Archaeological Institute of America

Peabody Museum Tours Led by Harvard Students
2023-12-09 14:00 - 14:45, 2023-12-08 14:00 - 14:45, 2023-12-03 14:00 - 14:45, 2023-12-02 14:00 - 14:45, 2023-12-01 14:00 - 14:45, 2023-11-26 14:00 - 14:45, 2023-11-25 14:00 - 14:45, 2023-11-24 14:00 - 14:45 (America/New_York) and 3 more dates | Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 2:00 pm October 1, 2023–April 21, 2024. See blackout dates.* Regular museum admission rates apply.
*Blackout dates: November 24–26, 2023; December 4, 2023–January 21, 2024; and March 9–17, 2024.
Tours by Harvard students connect visitors with the research, teaching, and Indigenous engagement surrounding the cultural heritage in the museum’s care. How do items come to the museum? Who accesses them and how do items return home?
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 these and other times, student schedules permitting.
Photo: EJSP Visual | Julieta Sarmiento

Landscapes of Predation: Exploring Hostile Social Environments in Small-Scale Societies presented by Dr. Catherine Cameron (CU Boulder, Anthropology)
2023-12-06 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Denver) | Virginia
Ancient social environments are difficult to reconstruct, and archaeologists have a much poorer grasp of how the social environment affects where and how people live. One sort of social behavior that is often visible archaeologically is violence: raiding and warfare. Using ethnohistoric cases, I identify “landscapes of predation” created by intense social violence. I will describe the archaeological signatures that violence produces and illustrate the utility of this concept with examples from the American Southwest and Southeast.

Digging Up Britain: A Conversation with Mike Pitts
2023-12-06 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom webinar
Join the AIA for a fascinating, informal Q & A session as Mike Pitts presents his Holton award-winning book, Digging up Britain: Ten Discoveries, a Million Years of History. This book highlights ten archaeological finds that change the way we think of British history and prehistory. AIA Vice President for Outreach and Education, Laura Rich, will host an engaging “fireside chat”-style conversation, taking questions from the audience, and learning alongside us about some of the most significant discoveries in Britain.
This free public presentation will be given at 1pm Eastern/12pm Central/11am Mountain/10am Pacific.
Our community of members and supporters allow the Archaeological Institute of America to propel archaeology forward through excavation, education, and advocacy. Please visit archaeological.org/join to become a member of the AIA or archaeological.org/donate to support the AIA’s mission with a donation.

Peabody Museum Tours Led by Harvard Students
2023-12-03 11:00 - 11:45, 2023-11-26 11:00 - 11:45, 2023-11-19 11:00 - 11:45 (America/New_York) | Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Sundays at 11:00 am October 1, 2023–April 21, 2024. See blackout dates.* Regular museum admission rates apply. Free museum admission for Massachusetts residents every Sunday morning (year-round) from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. Proof of residency required. Free museum admission is not available to commercial groups.
*Blackout dates: November 24–26, 2023; December 4, 2023–January 21, 2024; and March 9–17, 2024.
Tours by Harvard students connect visitors with the research, teaching, and Indigenous engagement surrounding the cultural heritage in the museum’s care. How do items come to the museum? Who accesses them and how do items return home?
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 these and other times.
Photo: EJSP Visual | Julieta Sarmiento

Henry T. Rowell Lecture
2023-12-01 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | The Johns Hopkins University (Homewood campus), Gilman Hall 50, Baltimore, MD, 21210, United States
Please join the AIA Baltimore Society for the Henry T. Rowell Lecture. Dr. Marie-Lys Annette (The Johns Hopkins University) will be speaking on “Tattooed Mummies and Female Figurines from Ancient Egypt: New Results from Deir el-Medina.”
To attend virtually, please use the following link: https://towson-edu.zoom.us/j/98825554469?pwd=[REDACTED]

CfA: Teaching about the Ancient World in Museums
2023-12-01 | Virginia
Call for Abstracts: *Teaching about the Ancient World in Museums: Pedagogies in Practice*
The editors of Teaching Ancient Egypt in Museums: Pedagogies in Practice (Routledge 2024) seek abstract submissions for the second volume in this series, Teaching about the Ancient World in Museums: Pedagogies in Practice.
Teaching with ancient material in museums presents unique challenges for educators, museum staff, and learners alike. Ancient objects are sometimes unprovenanced or are of questionable authenticity, and teaching with them necessitates discussions about provenance. In addition, ancient museum collections often provoke conversations about human remains, for which ethical considerations must be woven into pedagogy. Beyond this, contemporary stakeholder perspectives are often excluded from discussions about their ancient pasts and should be incorporated into collections stewardship and educational programming.
This volume will focus on methods and approaches for teaching about the ancient Mediterranean, ancient Western Asia, and ancient North Africa through material remains in museums. In our current moment, when both museums and many ancient studies subfields are reflecting on how to create more inclusive practices grounded in social justice and equity, developing ethical and equitable museum pedagogies to teach from ancient material will help shape more critical views of both ancient and modern cultures among students and museum visitors.
We invite participants to submit abstracts for essays that will share practical examples of object-based teaching in museums and/or with museum collections. Submissions can be based in museum collections anywhere in the world. Proposed essays should be geared toward generating conversations about best practices in museum pedagogy, curation, and collection stewardship. They must present case studies that are either in progress or completed, and should foreground contributors’ first-hand experiences, methodologies, and reflective teaching practices. We welcome contributions centered on material from the entirety of the ancient Mediterranean, ancient Western Asia, and ancient North Africa that represent teaching with museum objects in creative and inclusive ways. Essays should be co-authored by two or more authors, to reflect the collaborative nature of teaching and learning. These may include essays written in partnership between archaeologists, teachers, curators, docents, museum educators, community workers, artists, and others. An authors’ peer-review workshop will be held on Zoom after the first drafts of the volume’s essays are submitted, so that we can all learn from each other.
Proposed essays should center on object-based, practice-oriented learning experiences with clear goals. They may engage learners in a variety of groups, including children; teachers; university students; incarcerated communities; adult lay learners; artists/art students; informal online audiences, e.g. via social media; and learners who require accessibility accommodations. We are seeking contributions that fall into one of the following categories:
1. Teaching About Tricky Topics: essays that address teaching about topics considered to be difficult, problematic, or sensitive in museum pedagogy (e.g. teaching about provenance, colonialism, restitution, or with human remains).
2. Teaching Towards Accessibility and Inclusivity: essays that take the term “accessibility” broadly, including pedagogies that serve people who require accessibility accommodations, those that engage underserved and underrepresented communities, and those that represent equitable access to collections information.
3. Teaching Across Disciplines: essays that explore productive connections between material culture and fields outside of the ancient world, and those that reach across cultural boundaries.
4. Teaching in the Community: essays that center on case studies where object-based learning takes place outside of the museum proper, such as in schools, community centers, and online, and those that offer examples of meaningful co-creation with community partners.
The editors especially welcome submissions from colleagues working at institutions located in the MENA, SWANA, and Mediterranean regions. Cross-institutional and/or international collaborations are strongly encouraged. Prospective authors are invited to submit a title and abstract (200-300 words) in English that details their proposed essay topic and pedagogical methods by December 1st using this Google Form: https://forms.gle/FbKD5CAiPRGiBviG7.
Please send any questions to the editors: Jen Thum (she/her, jennifer_thum@harvard.edu), Carl Walsh (he/him, cw4515@nyu.edu), Lissette Jiménez (she/her, lmj@sfsu.edu), and Lisa Saladino Haney (she/her, haneyl@carnegiemnh.org).

Bones, Stones & Genes – Seven Million Years of Human Evolution with Geoffrey Clark, PhD
2023-11-30 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Phoenix) | Arizona State University Tempe, Design North Buidling, Room CDN 60, 810 NS Forest Mall, Tempe, AZ, 85281, United States
Bones, Stones, & Genes: Seven Million Years of Human Evolution
Geoffrey A. Clark, Ph.D.
Regents’ Emeritus Professor
Arizona State University School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Institute of Human Origins
Perhaps the greatest story ever told is how we became the last and sole surviving member of our lineage, the hominins – modern humans, extinct human species, and all our immediate ancestors. The human career is a long one, extending back at least 6 million years and marked by a number of major transitions, including the shift to life on the ground, habitual bipedality, increases in brain size and social complexity, the first technologies, and the emergence of language. Untangling the complicated relationships amongst these transitions is the principal task of paleoanthropology, and over the past 25 years, there have been many new and exciting discoveries, and the picture changes – is changing now – with every one of them. Prof. Clark will discuss the human paleontology and archaeology of our lineage in ‘deep time’ – the past 4 million years. He will present the broad outlines of these transitions, but it should be kept in mind that full consensus is – so far – beyond our reach. How we became the highly intelligent, technologically sophisticated, socially complex animals we are today will probably never be known with certainty, but with every new discovery, the picture changes a little, or a lot, and hopefully becomes a little clearer.

Sketching the Marbles
2023-11-24 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago) | The Parthenon, 2500 West End Ave, Nashville, TN, 37203, United States
Sketching the Marbles
For centuries, artists have drawn the Parthenon’s pediment sculptures. Join us for special art sessions to create your own classical masterpiece. Sketching the Marbles is held on the final Friday afternoon of each month (except Metro Nashville holidays).
–Recommended for ages 12 and older.
–This program takes place in the Treasury.
–All supplies are included— but you are welcome to bring your own.
–Participation is free for Centennial Park Conservancy members, or included with museum admission.
–The most updated times and dates are listed on the Calendar.
Love to draw, but not able to make it to museum soon? Try your hand at creating Parthenon art— from home! Browse our Parthenon Create video playlist on our YouTube channel.
THANK YOU TO JERRY’S ARTARAMA FOR PROVIDING ART SUPPLIES!

Rome "Urbs Pensilis": A Hanging City and its Hanging Gardens
2023-11-19 14:00 (America/New_York) | Carleton University 303 Paterson, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5B6, Canada
Norton lecture

Art expressions of the intimate life in Pompeii, the Lupanare Grande" by Cyril Dumas (Curator at the Musee Yves Brayer Baux de Provence)
2023-11-18 14:00 (America/Chicago) | WEBINAR (St. Louis), St. Louis, MO
18 November 2023, Saturday at 2 PM (Central Standard Time Zone). ZOOM lecture: “Art expressions of the intimate life in Pompeii, the Lupanare Grande” by Cyril Dumas (Curator at the Musee Yves Brayer Baux de Provence). Zoom room opens at 1:45 and lecture promptly starts at 2 PM. Sign in at 1:45, please…

The Ever Changing Face of Indigenous People
2023-11-18 10:30 - 12:00 (America/New_York) | Science Center Auditorium (SC 114) at The University of Dayton., 450 East Stewart St, Dayton, OH, 45409, United States
The second presentation in the Archaeological Institute of America’s Dayton Society 2023-2024 Lecture Series presented by Guy Jones, President of the Miami Valley Council for Native Americans..
The Ever Changing Face of Indigenous People
The identity of Indigenous people has and will probably change again and again as new discoveries come to light. As the relationship of Native and Non-Native develops various perceptions become a part of the cultural, historic and spiritual identity. The advancement of science has also impacted the narrative and validated traditional stories. As time moves on the various perceptions influence the narrative especially the experience of academics, traditional values, stories and the experience of all Natives.
This lecture is currently scheduled to take place in person in the Science Center Auditorium (SC 114) at The University of Dayton.
For those planning to attend in person please see UD’s COVID-19 Protocols page: https://udayton.edu/studev/ud-families/covid-19_protocols.php?fbclid=IwAR3v0CWid_X_ht37mjKItwIviUdVEL48hIeF_9cEfrb1BeS2uP9I7cjLiRY
For a campus map with building and parking information visit https://udayton.edu/map/
Thanks to the Archaeological Institute of America’s Lecture Program and its Dayton Society members this lecture is free and open to the public.

Ancient Roman Concrete: Let's build an Empire!
2023-11-17 19:30 (America/Halifax) | Provincial Archives Building, UNB Campus, 23 Dineen Drive, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 5H1, Canada

Archaeology and Conservation: The Tombs at Rio Azul, a Treasure in Guatemala
2023-11-17 15:00 (America/New_York) | WEBINAR (Albany), Albany, NY
Joukowsky lecture

Second International Symposium on the ARCHAEOLOGY OF WESTERN ANATOLIA
2023-11-17 08:00 - 2023-11-18 17:00 (America/New_York) | Faculty of Letters of the Dokuz Eylül University (DEU) in Buca, Izmir, DEÜ Edebiyat Fakültesi Tınaztepe Yerleşkesi Adatepe Mah. Doğuş Cad. No: 207/M 35390 Buca/İZMİR/TÜRKİYE, Izmir, 1297984856, Turkey
We are glad to inform you that an international symposium on Archaeology and history of the Cayster (Küçük Menderes) Valley in south-eastern inland part of Izmir, Turkey will take place on November 17-18, 2023 on Zoom. Küçük Menderes (“Little Meander”), Cayster River or Kaystros River (Ancient Greek: Κάϋστρος, French: Caÿstre) or Caystrus River is a river south of İzmir, Turkey. It flows westward between the ranges of Mount Tmolos and Mount Messogis through “wide, thickly settled and productive” plains (Strabo 13.4.13). Cayster (Küçük Menderes) Valley had an economy based on agriculture in ancient and medieval times as well as today. Although the settlement history of the Cayster (Küçük Menderes) Valley begins with prehistoric times, it can be said with the help of archaeological data that the urbanization extends to the Hellenistic Period. Intended to bring together scholars of Greek, Roman and Byzantine archaeology to discuss a range of issues concerning Cayster (Küçük Menderes) Valley, this electronic conference is an excellent opportunity to increase our knowledge about this region. Papers engageging the following themes and topics are invited:
– Cayster (Küçük Menderes) Valley during the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods,
– Archaeological field projects in Cayster (Küçük Menderes) Valley,
– Ancient Greek, Latin and Byzantine authors and other textual as well as cartographic sources,
– Miscellanea.
On all themes and questions, all approaches and methods susceptible to bring some progress to our current knowledge are of course welcome: archaeology, ancient history, historical geography, epigraphy, numismatic, history of art, cultural anthropology etc. The symposium will take place virtually on Zoom. All the readings and discussions in our e-conference will be in English, and recorded for later viewing on YouTube. The proceedings of the symposium will be published in 2025. The symposium is free of charge.
We would be delighted, if you could consider contributing to our symposium and contact us with the required information below before September 9, 2023. Our e-mail address is: ergun.lafli@deu.edu.tr
The organizers seek to widen participation at this symposium, and would like to encourage colleagues from all parts of the world to attend. We kindly request that you alert any interested researches, colleagues and students within your research community who would be interested in participating at this e-conference, either by forwarding our first circular and poster through Academia, Researchgate, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other similar social media, or by printing them and displaying in your institution. Please share them also on your ListServs. We hope that you will be able to join us on Zoom, and look forward to seeing you!

“Discoveries at Cooper’s Ferry Increase our Knowledge of Early PNW Peoples” by Loren G. Davis PhD, Department of Anthropology, Oregon State University
2023-11-16 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Vancouver) | Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (MAC), 2316 West 1st Avenue, Spokane, Washington, 99201, United States
Archaeological excavations at the Cooper’s Ferry site reveal a long record of repeated human occupation beginning sometime before 15,785 cal BP and extending to ~2,000 years ago. This site, which is the location of an ancient village known to the Nez Perce Indian Tribe as Nipéhe, bears the earliest well-dated evidence of people in the Pacific Northwest and is one of the best lines of proof about early peoples in the Americas. In this presentation, we will review the basis for how the age of the site has been established and how the archaeological record there informs our understanding of what the early period of human presence looks like and where else such evidence might be found in the Pacific Northwest.
The lecture will broadcast in realtime via Zoom.
Join Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84120684037?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 841 2068 4037
Passcode: [REDACTED]

AIA Archaeology Hour with Katherine L. Chiou
2023-11-15 20:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Virginia
Join the AIA for a fascinating evening as Katherine L. Chiou (University of Alabama) presents Cuisine and Crisis: An Edible History of the Moche of Ancient Peru.
This presentation will be given at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central/6pm Mountain/5pm Pacific.
Imagine stepping into the shoes of an ancient Peruvian, tasting the flavors and savoring the meals of a time long past. In this talk, we’ll journey into the rich culinary history of the Moche people, who thrived along the desertic northern Peruvian coast from AD 100-800.
But it’s not just about what was on the plate; it’s about what those meals can tell us about the lives, struggles, and joys of two very different parts of Moche society. By exploring both a grand feast preparation area and a humble commoner’s home, we’ll dig into what food reveals about wealth, status, and daily life during a turbulent time marked by drought and political tension.
How did food contribute to social unrest? Were the rich and poor eating the same meals or were there stark differences? What does a simple dish tell us about a person’s identity? These questions and more will be served up in this delicious journey into the past, blending archaeology, technology, and a good pinch of culinary intrigue. Whether you’re a foodie, history buff, or simply curious about how meals connect us to our ancestors, this talk is a feast for the mind you won’t want to miss.

Caring for Navajo Culture: In Museums and Beyond
2023-11-15 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Stephanie Mach (Diné), Curator of North American Collections, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University
Cynthia Wilson (Diné), Native and Indigenous Rights Fellow, Religion and Public Life Program, Harvard Divinity School
Wade Campbell (Diné), Assistant Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology, Boston University
Join Stephanie Mach (Diné), Peabody Museum Curator of North American Collections and Diné (Navajo) guests for a panel conversation about the ways they each care for Navajo cultural heritage within their various areas of work and interest. This event provides an opportunity to hear from Navajo scholars who will share their experiences protecting and stewarding cultural heritage in museums and in community.
Following the panel conversation, attendees are encouraged to visit the Hall of the North American Indian at the Peabody Museum—from 7:15 to 8:00 pm—where Harvard students will be available to share information about key cultural items on display.
Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.
Presented by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture in collaboration with the Center for the Study of World Religions and the Religion and Public Life Program, Harvard Divinity School; the Harvard University Native American Program; and The Constellation Project of the Planetary Health Alliance.
Image: Wedding basket. Gift of Mrs. William Whitman, 1930. Courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University, 30-9-10/98459

The Bioarchaeology of the Distinctive Burials of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece
2023-11-14 19:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Davidson College, 315 North Main Street, Semans Auditorium, Belk Visual Arts Center, Davidson, NC, 28036, United States
Aviva Cormier, “The Bioarchaeology of the Distinctive Burials of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece”
THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. If you’re interested in archaeology, please join us!
About the lecture:
The world’s attention has been captured by the 7th century BCE finds that emerged from the coastal sands of Faliro, the ancient Port of Athens. Most often discussed are the seventy-nine young men who had been violently executed and interred in three trenches. They lived and died during the political upheavals that culminated in the foundational democracy of Classical Athens. These, however, are but a fraction (<10%) of those excavated between 2012 and 2017 at the site of Phaleron. Most of the 1000+ individuals buried nearby fall within an expected range of burial forms, including pits, cists, and jars. In this talk, I focus on those that fall outside of that range, individuals with mortuary contexts that suggest distinctive experiences in life and death. These distinctive burials include those who were interred collectively in mass graves or buried prone or tightly flexed in single graves, with some bound at the wrists and/or ankles. I present osteobiographies of these individuals- contextualized life histories from their skeletal remains- and emphasize how their potentially violent life and death experiences may have impacted their identity construction, physical wellbeing, and resulting mortuary treatment.
About the speaker:
Dr. Aviva Cormier, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department at Davidson College, is a bioarchaeologist who studies human culture, behavior, and society through human skeletal remains and their archaeological or historical contexts. She focuses on potentially marginalized individuals, those whose bodies or mortuary contexts fall outside of what is expected. She studies individuals with physical differences—those whose bodies do not conform to notions of a normal body or to the normal of the society being studied. She pays particular attention to the lived experiences of these individuals, how they might have navigated their physical and social environments, and how they might have self-identified or been identified by their community. Currently, she is a bioarchaeologist with the Phaleron Bioarchaeology Project.
Our lectures are sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America, with funding from the Davidson College Public Lectures Committee, the Dean Rusk Program, and the departments of Africana Studies, Anthropology, Art, Classics, Educational Studies, History, and Latin American Studies.
Please support us by joining the Archaeological Institute of America for $50 (students $25), which includes a subscription to Archaeology magazine. Be sure to join Society 333, Central Carolinas!
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