Antiochia ad Cragnum: Pirates, Romans, and More Pirates: Updates from the 2022 Season

Title: Antiochia ad Cranium: Pirates, Romans, and More Pirates: Updates from the 2022 Season

Speaker: Dr. Michael Hoff, Professor of Art History, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

When and Where: Thursday, February 16, 2023, 6:00pm AZ time, via Zoom

Click this link for more information and to register: https://asu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEpde2rqDsuG9XAXAfIftozW17I0qsdGJJp

The Roman-era city of Antiochia ad Cragum lies on the south coast of Turkey in the region of ancient Rough Cilicia. Prior to the city’s foundation the site served as one of the major bases of the infamous Cilician Pirates who preyed on shipping along the coastal waterways of the Mediterranean in the late Hellenistic period. Following the resolution of the pirate threat in the first century BCE, the city was founded and eponymously named by Antiochus IV of Commagene. Since 2005 the city has been undergoing excavation which during the last 16 years has brought to light much of the urban fabric of a Roman city: Temples, Baths, Aqueducts, Colonnades. This lecture presents the highlights of the discoveries made over the years, particularly the many well-preserved mosaics. This lecture will discuss new findings from the 2022 summer excavation season. 

For questions about the event or registration, please email the program coordinator, Casey Gipson, at casey.gipson@asu.edu.

For more information https://www.archaeological.org/society/central-arizona-phoenix/

Miners, Martyrs, Shepherds, and Sowers: Shifting Landscapes of Faynan, Southern Jordan Over the Last 2,000 Years

Title: Miners, Martyrs, Shepherds, and Sowers: Shifting Landscapes of Faynan, Southern Jordan Over the Last 2,000 Years

Speaker: Ian W. N. Jones

When and Where: Thursday, January 26, 2023 @6:00pm MST; Benedictine University at Mesa, 225 E. Main Street, Mesa, AZ 85201

Faynan is an arid region in the lowlands of southern Jordan, famous today for its desert landscapes and ecotourism, with much of the region belonging to the Dana Biosphere Reserve. In antiquity, the region’s importance stemmed from its copper ore resources, which provided its economic foundations during several peaks of production. This lecture will focus on the period between the 3rd and 19th centuries AD, drawing primarily on data collected by the UC San Diego Edom Lowlands Regional Archaeology Project (ELRAP), directed by Thomas E. Levy and Mohammad Najjar. It begins by exploring the peak of Roman copper production at the metallum of Phaino (Khirbat Faynan) in the 3rd and 4th centuries and the decline of this industry in the late 5th–early 6th century AD. Although copper production ceased at this point, Phaino maintained religious importance as a site of martyrdom of Christians condemned to the mines, and the region continued to be settled into the 9th century. The next and final peak of production occurred during the Ayyubid period, or the late 12th and early 13th centuries AD. This was a much smaller industry than the earlier Roman one, and this lecture will explore the differing political and economic motivations underlying the establishment of these industries. Following the end of this industry in the mid-13th century, the economy of the region shifted to pastoralism and agropastoralism. We will consider the archaeological evidence for these economic shifts and how they fit within larger socioeconomic trends in the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean.

For more information on the event, Click Here

The Pot Detective in Cyprus

Title: The Pot Detective in Cyprus

Speaker: Dr. Gloria London, Independent Scholar

When and Where: Thursday, November 10, 2022, 6:00 pm AZ time, via Zoom

Click this link to register and for more information: https://asu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtd-msqj0iG9Qvi2qLJNdE9Q3XjF1g_yrv

Knud Jensen was a Danish rural police officer with dreams of becoming a Mediterranean archaeologist. To do so he joined the United Nations Peace Keeping Force in Cyprus beginning in 1964. When not on village patrols, he recorded the immense old-fashioned wine fermentation jars littering rural roads. Following a centuries-old practice, itinerant craftsmen made the last jar in 1972. Equipped with superior social and detective skills, he traced pots back to their makers, including a family of jar makers active from 1850 to 1913. Jensen achieved much, but did not live to publish his research, which Dr. London has done with help from his family and the descendants of jar makers.

Please contact our program coordinator, Casey Gipson, at casey.gipson@asu.edu for any questions or problems with registration.

Ecological Aquaculture and Domesticated Waterscapes in Ancient Maya Society, Subsistence, and Art in Chiapas, Mexico

Title: Ecological Aquaculture and Domesticated Waterscapes in Ancient Maya Society, Subsistence, and Art in Chiapas, Mexico

Speaker: Dr. Joel Palka, Associate Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University

When and Where: Saturday, October 15, 2022; Pueblo Grande Museum , 4619 E Washington St 
Phoenix, AZ 85034

More information:  https://www.phoenix.gov/parks/arts-culture-history/pueblo-grande and for International Archaeology Day https://www.archaeological.org/programs/public/archaeologyday/

Wilhelmina and Stanley Jashemski Lecture

Dr. Palka’s ongoing archaeological and anthropological project at Lake Mensabak in Chiapas explores past to present Maya use of modified waterscapes for fishing and managing plant communities. At this and other sites in the region, Maya people collectively dug canals and made reservoirs for large-scale, integrated ecological aquaculture. Like domesticated landscapes for agriculture, people in the Mesoamerican culture area engineered water works for harvesting fish, turtles, waterfowl, and aquatic plants for household consumption. This presentation covers insights from archaeology, Maya collaborations, art, and ethnohistory indicating that fisheries can be added to current research on raised fields, water control, subsistence ecology, and community organization in Mesoamerica.

Ancient Cypriote Sculpture in New York: Cesnola, the Metropolitan Museum, and 19th Century Spectacle

Title: Ancient Cypriote Sculpture in New York: Cesnola, the Metropolitan Museum, and 19th Century Spectacle

Speaker: Dr. Ann-Marie Knoblauch, Virginia Tech

When and Where: Thursday September 22, 2022, 6:00 pm AZ time, via Zoom

click this link for more information and to register: https://www.archaeological.org/event/ancient-cypriote-sculpture-in-new-york-cesnola-the-metropolitan-museum-and-19th-century-spectacle/

In the 1870s, two massive shipments of ancient Cypriote art arrived in New York, forming the foundational collection for the city’s new universal museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The collection had been acquired from Luigi Palma di Cesnola, the notorious antiquities collector working on Cyprus. The material led to public controversy fairly quickly. While most welcomed with enthusiasm the large collection of original ancient Mediterranean objects, New Yorkers familiar with the Greco-Roman past had a hard time making sense of the Cypriote material and its perceived “otherness.” Furthermore, a scandal (and eventual public trial) about alleged improper restorations to some of the Cypriote sculpture by Cesnola (by now the director of the Met) raised questions about archaeological ethics and authenticity.

In this presentation Dr. Knoblauch explores the public reception of (and reaction to) the ancient Cypriote material in 1880s New York. Unintentionally, Cesnola caused a spectacle for the newly-opened museum, and cynical New Yorkers–familiar with the antics of P.T. Barnum when it came to creating spectacles—enjoyed poking fun at the large and bewildering Cypriot collection and the arrogant Cesnola.

For questions about the event or registration, please email the program coordinator, Casey Gipson, at casey.gipson@asu.edu

Antiochia ad Cragum in Rough Cilicia: Pirates, Romans, and More Pirates

Title: Antiochia ad Cragum in Rough Cilicia: Pirates, Romans, and More Pirates

Speaker: Dr. Michael Hoff, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

When and Where: Thursday, March 31, 2022, 6pm AZ time via Zoom

click this link for information and to register: https://www.archaeological.org/event/antiochia-ad-cragnum-in-rough-cilicia-pirates-romans-and-more-pirates/

The Roman-era city of Antiochia ad Cragum lies on the south coast of Turkey in the region of ancient Rough Cilicia. Prior to the city’s foundation the site served as one of the major bases of the infamous Cilician Pirates who preyed on shipping along the coastal waterways of the Mediterranean in the late Hellenistic period. Following the resolution of the pirate threat in the first century BCE, the city was founded and eponymously named by Antiochus IV of Commagene. Since 2005 the city has been undergoing excavation which during the last 16 years has brought to light much of the urban fabric of a Roman city: Temples, Baths, Aqueducts, Colonnades. This lecture presents the highlights of the discoveries made over the years, particularly the many well-preserved mosaics.

For questions about the event or registration, please email the program coordinator, Casey Gipson, at casey.gipson@asu.edu.

Mosaics and the Antioch Recovery Project

Title: Mosaics and the Antioch Recovery Project

Speaker: Dr. Jennifer Stager, Johns Hopkins University

When and Where: Thursday, March 3, 2022, 6pm AZ time, via Zoom

click this link to register:

Please contact society program coordinator, Casey Gipson at casey.gipson@asu.edu, if you have any questions or trouble registering for the event.

Ten Fingers & Ten Toes: Disability and Infanticide in Ancient Greece

Title: Ten Fingers & Ten Toes: Disability and Infanticide in Ancient Greece

Speaker: Dr. Debby Sneed

When and Where: Thursday, October 28, 2021 6pm Arizona Time, via Zoom

click this link to register:

https://asu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcrduGspjsuGtxezmFCrKBwuT5IYJf_eBvT

One of the most shocking “facts” about ancient Greece that people tend to remember is that the ancient Spartans killed infants who were born with any kind of physical impairment or deformity. This story is repeated in textbooks, in newspapers and magazines, online, and in classrooms; it even shows up in popular contexts like memes. What, though, is the evidence for the practice? In this talk, I confront the widespread assumption that disability, in any broad sense, constituted valid grounds for infanticide in ancient Greece. By looking at the literary, archaeological, and bioarchaeological evidence we have of people responding to or interacting with infants who were born with congenital impairments like cleft palate, clubfoot, and underdeveloped limb, we can see that infanticide was not the typical or expected response to infants born with congenital impairments in ancient Greece – not even Sparta. With this, we can begin to think about why such stories have been so persistent in the modern imagination.

Sneed is a Lecturer in the Department of Classics at California State University, Long Beach. She received her B.A. from the University of Wyoming, her M.A. from the University of Colorado, and her Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles. Her research interests are disability in ancient Greece, identity and marginalization in ancient Greece, and the archaeology of ancient Greece.  Her article “The architecture of Access: Ramps at Ancient Greek healing sanctuaries” was published in 2020 (Antiquity vol. 94 No. 376), and forthcoming works are “Disability and infanticide in ancient Greece” (Hesperia, 2021), “Digging While Impaired: Promoting the Accessibility of Archaeology as a Discipline” (under review), and Not Another Other: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Disability and Accommodations in Ancient Greece (monograph in preparation).

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For questions about the event or registration, please email the program coordinator, Casey Gipson, at casey.gipson@asu.edu.

Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone (Deut 8:3): Daily Life in Biblical Times

Title: Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone (Deut 8:3): Daily Life in Biblical Times

Speaker: Dr. Oded Borowski, Emory University

When and Where: Thursday, September 23, 2021 at 6pm AZT, via Zoom

click this link to register:

https://asu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZErdumsrzwjH9yX3rVgbbGXc2BS2NZaozhl

For a very long time, archaeologists were busily investigating major biblical sites trying to recover remains related to figures mentioned in biblical stories. Related to this, they were also establishing chronologies through the study of pottery. More recently, attention was diverted to the study of daily life of the average people who lived in small rather than large sites. In this presentation we will review some topics that generally are considered aspects of daily life in the period of the Hebrew Bible. After looking at sources of information for daily life, we will look at subjects such as the economy, diet, women’s role, settlement design, religion, and more.

For questions about the event or registration, please email the program coordinator, Casey Gipson, at casey.gipson@asu.edu.

The Archaic Smile: It’s No Laughing Matter

Title: The Archaic Smile: It’s No Laughing Matter

Speaker: Jeffrey M. Hurwit, University of Oregon

When and Where: Wednesday, March 31, 2021, 6pm AZT, via zoom

Click this link to register: https://asu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYscu6sqz0tHNU1tPigARdq4Q5FS8eCe4wK

Undoubtedly the most familiar and recognizable feature on the faces of figures carved in the round or in relief during the Greek Archaic period (c. 750-480 BCE) is a shallow, inscrutable smile that, like the Mona Lisa’s, has defied explanation. The lecture surveys the origin and history of the “Archaic Smile” as well as the history of its interpretation. It is often thought a stylistic “import” from the sculpture of Egypt or the Near East, and it has been variously considered a sign of life, or happiness, or status, or divinity, or even an “optical refinement.” But although certain theories can be eliminated from the discussion and others added, there may in fact be no single, universal explanation for the Smile at all.

Jeffrey Hurwit is the Philip H. Knight Professor, Emeritus, of History of Art and Architecture, and Classics, at the University of Oregon. He holds his degrees from Yale University (Ph.D.) and Brown University, has published widely and conducts research in Greece and Italy. He has received many awards and accolades for his work, and is considered one of the country’s leading scholars in ancient Greek art; several of his volumes, including The Athenian Acropolis: History, Mythology and Archaeology from the Neolithic Era to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 1999), and The Acropolis in the Age of Pericles (Cambridge University Press, 2004) are considered standards in the field. His recent publications include Artists and Signatures in Ancient Greece (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and he has several works in progress, including The Archaic Smile, The Representation of the Sea in Early Greek Art, and The Hands and Horses of Pech Merle. Professor Hurwit is the AIA Norton Lecturer for 2020/2021.