Boxes, Banks, Bags, and Bones: Carrying and Storing Money in Ancient Rome
2026-01-27 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Semans Auditorium (Room 117), Belk Visual Arts Center, 315 N. Main St., Davidson, NC, 28036, United States
About the lecture:
How did the Romans carry, store, and save their money? This talk surveys the archaeological evidence for the wallets, purses, bags, boxes, and chests in which the ancient Romans placed their coined money at home and on the go. From reused cooking pots to bronze arm purses and ceramic “piggybanks,” we will explore what the methods and means of containing coined money reveal about Roman daily life, religious practice, and the social and cultural norms around the function of physical currency in the ancient world.
About the speaker:
Dr. Robyn Le Blanc, Assistant Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Archaeology at UNC Greensboro, specializes in the archaeology and coinage of the Roman provinces. Her current research explores how Roman colonies used their coinages to negotiate a local identity. She is also developing a project on Roman money boxes. In 2021-2022 Dr. Le Blanc was the Kershaw Lecturer in Near East Archaeology for the Archaeological Institute of America, and she has recently given invited talks for the American Numismatic Society and the Oxford Numismatic Society. She has participated in excavations in Israel, England, and Montenegro, and she is co-director of WIRE: Women in the Roman East (see more at wireproject.org).

AIA Archaeology Hour January 2026: NAGPRA as a Path to Healing and Reciprocity
2026-01-28 20:00 (America/New_York) | MA
Join the AIA for the first AIA Archaeology Hour talk of the new year as new AIA President Brian I. Daniels hosts Danyelle Means for “NAGPRA as a Path to Healing and Reciprocity.”
This presentation will be given at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central/6pm Mountain/5pm Pacific.
Have you noticed empty exhibit cases at museums over the past two years as museums move to comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)?
Means’ presentation reframes NAGPRA not as a legal obligation but as a vital opportunity for healing, reciprocity, and relationship-building between archaeologists, museums, and Indigenous communities. Drawing from Indigenous perspectives, the talk explores how NAGPRA challenges institutions to move beyond compliance and toward practices rooted in respect, sovereignty, and shared stewardship. By centering Native voices and experiences, this session invites the audience to consider how honoring ancestors and returning cultural items can transform the field into one of accountability, trust, and long-term collaboration.
Register here!

The Impact of Roman Military Presence on the Arid Landscapes of Southern Jordan and Israel
2026-01-29 17:30 - 19:30 (America/Denver) | Remote (Bozeman), Bozeman, MT, United States
Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lectureship

Dr. Stephen Humphreys zoom lecture about the Camden Revolutionary War battlefield.
2026-01-31 14:00 - 15:30 (America/Chicago)
Dr. Stephen Humphreys is the CEO of American Veterans Archaeological Recovery program. One of his projects involves the Camden Revolutionary War battlefield.

From Farmers to Kings: The Emergence of Social Hierarchy in Prehistoric Europe
2026-02-02 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Chicago) | TBA (Iowa City 1), Iowa City, IA, United States
Charles Eliot Norton Memorial Lectureship

Founding the City: Carved Orthostats and Architectural Experimentation in Anatolia
2026-02-03 18:30 - 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Reed College, Performing Arts Building (PAB) 320, 3017 SE Woodstock Blvd., Portland, OR, 97202, United States

Archaeology-Hour Screening: NAGPRA as a Path to Healing and Reciprocity
2026-02-05 17:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Whitman College Maxey Hall 207, 173 Stanton St., Walla Walla, WA, 99362, United States
Please join us for an in-person screening and informal discussion of the Archaeology Hour talk by Danyelle Means (Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, Santa Fe).
Have you noticed empty exhibit cases at museums over the past two years as museums move to comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)? Means’ presentation reframes NAGPRA not as a legal obligation but as a vital opportunity for healing, reciprocity, and relationship-building between archaeologists, museums, and Indigenous communities. Drawing from Indigenous perspectives, the talk explores how NAGPRA challenges institutions to move beyond compliance and toward practices rooted in respect, sovereignty, and shared stewardship. By centering Native voices and experiences, this session invites the audience to consider how honoring ancestors and returning cultural items can transform the field into one of accountability, trust, and long-term collaboration.
This event is free and open to the public.

A Deep Dive into Deep Time: Archaeology, Underwater
2026-02-05 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | TBA (San Francisco), San Francisco, CA
The Frederick R. and Margaret B. Matson Lectureship for Near Eastern Archaeology and Archaeological Technology

Reflections on Ancient Greek Mirrors
2026-02-05 17:30 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | S150 Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia, 270 River Road, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
The Barbara Tsakirgis Memorial Lecture

Landscapes of Time and Memory: Foragers in the Mojave Desert 2
2026-02-05 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Paulus Lecture Hall, Willamette Law School, 245 Winter St SE, Salem, OR, 97301, USA

Making the Ice Age Virtual and Accessible: Using VR and Underwater Robotics to Teach Archaeology
2026-02-06 17:00 - 18:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | TBA (Stanford 1), Stanford, CA, United States
The Frederick R. and Margaret B. Matson Lectureship for Near Eastern Archaeology and Archaeological Technology Time TBA

"Late Victorian Race Science and its Legacies in Aegean Archaeology"
2026-02-06 17:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Swallow Hall, Room 101, 507 South 9th Street, Columbia, MO, 65201, United States
Interested in receptions of antiquity, discoveries in prehistory, and ideas about race during the late 19th and early 20th centuries? The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA)’s Central Missouri Chapter as well as the Classics, Archaeology, and Religion (CAR) Department welcome Dr. Anne Duray for her lecture “Late Victorian Race Science and its Legacies in Aegean Archaeology” on Friday, February 6th, at 5:30 p.m. in Swallow Hall, Room 101.
There will be a reception beforehand at 5 p.m.

Provenance Research in the Fight Against Looting
2026-02-07 08:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | ARCE-NC Lectures, Rm 126 Social Sciences Bldg., 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 Zoom lecture by Sara Aly, Griffith Institute:
“Provenance Research in the Fight Against Looting”
Sunday, February 22 2026, 3 PM PST
Register in advance for this lecture:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/MvauTi1wT0OHniyDLJXJHw
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 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, you should 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 glenn@glennmeyer.net or arcencZoom@gmail.com.
About the Lecture:
Since the days when the pharaohs ruled over Egypt, funerary materials have been affected by the greed of people. An enormous amount of wealth was invested in preparations for the afterlife, but often this richness represented by gold and precious minerals in the funerary equipment became the booty of many, rather than the resting place for one. Unfortunately, the scale of destruction due to the ongoing looting is greater today than ever and several illegally sourced artefacts from Egypt constantly appear on the art market. Authorities consistently work to detect these objects by tracing the activity of dealers and galleries, but a lot still needs to be done. Source countries require tougher laws and international legislation needs to become stricter. Moreover, the knowledge of specialists must be employed in a systematic way to assist in the rescue of these objects. Museum curators should implement due diligence, learn about the art market, and understand how to conduct provenance research. This practice helps with the identification of looted artefacts by analysing an object and comparing it with published examples of the same kind, allowing its origins to be identified and some lost archaeological context to be recovered.
About the Speaker:
Sara Aly’s research focuses on the circulation of illicitly sourced Egyptian artefacts on the art market, following a collaboration that started 6 years ago with the Circulating Artefacts project at the British Museum. Her MA dissertation at the University of Manchester (2023) examined upper coffin fragments appearing on the art market. Since 2023, she has been a member of the Franco-Egyptian Archaeological Mission of Western Thebes, working at the Ramesseum, where she analyses coffin and cartonnage fragments. From 2023 to 2025 she worked as an Art Market Expert at the British Museum helping to identify and recover missing items from the museum’s collection. Now based at the Griffith Institute, Sara is studying the archival material of J.J. Clère related to his documentation of Egyptian objects in the possession of antiquities dealers and collectors between the 1930s and the 1980s.
About Northern California ARCE:
For more information, please visit https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://www.facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://arce-nc.org, https://bsky.app/profile/khentiamentiu.bsky.social, 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.

The Unknown Ottawa Project – working with colonial and indigenous assemblages from the Ottawa region
2026-02-08 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | 303 Paterson Hall, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Speaker: Laura Banducci – Carleton University
This project involves the re-studying and digitization of artefacts from several assemblages from Lake Leamy Park, at the confluence of the Ottawa and Gatineau Rivers. This was a central meeting place from the earliest days of human occupation of the region, yet the materials are not well-published or easily accessible. National Capital Commission archaeologists and members of Carleton University are working together to bring decades of archaeological investigation in the park to light for the general public and for scholars. Site 18, a beachfront stretch along the Ottawa, contains thousands of fragments of stone tool debris and pottery attesting to its frequent use 2000 years ago. Site 24, along the Gatineau River, reveals the remains of the earliest settlers in the region, who travelled North from the US to Hull Township at the turn of the 19th century. This lecture discusses the beginning of work on these assemblages and highlights some of the stories about Ottawa’s past we’ve learned so far.

“What Do We Owe to Already-Looted Objects?”
2026-02-09 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Jepson Hall, Room 118, Richmond Way 221, Richmond, VA, 23226, United States
Lecture by Elizabeth Marlowe, Professor of Art History and Chair of the Art department at Colgate University
(https://www.archaeological.org/lecturer/elizabeth-marlowe/)

On Metals, Grasses, and Mollusks: A Local History of Ecology, Economy, and Empire in Roman Iberia
2026-02-09 18:00 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Kremen School of Education Building ED170, CSU Fresno, 5005 N Maple Ave MS ED1, Fresno, CA, 93740, United States

Daniel Healey, Provenance Researcher, Worcester Art Museum: "Orphaned Antiquities & Cold Case Files: Investigating Provenance in the New Era of Museum Restitution"
2026-02-09 18:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | MA
The Clarence and Anne Dillon Dunwalke Lecture
Provenance refers to an artwork’s history of ownership, from the time of its creation or archaeological discovery to the present. Provenance researchers track down a wide range of sources—scholarship, auction catalogs, financial records, inventories, correspondence, photographs, markings on artworks themselves, and more—to reconstruct an object’s past and retrace its path to the museum. This work has been compared to that of an investigator, and provenance researchers routinely described as “art detectives.” Over the past decade, these metaphors have become increasingly relevant as law-enforcement agencies across the U.S. have arrested dealers, seized antiquities from the nation’s leading museums, and made hundreds of repatriations to countries around the world—all to great fanfare and press coverage. The collision between the worlds of law enforcement and museums has revolutionized the field of provenance research and redefined the standards of ethical and legal collecting in this country. As a former Antiquities Trafficking Analyst for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and now the Provenance Research Specialist at the Worcester Art Museum, I will share stories from the frontlines of provenance research—stories of looting, forgery, and repatriation—that explain why museums need “art detectives” now more than ever.

The Ecstasy and the Agony:Excavations at La Venta, Mexico, an Olmec Capital
2026-02-11 17:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | University of Florida, Smathers Library Room 100, 1508 Union Rd, Gainesville, FL, 32611, United States
Lecturer: Dr. Susan Gillespie
Professor of Anthropology, University of Florida
In 1942 and 1943, excavations revealed fabulous buried deposits of jade and other precious items in a very unexpected place: La Venta on Mexico’s southern Gulf coast, an area of swamps and tropical forest. These finds produced an “ecstatic” reaction in the world of archaeology and shed light on the Olmecs, a mysterious early civilization in Mesoamerica (c. 1150-400 BC). Subsequent fieldwork in 1955 revealed even more astonishing discoveries: tons of jade and other greenstone objects recovered at an “agonizing” cost. The archaeologists encountered tremendous problems excavating La Venta. The site was already suffering damage by development, and subsequent looting destroyed much of what was left. The story of the ecstasy and agony of La Venta’s excavations is reconstructed through archival archaeology, analyzing the field records, maps, and photographs.

Josef Wegner - Digging into Egypt’s Late Middle Kingdom, Recent Discoveries at the Anubis-Mountain Royal Necropolis, Abydos
2026-02-11 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Johns Hopkins University, Homewood campus Gilman Hall Room 50, Johns Hopkins University, Homewood campus, BALTIMORE, MD, 21206, United States
Wednesday Feb. 11, 5:30 – 6:30, Gilman Hall Room 50
Johns Hopkins University, Homewood campus
Dorothy Kent Hill Lecture
Josef Wegner, University of Pennsylvania
Digging into Egypt’s Late Middle Kingdom, Recent Discoveries at the Anubis-Mountain Royal Necropolis, Abydos

COZA/COSANO/COZANO: Socio-Economuc Interactions among Middle Republican Cities in Central Italy
2026-02-12 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Kirkhof Center, room 2270, Grand Valley State University, Allendale campus, Allendale, MI, 49401, United States
Join us for discussion of innovative new approaches to the study of ancient coins! Dr. Melissa Ludke will discuss her numismatic work at early Roman Cosa and beyond. Dr. Ludke serves as Numismatic Specialist at the the Cosa (Terme) Excavations. She has published several papers on numismatics and is working on a book about Cosa during the Middle Republic.
The Latin colony of Cosa has long experienced archaeological investigation and, more recently, re-analysis, but Cosa’s earliest history remains elusive. However, new numismatic evidence from Cosa is raising interesting questions. Who was minting these coins, why do they appear at certain regional centers and nowhere else, and do these small objects represent larger processes of network connectivity? Dr. Ludke addresses these questions and more, using a geospatial network-based approach through QGIS, and a Least-Cost Path analysis to track potential socio-economic interactions between Cosa and contemporaneous regional centers.

Webinar: Radiocarbon Dating & Stable Isotopes in Archaeology
2026-02-12 19:30 - 20:00 (America/Vancouver) | Zoom, 4985 SW 74th Court, Miami, FL, 33155, United States
Join SGS Beta for an accessible introduction to radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dating and stable isotope applications in archaeology and related sciences. This webinar will cover the fundamentals of how radiocarbon dating works, including why calibration is essential for accuracy, and the special considerations needed when working with bone samples. Through case studies, you’ll learn how ¹⁴C analysis has been applied to archaeological discoveries ranging from Viking burials to mammoth remains, and how stable isotopes like strontium and oxygen provide insights into ancient migration, diet, and provenance.
Dr. Maren Pauly is a natural scientist specializing in isotope geochemistry who undertook her PhD in Natural Sciences at the Freie Universität Berlin and previously completed her Master of Science and Bachelor of Science at the University of Waterloo in Canada. She is currently working as a scientific associate at SGS Beta.

Replacing Empires. The Archaeology of Political Transformation and Spatial Dynamics in 1st Millennium BCE Mesopotamia
2026-02-13 17:00 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | TBA (Columbus), Columbus, OH, United States
Kershaw Lectures in Near East Archaeology Time TBA

The Gunboat at Ground Zero: A Revolutionary War Mystery
2026-02-15 15:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Rye Free Reading Room, 1061 Boston Post Road, Rye, NY, 10580, United States
In 2010, archaeologists monitoring excavation at the World Trade Center redevelopment site made an extraordinary discovery: the remains of an 18th-century wooden gunboat buried deep beneath Manhattan’s historic landfill. Likely built near Philadelphia in the early 1770s, this Revolutionary War-era vessel once patrolled shallow waterways before being abandoned along the Hudson River. Preserved for over 200 years in oxygen-poor soil, the ship measured about 50 feet long and featured a raised deck.
More than 600 pieces of timber and 2,000 artifacts—including musket balls, buttons, and ceramic tankards—were recovered from the site. Evidence suggests the vessel was likely captured by the British and traveled south, perhaps as far as the Caribbean, before arriving in New York. How it ended up buried in New York City remains a fascinating mystery.
Stabilized and studied for over a decade under the direction of Dr. Peter Fix, Associate Research Scientist of Archaeological Watercraft and Aircraft Conservation at Texas A&M University, the ship returned to New York in the spring of 2025. It is now being reconstructed for permanent display at the New York State Museum by Dr. Fix and his team.
As one of the few documented American-built Revolutionary War vessels, the gunboat offers a rare, tangible link to the nation’s fight for independence and highlights New York’s enduring role in shaping American history.
The Gunboat at Ground Zero : A Revolutionary War Mystery exhibit is on display at the New York State Museum from May 14, 2025 to January 31, 2026. Details online at the New York State Museum website.
IN-PERSON SPEAKERS
Michael Lucas is Curator of Historical Archaeology at the New York State Museum where he oversees a collection of over 4 million objects including the World Trade Center ship remnant and associated artifacts. He received a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Maryland in 2008, focusing on 17th century town development in Maryland. He broadly studies rural production, labor, and community formation during the 17th through 19th centuries. His current field research program focuses on the contributions and struggles of African American farmers in the Hudson River Valley from 1780 to 1880. His collections research includes comparative analysis of tobacco pipes, and artifact assemblages associated with enslaved people and wage laborers.
Michael T. Lucas, Ph.D.
Curator of Historical Archaeology
New York State Museum
CEC Room 3049
Albany, NY 12230
Michael Pappalardo is a Registered Professional Archaeologist and a Senior Technical Director at the environmental planning firm AKRF, Inc. Pappalardo has more than 30 years of experience in cultural resource management, working in the context of both national and state level historic preservation legislation, and has directed numerous excavations across New York and other states dating from the early Precontact through the Historic Periods. Pappalardo led the multidisciplinary team of archaeologists, ship experts, conservationists, and other specialists that discovered, documented, and excavated the Gun Boat at Ground Zero in 2010 and 2011.
Michael Pappalardo RPA
Archaeologist
AKRF
500 Summer Street, Suite 400, Stamford, CT 06901
www.akrf.com
VIRTUAL PARTICIPANT
Peter Fix
Assistant Research Scientist
Watercraft Conservator
Dr. Fix grew up on the coast of southeastern Connecticut where he fell in love with watercraft of all types. An avid sailor from the age of six, growing up he spent half the year sailing and racing sailboats on Fishers Island Sound, and the rest of the year reading about history. In 1981 he began his career in the field of historic maritime preservation at Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, CT working first for the Education Department and later for the Museum’s Henry B. du Pont Preservation Shipyard. It was this love of watercraft, and the encouragement of several prominent marine archaeologists and preservationists, that led him to enter the graduate program in Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University in September of 1996.
In January 1997, he began working for the Conservation Research Lab where he has served in several capacities over the last two decades. He has directed field work and developed archaeological and conservation plans for sunken aircraft in Irian Jaya, Indonesia and in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Dr. Fix was the principal conservator for the 17th-Century French ship La Belle and head of her reconstruction in the Texas State History Museum in Austin, TX. He oversees the conservation for large artifacts, including: two disarticulated 18th century ships from New York City and Alexandria, VA; two dugout canoes from Louisiana; and the Gunboat Philadelphia.
The Nautical Archaeology Program (NAP) at Texas A&M University is the oldest academic degree-granting graduate program in the U.S. devoted to the study of boats and ships and the cultures that created and used them. NAP Faculty provide instruction in the history of seafaring and wooden ship construction; maritime commerce and cargoes; the skills needed to record, excavate, analyze, and conserve the archaeological remains of these activities.
To see the video, click here https://nysm.nysed.gov/exhibitions/gunboat-at-ground-zero
To register for the lecture click here

Soto’s Stuff: Spanish 16th Century Expeditions and What They Left Behind
2026-02-17 17:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | University of Florida, Smathers Library Room 100, 1508 Union Rd, Gainesville, FL, 32611, United States
Lecturer: Dr. Charles Cobb
Lockwood Chair in Historical Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History
2025 UF Research Foundation Professor
Over the last decade, research by a collaboration of archaeologists has made considerable strides toward identifying sites visited by Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto’s army in the American Southeast (A.D. 1539-1543). In addition to delineating the route traveled by Soto, our working group has now amassed a substantial sample of European metal objects recovered from Indigenous villages. This presentation provides new insights on the Soto route and on how the related artifacts shed light on patterns of discard, trade, and the ways in which Indigenous societies reshaped European material culture.

From Farmers to Kings: The Emergence of Social Hierarchy in Prehistoric Europe
2026-02-17 17:30 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, 1 Quinlan St, Lynchburg, VA, 24503, United States
Lecture by William Parkinson; William (Bill) Parkinson is an archaeologist who specializes in European and Eastern Mediterranean Prehistory. His anthropological and archaeological research explores the social dynamics of early village societies and the emergence of early states. He has over 30 years of experience conducting archaeological fieldwork and developing museum exhibitions for the Field Museum.
The modern world is plagued with unprecedented levels of social, economic, and political inequalities. But these inequities did not happen overnight; in places like southeastern Europe they emerged over the course of thousands of years as the small egalitarian farming villages of the Neolithic gave way to some of the earliest hierarchical kingdoms in the Iron Age. This is the story that was told in the First Kings of Europe exhibition, an ambitious international collaboration between twenty-six museums in eleven countries in southeastern Europe. In this presentation, Bill Parkinson gives an overview of his archaeological research into the emergence of social hierarchy in the region, as well as an overview of the exhibition he co-curated with his long-time collaborator, Attila Gyucha.

Linda Cordell and Her Many Contributions to Southwest Archaeology
2026-02-17 18:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Pecos Trail Café, 2239 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, NM, 87505, United States
(Lecturers: Dr. Maxine McBrinn and Dr. Judith Habicht Mauche) Linda Cordell was extraordinarily active in southwestern archaeology during her resources in the work of others. Because of this, her influence extended well beyond her own students to those of many of her colleagues. One of her last personal endeavors was working with the Tijeras Pueblo Ceramics Project. Examples of her prodigious influence on archaeological research will be presented.

Punitive Labor and Enslavement in the Roman Bakery
2026-02-17 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Semans Auditorium (Room 117), Belk Visual Arts Center, 315 N. Main St., Davidson, NC, 28036, United States
About the lecture:
In 2023, excavators in Pompeii found a bakery in the Casa di Rustio Vero that was separated from the house—and the rest of the world—by metal bars. The excavators interpreted the bars as an indication of incarceration and the use of convicts as labor. This lecture explores the evidence for convict labor in bakeries and argues that the material consequences of enslavement and incarceration are probably indistinguishable in the setting of commerical activity. Deploying both textual and material evidence, Benton will show the various ways that punitive labor grafted onto different systems and scales of production.
About the speaker:
Dr. Jared Benton, associate professor of art at Old Dominion University, is co-director of the Saïss Plain and Zerhoun Massif archaeology project, a survey of the plain SE of Volubilis in Morocco. He has previously excavated workshops in Volubilis and was a field supervisor for the American Excavations at Morgantina from 2013-2020. His book, The Bread Makers, explores Roman commercial baking, with a focus on how production would differ not only between communities but also between operators with different investment tolerances. With a number of co-authors, he recently published an article on the structure and archaeobotany of a bakery at Volubilis in Mouseion.

Public Lecture: Professor Jean-Michel Roessli (Department of Theological Studies, Concordia University)
2026-02-19 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Concordia University, H 411, 1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd W, Montreal, QC, H3G-1M8, Canada
On Thursday, February 19th, Professor Jean-Michel Roessli (Department of Theological Studies, Concordia University) will deliver a presentation entitled, Orpheus in Early Judaism and Early Christianity: Texts and Images. The talk will take place at 600pm in Hall Building 411 (SGW).

U-2 Over Egypt: A Remote Survey of the Nile Delta using Cold War Aerial Photography
2026-02-19 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
The KY Society of the AIA and the University of Louisville Department of Anthropology present a free public lecture by Dr. Oren Siegel (University of Toronto). During the height of the Cold War, the United States flew a series of reconnaissance missions using U-2 spy planes over Egypt. Film negatives from two flights that cover much of the Nile Valley and Nile Delta from 1959 have recently been declassified, and the resulting imagery is both earlier and higher resolution than publicly available CORONA satellite imagery. This talk will discuss the ongoing work by the Brown-Toronto U2 Aerial Photography of Egypt Project to digitize this imagery from the National Archives and Records Administration and make these photographs publicly available to all interested researchers. Beyond this, I will showcase the results of our ongoing remote survey of Beheira Governorate using U-2 imagery, highlighting how this imagery gives us a unique window onto a landscape that has changed significantly over the last 5 decades. The talk will close by looking at how this compares to other satellite imagery and aerial photography and highlight the potential of this dataset for archaeological research.

Egyptian Blue, humanity’s first inorganic pigment
2026-02-19 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA, 99201, United States
Join us for a lecture by Professor John McCloy, Washington State University, who will present results of an investigation into the materials science and processing parameters to fabricate Egyptian blue faience.
Recently, our group at Washington State University, with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute, recreated Egyptian blue to uncover the science behind its color, ranging from gray or green to deep blue. We produced 12 versions of Egyptian blue and compared them with artifacts, using advanced X-ray techniques, spectroscopy, and quantitative color measurements. We found Egyptian blue is a complex mixture of phases, with hue controlled by particle size, glass content, and cuprorivaite–silica ratios. Even small changes in materials or heating could dramatically shift its color.
These findings reveal ancient craftspeople as skilled materials scientists. Beyond cultural insights and conservation, Egyptian blue’s infrared glow continues to inspire modern technologies, linking past creativity with future innovation.
