Archaeological Institute of America

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)
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

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

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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)
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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Far from Home: Diaspora Networks, Religion, and Identity Abroad on the Ancient Indian Ocean
2025-03-10 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Education Building, Room 173, California State University, Fresno, CA, 93740, United States
The George F. Bass Lectures
Zoom Link: https://fresnostate.zoom.us/j/87222241660

Joanne Baron - Painted Nightmares: Wahys on Classic Maya Ceramics
2025-03-12 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus, Baltimore, Maryland, 21210, United States
Painted Nightmares: Wahys on Classic Maya Ceramics
Joanne Baron
Dumbarton Oaks – Post-Doctoral Fellow, Pre-Columbian Studies
New discoveries about wahy, a category of supernatural entity that the ancient Maya believed caused diseases and misfortunes.

Normalizing Loot: A Case Study of a Plundered Imperial Shrine
2025-03-12 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Denver) | Eaton Humanities Room 250, Pleasant Street 1610, Boulder, CO, 80302, United States
Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lectureships

The Search for The Endurance: The Amazing Story of How Archaeology and Technology Were Used to Make History
2025-03-14 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | 114 Lake Michigan Hall, GVSU Allendale campus, Allendale, MI, 49401, United States
Timothy Jacob, Crew member of the SS Algulhas 2, will speak about his experience as part of the expedition to find the lost ship of Sir Ernest Shackleton in the Antarctic.
This presentation starts at 4pm in 114 Lake Michigan Hall, GVSU Allendale Campus.

Dying as a Macedonian in Egypt: Styling Social Identity through Hellenistic Burial Practices
2025-03-17 18:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Institute of Fine Arts–NYU, Lecture Hall, 1 East 78th Street, New York, NY, 10075, United States
Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship
Co-Sponsored by the New York University, Institute of Fine Arts

Sailing in the Wake of Hatshepsut: How to build a Punt Ship
2025-03-18 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
Anna Marguerite McCann and Robert D. Taggart Lectureship in Underwater Archaeology

Archaeology and the Tibetan/Himalayan Afterlife
2025-03-18 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Denver) | Pecos Trail Café, 2239 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, NM, 87505, United States

“Freedom and Family at Boyd Cabin (Buncombe County, North Carolina)” -- Dr. Scotti Norman
2025-03-18 19:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Davidson College, 315 North Main Street, Semans Auditorium, Belk Visual Arts Center, Davidson, NC, 28036, United States
“Freedom and Family at Boyd Cabin (Buncombe County, North Carolina)”
Lecture by
Dr. Scotti M. Norman, Assistant Professor of Material Culture and Archaeology at Warren Wilson College
March 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 talk will discuss the collaborative efforts of work at Boyd Cabin, one of the first nineteenth and twentieth-century freedman homesteads in North Carolina. Through the integration of documentary research, archaeological excavation, and oral histories from the Boyd family, this project attempts to forge new ties between archaeologists and descendant communities in the region. Preliminary excavation results indicate that the 14-person Boyd family maintained a thriving agricultural farm and built a communal space for family during a radically challenging post-emancipation, post-bellum period in Appalachia.
About the speaker:
Dr. Scotti M. Norman, Assistant Professor of Material Culture and Archaeology at Warren Wilson College, has investigated colonialism and the repercussions of intersectional and structural inequality in Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and the United States. Her current research focuses on the forging of familial and communal ties in historically Black sites in North Carolina. More broadly, she focuses on ethical archaeological practice through collaboration with local communities.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Please support out AIA Central Carolinas Society 333 with your membership in AIA.

Archaeology-Hour Livestream: Rosemary Joyce. “Complex Society Without Rulers”
2025-03-19 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Whitman College Maxey Hall 207, 173 Stanton St., Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
For many people, the word “archaeology” conjures up images of monuments, often interpreted as traces of the lives of powerful rulers who can seem to be inevitable parts of any urban, agricultural society. But there are other stories archaeology can tell about societies in which there was no apparent ruler, but nevertheless show the hallmarks of “complexity.” This lecture explores one such society, the ancient Ulúa culture of northern Honduras, neighbors to Classic Maya states. In Ulúa culture, people used religion to reinforce social relations in a society of wealthy farmers who enjoyed artworks of extraordinary beauty… without rulers. Please join us in-person to watch this livestreamed Zoom lecture.

Dying as a Macedonian in Egypt: Styling Social Identity through Hellenistic Burial Practices
2025-03-20 17:30 - 18:30 (America/Chicago) | Nebraska Wesleyan University, Smith Curtis, Room 103, 5111 Madison Ave, Lincoln, NE, 68504
Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship

Collecting the Ancient World: Early Explorations, Encyclopedic Museums, and World's Exhibitions
2025-03-20 17:30 - 18:30 (America/Chicago) | University of Missouri, Swallow Hall Auditorium, 507 S. 9th St., Columbia, MO, 65201
