THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA

WESTERN CAROLINA SOCIETY

FALL 2008 LECTURE SERIES

Wednesday, September 24, 7:30 PM Whitman Room, Ramsey Library: Dr. David Moore (Warren Wilson College) will speak on the Berry Site near Morganton and how recent research there is changing our knowledge of European settlement of the interior of North America.  The site has been identified as Joara, a large Native American town occupied from 1400-1600 and also the location of Fort San Juan, a Spanish outpost established two decades (1566-1567) prior to the famous settlement know as “The Lost Colony” at Roanoke Island.  Dr. Moore and his work was the subject of a recent episode called“The First Lost Colony” on the PBS program Exploring North Carolina. 

Thursday, October 23, 7:30 PM Whitman Room, Ramsey Library: Dr. Anthony Tuck (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), “Poggio Civitate and the Urban Landscape of Italy’s Earliest Cities” will be presented by Dr. Tuck, a specialist in Early Etruscan culture and urbanization. He is the Co-Director of Excavations at Poggio Civitate (Murlo), Italy, the best example of an Etruscan community on the cusp of urbanism. Excavation in the past two years has revealed a great deal of information, from burials to roads, that is changing the way the site is understood by scholars. 

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO JOIN THE WESTERN CAROLINA CHAPTER OF THE AIA, CONTACT DR. LAUREL TAYLOR, PRESIDENT, ltaylor@unca.edu

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Last semester's lectures:

SPRING 2008 LECTURES

THURSDAY, FEB. 28, 7:30 PM

WHITMAN ROOM, RAMSEY LIBRARY

PROFESSOR LESLIE PRESTON DAY

Karphi: a City of Refuge in Dark Age Crete

Leslie Preston Day, an expert on the Late Bronze Age/Early ‘Dark’ Age in Greece, will present a lecture on the well-known city of Karphi, a site in Crete that has been crucial to our understanding of the transition between Bronze Age and Iron Age Greece. Professor Day received her Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Cincinnati and currently teaches at Wabash College. She has excavated at Kavousi, Crete and was Co-director and field director at Vronda. She was the Area Supervisor at the excavations at Pella of the Decapolis in Jordan and was part of a mapping project at Mochlos, on Crete. She is currently at work on a series of books on the Vronda Settlement, the Vronda Cemetery and the Early Excavations at Kavosi.   

March 13:

Our second lecture this spring will be given by Kostis Kourelis, Assistant Professor in Art History at Clemson University and the 2007-2008 AIA Forsyth lecturer.  Dr. Kourelis investigates urbanism, rural settlements, and houses in the medieval Mediterranean and has worked at field projects in Greece, Sicily, Tunisia, and the Black Sea.  He has published on a variety of topics including the Greek grand tour, modernism's discovery of Byzantium, medieval manifestations in film, and the archaeology of global migration.  Dr. Kourelis received his Ph.D. from the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Graduate Group, University of Pennsylvania, and most recently was a 2006-2007 Visiting Fellow at Princeton’s Institute for Hellenic Studies.  On Thursday, March 13, Professor Kourelis will present his research from his year at Princeton. The lecture, Discovering Byzantium: American Archaeology in Greece 1920-1940 will be in the Ramsey Library, Whitman Room at 7:30 pm. This lecture is also part of The Legacy of Byzantium: Exploring the Divine Images of the Orthodox Faith week, March 15-21, at UNC Asheville. Click here for more information about the exhibit of Byzantine icons.

April 2:

Our final lecturer this spring will be Dr. Salima Ikram, a well-known Egyptologist and associate professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo. Professor Ikram studied Egyptology and archaeology at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, earning an A.B. in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology and History. Continuing her studies at Cambridge University, she earned her M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Egyptology and museum studies. Professor Ikram is the correspondent for KMT, a popular Egyptological journal, and a frequent contributor to Egypt Today. She is the co-director of the Animal Mummy Project at the Egyptian Museum and ,since 2001, has directed, with Corinna Rossi, the North Kharga Oasis Survey.   In her talk, Beloved Beasts: Ancient Egyptian Animal Mummies, Professor Ikram will discuss the Egyptian practice of animal mummification. The author of Beloved Beasts: Ancient Egyptian Animal Mummies (Cairo: 2005), she will discuss the four different types of animal mummies (food, pets, votive offerings, and sacred creatures) and explains how and why they were made, what each type meant to the ancient Egyptians, and how they reflect the ways in which the Egyptians interacted with the animal world.  The lecture will be on Wednesday, April 02 in the Chestnut Ridge Room in the Reuter Center (Center for Creative Retirement) at 7:30 PM.

 

2007-2008 LECTURES

Thursday, September 27th at 7:30 pm

Dr. George Stuart, lecture on his numerous projects and recent work at the ancient Mayan site of Palenque

Whitman Room, Ramsey Library

Dr. George Stuart, a local Mayan archaeologist and former National Geographic Vice President for Research and Exploration, will present the opening lecture for the 2007-2008 season. After retiring from National Geographic in the early 1990’s, where he also served as Chairman of the Society's Committee for Research and Exploration and Senior Assistant Editor for the magazine, George and his wife Melinda moved to Barnardsville where they established the Center for Maya Research, a not-for profit organization which they founded to promote and direct research related to archaeology, art, and culture of the Maya. A noted Mayan archaeologist and cartographer, Dr. Stuart has published and lectured extensively on Mesoamerican and Maya archaeology, hieroglyphic writing, and the early history of the discovery of the Maya.  In 1993, he published Lost Kingdoms of the Maya which was then turned into a National Geographic special.  Dr. Stuart has excavated at various Maya centers in Mexico and Guatemala.  Most recently, his work has focused on the famous Late Classic Mayan city of Palenque, often considered to have some of the most spectacular and beautiful ruins of the Maya.  He has collaborated with his son, Mayan archaeologist Dr. David Stuart (University of Texas at Austin), on numerous projects at Palenque and his lecture will present an overview of this important Mayan center and of their recent work there.

Monday, November 12th at 7:30 pm

Dr. Lynn Rainville, “Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamian Cities: results from micro-archaeological research”

Whitman Room, Ramsey Library

Dr. Lynn Rainville teaches anthropology and archaeology at Sweet Briar College, and is a specialist in the Ancient Near East and the Assyrian Empire. She has recently published Investigating Upper Mesopotamian Households Using Micro-Archaeological Techniques (Archaeopress 2005).  Micro-archaeology includes an analysis of micro-artifacts (objects under 1 cm), soil sediments, phytoliths, and pollen.  Results from micro-archaeology provide information about domestic technologies, craft specialization, and household activities.  Her talk, “Everyday Life in Ancient Mesopotamian Cities: results from micro-archaeological research,” will be on Monday, November 12th at 7:30 pm in the Whitman room of Ramsey library.

Any questions, feel free to contact Laurel Taylor at:  ltaylor@unca.edu 

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2006-2007 Lectures:

The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and the UNCA Department of Classics present:

SPRING 2007

"Living in Luxury: The Houses of Hellenistic Sicily"

Prof. Barbara Tsakirgis, Vanderbilt University

Thursday, February 22, 2007, 7:30pm, Whitman Room, Ramsey Library

NORTON LECTURE

"The Search for the Battle of Actium"

Prof. William Murray, University of South Florida

Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 7:30pm, Whitman Room, Ramsey Library

Come, and bring a friend to these interesting lectures! Questions, contact ltaylor@unca.edu or 626-3445.

Informal receptions follow the talks. All lectures are free and open to the public.

Our society received an honorary ‘Golden Trowel’ this summer for increasing our membership. We still need new members, however, in order to continue our lecture series here. Please ask a friend to join you for one of our lectures and if you haven’t renewed your membership, please consider doing so soon. You can become a member or renew your current membership online at www.aia.org. Special rates for full-time students.

Previous lectures:

FALL 2006

"The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls"

Prof. Jodi Magness, Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at UNC-Chapel Hill

Thursday, September 21, 2006, 7:30pm, Reuter Center Lecture Hall

The UNCA Center for Jewish Studies and the AIA are co-sponsoring a very exciting lecture on the archaeology of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Dr. Magness is a specialist in the archaeology of Palestine during the Roman, Byzantine, and early Islamic periods, has participated in 20 different excavations in Israel and Greece, including co-directing the 1995 excavations in the Roman siege works at Masada. From 1997-99 she co-directed excavations at Khirbet Yattir in Israel and now co-directs excavations in the late Roman fort at Yotvata, Israel. Her book, The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, won the 2003 Biblical Archaeology Society’s Award for Best Popular Book in Archaeology in 2001-2002 and was selected as an “Outstanding Academic Book for 2003” by Choice Magazine. Dr. Magness has been a member of the Governing Board of the AIA and has served as President of the North Carolina Society of the AIA.

"The Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron"

Prof. John McKesson Camp II, Director of the Excavations of the Agora at Athens and Professor of Classics at Randolph-Macon College

Thursday, November 9, 2006, 7:30pm, Whitman Room, Ramsey Library

An authority on the urban heart of ancient Athens, Professor Camp has been associated with excavations in the Agora since 1966, serving as director of excavations there since 1994. Some of his recent publications include, The Athenian Agora (1992) The Archaeology of Athens (2001) and The World of the Ancient Greeks (2002). In addition to his work in the Agora at Athens, Dr. Camp has also worked on the history and architectural development of the sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron. His lecture will examine not only the architectural complex at Brauron, but also the history of this enigmatic cult in Greece.