Archaeological Institute of America

Recycling for Death: Coffin Reuse in Ancient Egypt and the Theban Royal Caches
2025-03-09 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | https://www.archaeological.org/event/recycling-for-death-coffin-reuse-in-ancient-egypt-and-the-theban-royal-caches/
The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, and the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures invite you to attend a Zoom lecture by Dr. Kara Cooney, UCLA:
Recycling for Death: Coffin Reuse in Ancient Egypt and the Theban Royal Caches
Sunday, March 9, 2025, 3 PM PDT
This virtual lecture will be recorded.
Register in advance for this lecture:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/CwscA3JIRcqFh9owR0q6_Q
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
There are a few things you should know before you join the lecture:
* Advance registration is required. When you click on the link to “Register in advance for this lecture” you will receive instructions by email on how and when to join, along with a link on which you will click to join the meeting. Save the email, as you will need the link it contains to join the meeting. Please register now. Please do not share the join link with anyone, it is unique to your email address. Try to join at least 10 minutes before the meeting. When you do join the meeting, be prepared to be put in the waiting room until the lecture starts at 3 pm. This is a security measure.
* If you haven’t already installed Zoom, I recommend that you download and install the Zoom program (app) well before you try to join the meeting. There IS an option to use your web browser to join the meeting instead of the Zoom program, but the browser interface is limited and depends greatly on what browser and what operating system you’re using.
* For tutorials on how to use Zoom, go to https://learn-zoom.us/show-me. In particular, “Joining a Zoom Meeting” should show you what you need to do to join our lecture.
* All meeting attendees can communicate with everyone, or with individual participants, using the chat window, which can be opened by clicking on the chat button and which you can probably find at the bottom middle of your Zoom viewing screen. Participants will be encouraged to hold their questions for the speaker until after the lecture, and will also be encouraged to address their questions for the speaker to everyone, not just to the speaker, so that all can see them. “Everyone” is the default chat option.
If you have any questions, please email me at arcencZoom@gmail.com.
Glenn Meyer
ARCE-NC ePublicity Director
About the Lecture:
In this lecture Kara Cooney will discuss her latest book, Recycling for Death, a meticulous study of the social, economic, and religious significance of coffin reuse during the Ramesside and early Third Intermediate periods. Funerary datasets are the chief source of social history in Egyptology, and the numerous tombs, coffins, Books of the Dead, and mummies of the Twentieth and Twenty-first Dynasties have not been fully utilized as social documents, mostly because the data of this time period are scattered and difficult to synthesize. This book is the culmination of fifteen years of coffin study, analyzing coffins and other funerary equipment of elites from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-second Dynasties to provide essential windows into social strategies and adaptations employed during the Bronze Age collapse and subsequent Iron Age reconsolidation.
About the Speaker:
Kara Cooney is a professor of Egyptology at UCLA and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. Specializing in social history, gender studies, and economies in the ancient world, she received her Ph.D. in Egyptology from Johns Hopkins University. Her popular books include The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut’s Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt, When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt, and The Good Kings: Absolute Power in Ancient Egypt and the Modern World. Her latest books include Ancient Egyptian Society: Challenging Assumptions, Exploring Approaches (Routledge, 2023) and Recycling for Death: Coffin Reuse in Ancient Egypt and the Theban Royal Caches (The American University in Cairo Press, October 2024).
About ARCE-NC:
For more information, please visit https://facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaArce, or http://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/membership/ and select “Berkeley, CA” as your chapter when you sign up.

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

Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East Tours Led by Harvard Students
2025-03-09 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-03-02 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-02-23 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.

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

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

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

Monumental Queens in the Hellenistic World
2025-03-07 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Brock University, Rankin Family Pavillon (RFP) 214/215, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, St Catharines, Ontario, L2S 3A1, Canada
Oscar Broneer Memorial Lecture

Rural Matters: Studying the Countryside of Ancient Cyprus
2025-03-07 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Chicago) | Spurlock Museum, European Gallery (2nd Floor), 600 S Gregory St., Urbana, IL, 61801, United States
Cesnola Lecture on Cyprus

Stones of the Butterfly: Archaeological Investigation of Yapese Stone Money Quarries in Palau, Micronesia
2025-03-06 17:30 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Doe Library 308 A, UC Berkeley Campus, Berkeley, California, United States

CFP: JIAAW Spring Symposium 2026
2025-03-03 | Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Rhode Island Hall, Brown University, 60 George Street, Providence, RI, 02912, United States
The Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World (JIAAW) is accepting collaborative proposals for a symposium to be held in the spring semester of 2026. Joukowsky symposia are one- or two-day affairs organized around a topic relevant to the central mission of the Institute. This includes a core strength in archaeological and allied approaches to the study of the ancient Mediterranean and the Near East, complemented by scholarship focused on the ancient Americas and East Asian antiquity. Proposals should focus on either: 1) a geographical area of particular relevance to the JIAAW; or 2) a methodology or theme relevant to JIAAW research, while bringing together scholars working in a variety of regions, including (but not limited to) those relevant to the JIAAW.
Proposals should be submitted by a pair of scholars who practice in relevant disciplines, at least one of whom must hold a Ph.D. At least one organizer should be based outside Brown University; the other should be a JIAAW Academic Faculty member, Faculty Fellow, Postdoctoral Fellow, or Ph.D. candidate or Graduate Student Fellow (ABD status only, in both cases). Proposal authors will serve as the organizers of the symposium, which will be held at Rhode Island Hall, the home of the JIAAW at Brown University. The JIAAW will cover all programming costs related to the event, including costs of travel and lodging for symposium organizers and all speakers at the event. JIAAW symposia typically have budgets of $15,000 to $30,000 and involve a mix of local, national, and international scholars.
Symposium organizers are encouraged to identify why the symposium is a good fit for the JIAAW and Brown University more broadly and to develop a plan for publication of the symposium, either in a special issue of a journal or an edited volume.
The proposal should include the following:
● A one- to two-page narrative outlining the scope and aims of the symposium and its potential impact on scholarship on archaeology and the ancient world
● A bibliography of relevant sources cited in the proposal (no more than 2 pages)
● A list of the names of 8-12 proposed speakers, including their current academic or professional affiliations
● Curriculum vitae of both organizers
Proposals will be evaluated by a committee of JIAAW Academic Faculty based on the following criteria:
● Innovativeness
● Potential impact on scholarship related to archaeology and the ancient world, including publication plans
● The synergy of the proposed lineup of speakers relative to the proposed topics
● The symposium’s relevance to the central mission of the JIAAW and potential links to other ongoing academic initiatives at Brown University
● The relevant experience of the organizers, their history of publication, and prior experience planning and overseeing conferences.
A successful proposal will demonstrate capacity to meaningfully impact scholarship on a particular topic, help create or support meaningful partnerships with colleagues at other institutions, while also enriching the greater intellectual community of archaeology and the ancient world at Brown University.
The 2026 symposium is being considered a pilot event and if successful will lead to further calls for supported symposia in the future. Questions and completed proposals should be directed to jiaaw@brown.edu. For full consideration, please submit proposals by March 3, 2025.

Shaping Roman Landscape: Ecocritical Approaches to Architecture and Wall Painting in Early Imperial Italy
2025-02-28 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | UC Santa Barbara, Arts 1341, Art Museum, Isla Vista, Santa Barbara, CA, United States

From Ancient Quarries to New Inquiries: Exhibiting the ISAC Museum’s Roman Sculpture Collection in an Age of Greater Transparency
2025-02-27 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Willamette University Law School, Paulus Lecture Hall, 245 Winter St SE, Salem, OR, 97301, United States
Kershaw Lectures in Near East Archaeology

“The Past of the Future / The Future of the Past: Stories from the Archaeology of a Space Station”
2025-02-27 19:00 - 20:15 (America/New_York) | University of Maryland, Francis Scott Key Hall, Rm. 0106, College Park, MD, 20742, United States
Professor Justin P. Walsh, Chapman University and USC presents a lecture:
Since 2015, Professor Walsh has co-directed the first full-scale archaeological investigation of a site in space, the International Space Station. In this talk, he will discuss different aspects of the project, including the first archaeological experiment ever to happen off of the Earth. He will also talk about how social science disciplines like archaeology will be fundamental for improving life on Earth and in space.

Life and Death along the Nile: Tales from the Tombs of Tombos
2025-02-27 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
Beginning around 1500BC, the New Kingdom Egyptian Empire expanded its reach into the territory of its southern neighbor, Nubia, in search of resources such as gold and cattle. Over the next few hundred years, interactions between the ancient Egyptians and Nubians would include violent encounters, trade and exchange, political relationships, and the establishment of interethnic communities. One Egyptian colonial community established in Nubia, Tombos, spans the period from Egyptian expansion through the empire’s decline, allowing for rare perspective on this time of sociopolitical transition. In her talk, Professor Michele Buzon will explore the processes of change and consequences of contact for the people who once lived at Tombos. Evidence for disease stress, nutritional deficiencies, immigration from Egypt to Nubia, and biological relatedness between inhabitants will be presented. Osteobiographies of specific individuals from Tombos will be described to highlight how the rich archaeological record can be used to understand past societies.

AIA Archaeology Hour with Zainab Bahrani: Toward an Archaeology of Preservation
2025-02-26 20:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/7417225310723/WN_RfYR4UTdTDO5SvAH-Uw1kg#/registration
Join the AIA for a fascinating evening with Zainab Bahrani presenting “Towards an Archaeology of Preservation.” This presentation will be given at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central/6pm Mountain/5pm Pacific.

Archaeology-Hour Livestream: Zainab Bahrani. “Toward an Archaeology of Preservation”
2025-02-26 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Whitman College Maxey Hall 207, 173 Stanton St., Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
The history of archaeology as a scientific discipline has received a great deal of attention in recent years. As a result of extensive archival research and the reading of archives against the grain, alternative or indigenous archaeologies and earlier forms of relationships to the past—such as antiquarianism—have also begun to receive more serious scholarly attention. Since the 1990s, Zainab Bahrani’s scholarship has contributed to these historical directions in archaeology. She now augments archival and theoretical work with fieldwork, presenting some of the archaeological evidence of millennia of preservation and conservation practices in the landscape of Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan. Please join us in-person to watch this live-streamed Zoom lecture.
Location: Whitman College campus, Maxey Hall, room 207.

Living in a culture of the past; the life and work of a scribe in Hellenistic Uruk
2025-02-23 11:30 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Ohio
The figure of the scribe looms large in our understanding of the culture and history of ancient Mesopotamia. Scribes composed, copied, edited, and collated the thousands of cuneiform tablets that are such a rich source of information on the ancient past. But what can be learned from examining the career of an individual scribe? “Living in a Culture of the Past: The Life and Work of a Scribe in Hellenistic Uruk” is a microhistorical study of the life and work of a particular scribe who lived in the southern Mesopotamian city of Uruk in the time of Alexander the Great. His name was Iqīšā, the son of Ištar-šum-ereš, of the Ekur-zakir clan. This talk reconstructs Iqīšā’s career as a scribe, ritual expert, and teacher, examines the ways that Iqīšā identified himself in the traditional cuneiform texts that he copied, and demonstrates how the study of a single ancient individual’s life and work can lead to productive new insights about continuity, change, and power in Babylonia in the fourth century BCE.
By Dr. Abigail Hoskins Research Scholar

Why underwater? The importance of submerged landscape research for understanding Pleistocene peoples in the New World
2025-02-22 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Palm Beach Museum of Natural History, the Mall at Wellington Green, 10300 Forest Hill Blvd., Wellington, FL, 33414, United States
Doris Z. Stone New World Archaeology Lectures

Kushite Royal Priestesses in the House of the God
2025-02-22 15:30 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | https://arce.org/event/arce-pa-kushite-royal-priestesses-in-the-house-of-the-god-by-debora-heard/
ZOOM lecture
Saturday, February 22, 3:30 pm EST
Registration Required: https://arce.org/event/arce-pa-kushite-royal-priestesses-in-the-house-of-the-god-by-debora-heard/
Speaker: Debora Heard
Title: Kushite Royal Priestesses in the House of the God
Abstract:
Following Egypt’s conquest of all of Nubia in the 18th Dynasty, one of the ways these New Kingdom rulers expressed their dominance over the region was through the construction of religious temples at various sites in Upper and Lower Nubia. It is not known whether the Nubians continued to operate these temples after regaining their independence around 1,050 BCE. However, there is evidence that by the time the Kushite king Piankhy left his capital in Upper Nubia to take control of Egypt as the founder of the 25th Dynasty, at least some of the Amun temples in Nubia were operational. The worship of the god Amun and the incorporation of Egyptian culture and ideology of kingship were the bases for the legitimate establishment of Kushite rule over Egypt. Yet, even in apparently “Egyptian-looking” contexts, these Kushite rulers displayed their own cultural particularities. One of these was the prominent role of women in religious contexts.
In the religious temples of the reigning kings and queens of Kush, we see that it was not only the ruler who was responsible for performing rituals for the gods but also other members of the royal family. In particular, royal women as priestesses were depicted performing various roles in temple scenes or recorded in royal texts. This lecture will analyze the iconographic, textual, and archaeological data to explore what their roles and responsibilities were in ensuring the successful fulfillment of the royal responsibilities to the gods.
Speaker Bio:
Debora Heard is a Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology at the University of Chicago specializing in Nubian archaeology and Egyptian history and language. Her dissertation research engages in a comparative analysis of the inscriptions and iconography of Upper Nubian Kushite temples dedicated to the gods Amun and Apedemak.
For more than a decade, she has given lectured and taught courses on Nubia and Egypt at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC), the Kemetic Institute of Chicago, Chicago State University, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and Smithsonian Journeys tours in Egypt. Debora has served as an intern in the Department of Egyptian and Nubian Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and as a curatorial assistant in the initial installation of the Picken Family Nubian Gallery at the ISAC Museum. She has excavated at sites in the Nile 4th-Cataract region in Sudan.
Debora is a member and serves on the DEI Committee for the American Society of Overseas Research. She is also a member of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations, the Sudan Archaeological Research Society, the Society of Black Archaeologists, and the American Sudanese Archaeological Research Center. Finally, she serves as the organizer and a founding member of the William Leo Hansberry Society, an organization dedicated to increasing the number of African-descended people in the disciplines of Egyptology, ancient Nile Valley and Northeast African Studies by promoting access to training, field work, funding, and, mentoring opportunities at all stages of professional development.
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This is a FREE lecture, but registration is required. Register here: https://arce.org/event/arce-pa-kushite-royal-priestesses-in-the-house-of-the-god-by-debora-heard/
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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.

“Roman Libarna, an early colonial city of Rome”, with Dr Katherine Huntley, Boise State University
2025-02-20 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA, 99201, United States
TBD

Culture of the Tunica Biloxi
2025-02-20 17:30 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Union Museum of History and Art, 211 N. Main Street, Farmerville, LA, 71241, United States
Cultural Representative of the Tunica/Biloxi Tribe in Marksville, Louisiana, Ryan Lopez, will speak on the Cultural of the Tunica/Biloxi Tribe.

The Past in the Past: Traditionalism in Archaic Crete
2025-02-20 17:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | Haury Anthropology Building, University of Arizona, Room 215, 1009 E South Campus Dr, Tucson, AZ, 85719, United States
The Barbara Tsakirgis Memorial Lecture

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Absolute Egypt February 18 – March 7, 2025
2025-02-18 - 2025-03-07 | Ohio
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.
