Spring 2025 Milwaukee AIA Lectures

In-Person Lectures

Sunday, February 23, 2025, 3:00 pm
Ashley Lemke, Associate Professor, Anthrolpology, UW-Milwaukee
“An Archaeology of Our Cultural World Submerged: Underwater Archaeology in the Great Lakes”
Sabin Hall, Room G90, 3413 North Downer Ave., UW-Milwaukee Campus

Professor Lemke’s talk will present research on the area below Lake Huron, exploring a preserved ice-age landscape and archaeological sites that date to 9,000 years ago, when the Great Lakes were lower. This underwater archaeological project has focused on the Alpena-Amberley Ridge, a corridor running across the Lake’s basin that would have served as a migration route for animals and a predictable hunting territory. Investigations have documented stone-built hunting structures, including hunting blinds and recovered artifacts. Lemke will provide an overview of the research which includes the use of underwater robots, sonar, and virtual reality to explore the ancient Great Lakes and their flooded history.

Ashley Lemke is an Anthropological Archaeologist. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, former Chair of the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology (ACUA) (www.acuaonline.org), and an Explorers Club Fellow. Lemke is a leading researcher on the archaeology of hunter-gatherers. She has worked extensively on both terrestrial and underwater archaeological projects from the Lower Paleolithic in Europe to 19th-century Nunamiut archaeological sites in the Arctic. She is an expert on submerged ancient sites in the Americas and has researched such sites in the Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, and Atlantic Ocean. She also has directed excavation projects in Texas and Michigan, as well as underwater projects in the Great Lakes and Atlantic Ocean, including numerous field schools. Lemke collaborates with computer scientists to explore applications of virtual worlds, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality for archaeological research and discovery. She has received grants from the National Science Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Her books include Anthropological Archaeology Underwater (2024, Cambridge) and The Architecture of Hunting (2022, Texas A&M).

Archaeology Watch Party

On Sunday, April 6, 2025 the AIA-Milwaukee Society and Saint John’s on the Lake are teaming up to present an archaeological “watch party.” The watch party will give us an opportunity to watch the video of the February 4th Archaeology Hour presentation. Following that, engage in live discussion and Q&A led by Professor Elisabetta Cova, Associate Professor of Classics, UW-Milwaukee.

Archaeology Hour Talk, Zoom only:
Sunday, April 6, 3:00 pm
Elizabeth M. Greene, Associate Professor, Classics, University Western Ontario, Canada
“The Social Life of Roman Soldiers: the Role of Wives, Children and Families in Roman Military Communities”
North Cultural Arts Center, Saint John’s on the Lake, 1800 North Prospect, Milwaukee

Excavation and research over the past few decades have shown quite clearly that women and children were part of life in the Roman army far more than had ever been considered before. The evidence and spatial patterning of material within and outside Roman forts make this clear, but still research on the social role of these individuals lags behind. The presentation will focus on the site of Vindolanda in northern Britain and highlight the very different realities for the wives and children of officers and the family members of, for instance, a foot soldier, who was paid far less and was not legally allowed to contract a marriage while serving.

Elizabeth M. Greene is Associate Professor of Classics at the University Western Ontario, Canada. Her excavation and research focus on the Roman provinces and frontiers, with particular interest in Roman Britain and the dynamic military communities that inhabited the frontiers of the northwest provinces. Dr. Greene has been part of the archaeological team at the Roman fort at Vindolanda in northern England since 2002 and led the excavations in the North Field area of the site for a decade.

For further information on Vindolanda and its extraordinary finds see: www.vindolandaarchleather.com

Other Spring 2025 Events

Archaeology Hour Talk, YouTube Channel:
Wednesday, January 22, 7:00 pm CT
Dr. Uzma Rizvi, Associate Professor, Anthropology and Urban Studies, Pratt Institute
“Caring for Mohenjo-Daro”

How do we understand care in the ancient world? This talk will focus on current archaeological research conducted in the city of Mohenjo-Daro (a World Heritage Site) located in contemporary Pakistan (Sindh Province). Archaeological excavations at Mohenjo-Daro document hundreds of houses and large buildings built along streets and lanes oriented towards cardinal points, which suggest a well-planned city. This talk will look for indicators of care in one neighborhood, showing the many ways the ancient inhabitants maintained their lived environment over generations.

Uzma Z. Rizvi is an American archaeologist and Associate Professor of Anthropology and Urban Studies at Pratt Institute and a visiting scholar at Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, Pakistan. Her primary research centers on Ancient Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates during the
third millennium BCE.

YouTube Channel only : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hNTKb55Yfo

Archaeology Hour Talk, Zoom only:
Wednesday, February 26,, 7:00 pm CT
Dr. Zainab Bahrani, Edith Porada Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology, Columbia University
“Towards an Archaeology of Preservation”

The history of archaeology as a scientific discipline has received a great deal of attention in recent years. As a result of extensive archival research and the reading of archives against the grain, alternative or indigenous archaeologies and earlier forms of relationships to the past—such as antiquarianism—have also begun to receive more serious scholarly attention. Since the 1990s, Zainab Bahrani’s scholarship has contributed to these historical directions in archaeology, engaging in archival and theoretical work as well as fieldwork.

Zainab Bahrani is an Iraqi Assyriologist and is Edith Porada Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology at Columbia University. She has written widely on ancient Mesopotamian art. She also works in the area of monument preservation, conservation, and the contemporary politics of cultural heritage.

Event Registration:
(https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/7417225310723/WN_RfYR4UTdTDO5SvAH-Uw1kg#/registration)

Archaeology Hour Talk, Zoom only:
Wednesday, March 19, 7:00 pm CT
Dr. Rosemary Joyce, Distinguished Professor, Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley
“Complex Society Without Rulers”

For many people, the word “archaeology” conjures up images of monuments, traces of the lives of powerful rulers who can seem to be inevitable parts of any urban, agricultural society. But there are other stories archaeology can tell about societies where there is no apparent ruler, but where many of the hallmarks of “complex society” are found. This lecture explores one such society, the ancient Ulúa culture of northern Honduras, neighbors to Classic Maya states where people used religion to reinforce social relations in a society of wealthy farmers who enjoyed artworks of extraordinary beauty.

Rosemary Joyce is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is an American anthropologist and social archaeologist who has specialized in research in Honduras.

Event Registration:(https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/9617225312236/WN_5HqSDY4VRZW2mdYo
NnEg9Q#/registration)

Archaeology Hour Talk, Zoom only:
Wednesday, April 9, 7:00 pm CT
Dr. Mark Aldenderfer, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts, University of California, Merced
“Archaeology and the Tibetan/Himalayan Afterlife”

Although historians and Tibetologists since the early 20th century have collected and interpreted religious documents describing in general terms rituals of death and safe passage to the afterlife among the early peoples of the Himalayas, the archaeological record offered little insight into them. But recent research by archaeologists across the region have made extraordinary discoveries that both challenge and corroborate current understandings as well as identifying previously unknown traditions for both commoners and kings.

Mark Aldenderfer is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Emeritus in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts at the University of California, Merced. His research focuses the comparative analysis of high altitude cultural and biological adaptations from an archaeological perspective.

Event Registration:(https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/9017225313169/WN_0eNnFMqMTN6n_CKlDvQXNg#/registration)