Lecture Program

Spring 2024 Milwaukee AIA Lectures

In-Person Lecture

AIA Barbara Tsakirgis Memorial Lecture
Sunday, February 25, 2024, 3:00 pm
Catherine Kearns, Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Chicago
“Environmental Histories of the Ancient Mediterranean in Ten Objects”
Sabin Hall, Room G90, 3413 North Downer Ave., UW-Milwaukee Campus

The last decade has seen a flourishing of collaborative research on ancient environments, combining natural archives, scientific analyses, archaeological evidence, as well as texts and documents to reconstruct the interactions between humans, environments, and climates, and to understand their histories. In this talk, we will look at ten objects recovered from societies of the ancient Mediterranean that reveal and illustrate some of these discoveries. From sediment cores, to wood charcoal, to cisterns and storage jars, these ten things highlight the ways that physical materials shape human engagements with and perceptions of shifting and changing climates and ecologies.

Catherine Kearns Prof. Catherine Kearns’ research examines the intersections between social and environmental change in Mediterranean landscapes during the Iron Age period. In her first book, The Rural Landscapes of Archaic Cyprus: An Archaeology of Environmental and Social Change, Cambridge, 2022, she analyzes the emergence of Iron Age communities on the island of Cyprus through their land-use practices, rural economies, and experiences with changing climates. In addition to her work in landscape archaeology, she also studies environmental history, urbanism and hinterlands, and concepts of space and place in antiquity. In recent years she has co-directed fieldwork on Cyprus through the Kalavasos and Maroni Built Environments Project, using geophysics, field survey, excavation, and geospatial analysis to identify Iron Age rural settlements.

Archaeology Watch Party

On Sunday, May 5, 2024 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 April Archaeology Hour presentation. Following that, engage in live discussion and Q&A led by Ying Wang, Associate Professor, Department of Art History at UW-Milwaukee.

Archaeology Hour Talk, Zoom only:
Sunday, May 5, 2024, 3:00 pm
Nam C. Kim, Professor of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“”Barbarians,” Bronzes, and the Legendary Capital of Ancient Vietnam”
North Cultural Arts Center, Saint John’s on the Lake, 1800 North Prospect, Milwaukee

Vietnamese lore tells us that over two thousand years ago the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam was home to powerful indigenous kingdoms, fortified capitals, and exquisite bronze craftsmanship. In contrast, the neighboring Chinese Han Empire claimed the region was inhabited by unsophisticated “barbarians” in need of “civilizing”, prompting imperial annexation of the region. This lecture explores the region’s archaeological record and what it means for scholarly debates, as well as for Vietnam’s national imagination, cultural heritage, and descendant identities.

Nam C. Kim Prof. Nam C. Kim holds degrees in Anthropology (PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago), political science (MA, New York University) and international relations (BA, University of Pennsylvania). As an anthropological archaeologist, his research deals with early complex societies and the significance of the material past for modern-day stakeholders. He is especially interested in humanity’s global history of organized violence and warfare. Since 2005 he has been conducting archaeological fieldwork in Vietnam at the Co Loa settlement in the Red River Delta. A heavily fortified site located near modern-day Hanoi, Co Loa is connected to Vietnamese legendary accounts and is viewed as an important foundation for Vietnamese culture. He has published widely and, most recently, co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Early Southeast Asia, Oxford University Press, 2022.

Please RSVP to: jcw@uwm.edu

Other Spring 2024 Events

Archaeology Hour Talk, Zoom only:
Wednesday, March 27th 7:00 pm CT
Kisha Supernant, Professor of Anthropology, University of Alberta; Director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology
“Finding the Children: Using Archaeology to Search for Unmarked Graves at Indian Residential School Sites in Canada”

Kisha Supernant In May 2021, the Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc First Nation in British Columbia, Canada, announced that 215 potential unmarked graves were located near the Kamloops Indian Residential School using ground-penetrating radar conducted by archaeologists. While this was not the first announcement of unmarked graves associated with Indian Residential Schools, it garnered national and international attention. The subsequent months saw significant commitments of funding from the government to support Indigenous communities who wanted to conduct their own searches. In this talk, Prof. Kisha Supernant provides an overview of how archaeologists have been working with Indigenous communities in Canada to locate potential grave sites and discuss the opportunities and challenges in this highly sensitive, deeply emotional work.

Event Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_RiVnj1urRy25POn73qrCEA#/registration

Archaeology Hour Talk, Zoom only:
Wednesday, April 17th 7:00 pm CT
Deborah Carlson, Professor of Anthropology, Texas A&M
“Excavating a Shipwrecked Marble Column Destined for the Temple of Apollo at Claros”

Deborah Carlson Prof. Deborah Carlson studied Greco-Roman antiquity at the University of Arizona. After finishing her M.A. in 1995, Carlson taught Roman art and archaeology at Arizona for one year and then pursued a degree in nautical archaeology at Texas A&M University. There, she earned the opportunity to work with George Bass as assistant director of a Greek shipwreck excavation off the coast of Turkey at Tektaş Burnu. She has assisted in the direction of both terrestrial and underwater excavations in Italy, Greece, and Turkey, and served as the Archaeological Director of Institute of Nautical Archaeology’s excavation of an early-first century B.C. Roman shipwreck at Kızılburun, Turkey.

Event Registration:
(https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uCFCjR1iQ-SNbtaZkrd48Q#/registration)