George M.A. Hanfmann Memorial Lecture Time TBA

Ancient Cities of Guatemala’s Pacific Coast
2026-04-02 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Free Hybrid Lecture
Ancient Cities of Guatemala’s Pacific Coast
Thursday, April 2, 6:00–7:00 pm ET, Advance registration recommended for in-person and online attendance
2026 Gordon R. Willey Lecture
Speaker: Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Yale University
On Guatemala’s western Pacific coast, the region of Escuintla is home to many ancient cities, and for thousands of years it has been an important crossroads, drawing traders, migrants, and invaders. In this lecture, archaeologist Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos will present discoveries from three decades of research at the Classic-period cities of Montana and Cotzumalhuapa (250–900 C.E.), highlighting how people moved, interacted, and recorded their histories along the Pacific coast. The discovery of causeways, or raised roads, has revealed the size and organization of these cities, while refined dating methods have allowed researchers to trace their connections to other urban centers across Mesoamerica. Close study of Cotzumalhuapa’s monumental sculptures has further illuminated these networks through new readings of their intricate reliefs and hieroglyphic texts. Join us to explore how archaeology is reshaping our understanding of Guatemala’s Pacific coast and its place in Mesoamerican history.
Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA. Free admission. Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage starting at 5:00 pm. Presented by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture.
Photo of Monument 82 from El Baúl, Cotzumalguapa by Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos
