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Thursday, January 12, 2012
Northrp Hall, Room 040, Trinity University

Dr. Veli Kose
Haceteppe University, Ankara

New Discoveries in Aspendos

In 2008 a new archaeological survey project was started in the ancient city of Aspendos and its territory under Dr. Kose's direction. The site is being studied by an international and interdisciplinary team, studying material culture including architecture, sculpture and ceramics, carrying out detailed ceramic surveys and geophysical surveys. In the course of four fieldwork seasons the first ever topographical map was created and individual buildings such as the bath complexes, the nymphaeum, the double storied shops/market buidling and the Roman basilica, the honorific arch as well as the world famous theatre building were studied. Fieldwork in Aspendos also brought breathtaking discoveries such as traces of a unique mud-brick Hekatompedon (discovered by means of geographical survey), the harbour on the Eurymedon, the first ever discovered archaic-classical remains as well as new Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Seljuk monuments in the city.

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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Chapman Auditorium, Trinity University

Dr. Gerry Scott
Director
American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE)

Tutankhamen in Context

This lecture will place the legendary "boy king" and his extraordinary "treasure" within its historical, archaeological, and cultural context. Topics will include a short account of Egypt's ancient history, Tutankhamen's family, and the tole of ancient Egyptian royalty, burial practices, and religious beliefs. Selected objects from the touring exhibition will be highlighted as well as what scholars believe happened during Howard Carter's discovery of the tomb and recovery of the objects.

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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Chapman Auditorium, Trinity University

Dr. James Kus
Cal State Fresno

Three New Sites, Two New Museums and One Indigenous Festival

Dr. Kus will be discussing the Peruvian sites of Puruchuco, San Jose de Moro and the Huaca de la Luna. Puruchuco was an Inca administrative center and cemetery. Moro is a site from the Moche Period (AD 1-800). Huaca de la Luna is a Moche site south of Moro that has revealed much information about the ceremonial rituals of the Moche culture, including human sacrifice.
Also discussed in this lecture are two new museums in the Lambayeque region in northern coastal Peru housing artifacts uncovered from the Sipan site and from the Sican culture discovered at the Pampa Grande site respectively. Finally, Dr. Kus will be looking at a traditional festival in Peru, the Senor de Choquekillca in the town of Ollantaytambo.

Dr. James S. Kus is the Emeritus Professor of Geography, Dept. of Geography, at California State University in Fresno, CA, where he has taught since 1978. Among his many accomplishments, he has been a Visiting Professor in Archaeology, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru (1982 and 1985); Resident Director, Intercollegiate Study Center, Lima, Peru (1981-82 and 1984-85); and Director of research project related to recreational uses along the Friant-Kern Canal (2003-2010).

For more information about Dr. Kus see here.

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Thursday, February 16, 2012
Chapman Auditorium, Trinity University

Dr. William Neidinger
Texas Foundation for Archaeological & Historical Research (TFAHR)

The Excavation of Bylazora: a Paionian Fortress City

The Paionians were the people who inhabited ancient Macedonia before the Macedonians conquered the region. During their last years of independence the Paionians fortified Bylazora, which Polybius called their largest city. In four years of excavation on the Bylazora acropolis, TFAHR has uncovered the defensive walls, gates, architectural fragments from Doric and Corinthian order buildings, a propylon, and a stoa. Artifacts discovered seem to support the hypothesis of an early and thorough Hellenization of the Paionian people.

The Texas Foundation for Archaeological and Historical Research (TFAHR), in cooperation with the People's Museum of Sveti Nikole (Republic of Macedonia), is excavating the ancient Paionian site of Bylazora.

 

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Saturday, February 18, 2012

Excursion to Museum of Fine Arts Houston

An excursion to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston to view the exhibit Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs.

King Tut is coming to Houston! Join Nicolle Hirschfeld, vice president
of the Southwest Texas Archaeological Society, and the San Antonio Museum of Art's Curator of Art of the Ancient Mediterranean World, Jessica Powers,
for a day trip to see the exhibition Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the
Great Pharaohs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on Saturday, February
18, 2012. Our itinerary also includes a visit to the Menil Collection to
see Imprinting the Divine: Byzantine and Russian Icons from the Menil
Collection. Participants will depart via bus at 7:15 am from the SAMA
parking lot and return around 8:15 pm. The cost is $85 per person. Seats are
limited, and priority will be given to SWTAS and SAMA members. To reserve
your space, please call 210 978 8120. This trip is jointly hosted by SAMA's
Friends of Ancient Art and the Southwest Texas Archaeological Society.
(Checks are payable to "San Antonio Museum of Art" and can be mailed to the museum. Credit cards will be accepted via phone (210-978-8120). All money must be received by January 15th to assure tickets and transportation.

For more information on the exhibit click here.

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Monday, March 5, 2012
Chapman Auditorium, Trinity University

Dr. Richard Talbert
History Department, UNC

Roman Highway System

The empire's vast highway system is a distinctive feature of Roman civilization that the peoples in the lands which Rome once ruled have typically always admired and exploited. This lecture challenges the assumptions that the Romans saw their highways as a system and that the freedom of movement they permitted within their empire was something quite normal in history.

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Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Chapman Auditorium, Trinity University

Dr. Jeffrey Royal
RPM Nautical Foundation & East Carolina University

When the Elephant Grew Fins:
Discovery of an Ancient Naval Battle Landscape in Sicily

After seven years of research and field work the first ancient naval battle landscape is now located. Archaeological survey in the Egadi Islands of Sicily has discovered material associated with the final battle of the first Punic War in 241 B.C.E. These finds speak to warship construction and tactics, their fates, and personal armor of marines of the period.

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Wednesday, April 11, 2012
UTSA (room TBD)

Dr. Jason Yaeger
UTSA

The Inka Reoccupation of Tiwanaku, Bolivia

Tiwanaku was the largest city in the Andes around AD 800, but by the time the Inka conquered the Lake Titicaca region in the 1400s, it lay nearly abandoned. Nevertheless, historical chronicles describe its role as an important Inka administrative and ceremonial center, and its special place in Inka creation narratives as the spot where the creator deity Viracocha ordered the universe and the celestial bodies and made the first humans. Dr. Yaeger will speak about the Inka reoccupation of Tiwanaku and show how the Inka modified the city's abandoned ancient temples to create a venue for the commemoraiton and reenactment of those cosmogonic events.

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Thursday, April 12, 2012
Chapman Auditorium, Trinity University

Dr. Jason Yaeger
UTSA

Politics, Warfare, and Science in the Classic Maya World:
A View fom Xunantunich, Belize

Over the last twenty years, archaeological fieldwork, hieroglyphic decipherment and art historical analysis have advanced our knowledge of the political dynamics of Classic Maya civilization, and the role of warfare and sacrifice. Dr. Yaeger will present an overview of our understanding of the topic and then turn to the Classic Maya center of Xunantunich, Belize. The art and archaeology of this site tell an interesting story of an upstart polity that was incorporated as a province by a more powerful kingdom, and then regained its autonomy after the center was conquered and the compound of the provincial governor sacked.

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Tuesday, May 1, 2012
San Jose Mission Visitor Center Auditorium

Dr. Holly Flora
Tulane U.

The Franciscans and Early Renaissance Art

Francis of Assisi changed religious culture in Europe through his promotion of an earthy spirituality and devotion to the humanity and poverty of Christ. The Franciscans promoted Francis' ideals via a new visual language emphasizing naturalism and emotion and employed revolutionary artists such as Cimabue and Giotto in order to do so. This lecture will consider how Franciscan patronage at the dawn of the Renaissance altered the course of Western art forever.