|
The
Archaeological Institute of America
Western Illinois Society
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
2011-2012
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
“The Magnificent Peutinger Map: Roman Cartography at its Most Creative”
Richard J. A. Talbert,
William Rand Kenan, Jr., Professor of History and Adjunct Professor of
Classics at the University of North Carolina (talbert@email.unc.edu)
7:30 P.M. in the Round Room, Ford Center for the Fine Arts, Knox
College, Galesburg, Illinois
Romans – more than any other ancient people – came to realize that maps
are not mere factual records, but also value-laden documents.
Then, as now, maps could even be designed to promote and
reinforce values, from peace and civilization to unashamed pride in
conquest and entitlement to world-rule.
Scholars recently have developed more sensitive and satisfying
approaches to interpreting the cartographic products of pre-modern
societies: this lecture deepens insight into the particular case of the
Romans. Richard Talbert
reconsiders the thinking behind the immense Marble Plan of the city of
Rome. Above all, he exposes
powerful meaning and purpose in the so-called ‘Peutinger Map’, an
elongated, astonishingly rich, Roman world-map.
He constructs a compelling fresh context for this underrated
masterpiece (which is 22 ft. long!).
In addition, he identifies its creation as a pivotal moment in
Western cartography, an inspirational awakening with a long-term
cultural impact that would influence Christian mapmaking through to the
Renaissance.
Monday, October 3, 2011
“The Archaeology of the Athenian Agora: Excavations of the World's First
Democracy”
Michael Laughy,
Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow at Monmouth College
(mlaughy@monmouthcollege.edu)
7:30 P.M. in the Round Room, Ford Center for the Fine Arts, Knox College
The Agora, or public square, of Ancient Athens was the center of the
city's intellectual, social, and economic life, as well as where the
concept of democracy was first invented and practiced. Excavations of
the area began in 1931 and continue to this day, making the Athenian
Agora the longest continuously excavated site in all Greece. These
excavations have brought to light the government buildings that lined
the public square, as well as thousands of objects and inscriptions that
were used to run the democracy. In this presentation, we will discuss
the ways in which these excavations have both enriched our understanding
of the history of world's first democracy, and revealed surprising
differences and similarities between ancient and modern democracies.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
National Archaeology Day
For reservations, contacat Tom Sienkewicz (tjsienkewicz@monmouthcollege.edu).
Monday, October 24, 2011
“The Dining Gaul: Daily Life at Hellenistic Gordion”
Shannan M. Stewart,
Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Illinois
(stewrt@illinois.edu)
7:30 P.M. in the Morgan Room of Poling Hall, Monmouth College, Monmouth,
Illinois
In the early third century B.C. the Greek world was plagued by tribes of
Gauls migrating east from their Danube homeland. Ancient historians
described their barbaric behavior, and ancient sculptors represented
their distinct physiognomy in the now famous Capitoline Dying Gauls. Not
all Gauls were terrorists; many found a new and permanent home at the
site of Gordion in Anatolia (central Turkey). Through recent excavation
and research at Gordion, we can now reconstruct one complex and
fascinating aspect of the Gauls that did not concern ancient historians
or artists: their daily life.
Tuesday, November, 1, 2011
“Vikings: the North Atlantic Saga”
William W. Fitzhugh,
Director of the Arctic Studies Center in the Department of Anthropology,
National
Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution (fitzhugh@si.edu)
7:30 P.M. in 102 Hanson Science Building at Augustana College in Rock
Island, Illinois
An account of a ‘block-buster’ exhibition of 2000-2004 celebrating the
1000th anniversary of Leif Erikson’s discovery of North America. This
major new millennium initiative--including an exhibit, catalog, website
(http://www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/),
television documentary, and educational programming--explores the
origins and impacts of this pivotal moment in history. From the rise of
the Scandinavian kingdoms during the Viking Age (A.D.750 to 1050) to the
demise of the Greenland colonies around A.D. 1500, “Vikings: The North
Atlantic Saga” examines the history of the western expansion of the
Vikings and sheds new light on a well known culture.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Sarah Otten Baires,
Ph.D. candidate at the University of Illinois in Urbana (sotten2@illinois.edu)
7:30 P.M. in the Morgan Room of Poling Hall, Monmouth College, Monmouth,
Illinois
Rattlesnake Mound is one of the last standing ridge-top burial mounds at
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. It is also one of the largest.
Warren K. Moorehead conducted excavations into this mound in the 1900s
to prove that Native Americans built the mounds.
However, many questions were left unanswered including what were
they doing at this mound?
When was it built and used?
And how was it constructed?
This past summer (July 2011) I conducted new excavations at Rattlesnake
to answer these questions and to obtain a better understanding of
Cahokian burial practices.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
“Music, Healing and Sacred Space in Classical Greece: A New
Interpretation of the Thymele of
Epidauros”
Peter Schultz,
Olin J. Storvick Chair of Classical Studies at Concordia College, in
Morehead, Minnesota
(schultz@cord.edu or peter.schultz@gmail.com)
7:30 P.M. in the Morgan Room of Poling Hall, Monmouth College, Monmouth,
Illinois
Around 380 B.C.E., the citizens of the small Peloponnesian city
Epidauros launched a massive building program at the nearby healing
sanctuary of Asklepios. One of the most impressive and sophisticated
structures belonging to this program was an elaborate, mysterious round
building known in the ancient sources as the thymele. At that time, and
for its size, the thymele was the most costly and most ornate building
in all the Peloponnese. Since its excavation in the nineteenth century,
archaeologists have proposed a wide range of interpretations for the
thymele. In this lecture,
Dr. Peter Schultz offers an intriguing solution to this long standing
mystery, the speculative suggestion that, in addition to many other
possible functions, the thymele at Epidauros also served as a space for
musical performance and that the design of the thymele, specifically its
elaborate substructure, served to amplify and resonate sacred music
performed within the building’s cella.
This argument complements a growing body of scholarship on the
acoustics of ancient structures, a field of study known as
archaeoacoustics, and seeks to place the thymele at Epidauros within a
dynamic, living past.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
“Forts de Chartres: an Archival Detective Story”
Margaret K. Brown,
former state archaeologist and former director of the Cahokia Mounds
State Historic Site
in Collinsville (mkbpdr@htc.net)
7:30 P.M. in the Morgan Room of Poling Hall, Monmouth College, Monmouth,
Illinois
|