PIZZA TALK:Early globalization? Isotopic evidence of food practices in Prehistoric Italy

Early globalization? Isotopic evidence of food practices in Prehistoric Italy Mary Anne TafuriDepartment of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of RomeThe cultural and social importance of food goes far beyond the mere necessity of nutrition, yet archaeologists have been slow to tackle issues of the sociality of food in prehistory. This is a great loss particularly […]

PIZZA TALK: Epigraphy in the Block Yard at Tell Edfu: Problems and Result

Jonathan WinnermanLecturer, UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures ABSTRACT:Begun in 2012, the goal of the Block Yard Project at Tell Edfu is to organize, conserve, and document the wealth of epigraphic material discovered in the settlement site to the west of the well-known Ptolemaic temple. Prior to the present study, many of the objects were […]

PIZZA TALK:Climate Change, Cultural Heritage and Human Social Trajectories: An Archaeological Perspective from Holocene Central Sahara

Savino di LerniaDirector, The Archaeological Mission in the SaharaDirector, The Archaeological Mission in the Kenyan Rift ValleySapienza University of Rome, ItalyAbstractClimate changes are a serious threat to cultural and natural heritage. Although many contexts are today seriously endangered, recent studies highlight how “archaeology and cultural heritage threatened by anthropogenic climate change are not just victims […]

PIZZA TALK: Long-term Settlement Histories and Early Village Formation in the Northern Southwest

Gregson Schachner & Reuven SinenskyAbstract:Ancestral Pueblo communities in the American Southwest underwent dramatic transformations in the mid-1st millennium AD, including rapid population growth and the widespread adoption of social structures that remained in place over the next millennium. We explore to two key moments in this process: the widespread adoption of sedentary agriculture in the […]

A Painted Landscape: Myth and Ritual in Lower Pecos Rock Art

The Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas and Coahuila, Mexico house some of the most spectacularly complex rock art of the ancient world. Approximately 4000 years ago, hunter-gatherers began transforming this region into a painted landscape. Perhaps the greatest of these masterpieces is the White Shaman mural, an intricate Pecos River style painting that spans […]

PIZZA TALK: All the Small Things: Artifacts in Urban Context

Dr. Leigh LiebermanDepartment of HistoryClaremont McKenna College          AbstractIn recent years, the study of ancient artifacts has moved beyond straightforward typologies, descriptions, and quantifications. New approaches to the analysis of material culture -  including methods of geospatial referencing, artifact agency, object biography, and statistical analysis of large datasets - have drawn attention to […]

FRIDAY SEMINAR: The Tyranny of Ethnonyms in Multiethnic Worlds

Dr. Stacie KingAssociate Professor of AnthropologyAssociate Faculty for the Center forLatin American and Caribbean StudiesIndiana University BloomingtonAbstract:This talk explores the challenges that ethnonyms create when trying to reconstructhistories of multiethnic landscapes in the ancient world. My larger project in the Nejaparegion of Oaxaca, Mexico addresses various aspects of conquest and colonialism alonginteregional trade routes, including […]

PIZZA TALK: LA MINA A LOOTED MOCHE TOMB

Christopher Donnan, Ph.D.UCLA Professor EmeritusAbstract:This talk focuses on an extraordinarily rich Moche tomb that was looted on the north coast of Peru, the efforts that were made to record the objects that came from it, and how it was possible to learn about its location, construction, and embellishment.

FRIDAY SEMINAR: The ancient town of Edfu from the Old Kingdom to the early New Kingdom: New discoveries of the 2017 and 2018 seasons

Nadine Moeller Associate Professor of Egyptian ArchaeologyUniversity of ChicagoAbstract: The ongoing excavations by the Oriental Institute team directed by Nadine Moeller and Gregory Marouard have during the most recent seasons focused on settlement remains dating to the Old Kingdom. Located 20 m to the west of the much later Ptolemaic temple of Horus of Edfu, excavations […]