Lectures
The Cleveland Archaeological Society (CAS) is a local chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA). Each year, CAS sponsors a series of lectures. Lectures will be held in person and on Zoom, with the exception of our February 2024 lecture, which will be held exclusively on Zoom. In person venues will change so please double check where the lecture is being held each month. All lectures are free and open to the public, except for our May Fundraiser.
Communal Water, Invisible Labor: Modeling the Social Impact of Pompeii’s Street Fountains
Matthew Notarian, Associate Professor of Classics/Director of Study Abroad, Hiram College
Wednesday, September 11, 2024, 7:00p.m.
Location: Eldred Hall Auditorium, CWRU Campus
Preregister for Zoom
The remarkable preservation of the Roman city of Pompeii provides unprecedented insight into an aqueduct-fed urban water system. Visitors often marvel at the city’s network of public street fountains, but few consider the practical consequences of the tedious but essential labor required to transport water into living spaces. Fountains served as neighborhood hubs, channeling movement through streets and facilitating social interactions. Their distribution also influenced water accessibility, with severe implications for public health and socioeconomic status. The burden of water collection fell heaviest on those at the margins of Roman society – subelite women, children, and, especially, the enslaved – classes which are virtually invisible in the textual and visual record. This talk will present the results of a complex digital spatial model that sheds light on these issues at a household-level scale, as well as an ongoing project of 3D analysis that aims to quantify use-wear on public fountain basins. Together, they represent a significant first step toward repopulating Pompeii’s streets with indispensable but often forgotten laborers.
The Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks and World Heritage
Brad Lepper (in person), Senior Archaeologist, Ohio History Connection, and Glenna Wallace (on Zoom), Chief, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma
Wednesday, October 30, 2024, 7:00p.m.
Location: Siegal Lifelong Learning Auditorium, Landmark Centre, Beachwood
Preregister for Zoom
Ohio’s Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks are enormous earthen enclosures, many in precise geometric shapes, that were built 2,000 years ago by Native Americans known today as the Hopewell. Their creators designed the earthworks as places of ceremony, connecting them to the cosmos by aligning them with carefully observed movements of the moon and sun, including those of an 18.6-year lunar cycle. Dr. Brad Lepper and Chief Glenna Wallace will discuss the history, function, astonishing complexity, and contemporary Indigenous views of the earthworks on the occasion of their recent designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site—the first in Ohio and 25th in the United States. Wallace and Lepper both participated in preparing the UNESCO nomination, the result of a multi-year effort by a broad group of partners.
THIS PROGRAM IS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY OHIO HUMANITIES, A STATE AFFILIATE OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
Age of Wolf and Wind: The Viking World and the Norse Settlement of the North Atlantic
Davide Zori, Associate Professor of History and Archaeology, Baylor University
Wednesday, November 13, 2024, 7:00p.m.
Location: Siegal Lifelong Learning Auditorium, Landmark Centre, Beachwood
Preregister for Zoom
The Vikings continue to fascinate us because their compelling stories connect with universal human desires for exploration and adventure. In Age of Wolf and Wind: Voyages through the Viking World, I argue that recent advances in excavation and archaeological science, coupled with a re-evaluation of oral traditions and written sources, inspire the telling of new and engaging stories that further our understanding of the Viking Age. Drawing upon my fieldwork experience across the Viking world, I propose that the best method for weaving together these narratives is a balanced, interdisciplinary approach that integrates history, archaeology, and new scientific techniques. The dialogues I create between these three separate data sets result in an entanglement of confirmation (texts, archaeology, and science affirming the same story), contradiction (texts, archaeology, and science telling incompatible stories) and complementarity (texts, archaeology, and science contributing mutually enriching stories). This optimistic yet critical treatment of the sources allows for a holistic picture of the Viking Age to emerge. This lecture presents the general arguments of the book before offering a case study of this approach from my research on Viking Age Iceland. I examine the Viking experience in Iceland through the discoveries and excavations of the Mosfell Archaeological Project (MAP) in Iceland’s Mosfell Valley. Our work brings together the disciplines of archaeology, history, saga studies, osteology, zoology, paleobotany, genetics, isotope studies, place-names studies, environmental science, and historical architecture. The decade-long research of MAP has led to the discovery of an exceptionally well-preserved Viking chieftain’s farmstead, including a longhouse, a pagan cremation site, a conversion-era stave church, and a Christian graveyard. The results of this interdisciplinary work offer a new view into the Viking Age in Iceland.
Braiding Knowledges to Overcome Colonial Pasts: Creating a future for Archaeology
Ora Marek-Martinez, Diné/Nimiipuu/Hopi, Associate Vice President/Assistant Professor, Office of Native American Initiatives/Anthropology Department, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff
Wednesday, February 12, 2025, 7:00p.m.
Location: Zoom only
Preregister for Zoom
Building upon recent work by Indigenous archaeologists to reframe and reclaim archaeological knowledge about the past, the future of archaeology is dependent upon the lessons learned and practices utilized within Indigenous archaeology. This is particularly salient when used within the context of research that supports Tribal sovereignty as an approach to counter colonial research that has mythologized Indigenous pasts, cultures, and connections. Using Indigenous archaeology as an anti-colonial approach to archaeological research has created spaces and opportunities for Indigenous Peoples to engage archaeologists in learning as “human beings”—recognizing their sacred responsibilities and learning with, by, and for their ancestors, their homelands, and their future generations. This approach, borrowed from Applied Indigenous Studies, focuses on the political sovereignty of Native Nations to ensure the survivance of their People, practices, and homelands. Using the example of this concept—the use of Indigenous knowledge about the past braided with archaeological methods—this presentation will discuss how this approach has created a new pathway forward for the field of archaeology, one that not only divests itself from its colonial underpinnings, but also invests in Indigenous knowledge and research methods to reveal new information about the deep past, while simultaneously reclaiming Indigenous connections to the past.
“Barbarians” And Bronzes: The Origins of Civilization In Ancient Vietnam
Nam C. Kim, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconson-Madison
Wednesday, March 5, 2025, 7:00p.m.
Location: Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall
Preregister for Zoom
Two thousand years ago, China’s Han Empire stretched its imperial grasp beyond the mountains far to the south of the Central Plains, reaching into the domains of “barbarians”. Along its southernmost periphery lay the Red River Valley (RRV) of present-day Vietnam. In their chronicles, the Han claimed that they “civilized” the RRV’s “barbarians”. In contrast, many Vietnamese believe this time and location represents the birthplace of an indigenous, Vietnamese civilization that predates Han arrival. This view has been traditionally based on colorful tales and legends. One of the most enduring accounts tells of the Au Lac Kingdom and its capital city, known as Co Loa. Thus, at the heart of ongoing, intense, and sometimes nationalistic debates are two contrasting views. One sees “civilization” as a byproduct of Han arrival, while the other sees it as the outcome of local, indigenous cultural traditions. This lecture presents new and ongoing archaeological research that addresses these themes and questions. Specifically, it highlights recent investigations at the Co Loa site, considered to be the first capital and earliest city of ancient Vietnam.
Funerary Dinning or Offerings for the Dead? Archaeobotanical Evidence from the Shaft Tombs at Petra, Jordan
Jennifer Ramsay, Department of Anthropology, SUNY Brockport
Wednesday, April 16, 2025, 7:00p.m.
Location: Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall
Preregister for Zoom
There is extensive evidence from Hellenistic and Roman literary sources for the practice of funerary dining and the provisioning of offerings to the dead. Mortuary behaviors have generally relied on ceramic and faunal remains but rarely are they explored using evidence from plants. My research seeks to gain a better understanding of the role of plants in this type of ritual context through the analysis of botanical remains recovered from Nabataean tomb contexts in Petra, Jordan. Analysis of samples taken from several tombs that were excavated over three seasons (2012, 2014 & 2016) indicates the presence of a variety foodstuff such as Triticum sp. (wheats), Hordeum vulgare (barley), Lens culinaris (lentil), Vitis vinifera (grape), Ficus carica (fig) and Phoenix dactylifera (date). These finds provide intriguing evidence of plants consumed or offered to the dead during ritual events. This study, in association with the analysis of bioarchaeological remains and ceramics, expands our knowledge of Nabataean funerary practices and contributes to a broader understanding of the role of plants in ritual funerary events in the ancient world.
May Fundraiser:
TBD