Archaeological Institute of America: Westchester Society

This is a  Program Schedule for our 2011-2012 Archaeology Lectures.  Additional lectures and trips will be posted when determined,  along with detailed descriptions of activities and lecturers.  

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2011         2 p.m.

TITLE:          THE ROMAN CIRCUS:  FANS AND FAME

LECTURER:  Dr. Sinclair Bell,  Assistant Professor of Art History,  Northern Illinois University. 

Dr. Bell has a PhD in Classics from the University of Edinburgh and a MS in Classical Archaeology from the University of Edinburgh and also from the University of Oxford.  In 2010 he received an International Research Stipend from the Max Planck society.

PLACE:          Reid Hall, Manhattanville College

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9th,  2011         6:30 p.m.

TITLE:          TRACING THE ORIGINS OF ART

LECTURER:  Dr. Michael Chazan    Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto and Associate Professor, Director of the Archaeology Centre. 

Dr. Chazan received his Phd and M Phil from Yale University,  and since then has done field work in the Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa, the Wadi Mataha, Jordan, and the Kebara Cave, Israel.   He is the author of Pathways Through Time:  An Introduction to Prehistory and Archaeology.  2010 Prentice Hall (2nd edition)

PLACE:          Reid Hall, Manhattanville College

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4th, 2011     2 p.m

TITLE:  REPATRIATING SCIENCE, RACE, and IDENTITY:  ARE WE STILL FIGHTING THE SKULL WARS ?

When a 9,000-year old human skeleton washed out of a Columbia River cutbank in 1996, it ignited a controversy that still rages. Archaeologists proclaimed that “Kennewick Man” was one of the most important finds of the century and planned intensive scientific analysis. Many Native Americans, however, declared that such studies desecrated their ancestor and demanded the bones for reburial. An acrimonious and highly public argument ensued, complete with lawsuit.

In this lecture, archaeologist David Hurst Thomas traces the five-hundred-year roots of the Kennewick Man controversy. Updating his best-selling book Skull Wars, Dr. Thomas discusses Thomas Jefferson’s invention of scientific archaeology and chronicles the brutal massacres in which skulls of Indian warriors were sent east to build America’s greatest museum collections. Thomas details the role of modern science, the lingering elements of racism, and the recent resurgence of Native America, arguing that archaeologists and native people are blazing new collaborative pathways that promise to change the national narrative in remarkable ways.

LECTURER:   Dr. David Hurst Thomas

David Hurst Thomas is the curator of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History.
He is currently working near Santa Fe and is author of numerous works about archeology and anthropology,   including St. Catherines: an Island in Time and Skull Wars Kennewick Man. Archaeology, and the Battle for Native American Identity.    In addition to his discoveries on St. Catherines, he has completed major excavations at Gatecliff Shelter in Nevada and of a Spanish mission south of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

PLACE:         Scarsdale Public Library

SUNDAY, MARCH 25th, 2012         2 p.m.

TITLE:        THE REUNION OF BODY AND SOUL:  SACRED SEXUALITY and RESURRECTION IN THE NETHERWORLD

LECTURER:  Dr. Lanny David Bell  Visiting Researcher in Egyptology  Brown University.
Dr. Bell received a PhD in Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1976.  Since then he has had extensive publication, lecture and field trip experience.  His special field of interest is Ancient Egyptian divine kingship, the Temples of Thebes and Egyptian Epigraphy.

PLACE:        Reid Hall,  Manhattanville College


SUNDAY, APRIL 15th, 2012   2 p.m.


MOVIE:  CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS
Werner Herzog films inside the Chauvet Caves of southern France capturing the oldest known human pictures.  Studio: Mpi Home Video Release Date: 11/29/2011 Starring: Werner Herzog,  Jean Clottes Run time: 90 minutes         Rating: G        Director: Werner Herzog

PLACE:  Scarsdale Public Library


SUNDAY, MAY 6th, 2012         2 p.m.

TITLE:          ALEXANDER AND AFTER

The death of Alexander the Great in 323 shook the newly-established world order to its foundations. Without an heir or a plan for succession, the Macedonian empire was sent reeling into an unprecedented power vacuum. This talk will show how the empire came to be in such peril, introduce the chief rivals for power, and follow the cataclysmic events of the first few years of the struggle. The problem of the still-controversial Tomb 2 from Aegae, the ancient Macedonian capital, will loom large in the discussion.

James Romm's new book,  Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the War for Crown and Empire will be available for sale at the lecture.The book covers in gripping detail the events that began on June 1, 323 B.C., when Alexander the Great became ill with what would be a fatal fever, and ended seven years later with the death or imprisonment of his two surviving heirs. It follows the machinations of the half-dozen generals who grappled for the right to succeed Alexander as commander of the army, as well as the dynastic intrigues that played out among the royals who had sole rights to the throne. For those intrigued by how Alexander won his empire, this book tells the equally compelling story of how that empire was lost, fragmenting into the rival blocs that would dominate the Hellenistic world for centuries.

LECTURER:  James Romm is an author and the James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics at Bard College in Annandale, NY. He specializes in ancient Greek and Macedonian history, but has also worked on imperial Rome. He has held the Guggenheim Fellowship (1999-2000) and various fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and in 2010-11 was Birkelund Fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars at the New York Public Library . He previously spoke to the Westchester AIA on his book The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought. He grew up in Edgemont and was a frequent user of the Scarsdale Library. He lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife, artist Tanya Marcuse, and three children.

PLACE:        Scarsdale Public Library


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