Between Rich and Poor in the Roman City: A new look at the socio-economic texture of a Pompeian sub-elite neighborhood (Steven Ellis, University of Cincinnati)
Thursday, September 19th, 2019 @ 7pm
Located in the Performing Arts Building (PAB) 320. Address and parking instructions can be found at the bottom of this post.
Abstract: Roman cities present a patchwork of socio-economic contrast, with enormous civic monuments mixed among more modest spaces from shops to sewers, not to mention every manner of house big and small. Whether through scale, or the diversity of the parts, even the most poorly preserved Roman cities can overwhelm our best efforts to understand their urban and social textures. This presentation explores various approaches to defining and understanding the social character and development of Roman neighborhoods, drawing on the recent excavations of the Porta Stabia neighborhood at Pompeii. These excavations, under the auspices of the University of Cincinnati and the American Academy in Rome, targeted two town blocks of the city, as well as several adjacent, civic structures (the fortification wall and gate, the streets, and the Quadriporticus); the excavations covered more than ten separate building plots (c. 4000m2) made up of shops, houses, and hospitality establishments. This ‘behind-the-scenes’ view of the latest excavations at Pompeii opens up an entirely new perspective on the city, with a special focus on the lives and livelihoods of the Pompeian sub-elite.
Archaeology and Politics in the mid-Twentieth Century: Newly Discovered Results of the 1951-53 Excavations at Sinop, Turkey (Ulrike Krotscheck, Evergreen State University)
Thursday, November 7th, 2019 @ 7pm
Located in the Performing Arts Building (PAB) 320. Address and parking instructions can be found at the bottom of this post.
Abstract: Between 1951 and 1953, a Turkish-German archaeological project led by Ekrem Akurgal and Ludwig Budde conducted a number of excavations in and around the Turkish city of Sinop on the coast of the Black Sea. One goal was to search for evidence of Greek colonization as attested in ancient sources. These excavations uncovered, among other things, a Greek necropolis and a temple, and provided important evidence for early Greek settlement at ancient Sinope. Akurgal and Budde’s finds are even more important considering the relative lack of archaeological exploration of the urban center of Sinop in the following decades. While preliminary reports of their excavations were published in the years following, only few finds – mostly statues and grave markers – were included. A full publication of finds or excavations was never completed.
This paper presents important new information about the Akurgal-Budde excavations in Sinop, based on material from Budde’s personal archive. In 2018, members of the Sinop Kale team, which has been excavating at the city wall since 2015, consulted these archives, finding that they contained numerous photographs of previously unpublished pottery as well as site plans from the 1951-53 excavations, which have never been spatially documented. More scandalously, they also included evidence that Budde was planning to sell some of the artifacts to fund further excavations. This presentation gives an overview of previously unknown and unpublished documents from Sinope, including finds now housed in the Münster museum. Not only do the materials from this archive add to our understanding of the presence of early Greek settlement in early Sinope, they also shed light on the complicated politics of mid-20th-century archaeology.
An Archaeology of the Bronze Age Senses: The tastes, smells and colors of new finds from east Cretan excavations (Thomas M. Brogan, INSTAP Study Center for East Crete)
Thursday, February 6th, 2020 @ 7pm
Located in the Performing Arts Building (PAB) 320. Address and parking instructions can be found at the bottom of this post.
Abstract: My lecture reviews recent excavations at Bronze Age sites in East Crete supported by the Institute for Aegean Prehistory Study Center for East Crete (INSTAP SCEC), paying particular attention to new evidence for craft production. Interestingly enough, the finished goods are not the pots, the metal tools, and stone vases that we typically associate with artisans at work in the Minoan palaces and houses on Crete. Instead, Greek and American excavations are using detailed recovery methods to record the food and drink of Bronze Age farmers and fishermen and the aromas and the colors of Minoan fashion. The paper is thus an exploration of the Minoan Senses—the tastes, the smells and the sights of Bronze Age Crete. It focuses less on artifact type, provenience, and date, and more on the everyday activities and the lifestyles of the occupants of LM I towns in east Crete.
We will examine finds from three Late Minoan towns: Papadiokambos (dug from 2007 to 2012), Mochlos (2004-2005) and Chrissi (from 2008-2018). The site of Mochlos is well known, but the other towns are new, only discovered in the past decades. Finds at these sites include unusually rich remains for the production and consumption of food and beverages and much rarer evidence for the manufacture of aromatic oils and deep purple dyes.
From Teotihuacan to Tenochtitlan: The Biggest Cities in the Ancient New World (Michael E. Smith, Arizona State University)
Thursday, March 5th, 2020 @ 7pm
Located in Vollum Lecture Hall. Address and parking instructions can be found at the bottom of this post.
Abstract: Coming Soon
Where to Find Us
Performing Arts Building (PAB) is located at 3017 SE Woodstock Blvd, Portland, OR 97202. Reed West Parking is the closest to the PAB and is off of 28th Ave.
Vollum Lecture Hall (VLH) is located at 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd, Portland, OR 97202. Reed East Parking is the closest to Vollum and is off of Woodstock Blvd.
A map of the campus can be found here and there are maps located across campus.
