Spring 2020 Archaeology Lectures at UNC Asheville Look at Ancient Mayan Expansionism, and Mummification as a Business

UPDATE MARCH 12 – The April 8 lecture is CANCELED.

UNC Asheville will present two archaeology lectures during the spring 2020 semester – on Feb. 19, looking at state expansionism and colonialism by Mayan royalty, and on April 8, examining how the practice of mummification spread, becoming a veritable business in the Late and Roman Period in Egypt.

Both talks are free and open to everyone as part of the Archaeological Institute of America’s (AIA) 124th Lecture Program that will bring leading scholars to audiences across the U.S. during the 2019-20 academic year. The lectures take place at 7:30 p.m. in UNC Asheville’s Highsmith Student Union Mountain Suites.

Feb. 19 – State expansionism, colonialism, and stranger-kings among the Classic Maya, presented by Maxime Lamoureux-St. Hilaire – This lecture stems from Lamoureux-St. Hilaire’s studies of the structure of Classic Maya royal courts and their regal palaces. He has excavated the regal palace of La Corona, Guatemala, and his archaeological path has also led him to work in Belize, Mexico, and Honduras. Lamoureux-St. Hilaire is visiting assistant professor in archaeology in the Anthropology Department of Davidson College.

April 8 – Who’s your Mummy? Mummification as a Business in Late and Roman Period Egypt, presented by Jessica Kaiser – Kaiser, who has worked extensively as an archaeologist and surveyor at different sites in Egypt, analyzes the expansion of mummification beyond the elite to lower levels of the status scale, and how that changed the practice, and social/commercial implications of mummification. Kaiser is an adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at Saint Mary’s College of California.

These lectures are co-sponsored by the Western North Carolina chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America, and UNC Asheville’s Departments of Classics, and Art and Art History. For more information, contact Laurel Taylor, UNC Asheville senior lecturer in classics and art history, ltaylor@unca.edu or 828.251.6290.

Visitor Parking on the UNC Asheville Campus – Visitors may park in faculty/staff and non-resident lots from 5:00 p.m. until 7:30 a.m., Monday through Friday, and on weekends, holidays, and campus breaks. Visitors are not permitted to park in resident student lots at any time.