Day 3: Tuesday, February 5. After a cold and very rainy arrival in Cairo a week ago, I was relieved to wake up to a spectacularly clear view of the pyramid of King Khufu at Giza for the first full day of our AIA Tour: Behind the Scenes in Ancient Egypt. Heading up by bus to the plateau, most of us chose to withstand the briefly cramped conditions of the ascending passages of the interior…
Congratulations to the individuals, projects, and publications that received awards at the 2024 AIA Award Ceremony in Chicago, IL! We have reached out to last year’s winners to learn about their projects, experiences, and what drew them to the field of archaeology. Andrew Goldman (Gonzaga University) Award: Martha and Artemis Joukowsky Distinguished Service Award Deadline: September 15, 2024 What drew you to archaeology? I was drawn to archaeology through a combination of intellectual curiosity and…
Download as PDF AIA Lecture Program begins 117th season For 116 years the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) has been sending leading scholars to the Institute’s Local Societies to share exciting new finds, cutting-edge research, and fresh ideas with AIA members and the general public. The 117th lecture season starts in September 2012. During the season the AIA will send almost 100 lecturers to give approximately 300 presentations at over 100 Local Societies in the…
The Archaeological Institute of America is pleased to announce that the Gold Medal Committee has selected Professor Andrea Berlin as the 2025 recipient of the Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement. This award, presented each year at the AIA-SCS Annual Meeting, recognizes distinguished contributions to archaeology, primarily through research and/or fieldwork. The Gold Medal is the highest honor the Institute bestows. Professor Andrea Berlin’s career has resulted in a plethora of distinguished contributions to archaeology…
Download as PDF Saving the Past The AIA's Site Preservation Program was created to safeguard ancient sites, educate people about the importance and need for preserving archaeological heritage, and involve local communities in the protection and management of sites in their area. The program's first grants were awarded to the site of Assos in Turkey and the Easter Island Statue Project (featured in the Archaeology, Nov/Dec 2009, edition of "Dispatches"). In November 2009, new…
My first field school with the Amarna Project in Egypt was truly a life-changing experience. Not only was it a first step into my intended career, but it was a character-building environment that changed perspectives about myself and my world. Stepping into the unknown with a dozen strangers takes a great deal of mental fortitude alone, especially when that unknown turns out to include temperatures of 120˚ F and a striking new culture. However, the…
My first field school with the Amarna Project in Egypt was truly a life-changing experience. Not only was it a first step into my intended career, but it was a character-building environment that changed perspectives about myself and my world. Stepping into the unknown with a dozen strangers takes a great deal of mental fortitude alone, especially when that unknown turns out to include temperatures of 120˚ F and a striking new culture. However, the…
Download article (PDF) The March 2009 issue of the SAA Archaeological Record focused on International Curation Standards. In that issue, Julia King wrote, “The digital delivery of archaeological information has tremendous promise and is the wave of the future, but the creation, management, and long-term preservation of digital information is challenging, complex, and…expensive.” This is a case study of how the Museum of Anthropology at Wake Forest University developed and implemented a database system and…
A reasoned look at the evidence, instead of a media circus, yields an answer of NO! by Jodi Magness In a new documentary film (and related book), director Simcha Jacobovici and producer James Cameron claim to have identified the tomb of Jesus and his family in the Jerusalem suburb of Talpiyot. The tomb itself is not a new discovery; it was excavated in 1980 and published by Amos Kloner, an Israeli archaeologist. What is new…
The extraordinary global significance of the monuments, museums, and archaeological sites of Iraq (ancient Mesopotamia) imposes an obligation on all peoples and governments to protect them. In any military conflict that heritage is put at risk, and it appears now to be in grave danger. Should war take place, we call upon all governments to respect the terms of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict,…
Since their first invention in western Turkey in the late seventh century B.C., coins have been struck in precious metals and copper alloys, and since that time they have been lost, buried in hoards, placed in graves, or otherwise left behind for archaeologists to find. When coins are found as part of a scientific excavation, they can make an immense contribution to our understanding of ancient society. One obvious way they help archaeologists reconstruct life…
October 26, 2023 @ 7:00 pm
Lecture: The Kingdom of Dahomey, in the modern Republic of Benin, stands as one of the most comprehensively researched kingdoms in precolonial West Africa. Decades of historical, anthropological, and art historical research have cast important light on the origins of the precolonial polity, and its rise, expansion, and transformation through its participation into the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Since the year 2000, Professor J. Cameron Monroe has led archaeological surveys and excavations at palace sites, urban…
November 6, 2023 @ 6:00 pm
Lecturer: Bridget Buxton ,
McCann/Taggart lecture Note: This lecture's start time is 6:15pm Eastern time.
To celebrate our 2023 Fellowship recipients, we will be spotlighting each of our winners in news stories on the AIA website. We have reached out to our winners to learn about their projects and about their experiences in archaeology. We’re excited for you to meet Brendan Burke, the Richard C. MacDonald Iliad Research Grant recipient for this year. Richard C. MacDonald Iliad Research Grant recipient: Brendan Burke (he/him); American School of Classical Studies at Athens…
The AIA’s Eighth Annual Photo Contest featured dozens of photos submitted of archaeological scenes from 20 countries around the globe. Five categories—Archaeological Landscapes, Excavation, Field Life, Fun Finds, and Monuments—elicited images of stunning sites, breathtaking panoramas, archaeologists toiling away, and some of the lighter aspects of fieldwork and exploration. Over the course of a week of voting, over 28,000 votes were cast. This year's winners will receive a one year complimentary AIA membership. Top photos…
Week 4 – June 18, 2018 by Gaile Juknevicius This week, new students arrived for a two-week excavation course with IAFS and thus this season’s excavation began. Our week started with a lecture of the history of Ferrycarrig and the town of Wexford. To make a long story short… Diarmait Mac Murchada, the king of Leinster in the mid twelfth-century, sought aid from King Henry II to regain control of this land. An ambitious knight,…
Stirling, UK
The King’s Park, Stirling, is the oldest and best preserved Royal Park in Scotland and surrounds Stirling Castle, the ancient capital of Scotland. In December 2017, path works within the castle identified a previously unrecorded late prehistoric defended fort, built on the highest point in the park and right next to a golf course!Stirling sits at the lowest crossing point of the River Forth and was the only way for armies to invade or resist…
January 18, 2023 @ 7:00 pm
Lecturer: Kara Cooney ,
Virtual lecture which is part of the AIA Archaeology Hour series.
January 17, 2023 @ 7:00 pm
Lecturer: Kara Cooney ,
Virtual lecture which is part of the AIA Archaeology Hour series.
March 4, 2023 @ 1:00 pm
Lecturer: Lisa Lucero ,
Joukowsky Lecture
