* Excavate * Educate * Advocate
Public Lecture Series 2024-2025
Come join us for some fascinating lectures on topics from all over the world! We will return to in-person lectures this fall with options for remote viewing (please contact megan.daniels@ubc.ca with any questions). Masks and social distancing are strongly recommended. These lectures are open to the public and those who are not AIA members but are interested in attending can contact Megan Daniels (megan.daniels@ubc.ca) for information.
TUESDAY, March 25, 2025
"From Trowels to Drones and Back Again: The Past, Present, and Future of the Humayma Excavation Project"
Dr. Craig Harvey
Assistant Professor of Roman Archaeology, Department of History, Classics, and Religion, University of Alberta
Time: 7:30 PM Location: UBC-Vancouver BUCH A 103
For nearly four decades, Canadian-led teams have been excavating at the archaeological site of Humayma, in southern Jordan. Located roughly equidistant between Petra and Aqaba, this important site was founded by the Nabataeans in the 1st century BCE and was later home to the earliest Roman fort in the region soon after its annexation by Trajan in 106 CE. In the early Islamic period, it rose to global significance when the town was bought by the Abbasid family before their overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate in the 8th century. While previous work at the site by teams from the University of Victoria and Queen’s University has revealed much about Humayma’s history and character, there is still much about this significant site that remains unexplored. This summer will mark the renewal of archaeological investigation at Humayma by a team from the University of Alberta. This presentation will introduce the site of Humayma, trace its history and the history of its study, and look towards future investigations of its remains.
TUESDAY, February 25, 2025
“‘Speaking Objects’ and (In)tangible Movements Along the Silk Road Network”
Dr. Sara Ann Knutson
Assistant Professor, Department of History, UBC
Time: 7:30 pm Location: UBC-Vancouver Room BUCH A 103
Minted between the 7th and 13th centuries CE, Islamic coinage circulated not only within the Islamic Caliphates and wider Islamic World but also across wider Afro-Eurasia. Therefore, although these itinerant materials are not categorized as ‘Silk Road’ coinage, Islamic coins were exchanged across societies and landscapes connected by the late ‘Silk Road’ network, not least in Northern Eurasia during the 8th to 10th centuries CE. As material traces of these long-distance interactions between the Islamic World and Northern Eurasia, Islamic coins offer an important case study for the ways in which archaeologists can examine trade and economic interactions more broadly than simply the hand-to-hand exchange of materials between humans. To demonstrate this, I examine surviving ‘Abbāsid coin assemblages, housed today in museum collections, from a ‘Silk Road’ network perspective and introduce the ‘speaking object’ as an anthropological framework for interpreting materials as influential agents that helped forge transformative interactions across Afro-Eurasia.
TUESDAY, February 11, 2025
“Jerusalem in the Time of Herod”
Dr. Jodi Magness
Kenan Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Co-Sponsored by the UBC Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies, the UBC Diamond Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics, and the UBC Minor in Jewish Studies
Time: 7:30 PM Location: UBC-Vancouver Room TBA
In this slide-illustrated lecture, we survey the history and archaeology of Jerusalem in the time of Jesus (late first century BCE – first century CE), ending with the city’s destruction by the Romans in 70 CE. We focus especially on the reign of Herod the Great, and his reconstruction of the Second Temple and Temple Mount, as well as sites associated with Jesus’s final hours in Jerusalem. Jerusalem’s history and archaeology are the subject of Magness’ most recent book, Jerusalem Through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades (Oxford University Press, 2024).
TUESDAY, January 28, 2025
“Insights into Indigenous Marine Stewardship from archaeology and ancient biomolecules”
Dr. Camilla Speller
Associate Professor of Anthropological Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, UBC
Time: 7:30 PM Location: UBC-Vancouver Room TBA
Pacific salmon have been a cornerstone of Indigenous cultures and economies in the Pacific Northwest for millennia. This talk will present research that combines archaeological salmon bone analysis with Indigenous knowledge to uncover pre-colonial fisheries' biodiversity and resilience. In partnership with First Nations communities, we document how traditional stewardship practices supported sustainable salmon populations, even under changing environmental conditions. Using cutting-edge biomolecular techniques, we analyze ancient salmon bones to reveal historical species diversity, population trends, and harvesting practices, including strategies like sex-specific fishing strategies. These findings provide critical insights for modern conservation efforts, demonstrating how archaeological data can inform ecologically sound and socially just management of salmon fisheries today. This research emphasizes how respectful collaboration with Indigenous communities is key to fostering sustainable pathways for Pacific salmon conservation and governance.
TUESDAY, November 19, 2024
“Lifeways on the Margins of the Sahara: Woodland Ecology and Wood Use in the Neolithic to Roman Fayum, Egypt”
Dr. John "Mac" Marston
Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology, Boston University
Time: 7:30pm Location: UBC-Vancouver Room TBA
Co-sponsored by the American Research Center in Egypt Vancouver Chapter
This presentation considers the human ecology of wood use in what is today one of the driest regions of the world: the Western Desert of Egypt. Archaeological study of one area within this region, the Fayum Basin, reveals intensive human settlement during both the Early Holocene, prior to the aridification of the Sahara, and the Roman period, when irrigation agriculture converted the desert to the breadbasket of Rome. Recent archaeological investigation of Early Neolithic and Roman sites in the Fayum has yielded considerable wood charcoal, which provides evidence for both natural and human-modified woodland ecology in this region and for selective wood use by early farmers and Roman craft specialists alike.
THURSDAY**, October 24, 2024
“Far from Home: Diaspora Networks, Religion, and Identity Abroad on the Ancient Indian Ocean”
**Note this lecture is on Thursday, not our usual Tuesday
Dr. Nicholas Bartos, University of California Los Angeles
Archaeological Institute of America National Lecturer - George F. Bass Lecture
Time: 7:30pm Location: UBC-Vancouver Room TBA
Following the Roman annexation of Egypt in 30 BCE, maritime connections accelerated across the western Indian Ocean, enmeshing people and goods from the Mediterranean, Africa, Arabia, and Asia into new webs of production, exchange, and consumption. Archaeological and textual evidence attests to the cosmopolitan communities of the ports dotting the shores of the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Arabian Sea through late antiquity. Diaspora groups accompanied and facilitated the transportation of a range of products including agricultural staples, ceramics, spices, aromatics, and gemstones, bringing with them their own forms of religious worship and cultural practice. Drawing from recently excavated material from around the rim of the Indian Ocean, this talk highlights the cultural confrontations and hybridizations which emerged during this unprecedented era of maritime connectivity.
