Archaeological Institute of America

AIA Archaeology Hour with Uzma Rizvi: Caring for MohenjoDaro
2025-01-22 20:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | NC
Join us at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific as the AIA-Walla Walla Society hosts the next installment of the 2024-2025 AIA Archaeology Hour series!
Register now!

Office of State Archaeology Year-in-Review with Dr. Sarah Sportman
2025-01-25 14:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | Buchanan Auditorium, Mansfield Public Library, 54 Warrenville Rd, Mansfield Center, CT, 06250, United States
Join the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History (CSMNH) and State Archaeologist Dr. Sarah Sportman for a public lecture about the Office of State Archaeology’s past year of work and what the next year will bring. Dr. Sportman’s talk will highlight the fieldwork, research, and other activities undertaken by the Office of State Archaeology (OSA) over the last year. Artifacts and recent finds by Dr. Sportman’s team will be on display before and after the talk. Remarks begin at 2:30 and will be followed by a Q&A and an informal reception.
If you require an accommodation to participate in this event, please contact the CSMNH at 860-486-4460 or CSMNHinfo@uconn.edu by Monday January 20.
The event is free and open to the public! If you plan on attending, please RSVP for reception planning. Visit https://csmnh.uconn.edu/programs/ to RSVP and for more information.

The Deep Prehistory of the Human Presence in the World’s High Mountains and Plateaus
2025-01-26 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Concordia University, Grimm Hall, 1530 Concordia, Irvine, CA, 92612, United States

Ancient Sims: Using AI-driven play to identify ancient board games
2025-01-26 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Toronto) | NC
Professor Crist will demonstrate how AI-driven play, when combined with traditional archaeological methods, can provide new insights about ancient games.
Contact AIA Ottawa for Zoom code at aiaottawachapter@gmail.com.

Aethiopia Abroad: The Role of Kush in a Network of Cultural Exchange in the Greater Mediterranean
2025-01-26 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | https://www.archaeological.org/event/aethiopia-abroad-the-role-of-kush-in-a-network-of-cultural-exchange-in-the-greater-mediterranean/
Image caption:
Décoration du mobilier, 539-330 BCE (Achéménide)
Place of discovery : Suse ville royale donjon
SB 3723
Département des Antiquités orientales, Musée du Louvre
(© 2008 Musée du Louvre, Dist. GrandPalaisRmn / Thierry Ollivier)
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The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, and the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures invite you to attend a lecture by Peter Moore Johnson, The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU:
“Aethiopia Abroad: The Role of Kush in a Network of Cultural Exchange in the Greater Mediterranean”
Sunday January 26, 2025, 3 PM Pacific Standard Time
This is a virtual lecture. To register, please click on or go to this Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMvdeGtqjorE9zCOtCkXeTPs4513tOivdCm
The lecture will not be recorded.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the lecture.
There are a few things you should know before you join the lecture:
* Advance registration is required. When you click on the link to “Register in advance for this lecture” you will receive instructions by email on how and when to join, along with a link on which you will click to join the meeting. Save the email, as you will need the link it contains to join the meeting. Please 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” in the chat window, 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
Northern California ARCE ePublicity Director
About the Lecture:
The history of Nubia during the seventh to fifth centuries BCE has been written with an over-reliance on the veracity of non-native, primarily Greek, sources. In Herodotus’ Histories the scholar describes the region as an idealized utopia notable for its raw materials and a formidable fighting force. However, Kush’s role extended beyond being just a geographical region to be pillaged for mercenaries and material wealth. It was a crucial trade partner in a period of internationalism and cultural exchange in Northeast Africa and the greater Mediterranean. A perceived dearth of representational evidence from Nubia abroad during this period reinforces the notion that Kush’s only influence was as a place to be exploited. When artistic evidence is marshaled to consider Kush’s influence, analysis has tended to rely solely on stereotypical depictions of Nubians identifiable through stylistic ethnic markers such as physiognomic features and bodily adornment. While this approach has been used to identify Nubian presence abroad, it hasn’t accounted for the significance these depictions hold in their local contexts and for their widespread prevalence. This lecture argues that Kushite representational conventions established in the seventh century circulate beyond the borders of Nubia and become integrated into a larger international koine. This process will be presented through a corpus of objects which span both time and place, charting the development of Kushite influence through the Nile River Valley north to Egypt, where it then spreads to the Near East and the Aegean. Iron Age networks of cultural exchange have traditionally only considered the bordering civilizations of the Mediterranean; this talk aims to show the influence of this peripheral sub-Saharan African kingdom. By integrating Africa into these networks of exchange, this analysis will urge for new ways of looking at objects and materials which have traditionally been overlooked by conventional approaches to Western art history.
About the Speaker:
Peter Moore Johnson is a PhD Candidate at The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. He is currently the Marcia and Jan Vilcek Curatorial Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His research focuses on Kushite-era material culture and self-presentation in ancient Egypt and Nubia. His dissertation, Aethiopia Abroad, is a collections-based project that charts the influence and spread of Kushite material culture across the greater Mediterranean in the second half of the 1st millennium BCE. His previous field experience includes the Innsbruck-Leiden Excavations at Satu Qala, Iraq, the NYUIFA Excavations at Sanam Temple, Sudan, and the NYUIFA Excavations at Abydos, Egypt. He has several years’ experience in museum and curatorial work, including internships at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Oriental Institute Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, RISD Museum, and the Delaware Museum of Natural History, in addition to curating shows in New York, Chicago, and Providence. He holds an MA from the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU and a BA (Hons.) in Egyptology from Brown University.
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Parking is available in UC lots all day on weekends, for a fee. Ticket dispensing machines accept debit or credit cards. Parking is available in lots around the Social Sciences Building, and in lots along Bancroft. A map of the campus is available online at http://www.berkeley.edu/map/ .
About Northern California ARCE:
For more information, please visit https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE/, https://twitter.com/ARCENCPostings, and https://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/membership/ and select “Berkeley, CA” as your chapter when you sign up.

Absolute Egypt
2025-01-28 - 2025-02-14 | NC
This itinerary is carefully crafted to provide discerning travelers with the finest Egypt tour available. Our 18-day program is the most in-depth exploration of ancient Egypt’s greatest sites, combining all the best attributes of a small-group, all-inclusive, well-paced, luxury trip.
Highlights:
1. Learn with a distinguished and engaging American scholar plus a wonderful local Egyptologist and an excellent tour manager. This trio has been receiving accolades for many years. Travel with a maximum of just 16 guests plus your trio of leaders.
2. Enjoy the best accommodations, including 13 nights at luxurious, 5-star hotels in Giza, Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan; and a three-night Nile cruise aboard a comfortable, eight-cabin dahabiya (traditional Nile sail boat).
3. Meet with excavators and conservators, including behind-the-scenes visits, when possible.
4. Discover the preeminent sites of the pharaohs from Cairo to Luxor, Aswan, and Abu Simbel:
-If it is open, spend two full days exploring the Grand Egyptian Museum that is scheduled to open in 2024.
-See the amazing Giza pyramids and Sphinx as well as Saqqara’s Step Pyramid of Djoser and recently discovered, closed-to-the-public, Tomb of Wah Ti.
-Explore the astounding temple complex of Karnak as well as Luxor Temple, plus spectacular royal mortuary temples and tombs in the Valleys of the Kings and Queens, such as those of Seti I and Nefertari.
-Visit the remarkable Temple of Hathor at Dendara as well as Abydos, one of the oldest and most important cities in ancient Egypt, where Steve Harvey, your AIA lecturer, has been working since 1993.
-Cruise the Nile from Esna to Aswan aboard an eight-cabin sail boat, away from the convoys of large riverboats, so that we visit remarkable temples without the typical crowds. From the spacious top deck, observe timeless pastoral scenes of feluccas, farmers, herders, and village life.
-Fly to Abu Simbel to visit the stunning and enormous rock-cut temples of Ramesses II and Nefertari.
In short, this is the most exclusive, enjoyable, and fascinating introduction to Egypt available. It is limited to just 16 guests

A Day in the Life of an Etruscan Sanctuary: Gender, Community and Ritual at the Etruscan Site of Poggio Colla
2025-01-29 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Jones Hall 108, Uptown Campus of Tulane University, 6801 Freet St, New Orleans, LA, 70118, United States
George M.A. Hanfmann Memorial Lecture

A Late Bronze Age “Naval Station” at Kalamianos (Saronic Gulf), Greece? presented by Dr. Daniel Pullen
2025-01-29 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Denver) | Eaton Humanities Room 250, Pleasant Street 1610, Boulder, CO, 80302, United States
The Saronic Harbors Archaeological Research Project has documented the Late Bronze Age (14th-13th cent. BCE) harbor town at Kalamianos on the Saronic Gulf coast of the Corinthia, Greece. We suggest this site might be the Homeric town of “Eïones” which later Strabo identified as a “naval station.” The implications of this identification of Kalamianos as a naval station are evaluated in light of our current understanding of the archaeology of maritime culture, both commercial and military, of the Mycenaeans and other Late Bronze Age peoples of the Aegean. The lack of identifiable maritime infrastructure – let alone that for specialized military activity – outside of Crete, including at Kalamianos, suggests that such installations were not essential for LBA maritime activities elsewhere in the Aegean.

Decolonizing Museums and the Case of the 'Elgin Marbles': Exceptionalism vs Solidarity
2025-01-30 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Newberry Hall, Room 125, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, 434 S. State St., Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, United States
Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lectureships

Colonial Transitions in Ancient Perú: How Osteoimmunology is Reconstructing Hidden Life Histories
2025-01-30 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | University of Louisville Center for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (CACHe), 1606 Rowan Street, Louisville, KY, 40203, United States
How can bioarchaeology be used to illuminate colonial encounters? Dr. Fabian Crespo (UofL Anthropology) addresses this question in his talk, “Colonial Transitions in Ancient Perú: How Osteoimmunology is Reconstructing Hidden Life Histories.” This presentation will discuss the complex biosocial transition in northwest Peru during the colonial process and how new theoretical and methodological approaches can help reconstruct the immune system in past populations. We explore how different immunological profiles recovered from bones and molecules can help show how complex and heterogeneous the biosocial landscapes were before and after colonial transitions, challenging and disputing simplistic and unilinear trajectories of life history changes during colonial encounters.
Dr. Fabian Crespo is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Louisville.
“Colonial Transitions in Ancient Perú” is presented by the Kentucky Society of the Archaeological Institute of America and the UofL Department of Anthropology.

“the way we lived was shaped by objects”: Contemporary Reflections on Black Materiality
2025-01-31 17:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | D.H. Hill Library Auditorium, 2 Broughton Dr., Raleigh, NC, 27695, United States
Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship

Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East Tours Led by Harvard Students
2025-02-02 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-02-09 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-02-16 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.

Normalizing Loot: A Case Study of a Plundered Imperial Shrine
2025-02-02 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | IU Indianapolis, Campus Center INCE 002, 420 University Blvd., Indianapolis, IN, 46202, United States

Vietnam & Cambodia: Cruising the Mekong River
2025-02-03 - 2025-02-16 | NC
I invite you to join Archaeological Institute of America lecturer and host Joyce C. White on a captivating journey through the rich history and vibrant culture of tropical Indochina with our luxurious tour of Vietnam and Cambodia along the majestic Mekong River. Spend two nights in the bustling metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City (still known as Saigon), a dynamic hub that exudes energy, before embarking the exquisite Mekong Princess, an exclusive riverboat with only 14 suites, elegant French colonial appointments, and all modern comforts. Her ultra-shallow draft allows access to the remote corners of the river, offering a unique perspective. Cruise for seven nights from Ho Chi Minh City to Siem Reap, immersing yourself in the beauty of Buddhist and Hindu temples, vibrant floating markets, and everyday life along the Mekong River. AIA lecturer Joyce White, who has decades of experience in Southeast Asian archaeology, will be joined onboard by Grace Gary, an architectural historian aboard with National Trust, and together they will provide a series of enriching presentations and discussions. Concluding the cruise, spend three nights in Siem Reap, where you can immerse yourself in the world-famous Khmer temples of Angkor, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Marvel at the remains of different capitals of the Khmer Empire, including the iconic Angkor Wat and the Bayon Temple at Angkor Thom. For those seeking an extended experience, an optional pre-tour extension to Hanoi and exquisite Ha Long Bay is available. This exclusive adventure is shared with another organization, and with a limited guest capacity of only 24 I encourage you to secure your preferred suite today by contacting AIA Tours at (800) 748-6262 or aia@studytours.org. Don’t miss this opportunity to cruise aboard a modern, elegant riverboat and experience the wonders of two remarkable Southeast Asian countries connected by the mighty Mekong River.

Jon Frey's The Origins of Roman Bathing at the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Isthmia
2025-02-04 16:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, 1 Quinlan St, Lynchburg, VA, 24503, United States
Oscar Broneer Memorial Lecture
In addition to being one of the most recognizable monuments at the site, the Roman Bath at Isthmia in Greece continues to yield surprising discoveries. Excavations in the
1960s through the 1980s revealed not only the 2nd c. CE structure but also parts of an earlier Greek-period pool of impressive dimensions—a fitting monument at a
Sanctuary of Poseidon. Most recently, a re-investigation of the excavated material and associated documentation has revealed the presence of a third structure that fits in time between the other two. This presentation discusses these buildings by focusing on the discovery in this location of tegula mammata—a peculiar type of tile used in heating systems in Roman-style baths prior to the adoption of the more common tubulus. These artifacts provide evidence for changes both to Roman building practices of the 1st century CE and to the athletic sanctuary as Romans from the re-founded colony of Corinth returned to Isthmia with their own unique needs and expectations.

Egyptian Conceptions and Manifestations of Borders and Cultural Hegemony in the Late Bronze Age Southern Levant
2025-02-05 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | University of North Carolina Greensboro, MHRA building, Room 1215, 1111 Spring Garden St, Greensboro, NC, 27412, United States
Kershaw Lectures in Near East Archaeology

Oman & the UAE: Crossroads of the Indian Ocean & Arabian Gulf
2025-02-06 - 2025-02-24 | NC
Delve into the cultural and geographical diversity of Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the company of seasoned study leader Trevor Marchand. Our custom-designed itinerary highlights ancient sites and historical monuments, and helps illustrate how influential geography has been on the region’s history and how the region’s maritime history has linked it to elsewhere in Arabia and as far as Africa and southern Asia. Begin with three full days in the UAE. Still a little fishing village as of the 18th century, Dubai was a center of pearl exports until the 1930s. Similarly, Abu Dhabi was founded as a simple pearl and fishing village. After the discovery of oil in the Arabian Gulf, Dubai became one of the wealthiest cities in the world, and Abu
Dhabi was transformed into a luxurious modern metropolis and the capital of the UAE. But this region was settled many centuries earlier, and we will observe how the old and the new co-exist in intriguing ways. Spend the balance of our time exploring Oman, which dominated for centuries the maritime trade routes from Moorish Spain to Canton (modern-day Guangzhou, China). Here seafaring merchants traded in such commodities of civilization as frankincense, myrrh, silk, gold, spices, and coffee. Today, Oman takes pride in sharing its rich history with visitors, as demonstrated in its world-class museums. Altogether we will learn about these countries’ histories, cultures, art, and architecture while witnessing their great geographical diversity, from spectacular deserts and wadis to pristine coastlines, including a reserve for the endangered green sea turtle.
Highlights:
• Six UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Oman’s aflaj irrigation systems, the protohistoric archaeological complex of Bat and Al-Ayn, the immense fort at the oasis of Bahla, the medieval trade city of Qalhat (pending re-opening), and the Land of Frankincense;
plus the UAE’s Hili Archaeological Park, part of the “Cultural Sites of Al Ain” listing
• Two full days exploring archaeological sites around Dubai, including the 4,000-year-old site of Al Sufouh; and Abu Dhabi, including the incredible new Louvre Abu Dhabi and the 18th-century Qasr Al Hosn, the city’s oldest fort
• Hasat bin Sult (a.k.a. Coleman’s Rock), site of Oman’s most significant rock art
• Nizwa’s lively Friday Market, whose animal souk is an opportunity to witness the country’s traditional manner of selling livestock
• A visit with a Bedouin family and a night at a lovely desert camp in Wahiba Sands, a 6,000-square-mile desert
• Sur, where many of the trading fleets of Omani ships were built
• Muscat, with its recently-opened National Museum of Oman

“Aššur, accept! Aššur, listen!”: Connecting Arabia and Assyria through Incense and Olfaction
2025-02-06 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Chicago) | SMU, Owens Art Building, Greer Garson 3515, 6101 Bishop Blvd, Dallas, TX, 75205, United States

Women’s Rights in Marriage and Divorce in Ancient Egypt
2025-02-09 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | ARCE Egyptology Lectures Room 56 Social Sciences Building, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, and the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures invite you to attend a lecture by Alison Wilkinson, Johns Hopkins University:
“Women’s Rights in Marriage and Divorce in Ancient Egypt”
Sunday February 9, 2025, 3 PM Pacific Standard Time
Room 56 Social Sciences Building, UC Berkeley
This is an in-person lecture and is not virtual. No registration is required.
The lecture will be recorded.
About the Lecture:
This talk presents a deep dive into the textual evidence for marriage and marital separation with a focus on the question: What rights did women have in these processes? New Kingdom and Demotic legal records together with New Kingdom letter correspondences are examined for the answers. The talk incorporates a recently reanalyzed Ostracon Deir el-Medina 439 for insights on a woman’s rights in divorce during the New Kingdom. The focus on textual sources aims to extrapolate the contemporary perspectives of marriage and divorce. The lexical and grammatical analysis presents insights into the process, social implications, and consequences of these social acts. Subtle differences arise in the role of men versus women, most especially within the context of divorce. This “marriage” of gender studies and linguistic analyses uncovers subtle nuances concerning marital unions and separations within the culture of ancient Egypt.
About the Speaker:
Alison Wilkinson is a PhD Candidate at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. She graduated with a Bachelors of Art with First Class Honors in Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England in July 2018. She obtained her Masters of Art with Distinction in Egyptology at the University of Liverpool in November 2019. Her Master’s Thesis, “The Language of ‘Divorce’ in New Kingdom Egypt,” presents textual analyses into the cultural perceptions of marital separation. This research inspired Alison’s current Doctoral work on Hieratic and Demotic correspondences written by and to women. The aim of this research is to analyze gender dynamics through linguistic methodologies.
In April 2024, Alison presented her paper “A Case of Adultery, or a Woman’s Choice to Leave? A New Interpretation for O. DeM 439” at ARCE National, Pittsburg. This paper re-examined the transcription, translation, and interpretation of Ostracon DeM 439 in order to argue the case of a woman leaving a marital union. For this paper, she was awarded First Place in the Best Student Paper Competition.
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Parking is available in UC lots all day on weekends, for a fee. Ticket dispensing machines accept debit or credit cards. Parking is available in lots around the Social Sciences Building, and in lots along Bancroft. A map of the campus is available online at http://www.berkeley.edu/map/ .
About Northern California ARCE:
For more information, please visit https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE/, and https://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/membership/ and select “Berkeley, CA” as your chapter when you sign up.

Funerary Dining or Offerings for the Dead? Archaeobotanical Evidence from the Shaft Tombs at Petra, Jordan
2025-02-13 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | University of Texas San Antonio, Downtown Campus, Buenavista Building, Aula Canaria Lecture Hall, San Antonio, TX, United States
The Frederick R. and Margaret B. Matson Lectureship for Near Eastern Archaeology and Archaeological Technology

Jungle Kingdoms Of The Ancient Maya
2025-02-14 - 2025-02-27 | NC
This tropical adventure provides the best-paced itinerary available to thoroughly explore ancient Maya sites in the lush jungles of Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. Maya art and architecture will “come alive” as you encounter enormous stelae (carved monoliths), painted frescoes, stucco friezes, carved lintels, and huge temple-pyramids that soar above the rainforest. Explore, in-depth, the sites of Palenque, Bonampak, Yaxchilán, Tikal, Yaxhá, Copán, and Quiriguá (four are UNESCO World Heritage Sites); with free time to go bird watching or simply relax, reflect, and enjoy our comfortable hotels and remote jungle lodges. Maximum of just 12 guests.

Samarra - the Abbasid Capital, recording one of the world's largest archaeological sites
2025-02-15 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Chicago)
Lecture by Dr. Alastair Northedge, Professor Emeritus at Universite de Paris I. He will discuss the archaeological of the famous Medieval city in modern Iraq.

Absolute Egypt February 18 – March 7, 2025
2025-02-18 - 2025-03-07 | NC
This itinerary is carefully crafted to provide discerning travelers with the finest Egypt tour available. Our 18-day program is the most in-depth exploration of ancient Egypt’s greatest sites, combining all the best attributes of a small-group, all-inclusive, well-paced, luxury trip.
Highlights:
1. Learn with a distinguished and engaging American scholar plus a wonderful local Egyptologist and an excellent tour manager. This trio has been receiving accolades for many years.
2. Travel with a maximum of just 16 guests plus your trio of leaders.
3. Enjoy the best accommodations, including 13 nights at luxurious, 5-star hotels in Giza, Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan; and a three-night Nile cruise aboard a comfortable, eight-cabin dahabiya (traditional Nile sail boat).
4. Meet with excavators and conservators, including behind-the-scenes visits, when possible.
5. Discover the preeminent sites of the pharaohs from Cairo to Luxor, Aswan, and Abu Simbel:
-If it is open, spend two full days exploring the Grand Egyptian Museum that is scheduled to open in 2024.
-See the amazing Giza pyramids and Sphinx as well as Saqqara’s Step Pyramid of Djoser and recently discovered, closed-to-the-public, Tomb of Wah Ti.
-Explore the astounding temple complex of Karnak as well as Luxor Temple, plus spectacular royal mortuary temples and tombs in the Valleys of the Kings and Queens, such as those of Seti I and Nefertari.
-Visit the remarkable Temple of Hathor at Dendara as well as Abydos, one of the oldest and most important cities in ancient Egypt, where Steve Harvey, your AIA lecturer, has been working since 1993.
-Cruise the Nile from Esna to Aswan aboard an eight-cabin sail boat, away from the convoys of large riverboats, so that we visit remarkable temples without the typical crowds. From the spacious top deck, observe timeless pastoral scenes of feluccas, farmers, herders, and village life.
-Fly to Abu Simbel to visit the stunning and enormous rock-cut temples of Ramesses II and Nefertari.
In short, this is the most exclusive, enjoyable, and fascinating introduction to Egypt available.

Recent Research at the Abó and Quaraí Units of Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument
2025-02-18 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Denver) | Pecos Trail Café, 2239 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, NM, 87505, United States
Lecture. Emily Brown (Aspen CRM Solutions). Aspen CRM Solutions recently completed archaeological surveys of the monument units surrounding the Tompiro pueblo of Abó and the Tiwa pueblo of Quaraí at Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument near Mountainair, New Mexico, both of which contain the remains of a large pueblo and a Spanish Colonial mission. The occupation sequences for both are now much better understood, and detailed ceramic analyses have allowed us to identify the general construction sequences for the various roomblocks at both pueblos. We also have a much better understanding of the use of the surrounding landscape by different groups over time. The presentation summarizes the findings of the surveys and discusses the results of the associated research.

Emily Egan, “20,000 Leagues Under the Wine-Dark Sea”
2025-02-18 19:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Davidson College, 315 North Main Street, Semans Auditorium, Belk Visual Arts Center, Davidson, NC, 28036, United States
“20,000 Leagues Under the Wine-Dark Sea”
Dr. Emily C. Egan, Assistant Professor of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Art and Archaeology, Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland
February 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 lecture takes a deep “dive” into depictions of marine life in the art of Late Bronze Age Greece (ca. 1600–1100 BCE). Amid a survey of sea creatures including octopods, dolphins, and fish, special attention is given to the enigmatic argonaut motif and its appearance in the wall paintings of the Mycenaean ‘Palace of Nestor’ at Pylos. At the time of their discovery, painted argonauts – pelagic cephalopods that grow their own shells – were classed among the site’s purely decorative designs on account of their fanciful coloration and stiff presentation in single-file lines like elements in a modern wallpaper border. New research at the Palace of Nestor, however, suggests that argonauts were not simple ornaments but powerful royal symbols, on par with more fearsome Aegean “totems” like lions and griffins. This lecture presents this new theory and the evidence that underpins it, and also demonstrates how the painted forms of the creatures, when viewed closely, offer rare insight into the thought processes and working methods of Greek Bronze Age artists.
About the speaker:
Dr. Emily C. Egan (Assistant Professor of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Art and Archaeology, Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland) is an Aegean prehistorian and field archaeologist. She holds a dual B.A. in Classics and Old World Archaeology and Art from Brown University, an M.Phil. in Archaeology from the University of Cambridge, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Cincinnati. Her research focuses on artistic practice in the Bronze Age Aegean, and particularly on the production, consumption, and iconography of Mycenaean painted surface decoration. She has undertaken archaeological fieldwork in Italy, Turkey, Jordan, Armenia, Cyprus, and most recently in Greece, where she is currently studying wall and floor painting assemblages from the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, and the Petsas House, Mycenae.

God's Breath and Nefertiti's Secret: Ancient Perfumes and their Shipwrecked Ingredients
2025-02-19 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | NC
Anna Marguerite McCann and Robert D. Taggart Lectureship in Underwater Archaeology

Worshiping the Ancestors in Egypt’s Tell Edfu
2025-02-19 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Nadine Moeller, Professor of Egyptology, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University
Tell Edfu, in southern Egypt, is an ancient Egyptian city that was occupied for nearly 3,000 years. This lecture explores recent discoveries at Tell Edfu, focusing on an elite residential complex from around 1550 BCE. Among the highlights is a large villa containing a rare and well-preserved example of a domestic shrine dedicated to family ancestors. Nadine Moeller will discuss the objects found in the shrine and their significance in private religious practices of the time. She will also provide an overview of other buildings from the same period—including a food production facility, further enriching our understanding of daily life in early New Kingdom Tell Edfu.
Free admission. Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage. Presented by the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East and the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture.
Photo © Alberto Urcia, Tell Edfu Project

Stress, Sex, and Death: Health and Survival in the Context of Medieval Famine and Plague presented by Dr. Sharon DeWitte
2025-02-19 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Denver) | Eaton Humanities Room 250, Pleasant Street 1610, Boulder, CO, 80302, United States
In the 14th-century, Afro-Eurasia was struck by a devastating pandemic of bubonic plague, now often called the Black Death, that killed an estimated 30-60% of some affected populations. Dr. DeWitte will discuss her bioarchaeological research, focusing on the skeletal remains of people who died before, during, and after the Black Death in London, England. This work aims to clarify the biosocial factors that shaped vulnerability to historical plague mortality and deepen the temporal scope of understanding of the syndemic interactions that shape epidemic disease experiences and outcomes. Analysis of demographic trends before and after the Black Death in London has revealed evidence of declines in life expectancies and, by inference, health for people before the Black Death, but improvements in health afterwards. Examination of patterns of skeletal indicators of stress reveal differences between males and females, which might reflect variation in sensitivity to stressors or differences in dietary resources in the aftermath of the Black Death. Dr. DeWitte will highlight future directions in medieval plague bioarchaeology, including analyses of the potential effects of migration on population-level patterns of health in the context of famine and plague.
