We have an exciting year of lectures planned for 2012-13, with a wide range of topics. Your local society may also sponsor other lecturers not on the AIA circuit throughout the year. Check back often, since updates to the schedule will be posted regularly on our website. We look forward to seeing you at the lectures! 

Lecture times, venues, and the full schedule:

Monday, Feb. 4 at 7:00 PM in Reichert Auditorium at the Cincinnati Museum Center.

Dr. Jodi Magness, Senior Endowed Chair in the Department of Religious Studies and the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Excellence in Teaching Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina will discuss “The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls.”

This lecture discusses the wider archaeological context and significance of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

In 1946-47, Bedouins found the first Dead Sea Scrolls in a cave near the site of Qumran, by the shore of the Dead Sea.  Eventually remains of over 900 scrolls were discovered in 11 caves surrounding Qumran.  The scrolls, which date to about the time of Jesus, were deposited in the caves by members of a Jewish sect – apparently the  Essenes – who lived at Qumran.  In this slide-illustrated lecture, we explore the ancient remains at Qumran and discuss the contents and significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Tuesday, March 5 at 7:00 PM at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Dr. Brian Rose, the James B. Pritchard Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Director of Post-Bronze Age Excavations at Troy, Vice President of the American Research Institute in Turkey, and past President of the AIA, and former head of the UC Classics Department.

“Uncovering Troy: Recent Discoveries and the Homeric Tradition.”

This lecture focuses on a series of monumental tombs near Troy discovered during the course of the last fifteen years. There are five tombs in all, dating from the late Archaic to the Early Hellenistic period, and most of them were set up by wealthy Anatolians who were associated with the Persian governor (or satrap) at the regional capital of Daskyleion. The tombs include a marble sarcophagus (ca. 500-490 B.C.) featuring the murder of Polyxena, daughter of Priam. This is the earliest stone sarcophagus with figural scenes ever to have been found in the eastern Mediterranean. Another sarcophagus within the same tomb contained the body of a child surrounded by gold jewellery and silver symposium implements. A new sarcophagus from the modern city of Çan (ca. 400-375 B.C.) contains a biographical narrative of the deceased, showing him victorious in a boar hunt and then spearing a fallen Greek foe in the eye. Nearly all of the original paint still survives intact. All of these are Graeco-Persian products, produced primarily by Greek artists employing Persian iconography.

Tuesday, April 2 at 6:00 PM: Co-sponsored with Department of Anthropology; 300 Braunstein Hall

Dr. Morag Kersel, Department of Anthropology, Depaul University, will discuss "Who Owns the Past? Competing Claims for the Antiquity of the Holy Land."

As artifacts travel from the ground to the consumer in the marketplace, recent research has shown that there are multiple stakeholders with competing claims in the legal trade in antiquities. In Israel it is legal to buy and sell artifacts from legally sanctioned dealers, if the collections pre-date the 1978 national ownership law. Not all aspects of this trade are legal, however, and not all participants have an equal voice. The market in Israel is comprised of archaeologists, collectors, customs officials, dealers, government employees, looters, middlemen, museum professionals, and tourists, all expressing a degree of entitlement in the acquisition and disposition of artifacts. Adding to the complexity of the situation is the porous nature of the borders between Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority as artifacts in the market come from those areas and go out to Europe, the Far East, and the United States. The journey of a Roman coin from the Palestinian countryside to the Upper West side of New York City allows the examination of the various positions in the debate over who owns the past.

*Parking is available at metered spaces on Clifton Ave. and vicinity or in the Clifton Court garage (pay garage), accessible from Clifton Court (street that turns east off of Clifton Ave. to enter UC campus and is located just south of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive). Braunstein Hall is accessible from all entrances.