For lecture abstracts please click on the titles.

Tuesday, September 26, 2000
John R. Hale of the University of Louisville
"Geophysics and the Sanctuary of Delphi"
12:00 Noon in the Highlander Room of the Stockdale Center, Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois
7:30 P.M. in the auditorium of the Olin Center, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois

Wednesday, April 4, 2001
Susan H. Allen of Smith College
"Finding the Walls of Troy"
7:30 P.M. in the Cardinal Oak Room of the Student Center, 
Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois

John R. Hale of the University of Louisville
"Geophysics and the Sanctuary of Delphi"

Delphi in Greece is a major luminary in a constellation of oracle sites from Italy to Turkey and Iran where oracles are linked to natural gas. The ancient Greeks believed that the power of the oracle at Delphi derived directly from the earth. Plato referred to his ancestors as taking oracles "from the rock", and other writers described a cleft in the side of Mount Parnassus which exhaled fumes and vapors. According to some late sources, the temple of Apollo at Delphi was built over this cleft. On the seventh day of each month (except in winter) the local woman serving as Pythia or prophetess mounted a tripod set amid the vapors. Under the influence of the exhalations, she answered questions posed by travelers from all over the Mediterranean, on topics ranging from naming a baby to destroying a kingdom. The gifts of those who consulted the oracle made the shrine of Apollo at Delphi one of the richest sites in the world.

When French archaeologists excavated the temple a century ago, they found no trace of a cleft in the bedrock. Geological studies in the 1950s concluded that the underlying rock strata could never have produced any intoxicating gases. So the ancient Greek account of the geophysical origins of the Delphic oracle was added to the list of old traditions that had been debunked by 20^th century science.

In 1996 the speaker collaborated with geologist Jelle de Boer of Wesleyan University on a new survey of the rock formations under and around the oracle site. The shrine of Apollo was found to have been located at the intersection of two major fault planes, linked to active springs, vapor vents, and earthquakes.

Patricia McAnany of Boston Unversity
"Before there were kings: Formative Maya Village"

Scholars and aficionados of ancient Maya society have reaped the benefits of recent hieroglyph decipherment that have breathed life into the political machinations of Classic period kings. Now, three seasons of excavation deep into the pre-Classic deposits of a Maya site called K'axob have yielded an impressive array of archaeological data relevant to the rise of kings, the deification of ancestors, and the emergence of a gender hierarchy. Amply illustrated with slides of excavation and artifacts, the lecture Before There Were Kings re-creates Formative Maya village society at the archaeological site of K'axob in Belize, Central America. Specific topics to be covered include mortuary rituals and house dedication ceremonies, village pottery artisans and the importation of stone tools that allowed Maya farmers to wrest from the tropical forest, the fields, gardens, and orchards that fed the rise of one of the world's greatest tropical civilizations. This lecture will present state-of-the-art understanding of the precursors of Classic Maya society.

The word "Gauls" in the title refers to the provinces rather than the people, as Julius Caesar said "All Gaul is divided into three parts." In this lecture, Watkins will discuss the importation of Italian wine, the introduction of viniculture up the Rhone valley from the 120s BC, the aqueducts at Nimes and Lyon, and Roman milling operations at Barbegal.

Larry Conrad, Archaeological Research Lab, Western Illinois University
"Excavations at the Town at the Edge of the World: Investigations at the Middle/Upper Mississippian Interface"

An overview of recent excavations and finds at the Hildemeyer Site near Peoria sponsored by Western Illinois University, Spoon River College and the Upper Mississippi Valley Archaeological Research Foundation.

For initiated Romantics visiting the plain of Troy, several labors were critical to a full experience of the heroic terrain. One could sacrifice to the gods, run naked to Achilles' tomb and pay one's respects by leaving a lock of hair, or one could swim the Hellespont, the watery strait that separates Europe from Asia near Troy. In researching a book on the history of excavations at Troy I became fascinated with the nineteenth-century travelers who made it the subject of their pilgrimages. Then in 1997 I made my own. This lecture explores the Hellespont through history and culminates with an account of the speaker's swim.

Susan H. Allen of Smith College
"Finding the Walls of Troy"

Over a century ago archaeological hero Heinrich Schliemann took full credit for the discovery of Homer's Troy in his rags to riches to ruins autobiography and books on Troy. But he did not do it alone. He merely eclipsed the man who had led him to the hypothesis which later became his claim to fame. His predecessor was Frank Calvert, the first archaeologist to excavate the site of Troy and owner of half of the site. This lecture examines the role of Frank Calvert in furthering our understanding of the archaeology of the Troad in general and Troy in specific as well as his difficult, but fruitful relationship with Schliemann.