Creating an Archaeology Boot Camp at Your Site: The University of Pennsylvania Example
2022-02-13 14:00 - 15:30 (America/New_York) | Rye Free Reading Room, 1061 Boston Post Road, Rye, NY, 10580, United States
Cultural and educational institutions are still learning how best to overcome the limitations placed on our activities by the Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, archaeology has been drastically impacted by restrictions on international travel, and has had to find new ways to bring researchers, students, objects, and landscapes together in the study of the ancient world. Beyond the on-the-ground training that students receive by participating in international fieldwork, they have also missed out on important co-curricular learning: traveling on their own, working on a diverse team, navigating novel cultural experiences, and finding out if the ‘life’ of an archaeologist is for them.
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has a long history of both international fieldwork and excavation and student education. When confronted with another summer with no fieldwork opportunities, a team of conservators, faculty, and museum administrators developed a rigorous, on-site “Archaeological Bootcamp” that would provide Penn undergraduates with the skills that they would need in future ‘real’ fieldwork seasons. Using the collections, laboratories, and even the courtyard garden beds of the Penn Museum, the Bootcamp simulated fieldwork training in archaeobotany, field survey, ceramic analysis, digital archaeology, and field conservation, and brought in veteran archaeologists to talk about what it’s like to do fieldwork around the world. With aching backs, new friendships, and practical archaeological skills, these students will be ready to move into the field when the world reopens.
Tiballi devised the Archaeology Bootcamp program in summer 2021. She will discuss the potentials and limitations of the program for college, youth, and adult audiences. What resources (material, environmental, and human) are needed to ensure the success of such a program? What kinds of needs does it address, and will these needs change as we move into the 21st century?
Dr. Anne Tiballi is the Director of Academic Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. After completing her undergraduate degree in anthropology at Vassar College, she began graduate study at Binghamton University and performed her dissertation research on the archaeological materials from the Cemetery of the Sacrificed Women, Pachacamac, Peru, at the Penn Museum. Anne specializes in the analysis and interpretation of ancient textile materials, with a particular interest in the social dimensions of technology. Her field course on the analysis, reproduction, and field conservation of textiles from the prehistoric Andes has been held in Arequipa, Peru and at Bryn Mawr College. As Director of Academic Engagement, Anne works collaboratively with museum staff and university faculty to devise novel and effective ways to incorporate the Museum’s collections into the curriculum. She oversees student research fellowships, internships, work study, co-curricular programming, professionalization, and engagement initiatives. Anne is serving as Head of Collections, Research and Teaching at the History of Science Museum at Oxford University in 2022.

Sex in the Ancient City
2022-02-13 15:00 - 16:30 (America/Chicago) | FL
With the recent reboot of HBO’s classic, Sex and the City, some may be asking themselves, “I couldn’t help but wonder…(as Carrie often says in Sex and the City) what were attitudes about sex in the ancient Greek and Roman city?” Were there any Carries, Mirandas, Samanthas, or Charlottes of the ancient world? Join Dr. Dylan Rogers, a Classical Archaeologist from the University of Virginia to take a look at relationships, seduction, and flirtation, including sexual behaviors of men and women at Greek drinking parties, life in a brothel in Pompeii, the qualities that made a Roman emperor ‘naughty’, and more. Our discussion will be just in time for the feast of Saint Valentine, the patron saint of lovers.
What doesn’t go better with a talk about sex for Valentine’s Day than chocolate! Courtesy of Araya Chocolatiers, all attendees of the Zoom event will receive a digital coupon for 10% off the cost of their intensely-flavored handcrafted artisan chocolates. These may be shipped nationwide or picked up in person at their Houston location.

Benin Bronzes in Context (Free Virtual Lecture)
2022-02-15 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Sarah Anita Clunis, Director of Academic Partnerships and Curator of African Collections, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
In conversation with Diana DiPaolo Loren, Senior Curator, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
The kingdom of Benin, a highly centralized state founded in the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries in southwestern Nigeria, dominated trade with Europeans on the Nigerian coast from the late 1400s until the end of the 1900s. Ruled by a divine king, or Oba, the Benin kingdom relied on specialized guilds who created elaborate court regalia that adorned the palace of the Oba. Bronze plaques, ivory statuettes, and delicate coral-beaded items were used to establish status and validate the Oba’s power. In 1897 a British expeditionary force invaded Benin, plundered the palace, and burned it to the ground. Items linked to this expedition were then sent to museums around the world, including both the Harvard Art Museums and Harvard’s Peabody Museum, and are housed in their collections. In this program, Sarah Clunis will look at objects currently in the care of Harvard and discuss the way that these objects represent an iconographic and contextual story of trade, contact, and crossroads between cultures. Diana Loren will moderate a discussion after the presentation.
The bronze, ivory, and wooden artworks broadly known as the “Benin Bronzes” were taken from Benin City as part of the British Punitive Expedition of 1897 and dispersed to private collections and museums around the world. The Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and Harvard Art Museums acknowledge the violence and trauma of the Expedition and understand that the presence of this cultural material in Western museums is experienced as continued injustice by descendent communities.
Presented by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture in collaboration with the Harvard Art Museums

Artifacts and Archaeological Processes: The Lives and Afterlives of Objects in Pompeii
2022-02-15 18:15 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Penn Museum, 3260 South St, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Lecture by Catherine Baker, Bryn Mawr College
From the chipped corners of an ancient die to the mortar on a reused inscription, artifacts tell stories. Archaeologists reconstruct these object biographies, tracing the lives of ancient artifacts from their creation to their final deposition. In this talk, I explore the stories of some of the artifacts excavated by the Pompeii Archaeological Research Project: Porta Stabia (University of Cincinnati), including dice and gaming pieces, statuettes, tools of potters, and even nails. These object biographies shed light not only on the way people first used these objects, but on their afterlives – the ways in which objects were discarded, recycled, and reused. These lives and afterlives of objects, in turn, shape the archaeology of a site, allowing us to trace the complex patterns of use, reuse, and discard which characterized the history of one neighborhood in the Roman city of Pompeii.
Hybrid Event. Register at Penn Museum for entry. Proof of vaccination with ID and mask required
https://446.blackbaudhosting.com/446/Artifacts-and-Archaeological-Processes-The-Lives-and-Afterlives-of-Objects-in-Pompeii?_ga=2.51919401.105441994.1643922754-977817837.1643922754.

Digging through Walls: Enslaved Africans and the Building of Stratford Hall
2022-02-15 19:00 (America/Chicago) | WEBINAR (Valparaiso 2), Valparaiso, IN

Tales from Under the Mediterranean Sea: Reminiscences of a Maritime Archaeologist
2022-02-16 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Hale Science Building, Rm. 270, 1350 Pleasant Street, Boulder, CO, 80302, United States
The lecture presented by Dr. Robert Hohlfelder (Emeritus Professor, CU Boulder), will cover some of the most amazing discoveries of his long career including: A Treasure Trove of 4th Century CE Glass Panels Found in the Sea, Pixie Dust and Roman Imperial Maritime Infrastructure, The Amazing Levitating Roman Amphoras, Two Harrowing Episodes 1,000 feet Below Sea Level, and his “most dangerous” moment.
About the speaker: Dr. Robert Hohlfelder is an emeritus professor in the Department of History, University of Colorado Boulder and currently a Visiting Research Scholar at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. His areas of specialization are maritime history and the archaeology of the Classical world (late Roman history, and numismatics). He was taken part in, or directed, over 40 maritime archaeological expeditions in the Mediterranean.

Archaeology Abridged with Dr. Kate Liszka "Forts, Prisons, or Rudimentary Vaults? The Three so-called “Fortresses” of Pharaoh at Wadi el-Hudi and their Connection to Amethyst Mining"
2022-02-17 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | FL
Acquiring amethyst in Ancient Egypt was a tricky business. But the cut raw amethyst, the amethyst mines, and the people in the desert all needed to be guarded. As part of the mining procurement process, the Egyptians created massive stone settlements and networks of guard posts in the desert. The settlements have often been compared to contemporary Egyptian forts in the Nile Valley, and the ones in the desert were supposedly built to protect from oncoming armies. Liszka directs the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition whose team has been investigating these structures in the Eastern Desert since 2014. In this talk, she will share recent archaeological work from the Wadi el-Hudi region in the Eastern Desert in order to scrutinize the location, design, and use of these so-called “forts” and address the purpose of their construction. The talk will also investigate how the Egyptians protected these assets and expeditions with hundreds of soldiers, connecting roads, and watch posts strategically placed across the desert.
This lecture will also be available in American Sign Language. ASL interpretation will be provided by Trail Blazing Interpreters. Due to Zoom limitations on mobile devices and tablets, participants interested in accessing ASL interpretation should log in using the desktop version of Zoom.
Dr. Kate Liszka is the Benson and Pamela Harer Fellow in Egyptology and Associate Professor of History at California State University San Bernardino. She earned her doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania and from 2012 to 2015 was a Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer at Princeton University. Her areas of specialization include Nubians in Egypt, the Medjay, ethnicity and identity in Antiquity, multicultural Interactions in frontier regions, the Pangrave Archaeological Culture, and large-scale mining expeditions in Antiquity. Dr. Liszka is the Director of the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition in the Egyptian Eastern Desert.

The OPUMPA Project: Ancient Mineral Mining and Pigment Use in Stone Age Swaziland
2022-02-17 17:30 (America/New_York) | University of Missouri-Columbia, 112 Swallow Hall, Columbia, MO, 65211
“The OPUMPA Project: Ancient Mineral Mining and Pigment Use in Stone Age Swaziland,” presented by Dr. Brandi L. MacDonald (Assistant Research Professor, The Archaeometry Laboratory at the University of Missouri Research Reactor).
This lecture will be held in person in Swallow Hall 101 at the University of Missouri-Columbia, but we are also providing a zoom link to accommodate anyone who would prefer to attend remotely.
The lecture will begin promptly at 5:30 pm, with an in-person reception following. This reception is open to the public.
Date: Thursday February 17th, 2022
Time: 5:30 PM (CST)
Location: Swallow Hall 101
Zoom registration link (required for remote attendance):
https://umsystem.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwsf-6uqDksHNXpJ17JAswVEAGRlX4-RcQn
Abstract: “Red mineral pigments, known to many as “ochre”, captured the attention of humans throughout the Middle and Late Stone Ages in Africa. These iron-rich minerals were highly valued for their pigmentaceous properties and were used to decorate cave walls with rock art, to paint portable objects, as a component of mortuary practices, among many other social, ritual, and symbolic contexts that are still practiced today. The OPUMPA project focuses on archaeological investigations at Ngwenya, the world’s earliest known ochre pigment mine dating to over 40 kya, and surrounding archaeological sites that span the Middle and Late Stone ages, through to the historic period. Using advanced methods in archaeological science, we used geochemical analysis to reconstruct the mining and transport of ochre mineral pigments from Ngwenya and other sources across Swaziland, in some cases over hundreds of kilometers, suggesting the presence of long-distance social networks. This talk will review some highlights from this ongoing project, including pigment mining landscapes and rock art across Swaziland.”

Continuity and change in Etruscan religion under Roman hegemony
2022-02-17 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Vancouver) | Lisbon, Lisbon, 1000004, Portugal
Dr. Kevin Dicus (University of Oregon)
Roman imperial ambitions began with the occupation of Italy. The Etruscans, once the dominant civilization, experienced great cultural and political upheavals. Foreign traditions, goods, and belief systems entered their territories, challenging and changing their ways of being. Scholars have referred to the process as “Romanization”: conquered peoples adopt Roman customs, recognizing their obvious appeal and ultimately identifying as Roman. More recently, the Romanization paradigm has been contested, and this talk continues to critique it. The talk examines Etruscan religion before and during Roman expansion to measure Roman influence on it. In particular, it introduces a widespread ritual in which people dedicated terracotta body parts at Roman and Etruscan sanctuaries from the 4th to the 1st centuries BC. That the Etruscans readily participated in a ritual with Greco-Roman roots has been seen to mark an end of Etruscan orthodoxy. Close examination, however, reveals that Etruscans did not adopt the anatomical votive tradition to replace their own established practices; instead, they retained the agency to adapt the ritual, changing it in ways that made it more meaningful to their experiences and gave people greater control than before in their personal relationship with the gods.

Games of Chance and Fate: Patolli Game Boards from the Ancient Maya site of Gallon Jug, Belize
2022-02-17 19:00 (America/New_York) | FL
Dr. Claire Novotny (Kenyon College)
Graffiti provides a unique and informal perspective on the lived experiences and daily cultural practices of ancient people. In the ancient Maya culture, graffiti of ritual processions, human figures, and game boards were incised into plastered walls, benches, and floors in buildings that formed civic ceremonial centers. Game boards, called patolli, are particularly fascinating because they seem to combine leisure, gambling, and ritual practices. Patolli boards are found throughout Mesoamerica and we can draw on rich ethnohistorical evidence to make our interpretations. Recent research at the ancient Maya site of Gallon Jug, located in northwestern Belize, documented several patolli boards incised into a plaster floor on a platform in Courtyard B-01, an elite residential group. In this talk I will review our current understanding of patolli game boards and put them into context within the Maya world and Mesoamerica more broadly. I will address questions about how and why the residents of Gallon Jug may have used the patolli boards, and whether they were part of a singular ritual or a recurring strategy for divination employed by a resident ritual specialist.

Boomtown Blues: Archaeologies of Expansion and Collapse in Amazonia
2022-02-17 19:30 (America/New_York) | FL

“A New but Naughty ‘Sam Wide Group’ Kylix at the Walters Art Museum”
2022-02-18 17:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | FL
Dr. Lisa Anderson-Zhu (Walters Art Museum) will speak about “A New but Naughty ‘Sam Wide Group’ Kylix at the Walters Art Museum.”
Join via Zoom at the link below. The password, if prompted is “baltimore”.

Untold Stories at the Museum of the Bible. Artifacts, Provenance, and Bias in the Contact Zone
2022-02-21 18:00 (America/Chicago) | WEBINAR (Minneapolis-St. Paul 2), Minneapolis, MN
Wilkie Lecture

Caveat Lector: The historical record and the archaeology of provincial collapse on Rome's northern frontiers during the third century CE
2022-02-22 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Chicago) | TBD, Trinity University, San Antonio, 78212, United States
The third century CE is arguably the most poorly understood period of the Roman Empire. Nonetheless, it is a critical time in World History, as it ushered in the transition of the Classical World to Late Antiquity and saw the end of the Roman system as defined by Augustus. One of the most consequential changes of the period was the loss of substantial frontier territories that lay beyond the traditional riverine boundaries of the Empire; the Agri Decumates in southwest Germany and the province of Dacia in Romania. This paper examines the relationship between the historical sources and the archaeological narrative for the end of Roman authority in these regions and offers new interpretations of the processes that led to their collapse based on forensic analysis of the archaeological evidence.
Evan Scherer is a post-doctoral researcher at Newcastle University, where he is currently bringing legacy data from archaeological excavations of Roman sites in Romania to publication, including a cult site associated with Liber Pater at Apulum (Alba Iulia) in western Transylvania, and the late Roman fortified site of Salsovia (Mahmudia) in the Danube Delta. He has worked at Roman sites on Hadrian’s Wall and in London in the UK, in Romania, and in Rome.

Anna Agbe-Davies, “The Mis-Education of Pauli Murray”
2022-02-22 19:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | FL
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
7:30 p.m. ET
Join Zoom Meeting
https://davidson.zoom.us/j/99143304841
Meeting ID: 991 4330 4841
Anna Agbe-Davies, “The Mis-Education of Pauli Murray”
About the lecture:
This presentation considers education, womanhood, and signs as refracted through the life of human rights pioneer Pauli Murray, prompted by the archaeological investigation of her childhood home in Durham, North Carolina. It is part of a work-in-progress that investigates the place material culture and the routines of daily life in African American women’s struggles for equality.
About the speaker:
Dr. Anna Agbe-Davies, associate professor of anthropology at UNC–Chapel Hill, is a historical archaeologist with research interests in the plantation societies of the colonial southeastern US and Caribbean, as well as towns and cities of the 19th and 20th century Midwest, with a particular focus on the African diaspora. She has worked on sites in and around Jamestown (VA), Colonial Williamsburg, New Philadelphia (IL), and the Phyllis Wheatley Home for Girls on the south side of Chicago.

The Archaeology of “Race” in the Roman Empire: Aethiopians in the Imperial Imagination
2022-02-23 18:00 (America/New_York) | Leggett 537, Harold G. Leggett Building, Randolph College, 2500 Rivermont Avenue, Lynchburg, VA, 24503, United States

Roman Baths Here, There, and Everywhere
2022-02-24 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | FL
Church Lecture

POSTPONED--Shopping for artists’ materials in ancient Rome: pigment shops, pigments, and product choice
2022-02-24 17:30 (America/Chicago) | Texas Tech University, Room TBA, Lubbock, TX, 79410, United States
This event is postponed until a later date this spring. New date to come!

The Art of Wine Flinging: Kylix and Kottabos at the Greek Symposium
2022-02-24 18:00 (America/Chicago) | Nashville Parthenon, 2500 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN, 37203, United States
Boegehold Lecture

On the Literacy and Education of Ancient Egyptian Artists (Free Virtual Lecture)
2022-02-24 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, 6 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Dimitri Laboury, Associate Professor of Ancient Egyptian Art History, Archaeology, History and History of Religions; Research Director, Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research in Ancient Egyptian Art History and Archaeology; Director of the Ancient Egyptian Art Historical Research Unit, University of Liège, Belgium
One of the salient characteristics of ancient Egypt undoubtedly is its hieroglyphic script. The “code” to decipher this writing system was cracked precisely two hundred years ago, in 1822, by the brilliant French linguist Jean-François Champollion—the founding father of Egyptology. The complexity of Egyptian hieroglyphs resulted in a low literacy rate among the Pharaonic population. In this lecture, Dimitri Laboury will address the level(s) of literacy and scholarly education among the makers of the countless hieroglyphic monuments that help make ancient Egypt so famous. Was every ancient Egyptian artist capable of reading and writing hieroglyphs? And in that society, who were the real experts in hieroglyphic writing?
Presented by Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East and Harvard Museums of Science & Culture

Excavations at 63 ½ Coming St.: Exploring an evolving urban African-American landscape in Charleston
2022-02-24 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | FL
The discoverers of one of Archaeology magazine’s Top 10 Discoveries of 2021, the slave tag found at 63 ½ Coming St. in Charleston, SC, discuss the development and evolution of the urban landscape of Charleston, with a particular emphasis on evidence for African-American life and culture in 19th c. Charleston.
Speakers: James Newhard, Grant Gilmore, and Scott Harris (College of Charleston)
Feb. 24, 7-8 pm EST; virtual lecture via Zoom. Register in advance: https://cofc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAvce2tqTgpH90jeku3XJhQOVt2r65GMZEb

Sensing the Past: Sensory Experiences in Ancient Mesopotamia (a 4-D Presentation)
2022-02-25 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | FL
Manton Lecture

The Archaeology of Cheese: Cattle, Strainers, Chemistry, and Genes
2022-02-26 13:00 (America/Denver) | TBA (Denver 1), Denver, CO, United States

Careers in Archaeology: Networking Event and Social Hour
2022-02-28 17:30 - 19:00 (America/Chicago) | Lisbon, Lisbon, 1000004, Portugal
Join members and guests of the Archaeological Institute of America’s Iowa Society for a virtual conversation via Zoom about how to land a job in or related to archaeology. We will discuss different specializations as well as the types of preparation each typically requires. Hop around to different breakout rooms to meet with specialists and archaeologists. Topics include:
— Iowa archaeology and cultural resource management (with State Archaeologist, Dr. John Doershuk!)
— Grad schools in archaeology: getting in and surviving
— Alternative careers associated with archaeology
— Publishing your first article and other early career advice
— Finding a dig/project
If you already have a career in the field and would be interested in hosting a breakout room or lending your professional advice, we strongly encourage you to attend! Those interested in hosting a room can contact the society president (debra-trusty@uiowa.edu).
If you aren’t interested in a career in archaeology but just love the topic, we have a special room for you filled with trivia questions about world archaeology!
Please register in advance: https://uiowa.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwoc-qspzotGNWPR2Jq0__ev7jfzLfjVqOa

Behind-the-Screens with Sarah Clunis (Free for HMSC Members)
2022-02-28 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Sarah Anita Clunis, Director of Academic Partnerships and Curator of African Collections, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology
Located in the Kasaï Oriental Province along the Sankuru River in the central part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Kuba identify themselves as the children of Woot and the tale of their origins is often reenacted in masquerades for the royal Kuba court. The focus of this Black History Month Behind-the-Screens is a conversation with Peabody Curator of African Collections, Sarah Clunis, about three royal Kuba masks—housed at Harvard’s Peabody Museum—that as a triad re-enact the founding of the Kuba kingdom and highlight the significance of gender and status in Kuba political systems and Kuba life.
Presented by Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and Harvard Museums of Science & Culture
Not a member of Harvard Museums of Science & Culture? Become a member today so you can join us on February 28th! Visit us at https://hmsc.harvard.edu/membership

Central Plains Maize Farming and the Cahokian Diaspora
2022-02-28 19:00 (America/New_York) | FL
Anawalt Lecture

In the Footsteps of Roman Soldiers: Excavations at Vindolanda and the Archaeological Landscape of Hadrian’s Wall
2022-03-01 19:30 (America/Chicago) | FL

“In the Footsteps of Roman Soldiers: Excavations at Vindolanda and the Archaeological Landscape of Hadrian’s Wall”
2022-03-01 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Chicago) | FL
In the past few decades the Roman fort at Vindolanda has had some of the most extraordinary finds from the northern frontier of the Roman Empire that have truly changed our understanding of life in the Roman army. The site lies near Hadrian’s Wall in a remote countryside in Northumberland, England and was part of the original frontier line in this location in the late first century CE. Decades of excavation at the site have given us an extraordinary view into the lives of soldiers living in this frontier region. Greene has excavated at Vindolanda since 2002, directing trenches in new areas of the site for several years, and will give a presentation focusing on the recent excavations and new hypotheses from this work. Highlights of the presentation concentrate on the extraordinary finds from the site, including Roman shoes, numerous inscriptions and artifacts, as well as the unparalleled corpus of writing tablets (letters and military records), to reveal what life was like on the edge of the Roman empire and how the site has changed many accepted views of life in the Roman army.
Speaker: Elizabeth Greene, University of Western Ontario
To join the virtual meeting, go to https://knox-edu.zoom.us/j/89207455252?pwd=[REDACTED]

Synoikismos: Formation and Forms of Ancient Greek Cities
2022-03-02 17:00 (America/Chicago) | Bryant Hall 209, The University of Mississippi, University, MS, 38677, United States

20,000 Leagues Under the Wine-Dark Sea
2022-03-02 18:00 (America/New_York) | FL
Caskey Lecture
