In this lecture, Professor Ed Henry will discuss the monumental earthen architecture present at Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park (PMSAP) in West Tennessee, which features prominently in the archaeology of the American Midsouth. However, the Johnston and Elijah Bray mound sites, situated west and east of PMSAP respectively, are considered the anchors in defining the […]

In this talk, Dr. Phil Sapirstein presents his findings from a recent digital and architectural restudy of the temple of Apollo at Syracuse. Built in ca. 590 BCE, it was the first major Greek temple to be built entirely from stone, and thus it is fundamental to our understanding of the origins of Doric architecture. […]

When Isis first arrived on Greek shores in the 3rd century BCE, her new followers had to build sanctuaries appropriate to an Egyptian goddess. In the process of imagining a place for their Greek Isis to dwell, devotees came up with a wide range of eclectic solutions that intertwined local needs, imperialist fantasy, and fantastical […]

In the summer of 2022, construction necessitated the relocation of a small 19th /20th century cemetery of nuns from southwest Denver. Before their reinterment, a team of local researchers and students worked with the Loretto Community to undertake a bioarchaeological analysis of the remains of the Sisters of Loretto. This ongoing project highlights community collaboration, […]

A decade of fieldwork in westernmost Sicily has revealed a previously unnoticed pattern: high quantities of North African artifacts in virtually all periods, from the Paleolithic to the present day. From prehistoric stone tools, to Carthaginian amphoras and Roman finewares, to the soda bottles of contemporary migrants, a picture emerges of a deep and enduring […]

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 […]