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Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Presentation of the Archaeology Minor (for Smith students only)
Time: 12:15 noon Location: Hillyer 103
Meet the Program faculty, learn about the courses offered, find out about fieldwork opportunities and more! Pizza and beverages, first come, first served.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
"Tragic Athens: Athenian Space in Greek Tragedy"
Suzanne Saïd, Professor of Classics, Columbia University
Time/Location: 5:30 p.m, Dwight 101, Mount Holyoke College
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
20th Annual Phyllis Williams Lehmann Lecture
"Living with Myths in Pompeii and Beyond"
Paul Zanker, Professor of Classical Archaeology
Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy
Time: 5:00 pm, Location: Wright Hall, Smith College - Get the poster
Paul Zanker, professor of classical archaeology at the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy, will discuss the art and power of myth in Pompeii. Through a consideration of Pompeian murals depicting Aphrodite/Venus and Dionysus/Bacchus celebrating life’s pleasures and happiness, Professor Zanker will illuminate the world of myths through an analysis of the images with which people surrounded themselves. Sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America, Western Massachusetts Society, the annual Lehmann Lecture honors the late Haydenville resident Phyllis Williams Lehmann. An archaeologist, scholar, and professor of the history of art at Smith College from 1946 until her retirement in 1978, Mrs. Lehmann was internationally known for her successful excavations in Samothrace, where in 1949, she unearthed a life-size marble statue of winged Nike - the goddess of victory - dating from the second century B.C. Read more about the Lehmann lecture and Professor Lehmann here.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
"The End of Time: The Maya Mystery of 2012"
Anthony Aveni, Russell Colgate Professor of Astronomy and Anthropology, Colgate University
Time: 4:30 pm, Location: Stoddard Auditorium, Smith College,
part of the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute project "Telling Time: Its Meaning and Measurement."
Does the ancient Maya calendar forecast a cataclysmic alignment with the center of the Milky Way in 2012? Or will the much anticipated end of the longest of all timekeeping cycles in the Maya repertoire issue a global renewal of human consciousness? These are some of the predictions flooding the Internet, print media, and movie story lines as the end of the ancient Maya "Baktun 13" approaches. Modern "Y12" prophets who lay out such head-turning scenarios tell us that ancient Maya wisemen were well aware of how and when the world would end—and possibly begin anew. In this lecture, Anthony Aveni will explore the major theories of 2012 end-of-the-world predictions and measure them objectively against evidence unearthed by archaeologists, iconographers, and epigraphers. He will also attempt to place American pop culture's current fascination with ideas about World Ages in historical context. Presented by the Kahn Institute project Telling Time: Its Meaning and Measurement. Read more about Professor Aveni's teaching and research here. Get the poster.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
LaFollette Lecture: "Mycenae Invents Itself"
John G. Younger, University of Kansas
Mycenae is the one Aegean site that deliberately marked much of its history with monuments. The two grave circles begin and end the approach to the citadel; the nine tholoi that succeed the two grave circles are arranted in three geographical areas, each with one tholos per major period; the enlarged enceinte of the 13th century brings Grave Circle A within the citadel and links it physically with the Cult Center. Throughout this development, Mycenae seems to have posed for posterity. The two grave circles present the importance of Mycenae's early ancestors to those who approach the citadel. The last three tholoi had elaborately decorated façades that must have been left visible to passersby. The Atreus façade incorporated gypsum relief plaques probably taken from Knossos at its final destruction. The enlarged enceinte incorporated the earlier Lion relief in its new western gate; and in its south wall there was a huge gap to allow easy access for visitors to the Cult Center from the outside. John Younger is Professor of Classics and of Humanities and Western Civilization at Kansas University since 2002; before that he was Professor of Classical Archaeology at Duke University. His principle areas of research include Minoan and Mycenaean archaeology and art, Classical architecture and sculpture, and ancient and modern gender and sexuality. His most recent research includes Sex in the Ancient World, A-Z (2004), Music in the Aegean Bronze Age (1998), and Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus in the Northern Campus Martius by Paul Rehak, which he edited (2006). Soon to be published is "Technical Observations on the Sculptures from the Temple of Zeus, Olympia" (Hesperia). He is also the editor for Book Reviews for the American Journal of Archaeology, and owner and manager of AegeaNet, the oldest continuously running archaeological email discussion list. This lecture is sponsored by the AIA, Western Massachusetts Society. Get the poster.
Time: 4:30 pm
Location: Amherst College, Pruyne Auditorium, Fayerweather Hall
February 24, 2009
"Defined Spaces: Landscape on the Monticello Plantation"
Sara Bon-Harper, PhD, Archaeological Research Manager
Monticello, the historic home of Thomas Jefferson
Bon-Harper's talk will consider landscape as an artifact of human activity and perception. It will include analysis of excavation data from Monticello's Site 8, home to several households of enslaved field hands. Sara Bon-Harper's work at Monticello focuses on archaeological survey of the once-5000 acre plantation and excavation of slaves' domestic sites. This research relies on the development of innovative research design and spatial analysis. She is also a consulting scholar on the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project, exploring Etruscan settlements in northern Etruria, (present-day Tuscany). Her research on that project has centered on the rural ceramic production site of the Podere Funghi, near Poggio Colla. Dr. Bon-Harper completed her undergraduate degree with majors in Anthropology and Classics at the University of Arizona. Her PhD is in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she wrote a dissertation entitled Common Wares: Approaches to a Gallo-Roman Ceramic Assemblage, on utilitarian ceramics in Roman Burgundy. Sponsored by Program in Archaeology and the Lecture Committee at Smith College.
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: McConnell Hall 103, Smith College
Thursday, November 13th
"Beyond Indiana Jones: The Archaeology of Petra"
Dr. Erika Schluntz, Director of Education Abroad, UMass-Amherst
Sponsored by Eta Sigma Phi and the Department of Classics at UMass-Amherst
Time: 5:30 pm
Location: Herter Hall 301
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Archeological Fieldwork Information Session
Learn about fieldwork opportunities in England, Italy, Iceland, and the U.S.!
Join Susan Allen of the Program in Archaeology and the students and alumnae of ARC 211 to hear how you can get involved on a dig!
Time: 4:30 pm, Location: Campus Center 102
Pizza and drinks provided.
Monday, September 22, 2008
19th Annual Phyllis Williams Lehmann Lecture
Godsbodies: Imagining and Representing
the Divine in Ancient Greece
Robin Osborne,
Professor of Ancient History,
University of Cambridge
This talk will explore the problems of presenting anthropomorphic gods and the various approaches to the problems adopted by classical artists. The Greeks thought of their gods as having the same form as humans, but just how like humans the gods were became a major issue. Plato and others criticized the notion that the gods should be presented as no more moral and no more impervious to passions than men and women were. But this issue of how properly to represent the gods was difficult for the visual arts, too. On the one hand the statues of the gods needed to make the gods like humans if human viewers were to be able to see in them a real personality; on the other hand the images needed to set themselves apart from and superior to men. Professor Osborne read Classics at Cambridge and did his doctoral research there under Anthony Snodgrass. He taught Ancient History at Oxford University (Magdalen College and Corpus Christi College) prior to taking up a Chair in Ancient History at Cambridge in 2001. He has published widely on topics in Greek History, Greek Art, and Greek Archaeology. He has served as President of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies (2002-2006) and is currently Chairman of the Council of University Classical Departments. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2006. This lecture is presented by the Archaeological Institute of America - Western Massachusetts Society and honors the late Haydenville resident Phyllis Williams Lehmann, died in 2004. Lehmann taught at Smith from 1946 until her retirement in 1978. Get the poster.
Time: 7:30 pm, Location: Carroll Room, Campus Center, Smith College
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
"Stones of the Butterfly": An Archaeological Investigation of Yapese Stone Money Quarries in Palau, Micronesia
Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Assistant Professor of Archaeology,
North Carolina State University
For centuries, peoples from the island of Yap in the western Pacific voyaged southward to the Palauan archipelago to quarry their famous stone money in limestone caves. The carving and transport of stone money by Yapese Islanders, however, remains one of the most archaeologically dramatic, but least understood instances of 'portable' artifact exchange in the Pacific. These limestone disks (also referred to as rai or fei) up to 4.5 m in diameter and weighing over eight metric tons, were carved almost exclusively in the 'Rock Islands' of Palau and then transported by ocean-going canoes or European trading ships sailing back to Yap Island almost 400 km away. The production of these exotic valuables is known, in part, from European explorers who participated in the transport of these disks back to Yap in the 1800s as well as a rich collection of ethnographic data and oral traditions. Recent archaeological research in Palau adds a new dimension to the understanding of how these megaliths were quarried and moved over jagged karst terrain and across the sea, highlighting the importance that stone money had in Micronesian inter-island exchange systems. Dr. Scott M. Fitzpatrick is an Assistant Professor of Archaeology at NC State University. His research interests include island archaeology, colonization strategies, maritime adaptations, exchange systems, and historical ecology. He has conducted research throughout islands in the Pacific and Caribbean and is founder and co-editor of the Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology.
Time: 5:15 pm, Location: McConnell Hall Auditorium, Smith College. This lecture is sponsored by the Program in Archaeology, Department of Geology and the Lecture Committee at Smith College |
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