Dr. Candace Rice is an Assistant Professor of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Alberta. Her research focuses on Mediterranean maritime trade and economic development during the Roman period. She is particularly interested in exploring what the archaeological record reveals about the ways in which connectivity changed the nature of the Roman economy through enhanced supra-regional integration and specialized local economic development. Dr. Rice is also an active field archaeologist and has excavated at Etruscan, Samnite, Roman, and Medieval sites in Italy, France, and Tunisia, and spent considerable time at Roman and Late Antique sites in Turkey. She currently co-directs the Upper Sabina Tiberina Project, focused on the excavation of a late Republican to mid Imperial villa in the Sabina and, as part of this project, runs the University of Alberta Archaeological Field School in Italy.

The Koutroulou Magoula Archaeology and Archaeological Ethnography Project: An interdisciplinary field project in central Greece

Yannis Hamilakis
Joukowsky Family Professor of Archaeology and Professor of Modern Greek Studies ([email protected])

Koutroulou Magoula is a multi-period archaeological site (a tell - artificial mound) in central Greece, which is becoming increasingly known internationally due to its astonishing preservation and its diverse and unusual material record, as well as the pioneering archaeological and ethnographic methodologies adopted in its exploration. The main period of use of the site is the Middle Neolithic (c. 6000-5800 BCE) when it was a habitation settlement; in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1500 BCE) the site was used for burials, and an elaborate tholos (bee-hived) tomb was constructed at the top of the mound, next to the Neolithic buildings. In the 12th c. CE the site was used again for burials, and an inhumation burial of a young woman was excavated by our team.

Since 2009 the site is being explored as part of the Koutroulou Magoula Archaeology and Archaeological Ethnography interdisciplinary project, under my co-direction. The project relies on the participation of a large number of scholars and other specialists, including anthropologists, geoarchaeologists, archaeobotanists, archaeozoologists, organic residue specialists, ceramic petrographers, bioarchaeologists and physical anthropologists, soil micro-morphologists, computing application specialists, even performance artists and theatre specialists. Three Universities are currently participating with students and specialists in this project: Brown, University College London (UCL), and National University of Taiwan, in addition to individual scholars from many institutions around the world.

Through this detailed interdisciplinary work, we have unearthed a very elaborate settlement with extremely well preserved, stone and mud brick buildings, occupied by a community which was engaged in large scale communal projects, including terracing and the construction of large, perimeter ditches around the settlement. This community also produced and used impressive material culture, including clay figurines, c. 500 of each have already being unearthed and studied, one of the largest such collections from the Neolithic of South Eastern Europe. They are extremely diverse in terms of technology, form, and decoration, and they often depict hybrid human-animal beings or entirely fantastic entities.

The project has the potential to rewrite the archaeology of the Balkan and European Neolithic, given its unique features, preservation, and interdisciplinary nature of our work.

Excavation dates for 2019: mid June to mid-July
Info meeting: 13 December 4.30 pm, RIH 008.

Deadline for expression of interest (inc. bio, and an idea of an independent project): 23 December 2018

The Archaeology DigDUG is serving up cookies and hot chocolate in the atrium of the Joukowsky Institute from 11 AM to 1 PM. Please stop by and take a break from studying or writing! 

On December 11, Rev. Lysander Dickerman, D.D., Class of 1851 (portrayed by Sean Briody ’19), will lecture on “The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt,” one of his world famous Egyptological lectures illustrated with stereopticon views. The lecture will be presented exactly as it was when Dr. Dickerman spoke before an audience of Brown University students on January 4, 1893. The event will take place in Rhode Island Hall, Room 108 at 1:30 pm. A short discussion about Dickerman, the field of Egyptology, and “Egyptomania” in the Victorian era will follow. Open to the public; all are welcome!
This event serves as the final project for an Independent Study with Professor Laurel Bestock.

Dr. Laura Banducci, Assistant Professor in Greek and Roman Studies at Carleton University, is an archaeologist, with a particular interest in the Roman republican period and in the Etruscan civilization of central Italy. Her research focuses on three principal areas: diet and dining practices, collectively referred to as ‘foodways’; how artefacts were made, used, re-purposed and discarded; and entertainment and leisure culture. Her research is grounded in the idea that an individual’s daily behavior, as reflected by the material record, can provide important insights into large-scale societal changes in the ancient world. She is currently completing a book that investigates the foodways of several sites in central Italy.

Karen Carr, Associate Professor Emerita in the Department of History at Portland State University, will be discussing her research in an informal talk. Pizza and soda will be provided, or feel free to bring a lunch.

For a full list of Archaeology Brown Bag talks, please visit http://blogs.brown.edu/archaeology/2018/08/02/brown-bag-talks-for-fall-2018/

Dr. Andrea Brock is a Lecturer in Ancient History in the School of Classics at the University of St. Andrews. Her work integrates the literary record on early Rome with new archaeological evidence, in order to produce an environmental and topographical reconstruction of Rome’s river valley. As director of the Forum Boarium Project, she has conducted a coring survey of the city’s original river harbour and harbour sanctuary. Among other findings, her research is revealing new insights on the effects of environmental stress—in particular frequent flooding and rapid sedimentation in the river valley—on Rome’s urbanization process.

Jen Thum, a doctoral candidate in Archaeology and the Ancient World, will present her dissertation, “Words in the Landscape: The Mechanics of Egyptian Royal Living-Rock Stelae”, in a public lecture. All are welcome.

Praveena Gullapalli, an Associate Professor in Anthropology at Rhode Island College, will be discussing her research in an informal talk. Pizza and soda will be provided, or feel free to bring a lunch.

For a full list of Archaeology Brown Bag talks, please visit http://blogs.brown.edu/archaeology/2018/08/02/brown-bag-talks-for-fall-2018/

Liana Brent is a PhD candidate in the Department of Classics at Cornell University. She is the recipient of a two-year Andrew W. Mellon Foundation / Samuel H. Kress Foundation Pre-Doctoral Rome Prize in Ancient Studies at the American Academy in Rome (2017-2019). Her dissertation, Corporeal Connections: Tomb Disturbance, Reuse, and Violation in Roman Italy, examines post-depositional skeletal manipulation in reopened and reused inhumation graves throughout Roman Italy. She conducts archaeological fieldwork in southeast Italy as the assistant director of the Vagnari Cemetery excavations, where she has excavated since 2011.

Surekha Davies, an InterAmericas Fellow at the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, will be discussing her research in an informal talk. Pizza and soda will be provided, or feel free to bring a lunch.

For a full list of Archaeology Brown Bag talks, please visit http://blogs.brown.edu/archaeology/2018/08/02/brown-bag-talks-for-fall-2018/

Join us for the opening reception of Light-Writings: Koutroulou Magoula 2017-2018, an exhibit of photographs taken by Fotis Ifantidis at the archaeological site of Koutroulou Magoula in central Greece and curated by Professor Yannis Hamilakis and undergraduate students Justin Han and Kelley Tackett.

Koutroulou Magoula was a Neolithic village for several centuries in the 6th millennium BCE and also used for burials in later periods. Since 2009, the site has being explored by the Koutroulou Magoula Archaeology and Archaeological Ethnography Project and is currently a collaboration between the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, other universities, and the Greek Archaeological Service (Dr. Nina Kyparissi). The selected photos, out of the many hundreds taken, come from the 2017 and 2018 seasons and fall into five themes: Diggers, Landscapes, Bodies, Tactilities, Theatre/archaeologies. The photographs are accompanied by passages from the reflective, personal diaries of some of the Brown and RISD students who participated in the project in 2018.

Dr. John W.I. Lee is an Associate Professor at the UCSB Department of History. He studies the history of ancient West Asia with a focus on war and culture in the Greek and Achaemenid world from ca. 650-330 BC. He is currently writing two books: one about Civil War and Revolt in Achaemenid Persia; and another about John Wesley Gilbert (1863-1923), the first African American to attend the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the first African American to receive an advanced degree from Brown (Class of 1888).

Nicholas Emlen, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the John Carter Brown Library and a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Brown University, will be discussing his research in an informal talk. Pizza and soda will be provided, or feel free to bring a lunch.

For a full list of Archaeology Brown Bag talks, please visit http://blogs.brown.edu/archaeology/2018/08/02/brown-bag-talks-for-fall-2018/

Walter Crist is a Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History and a Visiting Researcher in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. His research focuses on Bronze Age Cypriot, Egyptian, and Near Eastern board games and their roles in intercultural transmissions and as social lubricants and enablers in communities.

Jennifer Bates, a Postdoctoral Fellow in Archaeology at Brown University, will be discussing her research in an informal talk. Pizza and soda will be provided, or feel free to bring a lunch.

For a full list of Archaeology Brown Bag talks, please visit http://blogs.brown.edu/archaeology/2018/08/02/brown-bag-talks-for-fall-2018/

Georgia Andreou, a Postdoctoral Fellow in Archaeology at Brown University, will be discussing her research in an informal talk. Pizza and soda will be provided, or feel free to bring a lunch.

For a full list of Archaeology Brown Bag talks, please visit http://blogs.brown.edu/archaeology/2018/08/02/brown-bag-talks-for-fall-2018/

A discussion, led by faculty and graduate students, for current undergraduates planning for life after Brown. We will discuss applying to graduate schools in Archaeology and Classics, as well as types of jobs students with Archaeology and Classics concentrations might consider.

View additional information on Life After Graduating from Brown with an Archaeology Degree here: https://www.brown.edu/academics/archaeology/undergraduate/life-after-brown

See ancient coins from Greece and Rome up close! Touch human and animal bones! Examine and draw Persian and Roman ceramics, prehistoric tools, precious metals, and other artifacts from thousands of years ago – coached by experts!  And talk with Brown’s archaeologists about their fieldwork all over the world!

Come be part of an active archaeological excavation! Students will be digging on the grounds of Moses Brown School (next to Brown’s athletic center), uncovering the foundations of a 19^th century home and processing artifacts from that household. Stop by (with your family or on your own) any time between 11:00 am and 3:00 pm to see what artifacts students are discovering or even try your hand at digging.

Moses Brown School (Excavation at the corner of Hope St and Lloyd Ave)

Lauren Yapp, a Postdoctoral Fellow in International Humanities at Brown University, will be discussing her research in an informal talk. Pizza and soda will be provided, or feel free to bring a lunch.

For a full list of Archaeology Brown Bag talks, please visit http://blogs.brown.edu/archaeology/2018/08/02/brown-bag-talks-for-fall-2018/

Robert Preucel, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Haffenreffer Museum at Brown University, will be discussing his research in an informal talk titled, “The Predicament of Ontology”. Pizza and soda will be provided, or feel free to bring a lunch. For a full list of Archaeology Brown Bag talks, please visit http://blogs.brown.edu/archaeology/2018/08/02/brown-bag-talks-for-fall-2018/

Where can you do archaeological fieldwork this summer?  How can you pay for it?  How do you apply?  What’s an UTRA grant?  Should you enroll in a field school or volunteer?  What courses should you take to prepare?  Do you have to be an archaeology concentrator?  What is fieldwork, anyway?  And what about study abroad?

Joukowsky Institute faculty will provide an overview on how students can get involved in archaeological fieldwork this summer.  We will discuss how to find and choose a project and how to find funding, and then lead a more general discussion on what to expect on a fieldwork project and what kinds of preparation might be necessary.  Open to all interested students.

Sponsored by the Archaeology Department Undergraduate Group

Gretel Rodríguez, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the History of Art and Architecture at Brown University, will be discussing her research in an informal talk. Pizza and soda will be provided, or feel free to bring a lunch.

For a full list of Archaeology Brown Bag talks, please visit http://blogs.brown.edu/archaeology/2018/08/02/brown-bag-talks-for-fall-2018/

Dr. Kathryn Sampeck is an an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Illinois State University. Her research interests historical archaeology, archaeology of Spanish colonialism, political economy, ethnohistory, food history.

In this lecture, Dr. Sampeck asks: What was daily life like for Cherokees just at the moment when groups of people from across the Atlantic—Spaniards and Africans—started to become part of their world? A tour of one settlement, Cowee, lets audience members understand what Cherokee homes, communities, and networks of communities were like and the kinds of activities that were important to peoples’ lives. Each example is based on archaeologically-recovered information as well as community history and knowledge. This visit shows what an important historical moment this time was for Cherokees and colonists alike, why these settlements are places of enduring importance, and how Cherokee peoples were crucial in early colonial encounters and subsequent political and economic developments.

This lecture is co-sponsored with the Narragansett Society, the Rhode Island chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America and is part of the AIA’s Nadzia Borowski Lecture series.

See Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander), the daughter of an eccentric adventurer, embark on a perilous journey to a fabled tomb on a mythical island in an attempt to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance – on a giant screen, with surround sound! The movie will be followed by commentaries by Brown professors, examining the themes and historical basis of the movie. And free popcorn! Free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Archaeology Department Undergraduate Group.