Public Lecture Series 2025-2026

Come join us for fascinating lectures on archaeological topics from all over the world!  Our lectures are held at UBC's Vancouver Campus as indicated below. These lectures are free and open to the public, whether or not you're a member, but we encourage you to join the AIA and support its mission of archaeological education, fieldwork and advocacy.

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*THURSDAY* Sept. 18, 2025

"The Southern Mani Archaeological Project: Fieldwork at the End of the World"

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Dr. Chelsea Gardner

Department of History & Classics, Acadia University​​

Dr. William Parkinson

Curator and Professor of Anthropology, Field Museum, Chicago

Time: 7:30 PM Location: UBC-Vancouver , Room TBA

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​The Mani peninsula is the literal (geographical) and metaphorical “end of the world”, since it occupies the southernmost point of mainland Greece and the mythical entrance to Hades, the ancient Greek underworld. Mani’s occupation history includes being home to the earliest hominid caves in Greece, the highest density of Byzantine churches, landscapes pockmarked by early modern tower-houses and intergenerational feuding, sanctuaries to the ancient gods, and the location where the Greek War of Independence began. I have been working in Mani since 2012, and this talk will introduce Mani, its liminality, and its storied past through three separate archaeological initiatives: the Diros Project (2012-2015), the CARTography Project (2018-2022), and the first season of the Southern Mani Archaeological Project, a SSHRC-funded survey that began in May 2025.

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TUESDAY, Nov. 18, 2025

“The Roman Legion at 'Armageddon'”​

Dr. Mark Letteney

Dept. of History, University of Washington

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Time: 7:30 PM Location: UBC-Vancouver Room TBA

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A Roman legion was stationed at Legio, Israel, from the early second century CE until the beginning of the fourth century, when the Sixth Legion “Ferrata” moved east to confront a growing Sassanian threat. For two hundred years a full-sized legionary castra stood at the southern tip of the Jezreel Valley, controlling movement between Egypt to the south and the Persian frontier to the North and East, and along the way hosting communities of foreign soldiers next to Jews, Samaritans, and Christians in its legionary support village. This talk will offer an overview of the first six seasons of excavation at Legio, and use that new archaeological data to re-contextualize and re-date one of the most influential texts remaining from the ancient Mediterranean: the New Testament book of Revelation.

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TUESDAY, Feb. 24, 2026

“Petra's Forgotten Past: Uncovering the Iron Age Foundations of Nabataean Society”

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Dr. Jennifer Ramsay      *AIA Joukowsky Lecturer*

​Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Brockport

Time: 7:30 PM Location: UBC-Vancouver Room TBA

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Petra was the capital of the Nabataeans, an ancient Arab civilization that flourished in northern Arabia and the southern Levant from the 4th century BCE to the 2nd century CE. The rise of Nabataean culture is crucial because it represents a remarkable transformation from nomadic origins to a sophisticated civilization that controlled key trade routes and demonstrated extraordinary adaptability in a challenging desert environment. This region, especially around Petra, was integrated within the broader Achaemenid provincial infrastructure during the preceding Iron Age, although we lack definitive evidence for the precise administrative structure. As a result, there is a significance gap in our understanding of the origins of the Nabataeans and this period in the prehistory of Jordan in general. The impact of this gap in the historical record is substantial because of region's significance during this period in providing a critical nexus of contact between Mesopotamia, Iran, Egypt, Arabia, and the Mediterranean. The current fieldwork I am carrying out with colleagues is addressing this knowledge gap through targeted surveys of specific sites and site features that have evidence of both Iron Age and Nabatean origins. Specifically, our team is interested in understanding cultural activities such as rituals, funerary practices, agriculture, and economy during the Late Iron Age (800 - 600 BCE) and how these practices evolved or persisted into the Nabataean period (300 BCE - 200 CE). By studying their development, we gain profound insights into cultural synthesis, technological innovation, and the complex geopolitical dynamics of the ancient Near East..

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